Virvlar och västanvind

  Vi börjar närma oss slutet på årets andra alfabet. Idag handlar det om virvlar och västanvind och en tjusig båt. Dikterna är på engelska, så blir det oftast när man söker efter ord till X, Y och Z.

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X i slutet på Vortex - är det engelska uttrycket för virvel, ursprung en variant av latinets vertex. Använt i engelskan sedan 1650-talet. Källa: Online Etymology

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Vortex, by Claudia Emerson (1957-2014)
(From Poetry Magazine, October 2015.)

The town’s trees, roomy with winter, have begun 

of late to fill with them, a settling 

that commences with dusk. The widows complain —

claim they can smell them, can hear them shuffling 

in the trees, a wing hitting a branch a sound 

sharp, they say, as ice cracking. They cannot 

sleep. And so you form a committee, convening 

with shotguns to fire every night into the darkling 

congregation. Every night, the air resounds 

with that resolve, and every dusk they return 

with theirs, circle, a lazy familiar vortex 

around a drain, an old appointment they keep 

with an inescapable place; this argument 

no way, Claude says, to be any less afraid.

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Y som i Yacht - benämning på en farkost framdriven med segel eller motor och avsedd för representations-, nöjes- eller tävlingsändamål. Storleken kan variera inom vida gränser, men termen avser numera mest stora, exklusiva båtar.

Historiskt sedan 1883; av eng. yacht; av nederl. jacht med samma betydelse. Källa: NE

My own bonny yacht, by Thomas Spencer (1845-1911)
(From How McDougall Topped The Score And Other Verses and Sketches. Sydney : The N.S.W. Bookstall Co., 1906.)

The rider may sing of his high-mettled steed,
    Or the lover may boast of his lass;

The scholar love books, or the smoker his weed,
    And the toper find joy in the glass.
But poor are their pleasures, when measured by mine,
    And more perfect the joy that I feel,
When steering my bonny yacht over the brine,
    As the wavelets keep kissing her keel.

            With my hand upon the tiller how we glide before the breeze,
                Not a wrinkle in her well-filled sail;
            Oh! I feel her pulses quiver, as she dances 0'er the seas,
                When we fly before a fine, fresh, gale.

(...)

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Z som i Zephyr - engelskt yttryck för 'västanvind', ursprung grekiska guden Zephyros (de antika grekernas namn på västanvinden, son till titanen Astraios och gudinnan Eos). Ursprungligen ansågs Zephyros, liksom de andra vindarna, ha hästgestalt; i ”Iliaden” är han far till Akilles vindsnabba och talande hästar.

Zephyrus by Antonio Bonazza, 1757
Upper Gardens of Peterhof

  Även i svenskan användes tidigare 'sefyr' (försvenskad stavning), i betydelsen västanvind. Källor: Online Etymology och NE

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The rose and the zephyr, by Barton Wilford

In the garden of Venus a red rose grew,

As sweet as a morning in May;

But the sun beams had drank all her exquisite dew,

And left her, alas! to decay.

A zephyr, who long in his covert had lain,

As the twylight advanc'd, stole out;

He danc'd with the gossamers over the plain,

And fann'd them in ether about.

He saw the rose drooping, as near he flew,

And skipp'd round her withering stem;

Then the soft air of evening over her blew,

And deck'd her with many a gem.

As lovely again did appear the red rose,

As when in her earliest bloom;

And the zephyr she gave, as he sank to repose,

All the sweets of her luscious perfume.

'Tis thus with a maiden, whose tremulous breast

Of love the first symptom betrays; -

Neglected, she droops - but if kindly carest,

Is happy the rest of her days.