EMU Translator coach set T7 , No. 64707 “Labezerin” in Arlington Fleet Services Ltd Livery is seen at Doncaster West Yard

 

A barrier vehicle (BV), barrier wagon, match wagon or translator coach is used to convert between non-matching railway coupler types. This allows locomotives to pull railway vehicles or parts of a train with a different type of coupler.

THE TYNDALE MONUMENT IS A TOWER BUILT ON A HILL AT NORTH NIBLEY, GLOUCESTERSHIRE, ENGLAND. IT WAS BUILT IN HONOUR OF WILLIAM TYNDALE, A TRANSLATOR OF THE NEW TESTAMENT, WHO IS BELIEVED TO HAVE BEEN BORN AT NORTH NIBLEY. THE TOWER WAS CONSTRUCTED IN 1866, 26FT 6IN SQUARE AT THE BASE AND IS 111 FT (34 M) TALL. IT IS POSSIBLE TO ENTER AND CLIMB TO THE TOP OF THE TOWER, UP A SPIRAL STAIRCASE OF ABOUT 120 STEPS. THE HILL IT IS ON ALLOWS A WIDE RANGE OF VIEWS, ESPECIALLY LOOKING DOWN TO THE RIVER SEVERN. THE HILL ON WHICH THE MONUMENT STANDS IS QUITE STEEP. THERE ARE TWO MAIN PATHS, ONE WHICH GOES UP STEEP STEPS, OR ONE THAT FOLLOWS A ROUGH SLOPE. THE TOWER ITSELF IS SURROUNDED BY FENCING AND HAS FLOODLIGHTS THAT LIGHT UP THE TOWER ON SPECIAL OCCASIONS.THE DOOR TO THE TOWER IS NORMALLY UNLOCKED.

FORBIDDEN TO WORK IN ENGLAND, TYNDALE TRANSLATED AND PRINTED IN ENGLISH THE NEW TESTAMENT AND HALF THE OLD TESTAMENT BETWEEN 1525 AND 1535 IN GERMANY AND THE LOW COUNTRIES. HE WORKED FROM THE GREEK AND HEBREW ORIGINAL TEXTS WHEN KNOWLEDGE OF THOSE LANGUAGES IN ENGLAND WAS RARE. HIS POCKET-SIZED BIBLE TRANSLATIONS WERE SMUGGLED INTO ENGLAND, AND THEN RUTHLESSLY SOUGHT OUT BY THE CHURCH, CONFISCATED AND DESTROYED. CONDEMNED AS A HERETIC, TYNDALE WAS STRANGLED AND BURNED OUTSIDE BRUSSELS IN 1536.

TYNDALE'S ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT WAS TAKEN ALMOST WORD FOR WORD INTO THE MUCH PRAISED AUTHORISED VERSION (KING JAMES BIBLE) OF 1611, WHICH ALSO REPRODUCES A GREAT DEAL OF HIS OLD TESTAMENT. FROM THERE HIS WORDS PASSED INTO OUR COMMON UNDERSTANDING. PEOPLE ACROSS THE WORLD HONOUR HIM AS A GREAT ENGLISHMAN, UNJUSTLY CONDEMNED AND STILL UNFAIRLY NEGLECTED. HIS SOLITARY COURAGE AND HIS SKILL WITH LANGUAGES - INCLUDING, SUPREMELY, HIS OWN - ENRICHED ENGLISH HISTORY IN WAYS STILL NOT PROPERLY EXAMINED, AND THEN REACHED OUT TO AFFECT ALL ENGLISH-SPEAKING NATIONS.

 

En estos primeros días de primavera, me encanta salir de ruta con el coche por una angosta carretera de montaña que sube desde Cenes de la Vega hasta Prado Llano. En su inicio circula junto al río Genil, pasando por el embalse de Canales y Guejar Sierra. Es un camino con un desnivel de un 22% cubierto de castaños.

THE TYNDALE MONUMENT IS A TOWER BUILT ON A HILL AT NORTH NIBLEY, GLOUCESTERSHIRE, ENGLAND. IT WAS BUILT IN HONOUR OF WILLIAM TYNDALE, A TRANSLATOR OF THE NEW TESTAMENT, WHO IS BELIEVED TO HAVE BEEN BORN AT NORTH NIBLEY. THE TOWER WAS CONSTRUCTED IN 1866, 26FT 6IN SQUARE AT THE BASE AND IS 111 FT (34 M) TALL. IT IS POSSIBLE TO ENTER AND CLIMB TO THE TOP OF THE TOWER, UP A SPIRAL STAIRCASE OF ABOUT 120 STEPS. THE HILL IT IS ON ALLOWS A WIDE RANGE OF VIEWS, ESPECIALLY LOOKING DOWN TO THE RIVER SEVERN. THE HILL ON WHICH THE MONUMENT STANDS IS QUITE STEEP. THERE ARE TWO MAIN PATHS, ONE WHICH GOES UP STEEP STEPS, OR ONE THAT FOLLOWS A ROUGH SLOPE. THE TOWER ITSELF IS SURROUNDED BY FENCING AND HAS FLOODLIGHTS THAT LIGHT UP THE TOWER ON SPECIAL OCCASIONS.THE DOOR TO THE TOWER IS NORMALLY UNLOCKED.

FORBIDDEN TO WORK IN ENGLAND, TYNDALE TRANSLATED AND PRINTED IN ENGLISH THE NEW TESTAMENT AND HALF THE OLD TESTAMENT BETWEEN 1525 AND 1535 IN GERMANY AND THE LOW COUNTRIES. HE WORKED FROM THE GREEK AND HEBREW ORIGINAL TEXTS WHEN KNOWLEDGE OF THOSE LANGUAGES IN ENGLAND WAS RARE. HIS POCKET-SIZED BIBLE TRANSLATIONS WERE SMUGGLED INTO ENGLAND, AND THEN RUTHLESSLY SOUGHT OUT BY THE CHURCH, CONFISCATED AND DESTROYED. CONDEMNED AS A HERETIC, TYNDALE WAS STRANGLED AND BURNED OUTSIDE BRUSSELS IN 1536.

TYNDALE'S ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT WAS TAKEN ALMOST WORD FOR WORD INTO THE MUCH PRAISED AUTHORISED VERSION (KING JAMES BIBLE) OF 1611, WHICH ALSO REPRODUCES A GREAT DEAL OF HIS OLD TESTAMENT. FROM THERE HIS WORDS PASSED INTO OUR COMMON UNDERSTANDING. PEOPLE ACROSS THE WORLD HONOUR HIM AS A GREAT ENGLISHMAN, UNJUSTLY CONDEMNED AND STILL UNFAIRLY NEGLECTED. HIS SOLITARY COURAGE AND HIS SKILL WITH LANGUAGES - INCLUDING, SUPREMELY, HIS OWN - ENRICHED ENGLISH HISTORY IN WAYS STILL NOT PROPERLY EXAMINED, AND THEN REACHED OUT TO AFFECT ALL ENGLISH-SPEAKING NATIONS.

 

illustratios for a Magazine

THE TYNDALE MONUMENT IS A TOWER BUILT ON A HILL AT NORTH NIBLEY, GLOUCESTERSHIRE, ENGLAND. IT WAS BUILT IN HONOUR OF WILLIAM TYNDALE, A TRANSLATOR OF THE NEW TESTAMENT, WHO IS BELIEVED TO HAVE BEEN BORN AT NORTH NIBLEY. THE TOWER WAS CONSTRUCTED IN 1866, 26FT 6IN SQUARE AT THE BASE AND IS 111 FT (34 M) TALL. IT IS POSSIBLE TO ENTER AND CLIMB TO THE TOP OF THE TOWER, UP A SPIRAL STAIRCASE OF ABOUT 120 STEPS. THE HILL IT IS ON ALLOWS A WIDE RANGE OF VIEWS, ESPECIALLY LOOKING DOWN TO THE RIVER SEVERN. THE HILL ON WHICH THE MONUMENT STANDS IS QUITE STEEP. THERE ARE TWO MAIN PATHS, ONE WHICH GOES UP STEEP STEPS, OR ONE THAT FOLLOWS A ROUGH SLOPE. THE TOWER ITSELF IS SURROUNDED BY FENCING AND HAS FLOODLIGHTS THAT LIGHT UP THE TOWER ON SPECIAL OCCASIONS.THE DOOR TO THE TOWER IS NORMALLY UNLOCKED.

FORBIDDEN TO WORK IN ENGLAND, TYNDALE TRANSLATED AND PRINTED IN ENGLISH THE NEW TESTAMENT AND HALF THE OLD TESTAMENT BETWEEN 1525 AND 1535 IN GERMANY AND THE LOW COUNTRIES. HE WORKED FROM THE GREEK AND HEBREW ORIGINAL TEXTS WHEN KNOWLEDGE OF THOSE LANGUAGES IN ENGLAND WAS RARE. HIS POCKET-SIZED BIBLE TRANSLATIONS WERE SMUGGLED INTO ENGLAND, AND THEN RUTHLESSLY SOUGHT OUT BY THE CHURCH, CONFISCATED AND DESTROYED. CONDEMNED AS A HERETIC, TYNDALE WAS STRANGLED AND BURNED OUTSIDE BRUSSELS IN 1536.

TYNDALE'S ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT WAS TAKEN ALMOST WORD FOR WORD INTO THE MUCH PRAISED AUTHORISED VERSION (KING JAMES BIBLE) OF 1611, WHICH ALSO REPRODUCES A GREAT DEAL OF HIS OLD TESTAMENT. FROM THERE HIS WORDS PASSED INTO OUR COMMON UNDERSTANDING. PEOPLE ACROSS THE WORLD HONOUR HIM AS A GREAT ENGLISHMAN, UNJUSTLY CONDEMNED AND STILL UNFAIRLY NEGLECTED. HIS SOLITARY COURAGE AND HIS SKILL WITH LANGUAGES - INCLUDING, SUPREMELY, HIS OWN - ENRICHED ENGLISH HISTORY IN WAYS STILL NOT PROPERLY EXAMINED, AND THEN REACHED OUT TO AFFECT ALL ENGLISH-SPEAKING NATIONS.

 

THE TYNDALE MONUMENT IS A TOWER BUILT ON A HILL AT NORTH NIBLEY, GLOUCESTERSHIRE, ENGLAND. IT WAS BUILT IN HONOUR OF WILLIAM TYNDALE, A TRANSLATOR OF THE NEW TESTAMENT, WHO IS BELIEVED TO HAVE BEEN BORN AT NORTH NIBLEY. THE TOWER WAS CONSTRUCTED IN 1866, 26FT 6IN SQUARE AT THE BASE AND IS 111 FT (34 M) TALL. IT IS POSSIBLE TO ENTER AND CLIMB TO THE TOP OF THE TOWER, UP A SPIRAL STAIRCASE OF ABOUT 120 STEPS. THE HILL IT IS ON ALLOWS A WIDE RANGE OF VIEWS, ESPECIALLY LOOKING DOWN TO THE RIVER SEVERN. THE HILL ON WHICH THE MONUMENT STANDS IS QUITE STEEP. THERE ARE TWO MAIN PATHS, ONE WHICH GOES UP STEEP STEPS, OR ONE THAT FOLLOWS A ROUGH SLOPE. THE TOWER ITSELF IS SURROUNDED BY FENCING AND HAS FLOODLIGHTS THAT LIGHT UP THE TOWER ON SPECIAL OCCASIONS.THE DOOR TO THE TOWER IS NORMALLY UNLOCKED.

FORBIDDEN TO WORK IN ENGLAND, TYNDALE TRANSLATED AND PRINTED IN ENGLISH THE NEW TESTAMENT AND HALF THE OLD TESTAMENT BETWEEN 1525 AND 1535 IN GERMANY AND THE LOW COUNTRIES. HE WORKED FROM THE GREEK AND HEBREW ORIGINAL TEXTS WHEN KNOWLEDGE OF THOSE LANGUAGES IN ENGLAND WAS RARE. HIS POCKET-SIZED BIBLE TRANSLATIONS WERE SMUGGLED INTO ENGLAND, AND THEN RUTHLESSLY SOUGHT OUT BY THE CHURCH, CONFISCATED AND DESTROYED. CONDEMNED AS A HERETIC, TYNDALE WAS STRANGLED AND BURNED OUTSIDE BRUSSELS IN 1536.THE TYNDALE SOCIETY.

TYNDALE'S ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT WAS TAKEN ALMOST WORD FOR WORD INTO THE MUCH PRAISED AUTHORISED VERSION (KING JAMES BIBLE) OF 1611, WHICH ALSO REPRODUCES A GREAT DEAL OF HIS OLD TESTAMENT. FROM THERE HIS WORDS PASSED INTO OUR COMMON UNDERSTANDING. PEOPLE ACROSS THE WORLD HONOUR HIM AS A GREAT ENGLISHMAN, UNJUSTLY CONDEMNED AND STILL UNFAIRLY NEGLECTED. HIS SOLITARY COURAGE AND HIS SKILL WITH LANGUAGES - INCLUDING, SUPREMELY, HIS OWN - ENRICHED ENGLISH HISTORY IN WAYS STILL NOT PROPERLY EXAMINED, AND THEN REACHED OUT TO AFFECT ALL ENGLISH-SPEAKING NATIONS.

 

Transferring the T7 translator set from Eastleigh to Tonbridge West Yard

and drink replicator

PLEASE, NO invitations or self promotions, THEY WILL BE DELETED. My photos are FREE to use, just give me credit and it would be nice if you let me know, thanks.

 

Statue of Pavol Országh Hviezdoslav in Hviezdoslav Square.

 

Pavol Országh Hviezdoslav (2 February 1849 - 8 November 1921) was a Slovak poet, playwright, writer, lawyer, dramatist, and translator. He is one of the most important people of Slovak literature of the 19th and 20th centuries.

THE TYNDALE MONUMENT IS A TOWER BUILT ON A HILL AT NORTH NIBLEY, GLOUCESTERSHIRE, ENGLAND. IT WAS BUILT IN HONOUR OF WILLIAM TYNDALE, A TRANSLATOR OF THE NEW TESTAMENT, WHO IS BELIEVED TO HAVE BEEN BORN AT NORTH NIBLEY. THE TOWER WAS CONSTRUCTED IN 1866, 26FT 6IN SQUARE AT THE BASE AND IS 111 FT (34 M) TALL. IT IS POSSIBLE TO ENTER AND CLIMB TO THE TOP OF THE TOWER, UP A SPIRAL STAIRCASE OF ABOUT 120 STEPS. THE HILL IT IS ON ALLOWS A WIDE RANGE OF VIEWS, ESPECIALLY LOOKING DOWN TO THE RIVER SEVERN. THE HILL ON WHICH THE MONUMENT STANDS IS QUITE STEEP. THERE ARE TWO MAIN PATHS, ONE WHICH GOES UP STEEP STEPS, OR ONE THAT FOLLOWS A ROUGH SLOPE. THE TOWER ITSELF IS SURROUNDED BY FENCING AND HAS FLOODLIGHTS THAT LIGHT UP THE TOWER ON SPECIAL OCCASIONS.THE DOOR TO THE TOWER IS NORMALLY UNLOCKED.

FORBIDDEN TO WORK IN ENGLAND, TYNDALE TRANSLATED AND PRINTED IN ENGLISH THE NEW TESTAMENT AND HALF THE OLD TESTAMENT BETWEEN 1525 AND 1535 IN GERMANY AND THE LOW COUNTRIES. HE WORKED FROM THE GREEK AND HEBREW ORIGINAL TEXTS WHEN KNOWLEDGE OF THOSE LANGUAGES IN ENGLAND WAS RARE. HIS POCKET-SIZED BIBLE TRANSLATIONS WERE SMUGGLED INTO ENGLAND, AND THEN RUTHLESSLY SOUGHT OUT BY THE CHURCH, CONFISCATED AND DESTROYED. CONDEMNED AS A HERETIC, TYNDALE WAS STRANGLED AND BURNED OUTSIDE BRUSSELS IN 1536.

TYNDALE'S ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT WAS TAKEN ALMOST WORD FOR WORD INTO THE MUCH PRAISED AUTHORISED VERSION (KING JAMES BIBLE) OF 1611, WHICH ALSO REPRODUCES A GREAT DEAL OF HIS OLD TESTAMENT. FROM THERE HIS WORDS PASSED INTO OUR COMMON UNDERSTANDING. PEOPLE ACROSS THE WORLD HONOUR HIM AS A GREAT ENGLISHMAN, UNJUSTLY CONDEMNED AND STILL UNFAIRLY NEGLECTED. HIS SOLITARY COURAGE AND HIS SKILL WITH LANGUAGES - INCLUDING, SUPREMELY, HIS OWN - ENRICHED ENGLISH HISTORY IN WAYS STILL NOT PROPERLY EXAMINED, AND THEN REACHED OUT TO AFFECT ALL ENGLISH-SPEAKING NATIONS.

 

THE TYNDALE MONUMENT IS A TOWER BUILT ON A HILL AT NORTH NIBLEY, GLOUCESTERSHIRE, ENGLAND. IT WAS BUILT IN HONOUR OF WILLIAM TYNDALE, A TRANSLATOR OF THE NEW TESTAMENT, WHO IS BELIEVED TO HAVE BEEN BORN AT NORTH NIBLEY. THE TOWER WAS CONSTRUCTED IN 1866, 26FT 6IN SQUARE AT THE BASE AND IS 111 FT (34 M) TALL. IT IS POSSIBLE TO ENTER AND CLIMB TO THE TOP OF THE TOWER, UP A SPIRAL STAIRCASE OF ABOUT 120 STEPS. THE HILL IT IS ON ALLOWS A WIDE RANGE OF VIEWS, ESPECIALLY LOOKING DOWN TO THE RIVER SEVERN. THE HILL ON WHICH THE MONUMENT STANDS IS QUITE STEEP. THERE ARE TWO MAIN PATHS, ONE WHICH GOES UP STEEP STEPS, OR ONE THAT FOLLOWS A ROUGH SLOPE. THE TOWER ITSELF IS SURROUNDED BY FENCING AND HAS FLOODLIGHTS THAT LIGHT UP THE TOWER ON SPECIAL OCCASIONS.THE DOOR TO THE TOWER IS NORMALLY UNLOCKED.

FORBIDDEN TO WORK IN ENGLAND, TYNDALE TRANSLATED AND PRINTED IN ENGLISH THE NEW TESTAMENT AND HALF THE OLD TESTAMENT BETWEEN 1525 AND 1535 IN GERMANY AND THE LOW COUNTRIES. HE WORKED FROM THE GREEK AND HEBREW ORIGINAL TEXTS WHEN KNOWLEDGE OF THOSE LANGUAGES IN ENGLAND WAS RARE. HIS POCKET-SIZED BIBLE TRANSLATIONS WERE SMUGGLED INTO ENGLAND, AND THEN RUTHLESSLY SOUGHT OUT BY THE CHURCH, CONFISCATED AND DESTROYED. CONDEMNED AS A HERETIC, TYNDALE WAS STRANGLED AND BURNED OUTSIDE BRUSSELS IN 1536.THE TYNDALE SOCIETY.

TYNDALE'S ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT WAS TAKEN ALMOST WORD FOR WORD INTO THE MUCH PRAISED AUTHORISED VERSION (KING JAMES BIBLE) OF 1611, WHICH ALSO REPRODUCES A GREAT DEAL OF HIS OLD TESTAMENT. FROM THERE HIS WORDS PASSED INTO OUR COMMON UNDERSTANDING. PEOPLE ACROSS THE WORLD HONOUR HIM AS A GREAT ENGLISHMAN, UNJUSTLY CONDEMNED AND STILL UNFAIRLY NEGLECTED. HIS SOLITARY COURAGE AND HIS SKILL WITH LANGUAGES - INCLUDING, SUPREMELY, HIS OWN - ENRICHED ENGLISH HISTORY IN WAYS STILL NOT PROPERLY EXAMINED, AND THEN REACHED OUT TO AFFECT ALL ENGLISH-SPEAKING NATIONS.

 

THE TYNDALE MONUMENT IS A TOWER BUILT ON A HILL AT NORTH NIBLEY, GLOUCESTERSHIRE, ENGLAND. IT WAS BUILT IN HONOUR OF WILLIAM TYNDALE, A TRANSLATOR OF THE NEW TESTAMENT, WHO IS BELIEVED TO HAVE BEEN BORN AT NORTH NIBLEY. THE TOWER WAS CONSTRUCTED IN 1866, 26FT 6IN SQUARE AT THE BASE AND IS 111 FT (34 M) TALL. IT IS POSSIBLE TO ENTER AND CLIMB TO THE TOP OF THE TOWER, UP A SPIRAL STAIRCASE OF ABOUT 120 STEPS. THE HILL IT IS ON ALLOWS A WIDE RANGE OF VIEWS, ESPECIALLY LOOKING DOWN TO THE RIVER SEVERN. THE HILL ON WHICH THE MONUMENT STANDS IS QUITE STEEP. THERE ARE TWO MAIN PATHS, ONE WHICH GOES UP STEEP STEPS, OR ONE THAT FOLLOWS A ROUGH SLOPE. THE TOWER ITSELF IS SURROUNDED BY FENCING AND HAS FLOODLIGHTS THAT LIGHT UP THE TOWER ON SPECIAL OCCASIONS.THE DOOR TO THE TOWER IS NORMALLY UNLOCKED.

FORBIDDEN TO WORK IN ENGLAND, TYNDALE TRANSLATED AND PRINTED IN ENGLISH THE NEW TESTAMENT AND HALF THE OLD TESTAMENT BETWEEN 1525 AND 1535 IN GERMANY AND THE LOW COUNTRIES. HE WORKED FROM THE GREEK AND HEBREW ORIGINAL TEXTS WHEN KNOWLEDGE OF THOSE LANGUAGES IN ENGLAND WAS RARE. HIS POCKET-SIZED BIBLE TRANSLATIONS WERE SMUGGLED INTO ENGLAND, AND THEN RUTHLESSLY SOUGHT OUT BY THE CHURCH, CONFISCATED AND DESTROYED. CONDEMNED AS A HERETIC, TYNDALE WAS STRANGLED AND BURNED OUTSIDE BRUSSELS IN 1536.

TYNDALE'S ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT WAS TAKEN ALMOST WORD FOR WORD INTO THE MUCH PRAISED AUTHORISED VERSION (KING JAMES BIBLE) OF 1611, WHICH ALSO REPRODUCES A GREAT DEAL OF HIS OLD TESTAMENT. FROM THERE HIS WORDS PASSED INTO OUR COMMON UNDERSTANDING. PEOPLE ACROSS THE WORLD HONOUR HIM AS A GREAT ENGLISHMAN, UNJUSTLY CONDEMNED AND STILL UNFAIRLY NEGLECTED. HIS SOLITARY COURAGE AND HIS SKILL WITH LANGUAGES - INCLUDING, SUPREMELY, HIS OWN - ENRICHED ENGLISH HISTORY IN WAYS STILL NOT PROPERLY EXAMINED, AND THEN REACHED OUT TO AFFECT ALL ENGLISH-SPEAKING NATIONS.

 

THE TYNDALE MONUMENT IS A TOWER BUILT ON A HILL AT NORTH NIBLEY, GLOUCESTERSHIRE, ENGLAND. IT WAS BUILT IN HONOUR OF WILLIAM TYNDALE, A TRANSLATOR OF THE NEW TESTAMENT, WHO IS BELIEVED TO HAVE BEEN BORN AT NORTH NIBLEY. THE TOWER WAS CONSTRUCTED IN 1866, 26FT 6IN SQUARE AT THE BASE AND IS 111 FT (34 M) TALL. IT IS POSSIBLE TO ENTER AND CLIMB TO THE TOP OF THE TOWER, UP A SPIRAL STAIRCASE OF ABOUT 120 STEPS. THE HILL IT IS ON ALLOWS A WIDE RANGE OF VIEWS, ESPECIALLY LOOKING DOWN TO THE RIVER SEVERN. THE HILL ON WHICH THE MONUMENT STANDS IS QUITE STEEP. THERE ARE TWO MAIN PATHS, ONE WHICH GOES UP STEEP STEPS, OR ONE THAT FOLLOWS A ROUGH SLOPE. THE TOWER ITSELF IS SURROUNDED BY FENCING AND HAS FLOODLIGHTS THAT LIGHT UP THE TOWER ON SPECIAL OCCASIONS.THE DOOR TO THE TOWER IS NORMALLY UNLOCKED.

FORBIDDEN TO WORK IN ENGLAND, TYNDALE TRANSLATED AND PRINTED IN ENGLISH THE NEW TESTAMENT AND HALF THE OLD TESTAMENT BETWEEN 1525 AND 1535 IN GERMANY AND THE LOW COUNTRIES. HE WORKED FROM THE GREEK AND HEBREW ORIGINAL TEXTS WHEN KNOWLEDGE OF THOSE LANGUAGES IN ENGLAND WAS RARE. HIS POCKET-SIZED BIBLE TRANSLATIONS WERE SMUGGLED INTO ENGLAND, AND THEN RUTHLESSLY SOUGHT OUT BY THE CHURCH, CONFISCATED AND DESTROYED. CONDEMNED AS A HERETIC, TYNDALE WAS STRANGLED AND BURNED OUTSIDE BRUSSELS IN 1536.

TYNDALE'S ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT WAS TAKEN ALMOST WORD FOR WORD INTO THE MUCH PRAISED AUTHORISED VERSION (KING JAMES BIBLE) OF 1611, WHICH ALSO REPRODUCES A GREAT DEAL OF HIS OLD TESTAMENT. FROM THERE HIS WORDS PASSED INTO OUR COMMON UNDERSTANDING. PEOPLE ACROSS THE WORLD HONOUR HIM AS A GREAT ENGLISHMAN, UNJUSTLY CONDEMNED AND STILL UNFAIRLY NEGLECTED. HIS SOLITARY COURAGE AND HIS SKILL WITH LANGUAGES - INCLUDING, SUPREMELY, HIS OWN - ENRICHED ENGLISH HISTORY IN WAYS STILL NOT PROPERLY EXAMINED, AND THEN REACHED OUT TO AFFECT ALL ENGLISH-SPEAKING NATIONS.

 

50 008, Thunderer, heads across the Fens at Turves heading for March with the 5V50, Leicester to Ely. It has a couple of translator coaches on tow in order to pick up some coaching stock that is in store at Ely.

EMU Translator Vehicle, 6364, undergoing conversion from BG 80565, in Cardiff Cathay works. 24th October 1992.

Sidney Shapiro in his Beijing home. Shapiro is an American-born author and translator who has lived in China since 1947. He resides in Beijing, and is a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Council. He is one of very few naturalized citizens of the PRC. or nearly 50 years, he was employed by the state-run Foreign Languages Press (FLP) as a translator of works of Chinese literature. He is most well known for his highly-regarded English version of The Outlaws of the Marsh, one of the most important classics of Chinese literature.

Giacomo Leopardi

1798–1837

 

Prolific writer, translator, and thinker Giacomo Leopardi was born in the small provincial town of Recanati, Italy, during a time of political upheaval and unrest in Europe created by the French Revolution. Although his aristocratic family was affected by the instability of the region, Leopardi was tutored extensively under private priests from an early age, showing a remarkable talent and thirst for knowledge. As a sickly adolescent who was often confined to the household, Leopardi spent most of his time in his father’s extraordinary library, immersing himself in classical and philological knowledge. Within years of independent study, Leopardi became fluent in reading and writing Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, while he began translating various classical texts including Horace and Homer.

 

For years Leopardi secluded himself in his father’s library, studying and writing constantly. At the age of fourteen he wrote Pompeo in Egitto (Pompey in Egypt) an anti-Caesarean manifesto, and went onto writing various philological works until 1816, which marked a turning point in Leopardi’s life which he called “the passage from erudition to the beautiful.” Leopardi wrote L'appressamento della morte (The Approach of Death), a poem in terza rima which was heavily influenced by Petrarch and Dante, as well as Inno a Nettuno (Hymn to Neptune), and Le rimembranze (Memories). After this, Leopardi abandoned other types of work and concentrated on lyric poetry, including his book Canti (Songs) and Canzoniere (Songbook), as well as many more. Leopardi frequently focuses on the patriotic, idyllic scenes, unrequited love, childhood, and classical themes and references.

 

Regarded by many as the “first modern Italian classic” poet, Leopardi was additionally praised for his prose work, with his varied use of dialogue, myth, allegory, and satire. For over five years years he stopped writing lyric poetry so he could concentrate on composing his innovative prose magnum opus called Operette morali (Small Moral Works). Frederick John Snell, author of The Primer of Italian Literature, commented on Leopardi’s style and mastery of language: “He opens every little scratch, and probes, if he does not poison, the wounds of suffering humanity. Yet in all this he is the reverse of a fanatic. He argues dexterously, in the finest of literary styles.”

 

Unfortunately, Leopardi spent most of his life with ill health and growing blindness. As a result of his medical conditions, he was confined to Recanati for a long period of time but over his lifetime was able to travel to Rome, Florence, Milan, Bologna, and Pisa. In 1837, he died, likely from edema and other complications, in Naples.

In Oberschwaben, so auch an dem Fluss Iller, ist es Herbst geworden. Die letzten Blüten des Sommers, die Früchte des Herbstes und fallendes Laub begleiten uns auf dem Illerradweg.

 

Der 147 Km lange Fluss Iller entsteht aus dem Zusammenfluss von Breitach, Stillach und Trettach bei Oberstdorf im Allgäu in Deutschland und mündet bei Ulm in die Donau.

 

In Upper Swabia, also on the river Iller, it has become autumn. The last flowers of summer, the fruits of autumn and the falling leaves accompany us on the Iller bike trail.

 

The 147 km long River Iller originates from the confluence of Breitach, Stillach and Trettach near Oberstdorf in the Allgäu in Germany and flows into the Danube at Ulm.

The translation from German to English with translator

  

Cornish Dialect Translator

Now ya can talk like a yokel, have fun!

I used two translators and here is what they both said of the Latin inscription at the top of the old gasworks in Maryborough, Queensland. It needs a bit of interpretation - "out of the smoke to give the light of the" .......hmmm, perhaps they heat the coal in a retort and the gas is extracted and gives flame and light. I never did Latin but it was still referred to and spoken about by teachers at school. I am sure that doesn't happen now but I am honestly grateful to have touched occasionally on this classic language.

 

And a classic industrial building of the late 1800's for sure. 1879 in fact.

 

Old Gasworks, Maryborough, Queensland.

THE TYNDALE MONUMENT IS A TOWER BUILT ON A HILL AT NORTH NIBLEY, GLOUCESTERSHIRE, ENGLAND. IT WAS BUILT IN HONOUR OF WILLIAM TYNDALE, A TRANSLATOR OF THE NEW TESTAMENT, WHO IS BELIEVED TO HAVE BEEN BORN AT NORTH NIBLEY. THE TOWER WAS CONSTRUCTED IN 1866, 26FT 6IN SQUARE AT THE BASE AND IS 111 FT (34 M) TALL. IT IS POSSIBLE TO ENTER AND CLIMB TO THE TOP OF THE TOWER, UP A SPIRAL STAIRCASE OF ABOUT 120 STEPS. THE HILL IT IS ON ALLOWS A WIDE RANGE OF VIEWS, ESPECIALLY LOOKING DOWN TO THE RIVER SEVERN. THE HILL ON WHICH THE MONUMENT STANDS IS QUITE STEEP. THERE ARE TWO MAIN PATHS, ONE WHICH GOES UP STEEP STEPS, OR ONE THAT FOLLOWS A ROUGH SLOPE. THE TOWER ITSELF IS SURROUNDED BY FENCING AND HAS FLOODLIGHTS THAT LIGHT UP THE TOWER ON SPECIAL OCCASIONS.THE DOOR TO THE TOWER IS NORMALLY UNLOCKED.

FORBIDDEN TO WORK IN ENGLAND, TYNDALE TRANSLATED AND PRINTED IN ENGLISH THE NEW TESTAMENT AND HALF THE OLD TESTAMENT BETWEEN 1525 AND 1535 IN GERMANY AND THE LOW COUNTRIES. HE WORKED FROM THE GREEK AND HEBREW ORIGINAL TEXTS WHEN KNOWLEDGE OF THOSE LANGUAGES IN ENGLAND WAS RARE. HIS POCKET-SIZED BIBLE TRANSLATIONS WERE SMUGGLED INTO ENGLAND, AND THEN RUTHLESSLY SOUGHT OUT BY THE CHURCH, CONFISCATED AND DESTROYED. CONDEMNED AS A HERETIC, TYNDALE WAS STRANGLED AND BURNED OUTSIDE BRUSSELS IN 1536.THE TYNDALE SOCIETY.

TYNDALE'S ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT WAS TAKEN ALMOST WORD FOR WORD INTO THE MUCH PRAISED AUTHORISED VERSION (KING JAMES BIBLE) OF 1611, WHICH ALSO REPRODUCES A GREAT DEAL OF HIS OLD TESTAMENT. FROM THERE HIS WORDS PASSED INTO OUR COMMON UNDERSTANDING. PEOPLE ACROSS THE WORLD HONOUR HIM AS A GREAT ENGLISHMAN, UNJUSTLY CONDEMNED AND STILL UNFAIRLY NEGLECTED. HIS SOLITARY COURAGE AND HIS SKILL WITH LANGUAGES - INCLUDING, SUPREMELY, HIS OWN - ENRICHED ENGLISH HISTORY IN WAYS STILL NOT PROPERLY EXAMINED, AND THEN REACHED OUT TO AFFECT ALL ENGLISH-SPEAKING NATIONS.

 

Day 3 of the Severn Valley Autumn Diesel Gala and GBRF generously provided Grids 56081 and 56098 for the event, the benefits of having a good working relationship with company.

Here Class 56, 56098 on the approach to Bewdley with Class 20, 20048 acting as a brake translator vehicle, head the 11:15 Kidderminster to Bridgnorth service. 1st October 2022

Kirkas aurinko valaisi osittain pilven takaa jäätynyttä merenlahtea jossa melkoinen ihmismäärä käveli, luisteli, liitovarjolla liikuttiin liukumalla tuulen voimalla tai lennettiin moottorin avustuksella. Ryhmä ihmisiä rakenteli rantakivikkoon murtuneista jääpaloista kimaltavia rakennelmia. Ilmassa oli juhlan tuntua

 

Translated by google translator:

Partially lit by the bright sun behind a cloud of frozen sea water bay with quite a number of people walked, skated, flying under the guise of arguing at a slip of wind power, or flown with the help of the engine. A group of people from broken ice dispensing builders rantakivikkoon sparkling structures. There was a sense of occasion

Cafodd Thomas Huet (a fu farw ym 1591) reithoraeth Diserth, Maesyfed, ar 21 Ebrill 1560. Yn ddiweddarach, ganddo ef y cyfieithiwyd Gweledigaeth Ioan ar gyfer Testament Newydd 1567. Brodor ydoedd o Lanfihangel Brynpabuan, Brycheiniog.

 

yba.llgc.org.uk/cy/c-HUET-THO-1591.html

 

Ni chafodd eglwys Diserth ei hadfer yn Oes Fictoria ac felly ceir yma argraff o fywyd y plwyf fel y buasai tua 1700.

 

Mae sedd James Watt, dyfeisiwr y peiriant ager, yn dal i ddwyn ei enw.

 

◙✣◙✣◙✣◙

 

Iliz Sant Cewydd, Diserth

 

Thomas Huet, unan eus an tro kiriek eus troidigezh an Testamant nevez e kembraeg, a oa bet anvet rektor Diserth e 1560.

 

An iliz zo chomet tamm pe damm digemm abaoe penn kentañ an triwec'hvet kantved.

 

Al lec'h miret evit James Watt, a voe ijinet gantañ an ijenn dre vurezh, a zalc'h e anv c'hoazh.

 

◙✣◙✣◙✣◙

 

St Cewydd, Diserth, Radnorshire

 

Thomas Huet became rector of Diserth in 1560. He is one of the translators of the New Testament into Welsh (1567).

 

As this church was not restored in Victorian times, it gives a good idea of parish life c. 1700. (Richard Haslam, 'The Buildings of Wales' (Penguin).

 

The pew of James Watt, inventor of the steam engines, still bears his name.

 

yba.llgc.org.uk/en/s-HUET-THO-1591.html

The Translator of Worlds by Daniel Arrhakis (2025)

  

With the music : Solitude - 1 Hour of Ancient Fantasy Music by Fantasy Meditations

 

youtu.be/lqBUQiL_o2U

  

The Translators of Worlds

 

Some cyclically returning spirits have existed in other worlds. Their ability to interpret symbols, shapes and patterns manifests itself from an early age, as if they understood invisible languages.

 

These abilities are often expressed through Art, Mathematics, Physics, and the ability to abstract, setting them apart from the rest. In the Ion Mystical World, we call these individuals "Translators of Worlds", a kind of Centennials whose appearance is rare.

 

They often open up new worlds or new ways of seeing the world and the Universe.

  

________________________________________________________

  

Os Tradutores De Mundos.

 

Alguns espíritos que retornam ciclicamente existiram em outros mundos. Sua habilidade em interpretar símbolos, formas e padrões se manifesta desde cedo, como se compreendessem linguagens invisíveis.

 

Muitas vezes, essas habilidades são expressas através da Arte, da Matemática, da Física, da capacidade de abstração, destacando-se dos demais. No Mundo Místico de Ion, chamamos esses indivíduos de "Tradutores de Mundos", uma espécie de Centennials cuja aparição é rara.

 

Eles abrem-nos muitas vezes novos mundos ou novas formas de ver o mundo e o Universo.

 

I had a premonition. Whenever I thought about our upcoming riverboat cruise on the Blue Danube two images came to mind: Bratislava and my father-in-law John suffering a heart attack while we were there.

  

12 April, Friday 2013

We set sail from Vienna at midnight and arrive in Bratislava at six in the morning.

  

7:00 a.m.

I am the first to leave our cabin on the ship and when I see that John's door is open and his clothes are on the floor by the bathroom I am alarmed and alert Chris who is not far behind me. But, I carry on to the lounge to finish writing post cards - there are only two days left on the cruise - we are due to return from Budapest, Hungary after breakfast on Sunday morning. The end of an eight day trip.

  

When I am done I climb downstairs to the dining lounge to look for Chris and John. After I walk around the entire room I joke to the last couple seated by the door that it is not like my husband and father-in-law to skip a meal.

  

The first thing I see is John's empty bed and when I realize that he has lost control of his bodily functions I know this is serious. John, who is wearing white boxer shorts and a white tee-shirt, is sitting in a chair by the bed and Chris is standing by. Chris tells me that his father has had a really bad night and that he needs to go to the hospital. The staff has been alerted and the paramedics are on their way.

  

John is sweating profusely and struggling to breathe,. He remembers me opening the window. I move to his side and ask him if this is all right. “Yes,” he says, “I’m dying.” Doctor’s have a name for this conviction: Angor animi, Latin for ‘anguish of the soul’. According to Dr. Gavin Francis, “as a sensation it carries great predictive power”. In the emergency room a patient’s belief that they are about to die is taken seriously.

  

I place my right hand on the nape of his neck and my left hand on his forehead while I assess the situation. John is drenched in sweat. I race to the bathroom sink and wet two wash cloths and place one behind his neck and he takes the other to wipe his face and head. Then he returns to bed, which is one step away, but he does not slide down far enough and his head is in an awkward position.

  

Most people know not to lay someone with breathing problems flat and John is struggling. I show Chris, who is about to pull his father forward, how to reposition John by reaching under his armpit and grasping his back. This works and together we are able to move his upper body forward. I place a pillow so that John is able to sit up.

  

Again I place my right hand on the nape of his neck and my left hand on his forehead. “I'm dying," he repeats "No you're not," I say this as though it is a ridiculous thing to do. I'm thinking, we’re on a cruise! John says that he can’t breathe and that he has water on the lungs. We can hear what doctors call the death rattle, when saliva accumulates in the throat.

  

I am loathe to tell my father-in-law what to do and when he mentions that he quit taking his diuretic as prescribed I do not say a word. But, now I remind him, “Once you receive your medication you will feel all right again”. I say this reassuringly.

  

I encourage Chris to make John’s bag of prescription drugs available - the doctors will want to know the names and the dosages. I grab fresh towels from the cart in the hall and cover John and the bed.

  

The Prestige is due to set sail at noon and I know it is going to leave without us so I suggest we start packing. First I send Chris across the hall to our room. I watch through the open door as our things are hastily thrown together. I call him back and suggest he pack for John - that way he can stay by his father’s side.

  

We are all set to go when the paramedics arrive with Peter, the twenty-five year old Slovakian waiter from the dining room who serves as our translator. As the paramedics work their magic I move partially onto the bed, close to John’s right ear, and explain what is happening. “There are three paramedics here and a doctor,” I tell him. This turned out not to be completely true - there was no doctor. John opens his eyes for a moment and smiles. "Good" he says. "I like a lot of attention." This is true.

  

Chris later told me that when he first saw his father John was seated on the toilet. He told Chris that he needed a minute - he had a bad night - and he said that he needed to go to Stanford Hospital right away.

  

Chris told a cleaning staff member who was in the hallway that his father needed a medical doctor. Wesley, the activities coordinator, came and told Chris that there was not a doctor available who could come to the ship, he had two choices. John could have an appointment with the doctor at 11 a.m. or he could go to the emergency room. Chris asked Wesley to call for an ambulance - John needed to go to the emergency room.

  

By this time John had made his way to the chair where Chris had placed a towel. He told Chris that he thought he had died last night. He woke up sweating, he could not urinate, he was in pain and he had difficulty walking and breathing. He said he was very uncomfortable and he just wanted to die.

  

John leaves the ship in a sling chair, as he is being wheeled through the lobby Artur, (this is not a typo) the Portuguese manager, tells me not to worry about the cost - Viking will take care of it. “Keep on thinking positive,” he says, “and everything it will be okay.”

  

7:54 a.m.

Two ambulances - sirens wailing - John and Peter in one, and Chris and I in another arrive at the University Hospital Old Town (Univerzitná Nemonica Staré Mesto). We are in the medieval center of Bratislava.

  

8:18 a.m.

After a brief stay in the emergency room John is wheeled to the coronary care unit (Interná Klinika Koronárna Jednotka). As he is about to enter the elevator he turns to Chris and says, "Remember what I said earlier about wanting to die, well I changed my mind."

  

10:17 a.m.

Dr. Papinčák, who is studiously calm and attentive, does not take his eyes off me as he speaks, his gaze is piercing. He informs me that John may be able to fly home on Monday with a medical assistant. He is concerned about the high altitude. John suffers from congestive heart failure (CHF).

  

“One of the most important problems for travelers with congestive heart failure is altitude... All patients should be able to walk 100 yards and climb 12 steps if they are to attempt a long plane flight. Heart failure patients may also be particularly susceptible to the symptoms of altitude sickness, which may include shortness of breath and profound fatigue. In general, patients with congestive heart failure should avoid traveling to locations at high altitudes.” - Internet Scientific Publications. The Internet Journal of Health ISSN: 1528-8315 Travel Concerns For Congestive Heart Failure (CHF) Patients.

  

10:30 a.m.

Chris uses the hospital’s computer to email his sisters. Typists beware, the z and the y are reversed and the apostrophe and the @ symbol are no where to be found.

  

“Dad maz have had a heart attack last night. He is okaz now, in the hospital... if it will help with medical evacuation.... I would like to get him to Stanford... I think he had a heart attack in his sleep earlz this morning. It is fridaz at ten thirtz here and I§m using the computer at the hospital. I will also trz to make phone calls and e=mail, but communications are difficult right now.” - Chris’ email

  

11:00 a.m.

While Chris is typing Dr. Papinčák comes out to the hall to tell me that John is asleep. As we leave the hospital with our bags a grounds worker Feró, points us in the direction of the Hotel Saffron. This four star hotel is located just around the corner from the hospital and the Staré Město (Old Town) is a fifteen minute walk in the other direction. There are shops, markets, ATM’s, restaurants and cafe’s in between. Everything is within walking distance.

  

At this point we feel tremendous gratitude. First of all, we are grateful that we are docked when the heart attack happens, secondly that the paramedics respond quickly, and thirdly that Chris has family to help with the logistics. And, we feel grateful to be in a position where we are able to stay in Bratislava for as long as it takes for John to recover and deemed fit to fly. We see nothing but the positives and we are excited. Exploring medieval Bratislava will serve as a good distraction and our eight day trip has turned into an indefinite adventure - my favorite kind.

  

2:45 p.m.

I skip lunch but as Chris orders the Pakistani behind the counter seriously wonders, “What are you doing in Bratislava?”

  

3:30 p.m.

Back at the hospital I monitor the activity in the hallway while I give Chris and John time alone. If there are any last words that need to be spoken now is the time.

  

4:15 p.m.

Despite the double expressos and the warm overcast spring afternoon (good for photography) once we settle into our room we are unable to leave the hotel. For the first time ever we decide to settle in early.

  

While Chris figures out how to call his sister using FaceTime I watch racy and fast paced MTV videos on the television. When the rain starts to fall softly I soak in a hot bath. Our large window opens wide - we do not realize that we are facing southwest until the moon sets. It does not get dark until 9:30 p.m.

  

13 April, Saturday

The big questions are; how much damage was caused to John’s already congested heart, what are John’s chances of recovering from pneumonia, which we just learn he has, and when is he going to be well enough to travel home? There are no immediate answers forthcoming as the doctors need information on John’s previous condition.

  

While Chris sits with his father I visit an ancient who is laying in the bed closest to the door. I am pleased to learn that she speaks German, all the older people do she tells me - that was until the communists came to rule in 1945 and stayed until 1989 - now that generation speaks Russian as a second language. This woman, who has two sons, tells me that she has an uncle and relatives who live in “cosmopolitan” Canada, Toronto.

  

14 April, Sunday

We learn that ejection fraction measures how much volume the heart pumps with each beat, 55% to 6o% is considered normal and 20% is too low. John’s ejection fraction in his left ventricle, is 20-25% , it was 35%. C-reactive protein (CRP) is a blood protein that indicates inflammation of the arteries. Levels rise in response to inflammation. You are at high risk for heart disease if your CRP level is higher than 3.0 mg/L. John’s levels reach 140mg/L. And, his leucocyte levels, which measures the number of white blood cells and indicates infection, are high.

  

I have a private talk with Dr. Kašperová. I would like to know what are John’s chances of survival. She tells me that culture is growing in lab - soon they will know specific antibiotic to give him. The doctor thinks a two week stay is optimistic. What is most essential at this point besides hydration is for John to be optimistic. She believes his survival depends on this.

  

Today John is NOT feeling optimistic, he wants out by weeks end. He does not know that he is looking at a two week minimum stay and we are not going to tell him. And, he is concerned that he has no appetite. This does not bode well for John. “Your body is trying to heal,” I tell him. This is what I told my friend Carol when she expressed the same concern a week before she died of congestive heart failure on 23 May 2012. But, we just brought him hot soup and he is eating after two days of no food. It is not until later that we learn restaurant soup is verboten - too much salt.

  

Today is my mother’s 79th birthday. It does not occur to me until now that I can send her emails using Chris’ iPhone. I write: Father-in-law John had a heart attack on Friday and he is in the hospital in Bratislava. We will stay in Slovakia until John is well enough to travel. In hindsight, emailing my mother would have been a good opportunity to write and keep track of our adventures. Viking had kept us busy starting early every morning. It was a great trip while it lasted, in fact, everything was much better than we expected and we only missed the last two days.

  

Except for the ubiquitous and jumbo sized chocolate chip cookies (yes, there is such a thing) I like the small portions of food Viking serves, although John informs me that not everyone is of the same opinion. And, not being a big meat eater, I look forward to the hot rueben sandwich which is on the menu for tomorrow’s lunch. “You know I’m not supposed to eat that,” John tells me, “Too much salt, but I’m going to, I eat whatever I want.” This is not the first time John brags about his see-food diet. The last time it happened he ended up in the hospital with a heart attack. I predicted that would happen. The body keeps count.

  

The first few days we stay with John only briefly as he is tired and sleeps most of the time. We start the routine of dropping off a decaf latte in the morning which progresses to one in the afternoon, and everyday we bring him food and the International Herald Tribune.

  

Near the end, as a treat, we buy him a New Yorker 12.50 € ($17.00) which John has subscribed to for almost sixty years, and a Time magazine which features the 100 most influential people in the world. When we are not hunting for food and gathering reading material for John we explore the medieval city center of Bratislava and I start to learn the Slovakian language.

  

The Slovakian word for thank you is Ďakujem. I have one of the nurses on my voice recorder repeating this word over and over again. I admit that it took me one long week to learn how to say ďakujem without thinking - that is how difficult this word is to pronounce and why the locals are so appreciative when we make the effort. The Slovakians and the Slovenians use ‘Prosím' for please and there are some other similarities, but the Slovakian language uses diacritics that I have never seen before. My curiosity is piqued.

  

15 April, Monday

It is a huge relief to see that John is feeling much better this morning after he briefly lost his optimism. For the first time yesterday we saw the possibility of darkness settling in. But, I notice that the right side of his body is bloated.

  

“We visited Dad this morning and he is doing noticeably better than yesterday. He is more alert and energetic, and his appetite is better. He has bronchial pneumonia in the right lung which is being treated with two antibiotics. He appreciates everyone's concerns and good wishes. Once the pneumonia clears up and he is stronger we can go home. Although he wants to go home he realizes that he is too weak to travel.” - Chris’ email

  

“Dr. Papinčák says it’s too soon for Dad to walk, that he needs to start by spending more time sitting up, physical therapy will start tomorrow. When we visit in the morning we will have him sit up with his legs over the side of the bed and his feet on the floor. He said that Dad is improving, responding to the antibiotics as measured by a lower CRP number. He also said that his heart was not damaged that much more by this heart attack as measured by the EF number. Finally he said that Dad may be ready to travel by Friday or Saturday. We brought him OJ, salad, decaf latte, a blueberry muffin and the Herald Tribune, everything he wanted. Things are going as well and as fast as they can go for now. We are optimistic. - Chris’ email

  

16 April, Tuesday

We wake up to the news that terrorists attacked the Boston Marathon. We feel safe in Bratislava.

  

John is definitely making progress. He is one tough Greek and I tell him so, but he is not convinced. “Wait until we’re in the air,” he says not realizing the potential danger that lies ahead. I notice that he is not coughing. The double dose of two different antibiotics must be working and the right side of his body is not as swollen.

  

“We are going to get an update from the doctor in the morning and hopefully an approximate timeline for when Dad might be able to travel. He is very much hoping to leave Friday, but I don't know about that. While he is clearly improving each day he still has pneumonia and is very weak.” - Chris’ email

  

Today I discover that Dr. Kašperová understands every word of the German language but, like her English, she struggles to speak. The first thing she tells me, without any prompting on my part, is that John is not going anywhere in a hurry.

  

17 April, Wednesday

This morning Dr. Kašperová introduces us to her daughter Julia a blonde medical student who speaks English well. This is a teaching hospital and Julia is studying to become a cardiologist just like her parents. Her grandfather Julius was one of the founders and the main cardiologist in the Slovak Cardiovascular Centre in the former Czecho-Slovakia. In two years she will complete her studies. Julia is twenty-three years old.

  

10:00

Chris buys a disposable telephone at T-Mobile on Ivánska cesta 12, John’s daughters are eager to speak with him. This turns out to be a good call as John’s spirits lift and for the first time he sits up in bed with his feet flat on the floor.

  

It is a little after 4 p.m. when the first call is made. Church bells are chiming, sirens are wailing and John is coughing, a dry hacking cough that does not let up. “ It’s bad.” he tells them. He would like to go straight to Stanford hospital when he arrives in San Francisco.

  

Chris wonders how I know that to call abroad from Slovakia one must dial 00 - the exit code.

  

Today we learn that we must pay the hospital bill in full and in cash on the day we leave. The University Hospital does not accept credit cards. Dr. Kašperová will give us an estimate after she speaks with the billing department.

  

The first option we look into is a money transfer. Western Union is surprisingly expensive, so we go next door to the bank, the only one in the area that deals with money transfers. For a surprisingly small amount we are able to open an account. But, we think this is too complicated, and the bank does do not open until 9 a.m. Instead, John gives us his password and twice daily we withdraw the cash limit from both of our accounts.

  

A few days later Dr. Kašperová tells us that the daily cost of staying in the University Hospital is 113€ ($150.00) plus medicines and procedures such as x-rays and electrocardiograms. We will not know the final cost until the day we leave.

  

John urges Chris to build-up a cash reserve of $3,000€ and then changes it to $4,000€. Chris is hesitant, he thinks this is too much. I want that Chris should take his father’s advice as I am not convinced that John is going to make it home alive. This will not be the first in flight death we will have experienced. Once we had to make an emergency landing in Goose Bay, Newfoundland, Canada. I wonder how complicated it will be to have John cremated, how much it will cost and in which country it will happen. We are told, by someone who knows, not to tell the airlines that we are traveling with a high risk passenger.

  

18 April, Thursday

John continues to make great strides. Today he walked across the room and back and he was wheeled outside into the sunshine to the radiology department to be x-rayed (antiquated is the word he used) and his catheter was removed. We are all happy about this.

  

This morning Dr. Kašperová tells me that John, who is eager to leave, can go home whenever he wants. I think this is good reverse psychology and I was going to use it on him. When I tell him that he can go home whenever he wants, John says, "Let's wait and see what the doctors say.”

  

More drama today when we find out that John’s eighty-nine year old brother, Spiro, has passed away. We suspect that, if not for John’s pacemaker, he and his brother would have died one day apart.

  

Poor Chris, there have been some difficult moments for him. We are on the street in Bratislava when his sister calls to tell him the news. This is not easy for Chris as he loves his uncle Spiro.

  

I am a little surprised this afternoon when John asks what else was said during this conversation - I was not expecting Chris to tell him unless he asked the specific question. John had made it clear that he did not want to hear anything about Spiro while he was on the trip. Chris finds this moment too difficult so, just like a scene in a movie, I lean in close, gently place my hand on John’s right shoulder and whisper in his ear, “Spiro died.” John, staring off into space, does not say a word. “That’s why we looked so glum when we arrived,” I tell him “I hadn’t noticed.” John replies taking a quick glance over his right shoulder. This is where I stand.

  

Two years ago John threw an eighty-fifth birthday party for himself and invited his close family and friends. At the end of the bash one of the questions I was asked was, who is this woman, a mother of two, with the same last name. John, a psychologist who spent twenty-five years in analysis, never thinks to introduce his children.

  

“You might have introduced your children, “ I say to John as we all pile into the car early the next morning. “People were wondering why …” I get cut-off as everyone agrees. A good idea too late, but it makes no difference, no one feels slighted.

  

John, who lives in Palo Alto, California feels grateful that he flew to New York City the week before our Danube cruise to reminisce with Spiro after he refused further treatment for lung cancer.

  

Near the end of his life Spiro was engulfed by blindness. In part, his obituary read, “Even while struggling with his blindness, Spiro could not be deterred. Throughout the rigorous training at the Guide Dog Foundation, Spiro rallied his classmates, transforming a tense and strenuous course into one filled with laughter and friendship. In appreciation, his classmates named him the honorary “Chief” of the fictitious [Where the?] Fugawe Tribe. It was one of his proudest achievements.” - The Suffolk Times

  

Uncle Spiro worked on the Manhattan project. It says so in the Suffolk Times. Chris says he’s known all along, but he does not know more.

  

We were told that Spiro died in peace and he was joking up to the end. The service was last Wednesday, the church was full and it was a gloriously beautiful day. Aunt Joan, who also has lung cancer, won’t last another three months.

  

I tell Dr. Kašperová in private and in my limited German, that John's brother Spiro died. And, I tell her that he had requested that he not be told, but since he had asked about him the other day and if he were to ask again we were going to tell him. I want her to know just in case John finds the news too depressing - she can knock him out. The doctor agrees, John should know, and she wants to know how he died. Then she tells me that every day when she comes to work she wonders if John is still alive. Dr. Kašperová explains the obvious: John ist alt und er ist krank mit schlechten Herz. John is old and he is sick with a bad heart.

  

4:00 p.m.

Chris is exhausted and he would like to return to the hotel, but I discourage this with wide-open eyes. This is not a good time to leave, John has just learned that his brother has died. Chris agrees and sits back down.

  

We spend the next three hours by John's side as he reminisces. I mention that he is the last of three brothers to survive. John tells me this is something he is going to think about. The eldest Mary, died of pneumonia at the age of two. John’s father showed him a photo of her of one day in his flower shop in the Bronx. John did not learn that he had a sister until he was ten years old.

  

As we get up to leave I tell John that if he gets too sad to ask the doctor to put him to sleep. “Juliana,” he says leaning forward from a sitting position. He takes an unflinching look into my eyes, “I don’t mind being sad,” he tells me emphatically. Then he repeats this for emphasis. Of course I know this already, but who wants to use the words “too depressed”. Now I learn to speak even more plainly with John.

  

Seven days after John is admitted to the hospital he says, “It’s ME time, tell the extended family about ME.” They do not know that John is in a hospital in Slovakia.

  

19 April, Friday

Today the doctors start preparing the paperwork, this is a good sign. If, after the weekend, Dr. Papinčák tells us, John continues to improve we can go home on Tuesday.

  

This morning we leave the hotel and walk right past the public park, also known as the medical garden (Medická záhrada) on our way to the Ondřejská Cemetery. This is a pleasant surprise, a green oasis in medieval Bratislava. I would like to stay longer and photograph all the angelic tombstones, but Chris, who practices moderation to the excess, is hungry, and like his father, he takes his food seriously.

  

We are in the eastern part of the Staré Město and on the way back Chris takes us to see the Catholic Church of St. Elizabeth, also known as the Blue Church. It sits on the corner of Bezručova street and Groslingova. This is another surprise, art nouveau in medieval Bratislava. Built between 1907-1908 everything about the Blue Church is astonishingly blue - inside and out.

  

Chris has been a vegetarian for 34 years now so the lunch menu is somewhat limited. But, this fact is rarely a problem especially in cosmopolitan Bratislava. The restaurant he chooses is owned by Jordanians and our server is an Afghan. While Chris eats his falafel I eat a delicious bowl of vegetable soup made by an Indian chef. When we are done a Slovakian waitress prepares a gyros for John. While we wait I watch CNN with three Jordanians males and learn that the terrorists who blew up the Boston marathon are two young brothers from the Russian Caucasus area.

  

Back at the hospital I wait outside and explore the grounds while I give Chris and John time alone. I know that my behavior is suspicious and that I am being watched when I take notes and speak into my voice recorder. But, it is when I start to take photos that the security guard comes over and asks me not to photograph. “Nerorazumiem,” (I don’t understand) I tell him understanding fully. I want to practice my Slovakian on him. “Razumien.” (I understand).

  

Okay, so there is no soap in the bathroom and the hospital could use a paint job and some Spackling paste and I will not get into the elevator - still it is a solid structure with a set of surprisingly elegant and dilapidated stairways that face each other in the biochemistry and molecular genetics building. John is laying under cathedral ceilings next to two large arched wooden windows that he is free to open. He feels the breeze and he has a view of a Linden tree, Slovakia’s national tree that is measured in centuries, and he can see the church steeple. Like us, he is on the fourth floor. John continues to be amazed that the doctors are working to identical standards and he has a favorite nurse, Anna, who bathes him in the early morning light.

  

This evening I notice that John’s dry hacking cough has returned, I think that this cannot be good. We wait and wonder: What will the doctors have to say about John leaving the hospital on Tuesday morning?

  

20 April, Saturday

I am sure that Chris feels like we abandoned his father this morning but I insist on changing the routine. I think that since John is not sleeping as much he would prefer to receive his newspaper in the morning instead of the afternoon. And, what if they sell out! Plus, I am drawn to the the medieval city centre. I want to walk there and I want to walk fast. On our way I talk just as fast, in part to distract Chris from his uneasy feeling. I think that I have Chris convinced that the doctors are stringing him and John along. Everyday the doctors tell them only a few days more when in private they tell me how dire the situation really is, which is obvious to me.

  

After we buy the newspaper at Interpress Chris relaxes enough to take a detour to the Bratislava Information Service (BIS). He would like to climb atop Michael's Tower before we leave Bratislava. Chris is sure our trip is about to end.

  

It is here, at the information center, that we see the beginnings of what promises to be an even more exciting day. This year Bratislava is celebrating 20 years of independence from Czecho-Slovakia. The Gentle Revolution, also called The Velvet Divorce, took effect on 1 January 1993. The Slovak Republic, also called Slovakia or Slovensko, is Europe’s newest country.

  

As we race back to the hospital with John’s coffee and newspaper we agree to make a dash for the exit, but first Chris would like to make sure that his father is going to be all right. Of course, John gives us the okay and like little children we run out the door and down the street to the Square (Primacialne Namestie). It is 11:00 a.m. and the parade has just begun.

  

We follow thirty professional actors dressed in period costumes, horsemen, drummers, and soldiers, men and women, carrying long rifles, swords, flags and banners. Together we march up to Michael's Gate (Michalska Brana) built around 1300 and the only surviving of four gates that were used to enter the mediaeval city. A large banner depicting St.George slaying the dragon and the message Bratislava Pre Všetkych (Bratislava For All) bars the entrance.

  

Here we watch performances so arresting that I put down my camera. After a four rifle salute declarations are made by someone who looks like the mayor of Bratislava, Milan Ftáčnik, and the banner is raised signaling the unsealing of the city gates.

  

We follow the parade back to the square where we watch a soldier stand on his horse, drape the horse’s leg over his shoulder, lie underneath the horse and place the horse’s foot lightly on his chest while he is laying flat on his back. In the square we are joined by a king and queen. This year Bratislava is celebrating the 450th anniversary of the first royal coronation.

  

Formerly known as Pozsony by the Hungarians and Pressburg (in reference to the castle) by the Germans, Bratislava, became the new capital of Royal Hungary in 1536 after the Ottoman Turks, under the leadership of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, swept into Hungary and overtook Buda at the battle of Mohacs in 1526. Bratislava, the official name since 1919 when it was made the capital of Slovakia in the newly created Czecho-Slovakia, was honored to be the city of coronation and it lasted for almost three hundred years. Ten Habsburg kings and nine queens were crowned in the gothic St. Martin’s Cathedral using the crown of St. Stephen the first king of Hungary who was crowned on Christmas Day in the year 1000.

  

The medieval Crown of St. Stephen, also called the Holy Crown of Hungary, is the symbol of Hungarian nationhood. People from far and wide will come to watch the authentic coronation ceremony which follows the exact same ritual based on historical documents.

  

Nota bene: The coronation ceremony is held every year during the last weekend of June in honor of Maria Theresa who was crowned on 25 June 1741.

  

12:31 p.m.

We are on a mission to find the closest thing we can to a Greek Orthodox church to light three candles for Chris’ deceased kinfolk. At John’s request. On the way up to St. Nicholas, which sits under the walled castle and is in the old Jewish Quarter we stop on Židovská 1 (Jewish) to visit the Museum of Clocks. I see a clock with engravings of the different phases of human life. A poignant reminder of how time affects all of us.

  

It is a steep climb up the stone stairs to St. Nicholas which is hidden behind a row of buildings. Built in 1661 the entrance to this nondescript baroque church is flanked by trees. A statue of St. Nicholas stands in the niche above the door and above a coat of arms which is partly obscured by leafy branches. When we walk in through the open door we are stunned into silence. There are no pews only chairs lining the south and east walls. The adherents are standing in the center gathered around three heavily bearded Orthodox priests dressed in black cossack robes and wearing pectoral crosses. It feels as though we have just stepped into the Middle Ages.

  

“We found a beautiful, old Orthodox Church today, St. Nicholas, and lit three candles… and gave them a donation as Dad had requested. We took lots of pictures to show him, and he was pleased. They were in the middle of a ceremony with singing and prayers, the Church was full, and 40 minutes later everyone left and the Church was locked up so we just made it.” - Chris’ email

  

2:16 p.m.

I do not have a voracious appetite during our sojourn in Bratislava, I only eat two full breakfast’s and three main meals, one of which is a delicious bowl of goulash soup mit dunkel Brot at the Pivnica U Kozal on Panská 27.

  

We sit outside. When I am done I walk through an archway and climb down a broad set of stairs to the restaurant/bar deep underground. Who can believe this place with its low arched ceiling and dim lights. There is only one group of men sitting at a table immediately to my left as I enter and a lone man sits on my right a few tables over. I pay them no heed and carry on. I feel uncomfortable as I try to open the door to the WC (water closet) and realize that someone is in there and I have to wait. But, I think it is only a case of nerves and after I calm myself down by looking at the art on the wall I ask the lone figure if there is anyone in there as I try to open the door once again. This time it opens.

  

I find my fear curious and take some time to soak in the atmosphere in this most unusual restaurant underground. I am looking at a vintage tin beer sign across from the men when one of them orders me to, “COME, SIT!” I am paralyzed by fear. Then I am ordered to “DRINK BEER!”

  

What happens next to my field of vision is interesting. All I see as I turn around is someone pushing something aside and patting down a place for me to sit and I see a table topped with huge glasses and a pitcher filled with pivo (beer) which one of the men is holding aloft. I never see the men themselves, but I know by how they sound that they are big burly types who have been sitting here for a while.

  

I find the thought of joining them and drinking beer, in this cave, in the middle of the afternoon so ludicrous that I laugh out loud and in the same loud and commanding voice I reply, “THAT is NOT going to happen." There is dead silence. Released from my paralysis I take this opportunity to escape and run up the stairs without ever looking at the men.

  

Once outside I tell Chris about the unique restaurant/bar below and still curious about my fear I follow him downstairs and hang out while he uses the WC - still never looking at the men. But, as we are walking out I lift up my camera and take a photograph. In the photo one of the men is lurching drunkenly towards me. I count a total of six big celebrating Slovaks. It is not until we arrive home that I learn that Pivnica means cellar.

  

Today John walks across the room and when he arrives at the sink he shaves himself. Talk is still about returning Tuesday and for once I believe that if John continues to make progress we will indeed return sooner rather than later.

  

21 April, Sunday

10:07 a.m.

No matter how many times we mention the festivities taking place in Bratislava this weekend John does not let us go. Instead of music, dance shows, and horse races this morning we wheel John outside for some fresh air and we walk the length of the corridor, twice.

  

This whole thing feels surreal - we’re in medieval Bratislava, Chris is pushing his father in a wheel chair and I’m looking over my shoulder every time I want to take a photograph.

  

10:48 a.m.

Dr. Soña Kiñová tells us that John’s cough will last for a couple of weeks. And, she tells us that John is good to go home on Tuesday. But, this is not her decision to make - still we prepare ourselves mentally.

  

Dr. Soña speaks fluent English. We pepper her with questions about Bratislava and Slovakia. Then she tells us about the students who study at this University Hospital. They come from all over the world, she explains, because it is relatively inexpensive to study here. Twice she mentions that the Greeks are the laziest students and she explains why. In Greece, in order to own a pharmacy, one must be educated as a doctor. The Greek students do not want to learn, but they want to own pharmacies.

  

At first I think it is interesting that the Greeks are the laziest students, but after she mentions it a second time I start to feel uncomfortable and I look at Chris and John, but neither say a word. I think Dr. Soña knows that John is a Greek but Chris tells me this is not so. I think she knows by the name - Beletsis. Anyone with any experience with Greeks knows that a family name ending in "sis" hails from mainland Greece.

  

1:16 p.m.

Michael’s Tower, also called Michael’s Gate because it is a combination of the two, was built around 1500 and it is more than 50 meters high (seven floors, I counted). Climb the narrow circular staircase for a postcard view of Bratislava.

Only so many people are allowed entrance at a time and there is a guard on every level and a military museum with a collection of medieval arms and military uniforms. The enthusiastic guard on the top level insists that Chris take a photo of me from the inside looking out. Since he speaks no English he gestures wildly for me to step outside and come around to the window. He thinks this is an excellent idea. I photograph them from the outside looking in. The guard poses but he does not smile.

  

When we visited the Czech Republic in the spring of 2000 I read that the people complained that the playwright president Vaclav’s Havel’s new wife since 1997, the actress Dagmar Veškrnova, smiled too much.

  

5:02 p.m.

John, who is wearing a hospital gown, leans out the window. I too lean out the window. He comments on the good weather. I quote Chris. “We arrive in winter and stay until spring.“

  

22 April, Monday (Eleven days later)

12:36 a.m.

Our airline Lufthansa is on strike. Hopefully it will last for one day only. I lay awake and wonder, what will Dr. Kašperová say about John leaving the hospital on Tuesday morning?

  

There is good news and there is bad news. The good news is that we can leave tomorrow and the bad news is that a medical escort will not be available for one more day. Will his father play it safe? I make Chris a bet and I lose. John is adamant about leaving the hospital tomorrow.

  

John is sitting up in his hospital bed munching on a gyros - not looking at anyone. Chris is standing on John’s left leaning against the wall and I am standing to the right of John. We are near the foot of the bed where Dr. Kašperová stands deep in thought - she is looking down. There is silence.

  

Dr. Kašperová is in charge, she is the one who must determine when John is fit to fly and she has just received the news that John has decided to return home tomorrow without a medical assistant. Chris and I look at each other and together we look at John who refuses to look at anyone. We look at Dr. Kašperová who is still deep in thought and looking down at the floor. This goes on for some time - around and around Chris and I look while John continues to munch refusing to look at anyone and the doctor continues to thinks things through.

  

I tell Dr. Kašperová that John has an option - stay one more day and return with a medical assistant. Dr. Kašperová does not take her eyes off me as she digests this information. John, who is adamant about returning tomorrow, looks up at Dr. Kašperová and with great cheer says, "I'm fine! “ Then he tries to explain that he lives in an independent and assisted senior living retirement community. Dr. Kašperová demands more silence as she looks to the floor once again for answers. Around and around we go again. Chris and I look at each other, then we look at John who continues to munch and refuses to look at anyone. This makes us smile.

  

Dr. Kašperová looks up and tells me that she had made it clear on Friday to those responsible that John could go home on Tuesday and that she had ordered a medical assistant. Earlier in the day Dr. Papinčák had also made this clear to us - arrangements were made on Friday. I acknowledge this and express our frustration with with those who are responsible for our predicament. We all prefer that John return with a medical assistant by his side.

  

Finally, Dr. Kašperová says that it is fine for John to travel home tomorrow and she suggests that he have a drink - whiskey. This makes me laugh and I feel relief that John will be able to leave without a medical assistant and with the doctor’s blessing. Dr. Kašperová explains that she will give us medicine if Johns blood pressure should rise and if he has difficulty breathing. She gives Chris her email address and her mobile telephone number and asks that we contact her when we arrive in Frankfurt.

  

This is our last night in Bratislava. John is in high spirits as we prepare his clothes for a 7:15 a.m. departure. Piece by piece I hold them up for his approval. When I come to his boxer shorts I hold them high. John exclaims, "Aren't those cute Juliana!" After eleven days in the coronary care unit John is excited and ready to return home.

  

Bratislava, located in southwestern Slovakia, is the only European capital that borders two countries - it is within walking distance to the Austrian and Hungarian borders. The trip west to the Vienna airport by private car will take one hour. Unbeknownst to us at the time, the driver we hire is the hotel receptionist’s boyfriend, Matej.

  

Back at the hotel we pack, one small backpack each. We have reservations, but no tickets. It is not until late into the nights that we learn that all the arrangements have been made. Lufthansa will fly us from Vienna to Frankfurt and United Airlines will fly us direct to San francisco.

  

23 April, Tuesday morning

7:00 a.m. Sharp

Matej is waiting for us in the hotel lobby. He greets us with a smile. He drives what seems a long way out of the way as the hotel is just around the corner. But, he explains that the car must take a different route. While the hospital guard and Matej figure out where to park Chris jumps out of the car and I miss my opportunity to say goodbye to the doctors and nurses.

  

Chris said that when he went to pick up his father it didn’t look like anything was happening. The curtain around John’s bed was closed and the staff was busy. Chris drew the curtain aside and there was John, he was laying down, fully clothed and ready to go. Dr. Kašperová came over and John’s favorite nurse, Anna, helped him into a wheelchair, but not before he surprised her by giving her a big hug. It took only a few minutes to pull it all together.

  

When John is wheeled into the daylight he calls my name. I turn to look at him and in the excitement of the moment I clap my hands and give him two thumbs up. This is indeed an exciting time.

  

On our way out Matej, a compassionate humanitarian, tells me that our kindness made the old man with the cane cry. While we waited we helped him to his seat on the bench. “Dobrý!” (Good) I exclaim with a big smile once he is settled. I see that his eye is red and teary, but I do not make the connection. I think this is due to his condition.

  

Matej, who was once a tour guide, takes us on the scenic route to the Vienna airport. Along the way he tells us that, “Socialism has good sides and the bad sides. Bad thing is, the bad sides stayed and the good ones are gone.”

  

8:53 a.m.

As we check in to special assistance the attendant says to John, “Good children, you are flying business class.” John replies. “I feel very special.” She does not know that we came directly from the hospital.

  

Because he can, Chris sends Dr. Kašperová an email. She promptly replies, “Dear Chris and Juliana, it is nice to hear from you, thank you for the message. We wish you good luck and a lot of strength for Mr. John. Kind regards, Viera Kašperová”

 

We arrive early and the Frankfurt gate reads destination Brindisi. I happen to know that this is where one catches the ferry to Greece. I am ready to keep moving and ask John a spirited traveler. I can see us heading south and me racing him around in a wheelchair.

  

In flight, Chris and I check on John several times. I ask the flight attendant to keep her eye on him and I explain that John is a high risk passenger. John later says that the flight back was really difficult for him, but he shows no signs of distress. He just looks like a worn-out traveler.

  

In San Francisco we hand over John to his daughters and son-in-law who take him home and we catch our flight to San Diego. We sit by the emergency exit doors. The flight attendant would like to know if we are willing and able to help in case of an emergency. She would like that all the passengers see that we are reading the instruction manual.

  

On our way to our car I quiz Chris. “In what position do you place your arms when you slide down the emergency chute?” Chris holds his arms high in the air and says “Whee!” It feels good to laugh again.

  

It is not until we are on the I5 (Interstate 5) heading north that it hits me. I sure am glad that things worked out well as they did, after all, it was me who suggested we invite him on this trip. John said that he was glad that we made the best of being in Bratislava and that we did all the right things. He thinks that we saved his life.

  

It turns out that my father in-law did not suffer a heart attack after all. Although, what he did experience, a heart exacerbation, a sudden worsening of an already bad condition, is just as serious. John did all the right things. He ate a salty lunch which is verboten, he drank alcohol which is verboten and he stopped taking his diuretic as prescribed.

  

Complicated times (his words, not mine) for John indeed. The difference between the photo taken of him on 7 April about to embark on the ship in Passau, Germany where the trip started and 7 May, two weeks after he arrived home, is astonishing. John came back an old man leaning on a cane. His doctor tells him that it will take at least six weeks for John to feel well rested and to regain his strength.

  

The Danube Waltz

My father-in-law was lucky, his last trip abroad nearly cost him his life and travel insurance covered his flight home and trip interruption. The hospital bill, which we paid in full and in cash the day before we left, amounted to only 1,889.36 € ($2,500.00) and that was covered by his medical insurance and Travel Guard.

  

John, who would like me to make him look heroic, spends eleven nights and twelve days recovering in the oldest teaching hospital in medieval Bratislava. During his stay Boston is shutdown by a manhunt, the death toll rises when a Texas fertilizer plant implodes and his last remaining brother Spiro dies. John loses his sense of humor only once when he is hungry and it is brief. His unshakeable optimism and indomitable spirit saves us all.

  

I have an easy time with it all, in part, because I do not concern myself with the logistics. I provide moral support and look to my late friend Count Alfonso de Bourbon for words of wisdom, “Don’t make it any more difficult than it already is.” Chris agrees, “It is what it is.” Plus, the doctors are really nice and they think we are “awesome people”. They “threaten” to come and visit us when they come to California, but not this year.

  

We are somewhat of a novelty in Bratislava. Most tourists come for a single day, riverboat walking tours last two hours. We stay in Bratislava for twelve days and for the most part we frequent the same markets, cafe’s and news stands. The Bratislavs are curious.

  

Free wireless and John’s cafe latte’s are not the only reason to go to The Green Tree Cafe on Obchodná ulica (street). It is helpful that Chris has a sob story to share with the staff - father is in the hospital, we’re going home soon, I’m buying the coffee’s for him. These girls are young and they are sweet, but they never ask about John, it is me they wonder about. “Where is your wife?” they ask when I am missing. They are curious and they are always smiling.

  

What to expect if your father-in-law has a heart attack In Bratislava, Slovakia and the ship leaves without you? Expect the doctors and nurses in the University Hospital Old Town to be ”exceptional” - John’s word.

  

“Not only were they competent, but how much they cared about me, how concerned they were about my getting home safely and how Dr. Kašperová wanted to know, after I got home, by email or a phone call, that all is okay. Most people complain about doctors, that they're very impersonal, they don't pay any attention to them, they don't really care about you they just want to get doing what they have to do, and get rid of you, These doctors and nurses were so different. It was very special and unusual to have that kind of care shown by anybody and we after all we were strangers too - which makes it even more important." - John Beletsis

La Casa de los Tiros es un museo e inmueble situado en la ciudad española de Granada, comunidad autónoma de Andalucía. Se encuentra ubicada en el barrio del Realejo, en la calle Pavaneras. Su nombre se debe a las piezas de artillería que hay en sus almenas. Actualmente es la sede del Museo Casa de los Tiros de Granada; durante algunos años, fue sede asimismo del Ateneo de Granada.

Fue construida en el siglo XVI a similitud de los palacios granadinos de la época y adquirida por Gil Vázquez de Rengifo, comendador de Montiel y uno de los caballeros que participaron en la Conquista de Granada junto a los Reyes Católicos. La casa formó parte de la muralla del barrio de los Alfareros, de ahí su aspecto de fortaleza militar. Del edificio original solo se conserva el Torreón, en torno al cual se ha ido construyendo posteriormente.

Los primeros propietarios de la casa fueron los Granada Venegas, linaje que comienza con Pedro de Granada (Cidi Yahya) noble descendiente de Yusuf IV e hijo del infante del Almería y Alcaide de Baza, se reconvirtió al cristianismo. Se casó con su prima Cetti Meriem, que cambió su nombre por el de María Venegas una vez reconvertida junto a su marido, comenzando con esta unión el linaje de los Granada-Venegas.

La casa ha pertenecido hasta 1921 a los marqueses de Campotejar, título que le fue otorgado a la familia Granada Venegas en reconocimiento a los servicios prestados a la corona. Tras un largo pleito mantenido con ellos (desde el siglo XVIII al XX), pasó a manos del Estado.

La fachada de la torre, pues tal es la forma del edificio, de sillería y decorada por cinco esculturas sobre consolas, que representan a Hércules, Teseo, Mercurio, Jasón y Héctor. Los héroes están representados en actitud de disposición a entrar en batalla en cualquier momento. Tienen los pies separados para alcanzar mayor estabilidad, los hombros enderezados y la vista enfocada fijamente a la lejanía. Las figuras son en tamaño natural y dado que la fachada del estrecho edificio de tres pisos carece de otros elementos decorativos, su virilidad y belicosidad causan una gran impresión.4En la fachada se abre una gran puerta adintelada del siglo XVII y sobre ésta hay tallada una espada que perfora un corazón. Se puede leer el siguiente lema: "El (corazón) manda". Encontramos dos balcones y tres aldabas de bronce, sujetas por corazones a modo de clavos que las sujetan, donde puede leerse: "¡El corazón manda! Gente de guerra, exercita las armas.

El corazón se quiebra cual aldaba llamándonos a la batalla y Aldabadas son las que da Dios y las siente el corazón"

El zaguán, de gran altura, ocupa la parte baja de la torre, cubierto por un techo de madera plano con grandes vigas apoyadas en zapatas góticas. Entre las vigas, pinturas policromadas de animales mitológicos y fieras luchando.

El patio de formas sencillas, con paredes encaladas, y al estilo musulmán con una pequeña fuente en medio y columnas nazaríes.

La escalera principal moderna, datada del siglo XVIII y culminada con bóveda con ventanas, da paso a la planta superior, y decorada con una colección procedente del Generalife de retratos de los reyes españoles de la Casa de Austria realizados por los retratistas de la Corte, copias efectuadas durante los siglos XVI y XVII.

La escalera principal en el siglo XVI, contiene decoración pictórica mural, representando a las virtudes: Caridad, Esperanza, Justicia y una Inmaculada.

En la parte trasera del edificio se encuentra el pequeño jardín, tan típico de las construcciones granadinas, donde se encuentran cipreses, parterres de boj, granados, naranjos y arrayanes. Cuenta con una fuente y un estanque, así como con bustos y esculturas. Algunos de sus arbustos tienen nombres, al haber sido plantados por intelectuales de la época, como es el caso de un laurel que plantó Elena Martín Vivaldi.

La Cuadra Dorada, la sala más emblemática del edificio, con armadura renacentista que decora su techo y pinturas murales. Su nombre hace referencia a la abundancia de reflejos dorados de su alfarje o artesonado. Formado por grandes tablones con bajorrelieves y textos, apoyados en grandes vigas y zapatas con formas de personajes históricos, representando un tablero de ajedrez, siendo una muestra de aquellos que lucharon por conseguir la unidad de España, describiendo bajo cada uno las hazañas que los hicieron famosos. Se encuentra Alarico, Hermenegildo, Recaredo, Alfonso V, López de Mendoza, así como los Reyes Católicos artífices de dicha unidad y Carlos I, que la elevó a categoría de Imperio, e Isabel de Portugal . Los frescos ubicados en las paredes representan a héroes y guerreros, y hay cuatro tondos con las figuras en relieve de heroínas de la Antigüedad.

 

es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casa_de_los_Tiros

 

The Casa de los Tiros is a museum and building located in the Spanish city of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. It is located in the Realejo neighbourhood, on Pavaneras Street. Its name comes from the artillery pieces on its battlements. It is currently the headquarters of the Museo Casa de los Tiros de Granada; for some years it was also the headquarters of the Granada Athenaeum.

It was built in the 16th century in the style of the Granada palaces of the time and was acquired by Gil Vázquez de Rengifo, Commander of Montiel and one of the knights who took part in the Conquest of Granada alongside the Catholic Monarchs. The house formed part of the wall of the Alfareros quarter, hence its appearance as a military fortress. Of the original building, only the tower remains, around which construction has been carried out since then.

The first owners of the house were the Granada Venegas, a lineage that began with Pedro de Granada (Cidi Yahya), a noble descendant of Yusuf IV and son of the Infante del Almería and Alcaide de Baza, who reconverted to Christianity. He married his cousin Cetti Meriem, who changed her name to María Venegas once she and her husband were reconverted, thus beginning the lineage of the Granada-Venegas family.

The house belonged until 1921 to the Marquises of Campotejar, a title granted to the Granada Venegas family in recognition of their services to the crown. After a long dispute with them (from the 18th to the 20th century), it passed into the hands of the State.

The façade of the tower, which is the shape of the building, is of ashlar masonry and decorated with five sculptures on consoles, representing Hercules, Theseus, Mercury, Jason and Hector. The heroes are depicted in an attitude of readiness to enter battle at any moment. Their feet are splayed for stability, their shoulders are straight and their gaze is fixed in the distance. The figures are life-size, and since the façade of the narrow three-storey building lacks other decorative elements, their virility and bellicosity make a strong impression.4 A large 17th-century lintelled door opens on the façade, and above it is carved a sword piercing a heart. The following motto can be read: "El (corazón) manda" (The (heart) rules). There are two balconies and three bronze doorknockers, held in place by hearts like nails, which read: 'The heart rules! People of war, exercise your weapons.

The heart breaks like a knocker calling us to battle and knockers are those given by God and felt by the heart".

The high entrance hall occupies the lower part of the tower, covered by a flat wooden roof with large beams supported by Gothic footings. Between the beams are polychrome paintings of mythological animals and wild beasts fighting.

The courtyard is simple in form, with whitewashed walls, and in the Muslim style with a small fountain in the middle and Nasrid columns.

The modern main staircase, dating from the 18th century and crowned with a vaulted ceiling with windows, leads to the upper floor, decorated with a collection from the Generalife of portraits of the Spanish kings of the House of Austria by court portraitists, copies made during the 16th and 17th centuries.

The main staircase, dating from the 16th century, contains pictorial mural decoration, representing the virtues: Charity, Hope, Justice and an Immaculate Conception.

At the back of the building is the small garden, so typical of Granada buildings, where there are cypresses, boxwood, pomegranate, orange and myrtle trees. It has a fountain and a pond, as well as busts and sculptures. Some of the shrubs have names, having been planted by intellectuals of the time, such as a laurel tree planted by Elena Martín Vivaldi.

The Cuadra Dorada, the most emblematic room in the building, with Renaissance armour decorating its ceiling and mural paintings. Its name refers to the abundance of golden reflections in its alfarje or coffered ceiling. Formed by large planks with bas-reliefs and texts, supported by large beams and footings in the shape of historical figures, representing a chessboard, it is a sample of those who fought to achieve the unity of Spain, describing under each one the exploits that made them famous. There is Alaric, Hermenegildo, Recaredo, Alfonso V, López de Mendoza, as well as the Catholic Monarchs, the architects of this unity and Carlos I, who elevated it to the category of Empire, and Isabella of Portugal. The frescoes on the walls depict heroes and warriors, and there are four tondos with relief figures of heroines of antiquity.

 

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

 

ADB975864 / ADB975867

I can't be stopped. Acrylic on copper.

Ballpoint on paper

5E17 05:17 Leciester LIP to Holbeck Loco Sidings

 

THE TYNDALE MONUMENT IS A TOWER BUILT ON A HILL AT NORTH NIBLEY, GLOUCESTERSHIRE, ENGLAND. IT WAS BUILT IN HONOUR OF WILLIAM TYNDALE, A TRANSLATOR OF THE NEW TESTAMENT, WHO IS BELIEVED TO HAVE BEEN BORN AT NORTH NIBLEY. THE TOWER WAS CONSTRUCTED IN 1866, 26FT 6IN SQUARE AT THE BASE AND IS 111 FT (34 M) TALL. IT IS POSSIBLE TO ENTER AND CLIMB TO THE TOP OF THE TOWER, UP A SPIRAL STAIRCASE OF ABOUT 120 STEPS. THE HILL IT IS ON ALLOWS A WIDE RANGE OF VIEWS, ESPECIALLY LOOKING DOWN TO THE RIVER SEVERN. THE HILL ON WHICH THE MONUMENT STANDS IS QUITE STEEP. THERE ARE TWO MAIN PATHS, ONE WHICH GOES UP STEEP STEPS, OR ONE THAT FOLLOWS A ROUGH SLOPE. THE TOWER ITSELF IS SURROUNDED BY FENCING AND HAS FLOODLIGHTS THAT LIGHT UP THE TOWER ON SPECIAL OCCASIONS.THE DOOR TO THE TOWER IS NORMALLY UNLOCKED.

FORBIDDEN TO WORK IN ENGLAND, TYNDALE TRANSLATED AND PRINTED IN ENGLISH THE NEW TESTAMENT AND HALF THE OLD TESTAMENT BETWEEN 1525 AND 1535 IN GERMANY AND THE LOW COUNTRIES. HE WORKED FROM THE GREEK AND HEBREW ORIGINAL TEXTS WHEN KNOWLEDGE OF THOSE LANGUAGES IN ENGLAND WAS RARE. HIS POCKET-SIZED BIBLE TRANSLATIONS WERE SMUGGLED INTO ENGLAND, AND THEN RUTHLESSLY SOUGHT OUT BY THE CHURCH, CONFISCATED AND DESTROYED. CONDEMNED AS A HERETIC, TYNDALE WAS STRANGLED AND BURNED OUTSIDE BRUSSELS IN 1536.

TYNDALE'S ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT WAS TAKEN ALMOST WORD FOR WORD INTO THE MUCH PRAISED AUTHORISED VERSION (KING JAMES BIBLE) OF 1611, WHICH ALSO REPRODUCES A GREAT DEAL OF HIS OLD TESTAMENT. FROM THERE HIS WORDS PASSED INTO OUR COMMON UNDERSTANDING. PEOPLE ACROSS THE WORLD HONOUR HIM AS A GREAT ENGLISHMAN, UNJUSTLY CONDEMNED AND STILL UNFAIRLY NEGLECTED. HIS SOLITARY COURAGE AND HIS SKILL WITH LANGUAGES - INCLUDING, SUPREMELY, HIS OWN - ENRICHED ENGLISH HISTORY IN WAYS STILL NOT PROPERLY EXAMINED, AND THEN REACHED OUT TO AFFECT ALL ENGLISH-SPEAKING NATIONS.

 

Design Challenge entry: 'And I don't feel well either, by Su_G': detail of design (part only). My entry in Spoonflower's Summer Cookout Design Challenge.

Chalk & airgun on paper.

© Su Schaefer 2018

 

Newton's dead, Einstein's dead, and I don't feel well either... Something very like this saying is attributed to Mark Twain, but this is my husband's version of it; as a good Bavarian he knows all about sausages (Würste) but maybe only in German could there be a term for ‘sausage poisoning’ (Wurstvergiftung - my source being the wonderful LEO, translator out of Munich Technical University).

 

See 'And I don't feel well either, by Su_G' as fabric @ Spoonflower.

 

[Design Challenge entry_'And I don't feel well either, by Su_G'_detail]

graef-fotografie.de

Most passengers do not even give passing trains so much as a cursory glance. But an immaculate Brush 4 in two tone green with two blue translator coaches certainly did.

GBRf 66703 'Doncaster PSB 1981 - 2002' on the fast at Potbridge this morning with ex Class 508 driving cars, now barrier / translator vehicles, 64707 Labezerin & 64664 Liwet working 5Q13 Eastleigh Works to Old Dalby (although it stopped short at Peterborough). South Western Railway 450043 & 450048 pass in the other direction working 2L25, the 10.12 London Waterloo to Basingstoke stopping service.

Vladimir Semyonovich Vysotsky (Russian: Владимир Семёнович Высоцкий, IPA: [vlɐˈdʲimʲɪr sʲɪˈmʲɵnəvʲɪtɕ vɨˈsotskʲɪj]; 25 January 1938 – 25 July 1980), was a Soviet singer-songwriter, poet, and actor who had an immense and enduring effect on Soviet culture. He became widely known for his unique singing style and for his lyrics, which featured social and political commentary in often humorous street-jargon. He was also a prominent stage- and screen-actor. Though the official Soviet cultural establishment largely ignored his work, he was remarkably popular during his lifetime, and to this day exerts significant influence on many of Russia's musicians and actors.

 

Vysotsky was born in Moscow at the 3rd Meshchanskaya St. (61/2) maternity hospital. His father, Semyon Volfovich (Vladimirovich) (1915–1997), was a colonel in the Soviet army, originally from Kiev. Vladimir's mother, Nina Maksimovna, (née Seryogina, 1912–2003) was Russian, and worked as a German language translator.[3] Vysotsky's family lived in a Moscow communal flat in harsh conditions, and had serious financial difficulties. When Vladimir was 10 months old, Nina had to return to her office in the Transcript bureau of the Soviet Ministry of Geodesy and Cartography (engaged in making German maps available for the Soviet military) so as to help her husband earn their family's living.

 

Vladimir's theatrical inclinations became obvious at an early age, and were supported by his paternal grandmother Dora Bronshteyn, a theater fan. The boy used to recite poems, standing on a chair and "flinging hair backwards, like a real poet," often using in his public speeches expressions he could hardly have heard at home. Once, at the age of two, when he had tired of the family's guests' poetry requests, he, according to his mother, sat himself under the New-year tree with a frustrated air about him and sighed: "You silly tossers! Give a child some respite!" His sense of humor was extraordinary, but often baffling for people around him. A three-year-old could jeer his father in a bathroom with unexpected poetic improvisation ("Now look what's here before us / Our goat's to shave himself!") or appall unwanted guests with some street folk song, promptly steering them away. Vysotsky remembered those first three years of his life in the autobiographical Ballad of Childhood (Баллада о детстве, 1975), one of his best-known songs.

 

As World War II broke out, Semyon Vysotsky, a military reserve officer, joined the Soviet army and went to fight the Nazis. Nina and Vladimir were evacuated to the village of Vorontsovka, in Orenburg Oblast where the boy had to spend six days a week in a kindergarten and his mother worked for twelve hours a day in a chemical factory. In 1943, both returned to their Moscow apartment at 1st Meschanskaya St., 126. In September 1945, Vladimir joined the 1st class of the 273rd Moscow Rostokino region School.

 

In December 1946, Vysotsky's parents divorced. From 1947 to 1949, Vladimir lived with Semyon Vladimirovich (then an army Major) and his Armenian wife, Yevgenya Stepanovna Liholatova, whom the boy called "aunt Zhenya", at a military base in Eberswalde in the Soviet-occupied zone of Germany (later East Germany). "We decided that our son would stay with me. Vladimir came to stay with me in January 1947, and my second wife, Yevgenia, became Vladimir's second mother for many years to come. They had much in common and liked each other, which made me really happy," Semyon Vysotsky later remembered. Here living conditions, compared to those of Nina's communal Moscow flat, were infinitely better; the family occupied the whole floor of a two-storeyed house, and the boy had a room to himself for the first time in his life. In 1949 along with his stepmother Vladimir returned to Moscow. There he joined the 5th class of the Moscow 128th School and settled at Bolshoy Karetny [ru], 15 (where they had to themselves two rooms of a four-roomed flat), with "auntie Zhenya" (who was just 28 at the time), a woman of great kindness and warmth whom he later remembered as his second mother. In 1953 Vysotsky, now much interested in theater and cinema, joined the Drama courses led by Vladimir Bogomolov.[7] "No one in my family has had anything to do with arts, no actors or directors were there among them. But my mother admired theater and from the earliest age... each and every Saturday I've been taken up with her to watch one play or the other. And all of this, it probably stayed with me," he later reminisced. The same year he received his first ever guitar, a birthday present from Nina Maksimovna; a close friend, bard and a future well-known Soviet pop lyricist Igor Kokhanovsky taught him basic chords. In 1955 Vladimir re-settled into his mother's new home at 1st Meshchanskaya, 76. In June of the same year he graduated from school with five A's.

 

In 1955, Vladimir enrolled into the Moscow State University of Civil Engineering, but dropped out after just one semester to pursue an acting career. In June 1956 he joined Boris Vershilov's class at the Moscow Art Theatre Studio-Institute. It was there that he met the 3rd course student Iza Zhukova who four years later became his wife; soon the two lovers settled at the 1st Meschanskaya flat, in a common room, shielded off by a folding screen. It was also in the Studio that Vysotsky met Bulat Okudzhava for the first time, an already popular underground bard. He was even more impressed by his Russian literature teacher Andrey Sinyavsky who along with his wife often invited students to his home to stage improvised disputes and concerts. In 1958 Vysotsky's got his first Moscow Art Theatre role: that of Porfiry Petrovich in Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment. In 1959 he was cast in his first cinema role, that of student Petya in Vasily Ordynsky's The Yearlings (Сверстницы). On 20 June 1960, Vysotsky graduated from the MAT theater institute and joined the Moscow Pushkin Drama Theatre (led by Boris Ravenskikh at the time) where he spent (with intervals) almost three troubled years. These were marred by numerous administrative sanctions, due to "lack of discipline" and occasional drunken sprees which were a reaction, mainly, to the lack of serious roles and his inability to realise his artistic potential. A short stint in 1962 at the Moscow Theater of Miniatures (administered at the time by Vladimir Polyakov) ended with him being fired, officially "for a total lack of sense of humour."

 

Vysotsky's second and third films, Dima Gorin's Career and 713 Requests Permission to Land, were interesting only for the fact that in both he had to be beaten up (in the first case by Aleksandr Demyanenko). "That was the way cinema greeted me," he later jokingly remarked. In 1961, Vysotsky wrote his first ever proper song, called "Tattoo" (Татуировка), which started a long and colourful cycle of artfully stylized criminal underworld romantic stories, full of undercurrents and witty social comments. In June 1963, while shooting Penalty Kick (directed by Veniamin Dorman and starring Mikhail Pugovkin), Vysotsky used the Gorky Film Studio to record an hour-long reel-to-reel cassette of his own songs; copies of it quickly spread and the author's name became known in Moscow and elsewhere (although many of these songs were often being referred to as either "traditional" or "anonymous"). Just several months later Riga-based chess grandmaster Mikhail Tal was heard praising the author of "Bolshoy Karetny" (Большой Каретный) and Anna Akhmatova (in a conversation with Joseph Brodsky) was quoting Vysotsky's number "I was the soul of a bad company..." taking it apparently for some brilliant piece of anonymous street folklore. In October 1964 Vysotsky recorded in chronological order 48 of his own songs, his first self-made Complete works of... compilation, which boosted his popularity as a new Moscow folk underground star.

 

In 1964, director Yuri Lyubimov invited Vysotsky to join the newly created Taganka Theatre. "'I've written some songs of my own. Won't you listen?' – he asked. I agreed to listen to just one of them, expecting our meeting to last for no more than five minutes. Instead I ended up listening to him for an entire 1.5 hours," Lyubimov remembered years later of this first audition. On 19 September 1964, Vysotsky debuted in Bertolt Brecht's The Good Person of Szechwan as the Second God (not to count two minor roles). A month later he came on stage as a dragoon captain (Bela's father) in Lermontov's A Hero of Our Time. It was in Taganka that Vysotsky started to sing on stage; the War theme becoming prominent in his musical repertoire. In 1965 Vysotsky appeared in the experimental Poet and Theater (Поэт и Театр, February) show, based on Andrey Voznesensky's work and then Ten Days that Shook the World (after John Reed's book, April) and was commissioned by Lyubimov to write songs exclusively for Taganka's new World War II play. The Fallen and the Living (Павшие и Живые), premiered in October 1965, featured Vysotsky's "Stars" (Звёзды), "The Soldiers of Heeresgruppe Mitte" (Солдаты группы "Центр") and "Penal Battalions" (Штрафные батальоны), the striking examples of a completely new kind of a war song, never heard in his country before. As veteran screenwriter Nikolay Erdman put it (in conversation with Lyubimov), "Professionally, I can well understand how Mayakovsky or Seryozha Yesenin were doing it. How Volodya Vysotsky does it is totally beyond me." With his songs – in effect, miniature theatrical dramatizations (usually with a protagonist and full of dialogues), Vysotsky instantly achieved such level of credibility that real life former prisoners, war veterans, boxers, footballers refused to believe that the author himself had never served his time in prisons and labor camps, or fought in the War, or been a boxing/football professional. After the second of the two concerts at the Leningrad Molecular Physics institute (that was his actual debut as a solo musical performer) Vysotsky left a note for his fans in a journal which ended with words: "Now that you've heard all these songs, please, don't you make a mistake of mixing me with my characters, I am not like them at all. With love, Vysotsky, 20 April 1965, XX c." Excuses of this kind he had to make throughout his performing career. At least one of Vysotsky's song themes – that of alcoholic abuse – was worryingly autobiographical, though. By the time his breakthrough came in 1967, he'd suffered several physical breakdowns and once was sent (by Taganka's boss) to a rehabilitation clinic, a visit he on several occasions repeated since.

 

Brecht's Life of Galileo (premiered on 17 May 1966), transformed by Lyubimov into a powerful allegory of Soviet intelligentsia's set of moral and intellectual dilemmas, brought Vysotsky his first leading theater role (along with some fitness lessons: he had to perform numerous acrobatic tricks on stage). Press reaction was mixed, some reviewers disliked the actor's overt emotionalism, but it was for the first time ever that Vysotsky's name appeared in Soviet papers. Film directors now were treating him with respect. Viktor Turov's war film I Come from the Childhood where Vysotsky got his first ever "serious" (neither comical, nor villainous) role in cinema, featured two of his songs: a spontaneous piece called "When It's Cold" (Холода) and a dark, Unknown soldier theme-inspired classic "Common Graves" (На братских могилах), sung behind the screen by the legendary Mark Bernes.

 

Stanislav Govorukhin and Boris Durov's The Vertical (1967), a mountain climbing drama, starring Vysotsky (as Volodya the radioman), brought him all-round recognition and fame. Four of the numbers used in the film (including "Song of a Friend [fi]" (Песня о друге), released in 1968 by the Soviet recording industry monopolist Melodiya disc to become an unofficial hit) were written literally on the spot, nearby Elbrus, inspired by professional climbers' tales and one curious hotel bar conversation with a German guest who 25 years ago happened to climb these very mountains in a capacity of an Edelweiss division fighter. Another 1967 film, Kira Muratova's Brief Encounters featured Vysotsky as the geologist Maxim (paste-bearded again) with a now trademark off-the-cuff musical piece, a melancholy improvisation called "Things to Do" (Дела). All the while Vysotsky continued working hard at Taganka, with another important role under his belt (that of Mayakovsky or, rather one of the latter character's five different versions) in the experimental piece called Listen! (Послушайте!), and now regularly gave semi-official concerts where audiences greeted him as a cult hero.

 

In the end of 1967 Vysotsky got another pivotal theater role, that of Khlopusha [ru] in Pugachov (a play based on a poem by Sergei Yesenin), often described as one of Taganka's finest. "He put into his performance all the things that he excelled at and, on the other hand, it was Pugachyov that made him discover his own potential," – Soviet critic Natalya Krymova wrote years later. Several weeks after the premiere, infuriated by the actor's increasing unreliability triggered by worsening drinking problems, Lyubimov fired him – only to let him back again several months later (and thus begin the humiliating sacked-then-pardoned routine which continued for years). In June 1968 a Vysotsky-slagging campaign was launched in the Soviet press. First Sovetskaya Rossiya commented on the "epidemic spread of immoral, smutty songs," allegedly promoting "criminal world values, alcoholism, vice and immorality" and condemned their author for "sowing seeds of evil." Then Komsomolskaya Pravda linked Vysotsky with black market dealers selling his tapes somewhere in Siberia. Composer Dmitry Kabalevsky speaking from the Union of Soviet Composers' Committee tribune criticised the Soviet radio for giving an ideologically dubious, "low-life product" like "Song of a Friend" (Песня о друге) an unwarranted airplay. Playwright Alexander Stein who in his Last Parade play used several of Vysotsky's songs, was chastised by a Ministry of Culture official for "providing a tribune for this anti-Soviet scum." The phraseology prompted commentators in the West to make parallels between Vysotsky and Mikhail Zoschenko, another Soviet author who'd been officially labeled "scum" some 20 years ago.

 

Two of Vysotsky's 1968 films, Gennady Poloka's Intervention (premiered in May 1987) where he was cast as Brodsky, a dodgy even if highly artistic character, and Yevgeny Karelov's Two Comrades Were Serving (a gun-toting White Army officer Brusentsov who in the course of the film shoots his friend, his horse, Oleg Yankovsky's good guy character and, finally himself) – were severely censored, first of them shelved for twenty years. At least four of Vysotsky's 1968 songs, "Save Our Souls" (Спасите наши души), "The Wolfhunt" (Охота на волков), "Gypsy Variations" (Моя цыганская) and "The Steam-bath in White" (Банька по-белому), were hailed later as masterpieces. It was at this point that 'proper' love songs started to appear in Vysotsky's repertoire, documenting the beginning of his passionate love affair with French actress Marina Vlady.

 

In 1969 Vysotsky starred in two films: The Master of Taiga where he played a villainous Siberian timber-floating brigadier, and more entertaining Dangerous Tour. The latter was criticized in the Soviet press for taking a farcical approach to the subject of the Bolshevik underground activities but for a wider Soviet audience this was an important opportunity to enjoy the charismatic actor's presence on big screen. In 1970, after visiting the dislodged Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev at his dacha and having a lengthy conversation with him, Vysotsky embarked on a massive and by Soviet standards dangerously commercial concert tour in Soviet Central Asia and then brought Marina Vlady to director Viktor Turov's place so as to investigate her Belarusian roots. The pair finally wed on 1 December 1970 (causing furore among the Moscow cultural and political elite) and spent a honeymoon in Georgia. This was the highly productive period for Vysotsky, resulting in numerous new songs, including the anthemic "I Hate" (Я не люблю), sentimental "Lyricale" (Лирическая) and dramatic war epics "He Didn't Return from the Battle" (Он не вернулся из боя) and "The Earth Song" (Песня о Земле) among many others.

 

In 1971 a drinking spree-related nervous breakdown brought Vysotsky to the Moscow Kashchenko clinic [ru]. By this time he has been suffering from alcoholism. Many of his songs from this period deal, either directly or metaphorically, with alcoholism and insanity. Partially recovered (due to the encouraging presence of Marina Vladi), Vysotsky embarked on a successful Ukrainian concert tour and wrote a cluster of new songs. On 29 November 1971 Taganka's Hamlet premiered, a groundbreaking Lyubimov's production with Vysotsky in the leading role, that of a lone intellectual rebel, rising to fight the cruel state machine.

 

Also in 1971 Vysotsky was invited to play the lead in The Sannikov Land, the screen adaptation of Vladimir Obruchev's science fiction,[47] which he wrote several songs for, but was suddenly dropped for the reason of his face "being too scandalously recognisable" as a state official put it. One of the songs written for the film, a doom-laden epic allegory "Capricious Horses" (Кони привередливые), became one of the singer's signature tunes. Two of Vysotsky's 1972 film roles were somewhat meditative: an anonymous American journalist in The Fourth One and the "righteous guy" von Koren in The Bad Good Man (based on Anton Chekov's Duel). The latter brought Vysotsky the Best Male Role prize at the V Taormina Film Fest. This philosophical slant rubbed off onto some of his new works of the time: "A Singer at the Microphone" (Певец у микрофона), "The Tightrope Walker" (Канатоходец), two new war songs ("We Spin the Earth", "Black Pea-Coats") and "The Grief" (Беда), a folkish girl's lament, later recorded by Marina Vladi and subsequently covered by several female performers. Popular proved to be his 1972 humorous songs: "Mishka Shifman" (Мишка Шифман), satirizing the leaving-for-Israel routine, "Victim of the Television" which ridiculed the concept of "political consciousness," and "The Honour of the Chess Crown" (Честь шахматной короны) about an ever-fearless "simple Soviet man" challenging the much feared American champion Bobby Fischer to a match.

 

In 1972 he stepped up in Soviet Estonian TV where he presented his songs and gave an interview. The name of the show was "Young Man from Taganka" (Noormees Tagankalt).

 

In April 1973 Vysotsky visited Poland and France. Predictable problems concerning the official permission were sorted after the French Communist Party leader Georges Marchais made a personal phone call to Leonid Brezhnev who, according to Marina Vlady's memoirs, rather sympathized with the stellar couple. Having found on return a potentially dangerous lawsuit brought against him (concerning some unsanctioned concerts in Siberia the year before), Vysotsky wrote a defiant letter to the Minister of Culture Pyotr Demichev. As a result, he was granted the status of a philharmonic artist, 11.5 roubles per concert now guaranteed. Still the 900 rubles fine had to be paid according to the court verdict, which was a substantial sum, considering his monthly salary at the theater was 110 rubles. That year Vysotsky wrote some thirty songs for "Alice in Wonderland," an audioplay where he himself has been given several minor roles. His best known songs of 1973 included "The Others' Track" (Чужая колея), "The Flight Interrupted" (Прерванный полёт) and "The Monument", all pondering on his achievements and legacy.

 

In 1974 Melodiya released the 7" EP, featuring four of Vysotsky's war songs ("He Never Returned From the Battle", "The New Times Song", "Common Graves", and "The Earth Song") which represented a tiny portion of his creative work, owned by millions on tape. In September of that year Vysotsky received his first state award, the Honorary Diploma of the Uzbek SSR following a tour with fellow actors from the Taganka Theatre in Uzbekistan. A year later he was granted the USSR Union of Cinematographers' membership. This meant he was not an "anti-Soviet scum" now, rather an unlikely link between the official Soviet cinema elite and the "progressive-thinking artists of the West." More films followed, among them The Only Road (a Soviet-Yugoslav joint venture, premiered on 10 January 1975 in Belgrade) and a science fiction movie The Flight of Mr. McKinley (1975). Out of nine ballads that he wrote for the latter only two have made it into the soundtrack. This was the height of his popularity, when, as described in Vlady's book about her husband, walking down the street on a summer night, one could hear Vysotsky's recognizable voice coming literally from every open window. Among the songs written at the time, were humorous "The Instruction before the Trip Abroad", lyrical "Of the Dead Pilot" and philosophical "The Strange House". In 1975 Vysotsky made his third trip to France where he rather riskily visited his former tutor (and now a celebrated dissident emigre) Andrey Sinyavsky. Artist Mikhail Shemyakin, his new Paris friend (or a "bottle-sharer", in Vladi's terms), recorded Vysotsky in his home studio. After a brief stay in England Vysotsky crossed the ocean and made his first Mexican concerts in April. Back in Moscow, there were changes at Taganka: Lyubimov went to Milan's La Scala on a contract and Anatoly Efros has been brought in, a director of radically different approach. His project, Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard, caused a sensation. Critics praised Alla Demidova (as Ranevskaya) and Vysotsky (as Lopakhin) powerful interplay, some describing it as one of the most dazzling in the history of the Soviet theater. Lyubimov, who disliked the piece, accused Efros of giving his actors "the stardom malaise." The 1976 Taganka's visit to Bulgaria resulted in Vysotskys's interview there being filmed and 15 songs recorded by Balkanton record label. On return Lyubimov made a move which many thought outrageous: declaring himself "unable to work with this Mr. Vysotsky anymore" he gave the role of Hamlet to Valery Zolotukhin, the latter's best friend. That was the time, reportedly, when stressed out Vysotsky started taking amphetamines.

 

Another Belorussian voyage completed, Marina and Vladimir went for France and from there (without any official permission given, or asked for) flew to the North America. In New York Vysotsky met, among other people, Mikhail Baryshnikov and Joseph Brodsky. In a televised one-hour interview with Dan Rather he stressed he was "not a dissident, just an artist, who's never had any intentions to leave his country where people loved him and his songs." At home this unauthorized venture into the Western world bore no repercussions: by this time Soviet authorities were divided as regards the "Vysotsky controversy" up to the highest level; while Mikhail Suslov detested the bard, Brezhnev loved him to such an extent that once, while in hospital, asked him to perform live in his daughter Galina's home, listening to this concert on the telephone. In 1976 appeared "The Domes", "The Rope" and the "Medieval" cycle, including "The Ballad of Love".

 

In September Vysotsky with Taganka made a trip to Yugoslavia where Hamlet won the annual BITEF festival's first prize, and then to Hungary for a two-week concert tour. Back in Moscow Lyubimov's production of The Master & Margarita featured Vysotsky as Ivan Bezdomny; a modest role, somewhat recompensed by an important Svidrigailov slot in Yury Karyakin's take on Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment. Vysotsky's new songs of this period include "The History of Illness" cycle concerning his health problems, humorous "Why Did the Savages Eat Captain Cook", the metaphorical "Ballad of the Truth and the Lie", as well as "Two Fates", the chilling story of a self-absorbed alcoholic hunted by two malevolent witches, his two-faced destiny. In 1977 Vysotsky's health deteriorated (heart, kidneys, liver failures, jaw infection and nervous breakdown) to such an extent that in April he found himself in Moscow clinic's reanimation center in the state of physical and mental collapse.

 

In 1977 Vysotsky made an unlikely appearance in New York City on the American television show 60 Minutes, which falsely stated that Vysotsky had spent time in the Soviet prison system, the Gulag. That year saw the release of three Vysotsky's LPs in France (including the one that had been recorded by RCA in Canada the previous year); arranged and accompanied by guitarist Kostya Kazansky, the singer for the first time ever enjoyed the relatively sophisticated musical background. In August he performed in Hollywood before members of New York City film cast and (according to Vladi) was greeted warmly by the likes of Liza Minnelli and Robert De Niro. Some more concerts in Los Angeles were followed by the appearance at the French Communist paper L’Humanité annual event. In December Taganka left for France, its Hamlet (Vysotsky back in the lead) gaining fine reviews.

 

1978 started with the March–April series of concerts in Moscow and Ukraine. In May Vysotsky embarked upon a new major film project: The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed (Место встречи изменить нельзя) about two detectives fighting crime in late 1940s Russia, directed by Stanislav Govorukhin. The film (premiered on 11 November 1978 on the Soviet Central TV) presented Vysotsky as Zheglov, a ruthless and charismatic cop teaching his milder partner Sharapov (actor Vladimir Konkin) his art of crime-solving. Vysotsky also became engaged in Taganka's Genre-seeking show (performing some of his own songs) and played Aleksander Blok in Anatoly Efros' The Lady Stranger (Незнакомка) radio play (premiered on air on 10 July 1979 and later released as a double LP).

 

In November 1978 Vysotsky took part in the underground censorship-defying literary project Metropolis, inspired and organized by Vasily Aksenov. In January 1979 Vysotsky again visited America with highly successful series of concerts. That was the point (according to biographer Vladimir Novikov) when a glimpse of new, clean life of a respectable international actor and performer all but made Vysotsky seriously reconsider his priorities. What followed though, was a return to the self-destructive theater and concert tours schedule, personal doctor Anatoly Fedotov now not only his companion, but part of Taganka's crew. "Who was this Anatoly? Just a man who in every possible situation would try to provide drugs. And he did provide. In such moments Volodya trusted him totally," Oksana Afanasyeva, Vysotsky's Moscow girlfriend (who was near him for most of the last year of his life and, on occasion, herself served as a drug courier) remembered. In July 1979, after a series of Central Asia concerts, Vysotsky collapsed, experienced clinical death and was resuscitated by Fedotov (who injected caffeine into the heart directly), colleague and close friend Vsevolod Abdulov helping with heart massage. In January 1980 Vysotsky asked Lyubimov for a year's leave. "Up to you, but on condition that Hamlet is yours," was the answer. The songwriting showed signs of slowing down, as Vysotsky began switching from songs to more conventional poetry. Still, of nearly 800 poems by Vysotsky only one has been published in the Soviet Union while he was alive. Not a single performance or interview was broadcast by the Soviet television in his lifetime.

 

In May 1979, being in a practice studio of the MSU Faculty of Journalism, Vysotsky recorded a video letter to American actor and film producer Warren Beatty, looking for both a personal meeting with Beatty and an opportunity to get a role in Reds film, to be produced and directed by the latter. While recording, Vysotsky made a few attempts to speak English, trying to overcome the language barrier. This video letter never reached Beatty. It was broadcast for the first time more than three decades later, on the night of 24 January 2013 (local time) by Rossiya 1 channel, along with records of TV channels of Italy, Mexico, Poland, USA and from private collections, in Vladimir Vysotsky. A letter to Warren Beatty film by Alexander Kovanovsky and Igor Rakhmanov. While recording this video, Vysotsky had a rare opportunity to perform for a camera, being still unable to do it with Soviet television.

 

On 22 January 1980, Vysotsky entered the Moscow Ostankino TV Center to record his one and only studio concert for the Soviet television. What proved to be an exhausting affair (his concentration lacking, he had to plod through several takes for each song) was premiered on the Soviet TV eight years later. The last six months of his life saw Vysotsky appearing on stage sporadically, fueled by heavy dosages of drugs and alcohol. His performances were often erratic. Occasionally Vysotsky paid visits to Sklifosofsky [ru] institute's ER unit, but would not hear of Marina Vlady's suggestions for him to take long-term rehabilitation course in a Western clinic. Yet he kept writing, mostly poetry and even prose, but songs as well. The last song he performed was the agonizing "My Sorrow, My Anguish" and his final poem, written one week prior to his death was "A Letter to Marina": "I'm less than fifty, but the time is short / By you and God protected, life and limb / I have a song or two to sing before the Lord / I have a way to make my peace with him."

 

Although several theories of the ultimate cause of the singer's death persist to this day, given what is now known about cardiovascular disease, it seems likely that by the time of his death Vysotsky had an advanced coronary condition brought about by years of tobacco, alcohol and drug abuse, as well as his grueling work schedule and the stress of the constant harassment by the government. Towards the end, most of Vysotsky's closest friends had become aware of the ominous signs and were convinced that his demise was only a matter of time. Clear evidence of this can be seen in a video ostensibly shot by the Japanese NHK channel only months before Vysotsky's death, where he appears visibly unwell, breathing heavily and slurring his speech. Accounts by Vysotsky's close friends and colleagues concerning his last hours were compiled in the book by V. Perevozchikov.

 

Vysotsky suffered from alcoholism for most of his life. Sometime around 1977, he started using amphetamines and other prescription narcotics in an attempt to counteract the debilitating hangovers and eventually to rid himself of alcohol addiction. While these attempts were partially successful, he ended up trading alcoholism for a severe drug dependency that was fast spiralling out of control. He was reduced to begging some of his close friends in the medical profession for supplies of drugs, often using his acting skills to collapse in a medical office and imitate a seizure or some other condition requiring a painkiller injection. On 25 July 1979 (a year to the day before his death) he suffered a cardiac arrest and was clinically dead for several minutes during a concert tour of Soviet Uzbekistan, after injecting himself with a wrong kind of painkiller he had previously obtained from a dentist's office.

 

Fully aware of the dangers of his condition, Vysotsky made several attempts to cure himself of his addiction. He underwent an experimental (and ultimately discredited) blood purification procedure offered by a leading drug rehabilitation specialist in Moscow. He also went to an isolated retreat in France with his wife Marina in the spring of 1980 as a way of forcefully depriving himself of any access to drugs. After these attempts failed, Vysotsky returned to Moscow to find his life in an increasingly stressful state of disarray. He had been a defendant in two criminal trials, one for a car wreck he had caused some months earlier, and one for an alleged conspiracy to sell unauthorized concert tickets (he eventually received a suspended sentence and a probation in the first case, and the charges in the second were dismissed, although several of his co-defendants were found guilty). He also unsuccessfully fought the film studio authorities for the rights to direct a movie called The Green Phaeton. Relations with his wife Marina were deteriorating, and he was torn between his loyalty to her and his love for his mistress Oksana Afanasyeva. He had also developed severe inflammation in one of his legs, making his concert performances extremely challenging.

 

In a final desperate attempt to overcome his drug addiction, partially prompted by his inability to obtain drugs through his usual channels (the authorities had imposed a strict monitoring of the medical institutions to prevent illicit drug distribution during the 1980 Olympics), he relapsed into alcohol and went on a prolonged drinking binge (apparently consuming copious amounts of champagne due to a prevalent misconception at the time that it was better than vodka at countering the effects of drug withdrawal).

 

On 3 July 1980, Vysotsky gave a performance at a suburban Moscow concert hall. One of the stage managers recalls that he looked visibly unhealthy ("gray-faced", as she puts it) and complained of not feeling too good, while another says she was surprised by his request for champagne before the start of the show, as he had always been known for completely abstaining from drink before his concerts. On 16 July Vysotsky gave his last public concert in Kaliningrad. On 18 July, Vysotsky played Hamlet for the last time at the Taganka Theatre. From around 21 July, several of his close friends were on a round-the-clock watch at his apartment, carefully monitoring his alcohol intake and hoping against all odds that his drug dependency would soon be overcome and they would then be able to bring him back from the brink. The effects of drug withdrawal were clearly getting the better of him, as he got increasingly restless, moaned and screamed in pain, and at times fell into memory lapses, failing to recognize at first some of his visitors, including his son Arkadiy. At one point, Vysotsky's personal physician A. Fedotov (the same doctor who had brought him back from clinical death a year earlier in Uzbekistan) attempted to sedate him, inadvertently causing asphyxiation from which he was barely saved. On 24 July, Vysotsky told his mother that he thought he was going to die that day, and then made similar remarks to a few of the friends present at the apartment, who begged him to stop such talk and keep his spirits up. But soon thereafter, Oksana Afanasyeva saw him clench his chest several times, which led her to suspect that he was genuinely suffering from a cardiovascular condition. She informed Fedotov of this but was told not to worry, as he was going to monitor Vysotsky's condition all night. In the evening, after drinking relatively small amounts of alcohol, the moaning and groaning Vysotsky was sedated by Fedotov, who then sat down on the couch next to him but fell asleep. Fedotov awoke in the early hours of 25 July to an unusual silence and found Vysotsky dead in his bed with his eyes wide open, apparently of a myocardial infarction, as he later certified. This was contradicted by Fedotov's colleagues, Sklifosovsky Emergency Medical Institute physicians L. Sul'povar and S. Scherbakov (who had demanded the actor's immediate hospitalization on 23 July but were allegedly rebuffed by Fedotov), who insisted that Fedotov's incompetent sedation combined with alcohol was what killed Vysotsky. An autopsy was prevented by Vysotsky's parents (who were eager to have their son's drug addiction remain secret), so the true cause of death remains unknown.

 

No official announcement of the actor's death was made, only a brief obituary appeared in the Moscow newspaper Vechernyaya Moskva, and a note informing of Vysotsky's death and cancellation of the Hamlet performance was put out at the entrance to the Taganka Theatre (the story goes that not a single ticket holder took advantage of the refund offer). Despite this, by the end of the day, millions had learned of Vysotsky's death. On 28 July, he lay in state at the Taganka Theatre. After a mourning ceremony involving an unauthorized mass gathering of unprecedented scale, Vysotsky was buried at the Vagankovskoye Cemetery in Moscow. The attendance at the Olympic events dropped noticeably on that day, as scores of spectators left to attend the funeral. Tens of thousands of people lined the streets to catch a glimpse of his coffin.

 

According to author Valery Perevozchikov part of the blame for his death lay with the group of associates who surrounded him in the last years of his life. This inner circle were all people under the influence of his strong character, combined with a material interest in the large sums of money his concerts earned. This list included Valerii Yankelovich, manager of the Taganka Theatre and prime organiser of his non-sanctioned concerts; Anatoly Fedotov, his personal doctor; Vadim Tumanov, gold prospector (and personal friend) from Siberia; Oksana Afanasyeva (later Yarmolnik), his mistress the last three years of his life; Ivan Bortnik, a fellow actor; and Leonid Sul'povar, a department head at the Sklifosovski hospital who was responsible for much of the supply of drugs.

 

Vysotsky's associates had all put in efforts to supply his drug habit, which kept him going in the last years of his life. Under their influence, he was able to continue to perform all over the country, up to a week before his death. Due to illegal (i.e. non-state-sanctioned) sales of tickets and other underground methods, these concerts pulled in sums of money unimaginable in Soviet times, when almost everyone received nearly the same small salary. The payouts and gathering of money were a constant source of danger, and Yankelovich and others were needed to organise them.

 

Some money went to Vysotsky, the rest was distributed amongst this circle. At first this was a reasonable return on their efforts; however, as his addiction progressed and his body developed resistance, the frequency and amount of drugs needed to keep Vysotsky going became unmanageable. This culminated at the time of the Moscow Olympics which coincided with the last days of his life, when supplies of drugs were monitored more strictly than usual, and some of the doctors involved in supplying Vysotsky were already behind bars (normally the doctors had to account for every ampule, thus drugs were transferred to an empty container, while the patients received a substitute or placebo instead). In the last few days Vysotsky became uncontrollable, his shouting could be heard all over the apartment building on Malaya Gruzinskaya St. where he lived amongst VIP's. Several days before his death, in a state of stupor he went on a high speed drive around Moscow in an attempt to obtain drugs and alcohol – when many high-ranking people saw him. This increased the likelihood of him being forcibly admitted to the hospital, and the consequent danger to the circle supplying his habit. As his state of health declined, and it became obvious that he might die, his associates gathered to decide what to do with him. They came up with no firm decision. They did not want him admitted officially, as his drug addiction would become public and they would fall under suspicion, although some of them admitted that any ordinary person in his condition would have been admitted immediately.

 

On Vysotsky's death his associates and relatives put in much effort to prevent a post-mortem being carried out. This despite the fairly unusual circumstances: he died aged 42 under heavy sedation with an improvised cocktail of sedatives and stimulants, including the toxic chloral hydrate, provided by his personal doctor who had been supplying him with narcotics the previous three years. This doctor, being the only one present at his side when death occurred, had a few days earlier been seen to display elementary negligence in treating the sedated Vysotsky. On the night of his death, Arkadii Vysotsky (his son), who tried to visit his father in his apartment, was rudely refused entry by Yankelovich, even though there was a lack of people able to care for him. Subsequently, the Soviet police commenced a manslaughter investigation which was dropped due to the absence of evidence taken at the time of death.

 

Vysotsky's first wife was Iza Zhukova. They met in 1956, being both MAT theater institute students, lived for some time at Vysotsky's mother's flat in Moscow, after her graduation (Iza was 2 years older) spent months in different cities (her – in Kiev, then Rostov) and finally married on 25 April 1960.

 

He met his second wife Lyudmila Abramova in 1961, while shooting the film 713 Requests Permission to Land. They married in 1965 and had two sons, Arkady (born 1962) and Nikita (born 1964).

 

While still married to Lyudmila Abramova, Vysotsky began a romantic relationship with Tatyana Ivanenko, a Taganka actress, then, in 1967 fell in love with Marina Vlady, a French actress of Russian descent, who was working at Mosfilm on a joint Soviet-French production at that time. Marina had been married before and had three children, while Vladimir had two. They were married in 1969. For 10 years the two maintained a long-distance relationship as Marina compromised her career in France to spend more time in Moscow, and Vladimir's friends pulled strings for him to be allowed to travel abroad to stay with his wife. Marina eventually joined the Communist Party of France, which essentially gave her an unlimited-entry visa into the Soviet Union, and provided Vladimir with some immunity against prosecution by the government, which was becoming weary of his covertly anti-Soviet lyrics and his odds-defying popularity with the masses. The problems of his long-distance relationship with Vlady inspired several of Vysotsky's songs.

 

In the autumn of 1981 Vysotsky's first collection of poetry was officially published in the USSR, called The Nerve (Нерв). Its first edition (25,000 copies) was sold out instantly. In 1982 the second one followed (100,000), then the 3rd (1988, 200,000), followed in the 1990s by several more. The material for it was compiled by Robert Rozhdestvensky, an officially laurelled Soviet poet. Also in 1981 Yuri Lyubimov staged at Taganka a new music and poetry production called Vladimir Vysotsky which was promptly banned and officially premiered on 25 January 1989.

 

In 1982 the motion picture The Ballad of the Valiant Knight Ivanhoe was produced in the Soviet Union and in 1983 the movie was released to the public. Four songs by Vysotsky were featured in the film.

 

In 1986 the official Vysotsky poetic heritage committee was formed (with Robert Rozhdestvensky at the helm, theater critic Natalya Krymova being both the instigator and the organizer). Despite some opposition from the conservatives (Yegor Ligachev was the latter's political leader, Stanislav Kunyaev of Nash Sovremennik represented its literary flank) Vysotsky was rewarded posthumously with the USSR State Prize. The official formula – "for creating the character of Zheglov and artistic achievements as a singer-songwriter" was much derided from both the left and the right. In 1988 the Selected Works of... (edited by N. Krymova) compilation was published, preceded by I Will Surely Return... (Я, конечно, вернусь...) book of fellow actors' memoirs and Vysotsky's verses, some published for the first time. In 1990 two volumes of extensive The Works of... were published, financed by the late poet's father Semyon Vysotsky. Even more ambitious publication series, self-proclaimed "the first ever academical edition" (the latter assertion being dismissed by sceptics) compiled and edited by Sergey Zhiltsov, were published in Tula (1994–1998, 5 volumes), Germany (1994, 7 volumes) and Moscow (1997, 4 volumes).

 

In 1989 the official Vysotsky Museum opened in Moscow, with the magazine of its own called Vagant (edited by Sergey Zaitsev) devoted entirely to Vysotsky's legacy. In 1996 it became an independent publication and was closed in 2002.

 

In the years to come, Vysotsky's grave became a site of pilgrimage for several generations of his fans, the youngest of whom were born after his death. His tombstone also became the subject of controversy, as his widow had wished for a simple abstract slab, while his parents insisted on a realistic gilded statue. Although probably too solemn to have inspired Vysotsky himself, the statue is believed by some to be full of metaphors and symbols reminiscent of the singer's life.

 

In 1995 in Moscow the Vysotsky monument was officially opened at Strastnoy Boulevard, by the Petrovsky Gates. Among those present were the bard's parents, two of his sons, first wife Iza, renown poets Yevtushenko and Voznesensky. "Vysotsky had always been telling the truth. Only once he was wrong when he sang in one of his songs: 'They will never erect me a monument in a square like that by Petrovskye Vorota'", Mayor of Moscow Yuri Luzhkov said in his speech.[95] A further monument to Vysotsky was erected in 2014 at Rostov-on-Don.

 

In October 2004, a monument to Vysotsky was erected in the Montenegrin capital of Podgorica, near the Millennium Bridge. His son, Nikita Vysotsky, attended the unveiling. The statue was designed by Russian sculptor Alexander Taratinov, who also designed a monument to Alexander Pushkin in Podgorica. The bronze statue shows Vysotsky standing on a pedestal, with his one hand raised and the other holding a guitar. Next to the figure lies a bronze skull – a reference to Vysotsky's monumental lead performances in Shakespeare's Hamlet. On the pedestal the last lines from a poem of Vysotsky's, dedicated to Montenegro, are carved.

 

The Vysotsky business center & semi-skyscraper was officially opened in Yekaterinburg, in 2011. It is the tallest building in Russia outside of Moscow, has 54 floors, total height: 188.3 m (618 ft). On the third floor of the business center is the Vysotsky Museum. Behind the building is a bronze sculpture of Vladimir Vysotsky and his third wife, a French actress Marina Vlady.

 

In 2011 a controversial movie Vysotsky. Thank You For Being Alive was released, script written by his son, Nikita Vysotsky. The actor Sergey Bezrukov portrayed Vysotsky, using a combination of a mask and CGI effects. The film tells about Vysotsky's illegal underground performances, problems with KGB and drugs, and subsequent clinical death in 1979.

 

Shortly after Vysotsky's death, many Russian bards started writing songs and poems about his life and death. The best known are Yuri Vizbor's "Letter to Vysotsky" (1982) and Bulat Okudzhava's "About Volodya Vysotsky" (1980). In Poland, Jacek Kaczmarski based some of his songs on those of Vysotsky, such as his first song (1977) was based on "The Wolfhunt", and dedicated to his memory the song "Epitafium dla Włodzimierza Wysockiego" ("Epitaph for Vladimir Vysotsky").

 

Every year on Vysotsky's birthday festivals are held throughout Russia and in many communities throughout the world, especially in Europe. Vysotsky's impact in Russia is often compared to that of Wolf Biermann in Germany, Bob Dylan in America, or Georges Brassens and Jacques Brel in France.

 

The asteroid 2374 Vladvysotskij, discovered by Lyudmila Zhuravleva, was named after Vysotsky.

 

During the Annual Q&A Event Direct Line with Vladimir Putin, Alexey Venediktov asked Putin to name a street in Moscow after the singer Vladimir Vysotsky, who, though considered one of the greatest Russian artists, has no street named after him in Moscow almost 30 years after his death. Venediktov stated a Russian law that allowed the President to do so and promote a law suggestion to name a street by decree. Putin answered that he would talk to Mayor of Moscow and would solve this problem. In July 2015 former Upper and Lower Tagansky Dead-ends (Верхний и Нижний Таганские тупики) in Moscow were reorganized into Vladimir Vysotsky Street.

 

The Sata Kieli Cultural Association, [Finland], organizes the annual International Vladimir Vysotsky Festival (Vysotski Fest), where Vysotsky's singers from different countries perform in Helsinki and other Finnish cities. They sing Vysotsky in different languages and in different arrangements.

 

Two brothers and singers from Finland, Mika and Turkka Mali, over the course of their more than 30-year musical career, have translated into Finnish, recorded and on numerous occasions publicly performed songs of Vladimir Vysotsky.

 

Throughout his lengthy musical career, Jaromír Nohavica, a famed Czech singer, translated and performed numerous songs of Vladimir Vysotsky, most notably Песня о друге (Píseň o příteli – Song about a friend).

 

The Museum of Vladimir Vysotsky in Koszalin dedicated to Vladimir Vysotsky was founded by Marlena Zimna (1969–2016) in May 1994, in her apartment, in the city of Koszalin, in Poland. Since then the museum has collected over 19,500 exhibits from different countries and currently holds Vladimir Vysotsky' personal items, autographs, drawings, letters, photographs and a large library containing unique film footage, vinyl records, CDs and DVDs. A special place in the collection holds a Vladimir Vysotsky's guitar, on which he played at a concert in Casablanca in April 1976. Vladimir Vysotsky presented this guitar to Moroccan journalist Hassan El-Sayed together with an autograph (an extract from Vladimir Vysotsky's song "What Happened in Africa"), written in Russian right on the guitar.

 

In January 2023, a monument to the outstanding actor, singer and poet Vladimir Vysotsky was unveiled in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, in the square near the Rodina House of Culture. Author Vladimir Chebotarev.

 

After her husband's death, urged by her friend Simone Signoret, Marina Vlady wrote a book called The Aborted Flight about her years together with Vysotsky. The book paid tribute to Vladimir's talent and rich persona, yet was uncompromising in its depiction of his addictions and the problems that they caused in their marriage. Written in French (and published in France in 1987), it was translated into Russian in tandem by Vlady and a professional translator and came out in 1989 in the USSR. Totally credible from the specialists' point of view, the book caused controversy, among other things, by shocking revelations about the difficult father-and-son relationship (or rather, the lack of any), implying that Vysotsky-senior (while his son was alive) was deeply ashamed of him and his songs which he deemed "anti-Soviet" and reported his own son to the KGB. Also in 1989 another important book of memoirs was published in the USSR, providing a bulk of priceless material for the host of future biographers, Alla Demidova's Vladimir Vysotsky, the One I Know and Love. Among other publications of note were Valery Zolotukhin's Vysotsky's Secret (2000), a series of Valery Perevozchikov's books (His Dying Hour, The Unknown Vysotsky and others) containing detailed accounts and interviews dealing with the bard's life's major controversies (the mystery surrounding his death, the truth behind Vysotsky Sr.'s alleged KGB reports, the true nature of Vladimir Vysotsky's relations with his mother Nina's second husband Georgy Bartosh etc.), Iza Zhukova's Short Happiness for a Lifetime and the late bard's sister-in-law Irena Vysotskaya's My Brother Vysotsky. The Beginnings (both 2005).

 

A group of enthusiasts has created a non-profit project – the mobile application "Vysotsky"

 

The multifaceted talent of Vysotsky is often described by the term "bard" (бард) that Vysotsky has never been enthusiastic about. He thought of himself mainly as an actor and poet rather than a singer, and once remarked, "I do not belong to what people call bards or minstrels or whatever." With the advent of portable tape-recorders in the Soviet Union, Vysotsky's music became available to the masses in the form of home-made reel-to-reel audio tape recordings (later on cassette tapes).

 

Vysotsky accompanied himself on a Russian seven-string guitar, with a raspy voice singing ballads of love, peace, war, everyday Soviet life and of the human condition. He was largely perceived as the voice of honesty, at times sarcastically jabbing at the Soviet government, which made him a target for surveillance and threats. In France, he has been compared with Georges Brassens; in Russia, however, he was more frequently compared with Joe Dassin, partly because they were the same age and died in the same year, although their ideologies, biographies, and musical styles are very different. Vysotsky's lyrics and style greatly influenced Jacek Kaczmarski, a Polish songwriter and singer who touched on similar themes.

 

The songs – over 600 of them – were written about almost any imaginable theme. The earliest were blatnaya pesnya ("outlaw songs"). These songs were based either on the life of the common people in Moscow or on life in the crime people, sometimes in Gulag. Vysotsky slowly grew out of this phase and started singing more serious, though often satirical, songs. Many of these songs were about war. These war songs were not written to glorify war, but rather to expose the listener to the emotions of those in extreme, life-threatening situations. Most Soviet veterans would say that Vysotsky's war songs described the truth of war far more accurately than more official "patriotic" songs.

 

Nearly all of Vysotsky's songs are in the first person, although he is almost never the narrator. When singing his criminal songs, he would adopt the accent and intonation of a Moscow thief, and when singing war songs, he would sing from the point of view of a soldier. In many of his philosophical songs, he adopted the role of inanimate objects. This created some confusion about Vysotsky's background, especially during the early years when information could not be passed around very easily. Using his acting talent, the poet played his role so well that until told otherwise, many of his fans believed that he was, indeed, a criminal or war veteran. Vysotsky's father said that "War veterans thought the author of the songs to be one of them, as if he had participated in the war together with them." The same could be said about mountain climbers; on multiple occasions, Vysotsky was sent pictures of mountain climbers' graves with quotes from his lyrics etched on the tombstones.

 

Not being officially recognized as a poet and singer, Vysotsky performed wherever and whenever he could – in the theater (where he worked), at universities, in private apartments, village clubs, and in the open air. It was not unusual for him to give several concerts in one day. He used to sleep little, using the night hours to write. With few exceptions, he wasn't allowed to publish his recordings with "Melodiya", which held a monopoly on the Soviet music industry. His songs were passed on through amateur, fairly low quality recordings on vinyl discs and magnetic tape, resulting in his immense popularity. Cosmonauts even took his music on cassette into orbit.

 

Musically, virtually all of Vysotsky's songs were written in a minor key, and tended to employ from three to seven chords. Vysotsky composed his songs and played them exclusively on the Russian seven string guitar, often tuned a tone or a tone-and-a-half below the traditional Russian "Open G major" tuning. This guitar, with its specific Russian tuning, makes a slight yet notable difference in chord voicings than the standard tuned six string Spanish (classical) guitar, and it became a staple of his sound. Because Vysotsky tuned down a tone and a half, his strings had less tension, which also colored the sound.

 

His earliest songs were usually written in C minor (with the guitar tuned a tone down from DGBDGBD to CFACFAC)

 

Songs written in this key include "Stars" (Zvyozdy), "My friend left for Magadan" (Moy drug uyekhal v Magadan), and most of his "outlaw songs".

 

At around 1970, Vysotsky began writing and playing exclusively in A minor (guitar tuned to CFACFAC), which he continued doing until his death.

 

Vysotsky used his fingers instead of a pick to pluck and strum, as was the tradition with Russian guitar playing. He used a variety of finger picking and strumming techniques. One of his favorite was to play an alternating bass with his thumb as he plucked or strummed with his other fingers.

 

Often, Vysotsky would neglect to check the tuning of his guitar, which is particularly noticeable on earlier recordings. According to some accounts, Vysotsky would get upset when friends would attempt to tune his guitar, leading some to believe that he preferred to play slightly out of tune as a stylistic choice. Much of this is also attributable to the fact that a guitar that is tuned down more than 1 whole step (Vysotsky would sometimes tune as much as 2 and a half steps down) is prone to intonation problems.

 

Vysotsky had a unique singing style. He had an unusual habit of elongating consonants instead of vowels in his songs. So when a syllable is sung for a prolonged period of time, he would elongate the consonant instead of the vowel in that syllable.

Thomas Carlyle (4 December 1795 â 5 February 1881) was a Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, translator, historian, mathematician, and teacher. Considered one of the most important social commentators of his time, he presented many lectures during his lifetime with certain acclaim in the Victorian era. One of those conferences resulted in his famous work On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and The Heroic in History where he explains that the key role in history lies in the actions of the "Great Man", claiming that "the history of the world is but the biography of great men".

 

A respected historian, his 1837 book The French Revolution: A History was the inspiration for Charles Dickens' 1859 novel A Tale of Two Cities, and remains popular today. Carlyle's 1836 Sartor Resartus is a notable philosophical novel.

 

A great polemicist, Carlyle coined the term "the dismal science" for economics. He also wrote articles for the Edinburgh Encyclopædia, and his Occasional Discourse on the Negro Question (1849) remains controversial. Once a Christian, Carlyle lost his faith while attending the University of Edinburgh, later adopting a form of deism.

 

In mathematics, he is known for the Carlyle circle, a method used in quadratic equations and for developing ruler-and-compass constructions of regular polygons.

 

Carlyle was born in Ecclefechan in Dumfriesshire. His parents determinedly afforded him an education at Annan Academy, Annan, where he was bullied and tormented so much that he left after three years. His father was a member of the Burgher secession church. In early life, his family's (and nation's) strong Calvinist beliefs powerfully influenced the young man.

 

After attending the University of Edinburgh, Carlyle became a mathematics teacher, first in Annan and then in Kirkcaldy, where he became close friends with the mystic Edward Irving. (Confusingly, there is another Scottish Thomas Carlyle, born a few years later, connected to Irving via work with the Catholic Apostolic Church.)

 

In 1819â1821, Carlyle returned to the University of Edinburgh, where he suffered an intense crisis of faith and a conversion, which provided the material for Sartor Resartus ("The Tailor Retailored"), which first brought him to the public's notice.

 

Carlyle developed a painful stomach ailment, possibly gastric ulcers, that remained throughout his life and likely contributed to his reputation as a crotchety, argumentative, somewhat disagreeable personality. His prose style, famously cranky and occasionally savage, helped cement an air of irascibility.

  

Carlyle's home at 4 (now 33) Ampton Street, London, marked with a plaque by the London County Council

Carlyle's thinking became heavily influenced by German idealism, in particular the work of Johann Gottlieb Fichte. He established himself as an expert on German literature in a series of essays for Fraser's Magazine, and by translating German works, notably Goethe's novel Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre. He also wrote a Life of Schiller (1825).

 

In 1826, Thomas Carlyle married fellow intellectual Jane Baillie Welsh, whom he had met through Edward Irving during his period of German studies. In 1827, he applied for the Chair of Moral Philosophy at St Andrews University but was not appointed. A residence provided by Jane's estate was a house on Craigenputtock, a farm in Dumfrieshire, Scotland. He often wrote about his life at Craigenputtock â in particular: "It is certain that for living and thinking in I have never since found in the world a place so favourable." Here Carlyle wrote some of his most distinguished essays, and began a lifelong friendship with the American essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson.

 

In 1831, the Carlyles moved to London, settling initially in lodgings at 4 (now 33) Ampton Street, Kings Cross. In 1834, they moved to 5 (now 24) Cheyne Row, Chelsea, which has since been preserved as a museum to Carlyle's memory. He became known as the "Sage of Chelsea", and a member of a literary circle which included the essayists Leigh Hunt and John Stuart Mill.

 

Here Carlyle wrote The French Revolution: A History (3 volumes, 1837), a historical study concentrating both on the oppression of the poor of France and on the horrors of the mob unleashed. The book was immediately successful.

GB Railfreight Class 92, 92023 prepares to leave Crewe with an usual consist in tow on 5Z92 14:40 Crewe ETD to Wembley Yard.

 

The 92 had been at the ETD for a repair and was returning to Wembley to resume Caledonian Sleeper duties.

 

The two Porterbrook translators, 6377 and 6376, had also been at the ETD for tyre-turning and needed returning to Leicester Depot. 92023 therefore took the trucks to Wembley from where the 47s could collect them the following day on their way back to Leicester from a unit delivery to Ilford.

We spoke different languages; the camera became the ultimate translator.

GB Railfreight class 73 no. 73119 'Borough of Eastleigh' inside Colas Railfreight class 47 no. 47739 'Robin of Templecombe' at Horsted Keynes translating the brakes of the 13.00 East Grinstead-> Sheffield Park service during the GBRf take over of the Bluebell railway on 17th April 2016.

Paloma.

THE TYNDALE MONUMENT IS A TOWER BUILT ON A HILL AT NORTH NIBLEY, GLOUCESTERSHIRE, ENGLAND. IT WAS BUILT IN HONOUR OF WILLIAM TYNDALE, A TRANSLATOR OF THE NEW TESTAMENT, WHO IS BELIEVED TO HAVE BEEN BORN AT NORTH NIBLEY. THE TOWER WAS CONSTRUCTED IN 1866, 26FT 6IN SQUARE AT THE BASE AND IS 111 FT (34 M) TALL. IT IS POSSIBLE TO ENTER AND CLIMB TO THE TOP OF THE TOWER, UP A SPIRAL STAIRCASE OF ABOUT 120 STEPS. THE HILL IT IS ON ALLOWS A WIDE RANGE OF VIEWS, ESPECIALLY LOOKING DOWN TO THE RIVER SEVERN. THE HILL ON WHICH THE MONUMENT STANDS IS QUITE STEEP. THERE ARE TWO MAIN PATHS, ONE WHICH GOES UP STEEP STEPS, OR ONE THAT FOLLOWS A ROUGH SLOPE. THE TOWER ITSELF IS SURROUNDED BY FENCING AND HAS FLOODLIGHTS THAT LIGHT UP THE TOWER ON SPECIAL OCCASIONS.THE DOOR TO THE TOWER IS NORMALLY UNLOCKED.

FORBIDDEN TO WORK IN ENGLAND, TYNDALE TRANSLATED AND PRINTED IN ENGLISH THE NEW TESTAMENT AND HALF THE OLD TESTAMENT BETWEEN 1525 AND 1535 IN GERMANY AND THE LOW COUNTRIES. HE WORKED FROM THE GREEK AND HEBREW ORIGINAL TEXTS WHEN KNOWLEDGE OF THOSE LANGUAGES IN ENGLAND WAS RARE. HIS POCKET-SIZED BIBLE TRANSLATIONS WERE SMUGGLED INTO ENGLAND, AND THEN RUTHLESSLY SOUGHT OUT BY THE CHURCH, CONFISCATED AND DESTROYED. CONDEMNED AS A HERETIC, TYNDALE WAS STRANGLED AND BURNED OUTSIDE BRUSSELS IN 1536.THE TYNDALE SOCIETY.

TYNDALE'S ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT WAS TAKEN ALMOST WORD FOR WORD INTO THE MUCH PRAISED AUTHORISED VERSION (KING JAMES BIBLE) OF 1611, WHICH ALSO REPRODUCES A GREAT DEAL OF HIS OLD TESTAMENT. FROM THERE HIS WORDS PASSED INTO OUR COMMON UNDERSTANDING. PEOPLE ACROSS THE WORLD HONOUR HIM AS A GREAT ENGLISHMAN, UNJUSTLY CONDEMNED AND STILL UNFAIRLY NEGLECTED. HIS SOLITARY COURAGE AND HIS SKILL WITH LANGUAGES - INCLUDING, SUPREMELY, HIS OWN - ENRICHED ENGLISH HISTORY IN WAYS STILL NOT PROPERLY EXAMINED, AND THEN REACHED OUT TO AFFECT ALL ENGLISH-SPEAKING NATIONS.

 

Dynamic Science Fiction / Magazin-Reihe

- Charles Dye / Translator's Error

art: H. W. Kiemle

Editor: Robert W. Lowndes

Columbia Publications, Inc. / USA (December 1952)

Reprint / Comic-Club NK 2010

ex libris MTP

www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?102351

  

After attaching the rear translator carriage and 2 VGA wagons to the rear of Hitachi Javelin unit 395026, 67008 runs parallel with the unit to position the front portion of the consist to the Javelin in order to haul out of the docks complex later in the evening. Note the very poor state of the track the brand new unit is sat on. This had arrived by sea and over the space of a few days was assembled and made ready for haulage on the quay side by a dedicated team of Hitachi engineers. Image dated 13 August 2009