Kite Runner

3617 Wolff5 Conversations-Lexicon Dr. Oscar Ludwig Bernhard Wolff Leipzig 1842 Friedrich Rückert (16 May 1788 – 31 January 1866) was a German poet, translator, and professor of Oriental languages. N. d . Leben gez. v. Engelhart Verlag von Christian Ernst Kollmann d. Kunst u. geogr. Anstalt von Serz & Korn

  

Rückert was born at Schweinfurt and was the eldest son of a lawyer. He was educated at the local Gymnasium and at the universities of Würzburg and Heidelberg. From 1816–1817, he worked on the editorial staff of the Morgenblatt at Stuttgart. Nearly the whole of the year 1818 he spent in Rome, and afterwards he lived for several years at Coburg (1820–1826). He was appointed a professor of Oriental languages at the University of Erlangen in 1826, and, in 1841, he was called to a similar position in Berlin, where he was also made a privy councillor. In 1849 he resigned his professorship at Berlin, and went to live on his estate Neuses near Coburg.

 

When Rückert began his literary career, Germany was engaged in her life-and-death struggle with Napoleon; and in his first volume, Deutsche Gedichte (German Poems), published in 1814 under the pseudonym Freimund Raimar, he gave, particularly in the powerful Geharnischte Sonette (Sonnets in Arms/Harsh Words), vigorous expression to the prevailing sentiment of his countrymen. During 1815 to 1818 appeared Napoleon, eine politische Komödie in drei Stücken (Napoleon, a Political Comedy in Three Parts) of which only two parts were published; and in 1817 Der Kranz der Zeit (The Wreath of Time).

 

He issued a collection of poems, Östliche Rosen (Eastern Roses), in 1822; and from 1834 to 1838 his Gesammelte Gedichte (Collected Poems) were published in six volumes, a selection which has passed through many editions.

 

Rückert was master of thirty languages and made his mark chiefly as a translator of Oriental poetry and as a writer of poems conceived in the spirit of Oriental masters. Much attention was attracted by a translation of the maqamat of Al-Hariri of Basra (Hariris Makamen) in 1826, Nal und Damajanti, an Indian tale, in 1828, Rostem und Suhrab, eine Heldengeschichte (Rostem and Suhrab, a Story of Heroes) in 1830, and Hamasa, oder die ältesten arabischen Volkslieder (Hamasa, or the Oldest Arabian Folk Songs) in 1846.

 

Among his original writings dealing with Oriental subjects are:

 

Morgenländische Sagen und Geschichten (Oriental Myths and Poems) (1837)

Erbauliches und Beschauliches aus dem Morgenland (Establishments and Contemplations from the Orient) (1836–1838)

Brahmanische Erzählungen (Brahmin Stories) (1839).

The most elaborate of his works is Die Weisheit des Brahmanen (The Wisdom of the Brahmins), published in six volumes from 1836 to 1839. The former and Liebesfrühling (Spring of Love) (1844), a cycle of love-songs, are the best known of all Rückert's productions.

 

From 1843 to 1845 he issued the dramas Saul und David (1843), Herodes der Große ("Herodes the Great") (1844), Kaiser Heinrich IV (1845) and Christofero Colombo (1845), all of which are greatly inferior to the work to which he owes his place in German literature. At the time of the Danish war in 1864 he wrote Ein Dutzend Kampflieder für Schleswig-Holstein (A Dozen Fight Songs for Schleswig-Holstein), which, although published anonymously, made considerable impression on audiences.

 

Rückert died in 1866 in Neuses, now part of Coburg.

 

After his death many poetical translations and original poems were found among his papers, and several collections of them were published. Rückert had a splendour of imagination which made Oriental poetry congenial to him, and he has seldom been surpassed in rhythmic skill and metrical ingenuity. There are hardly any lyrical forms which are not represented among his works, and in all of them he wrote with equal ease and grace.

 

He continues to exert a strong influence on Oriental studies in Germany (c.f. Annemarie Schimmel).

 

Rückert's poetry was a powerful inspiration to composers and there are about 121 settings of his work — behind only Goethe, Heine and Rilke in this respect. Among the composers who set his poetry to music are Schubert, Robert and Clara Schumann, Brahms, Josef Rheinberger, Mahler (song cycles Kindertotenlieder, Rückert-Lieder), Max Reger, Richard Strauss, Zemlinsky, Hindemith, Bartók, Berg, Hugo Wolf and Heinrich Kaspar Schmid.

 

A monument to Rückert is situated at Marktplatz in Schweinfurt. The poet and orientalist, whose birth house stands at the southeast corner of the City Hall, has overlooked the activity at the lively central square of Schweinfurt’s civic events since 1890. The monument was created by architect Friedrich Ritter von Thiersch and sculptor Wilhelm von Rühmann. Allegorical figures from his works — “Geharnischte Sonette” (“Withering Sonnets”) and “Weisheit des Brahmanen” (“Wisdom of the Brahmans”) — are situated at the feet of the bronze Rückert.

Photography: Shiro Ang

Photo Assistant: Kosmo Ling

Sena Kashiwazaki: Aza Miyuko

Kobato Hasegawa: JJ Doll

Translator: Young Hun Kim

 

Many thanks to Negibose Kondo for this collaboration opportunity!

 

Special thanks to Mr Shin of In Seoul for letting us use the cafe for this photoshoot!

 

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© Shiro Ang

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The lighthouse. Pilots cottages and Puffin island at Penmon Point, the tip of Anglesey looking over the Menai Straight over towards the Welsh coast.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isle_of_Anglesey

And after-show antics.

TEDx/Translators lunch at TEDSummit2016, June 26 - 30, 2016, Banff, Canada. Photo: Ryan Lash / TED

It's only 11:30 in the afternoon when Jen (friend and translator) and I arrive at the Medecins Sans Frontieres office in the heart of Remera. There we were, waiting for Virgini to appear...and appear she did, arms flung out wide in exuberance. As she moved in for a warm embrace, I saw the big bold hearts cut out of her dress sleeves. I was having a rough day, 3 hours of sleep, overworked, and totally exhausted...But the moment Virgini flashed that smile, and I saw those hearts, the tic-tac-toe print, and little Gigi slurping in her mother's arms, I forgot my grumpy mood and let this crazy sister take me in.

 

That's Mama Gigi for you, encouraging us all to see the light! One second with her and you know you're in the presence of a shining spirit.

 

This photograph is very important to me. It's proof that one woman can take the lessons of a painful past and do something constructive with them. What is Virgini doing behind the gates of this NGO? Well, this afternoon, she's teaching other women about AIDS prevention. Gigi in her arms, Virgini will share her wisdom with 4 women from Kinombe, a village a few kilometers from Remera. Her students are lucky to get the message from a woman who's been there in the past, but is determined to point herself, her family, and her sisters in a different direction.

 

After I snapped this photo, Virgini, Gigi, Jen, and I spent an hour together laughing and taking more photographs of her walking through her neighborhood. That's Virgini for you, generous, inspiring, all heart--sans frontieres.

 

This image was taken for a not-for-profit that has changed its named, focus, and mission to KEZA.

 

Official Statement on Name Change

 

"Sisters of Rwanda has been in operation in Rwanda for 2.5 years. Our original mission was to “ensure justice, equality and economic opportunities for Rwanda’s most vulnerable women”. Over the years we have learned better how to serve this amazing country and the people that dwell within it. We came here to listen and to learn, and as part of the natural maturation of our organization, we have grown into KEZA. Simply put, KEZA is the result of a 2.5 year pilot project called Sisters of Rwanda. “KEZA is a people-inspired luxury fashion house based in Rwanda. We buy top quality fashion goods from non-profit development organizations, generate income for the poor and help to establish Africa’s position in the luxury fashion industry.”

 

We still work with the very same 43 women that helped build Sisters of Rwanda. And our vision has only strengthened and become more strategic. Sisters of Rwanda has grown up, and we are proud to present KEZA to the world. Welcome to KEZA, “Where ‘they’ become ‘we’”. "

    

Remera, Kigali.

Rwanda. Central Africa.

October 2, 2006.

For Sisters of Rwanda

www.sistersofrwanda.org

 

"Sisters of Rwanda is a non-profit organization focused on women who make their living as a commercial sex worker, and/or have been sexually abused. Our purpose is to provide these vulnerable girls with a sustainable income and life/business skills that will ensure a better quality of life for them and their families."

 

Please do not blog or use any of the photographs from the Sisters of Rwanda series. Thank you.

  

47739 and 73136 prepares to swap ends at east Grinstead ready for the 10.15 to Sheffield Park (the 47 will come off at Horsted keynes)

English

I used the Translator

The Shrine of Our Lady of Nazareth is situated on the site of Nazareth, a neighborhood in the town of Nazareth (Portugal). Inside, keep up the sacred image of Our Lady of Nazareth, a Black Madonna, carved in wood, brought from Merida to this Site, in the year 711. The story is told in this picture Legend of Nazareth.

On site there are three shrines where revered and worshiped the image since he arrived in the year 711, led by Father Romano, a monk of the convent of Cauliniana. After the defeat of the Christian army at the Battle of Guadalete, the monk fled the Muslim invaders in the company of D. Rodrigo, the last Visigoth king, escaped after the defeat of his army. The choice of destination on the Atlantic coast, comes perhaps the existence of a nearby monastery Visigoth, which remains the church of St. Gião, classified as a National Monument in 1986.

 

The first shrine on the Site is a small man-made cave, near the cliff, one hundred and thirty feet above the ocean beach. The image was placed there by Father Romano, on an altar. This shrine (erected probably in prehistoric times) served as a hermitage where he lived until his death. As his will was buried in the soil of the cave by King Rodrigo, who lived nearby, on the hill of St. Bartholomew. The ex-king after the death of the monk went to the outskirts of Viseu where he ended his days as a hermit. The image of Our Lady of Nazareth preserved in this shrine 711-1182.

 

The second shrine, the Chapel of Remembrance, was built on the edge of the cliff above the cave, at the initiative of D. Fuas Roupinho after the miracle that saved him in 1182. It is a small building of square plan, with pyramidal dome. The image was worshiped here from 1182 to 1377.

 

The third shrine of Our Lady of Nazareth, where he currently worships the sacred image, was founded by King Ferdinand I in 1377. In the early seventeenth century began to be rebuilt, having been extended works, in stages, until the late nineteenth century, at which time it acquired its present form where no element is suspicious of their medieval origins. The rebuilding of the temple began with the work of the chancel, facing west, corridors and rooms that surround it, which stands out from the sacristy due to its size and its location behind the chancel.

 

The Shrine stands on the bottom of a spacious yard, on a higher plane. Access to the interior takes place by a semi-circular staircase, moving the porches. On each side of the front body extends a two-storey buildings. Transposed the porch one enters the church has a single nave, Latin cross-shaped, measuring 42 m long by 10 wide.

 

In the body of the church, illuminated by eight windows, covered with semi-cylindrical wood paneled, there are four altars and gilded, 1756, and two pulpits the same time. At the entrance, supported by fluted Doric columns, stands the choir with an organ in the center. Accesses to the cruise, covered by a dome of stone lantern, a large arch surmounted by the royal arms. In each arm of the transept, covered by a vault of stone, there is an altar tops of the walls being covered with Dutch tiles, which adorn the walls from top to bottom as wall hangings. In the right hand panels depict scenes from the life of David. On the left show episodes from the life of Joseph, son of Jacob. There are two other panels with scenes from the Biblical story of Jonah the prophet with the whale, crowned by angels, located on the doors leading to porches. In the doorway south find themselves two panels with pictures of mutilated invitation in the form of a Roman soldier. All these panels of the transept, a total of 6568 tiles were ordered by the administration of the Shrine in 1708, the company Willelm van der Kloet (1666-1747) in Amsterdam, Holland.

 

The chapel, covered with round vaulted in stone, is separated from the remaining space by a balustrade in rosewood with marble columns. Your floor is inlaid marble of various colors and is elevated five steps. To fund the Baroque altarpiece, with Solomonic columns and gilded and polychrome glazed contains the niche where they venerate the sacred image behind and above the high altar.

 

Both the vestry as the hallways and other rooms around the main chapel are lavishly decorated with Portuguese tiles from the beginning of seven hundred, the Lisbon workshop of Antonio Oliveira Bernardes. They are highlighting the panels of the dome of the southern corridor, with the assumption of the Virgin, and the walls of the sacristy, with prophets. This impressive room with coffered ceiling with the royal arms in the center is surmounted by screens chests, whose theme is the legend of Nazareth. Among the caissons is an altar with a Calvary, at the door. Placed near the ceiling are six large canvases depicting the Passion of Christ. It is here that the iron staircase that leads up to the pilgrims at the sacred image of Our Lady of Nazareth, in the chancel.

 

Português

pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santu%C3%A1rio_de_Nossa_Senhora_da_...

 

O Santuário de Nossa Senhora da Nazaré fica situado no Sítio da Nazaré, um bairro da Vila da Nazaré (Portugal). No seu interior, guarda-se a Sagrada imagem de Nossa Senhora da Nazaré, uma Virgem Negra, esculpida em madeira, trazida de Mérida para este Sítio, no ano de 711. A história desta imagem é contada na Lenda da Nazaré.

No Sítio existem ainda os três santuários onde se venerou, e venera, a imagem desde que ali chegou no ano de 711, levada por frei Romano, monge do convento de Cauliniana. Após a derrota do exército cristão na batalha de Guadalete, o monge fugiu dos invasores muçulmanos, na companhia de D. Rodrigo, o último rei visigodo, fugitivo após a derrota do seu exército. A escolha do destino, no litoral Atlântico, advém porventura da existência nas proximidades de um mosteiro visigótico, do qual subsiste a igreja de São Gião, classificada como Monumento Nacional em 1986.

O primeiro santuário neste Sítio é uma pequena gruta feita pelo homem, junto à arriba, a cento e dez metros acima da praia oceânica. A imagem foi ali colocada, por frei Romano, sobre um altar. Este santuário (erigido provavelmente na época pré-histórica) serviu-lhe de eremitério no qual viveu até à sua morte. Conforme a sua vontade foi sepultado no solo da gruta pelo rei Rodrigo, que vivia ali perto, no monte de São Bartolomeu. O ex-rei após a morte do monge partiu para os arredores de Viseu onde terminou os seus dias como ermitão. A imagem de Nossa Senhora da Nazaré conservou-se neste santuário de 711 a 1182.

O segundo santuário, a Capela da Memória, foi construído à beira da falésia, sobre a gruta, por iniciativa de D. Fuas Roupinho após o milagre que o salvou, em 1182. É um pequeno edifício de planta quadrada, com abóbada piramidal. A imagem foi aqui venerada de 1182 a 1377.

O terceiro santuário de Nossa Senhora da Nazaré, onde actualmente se venera a sagrada imagem, foi fundado pelo rei D. Fernando I, em 1377. Em inícios do século XVII começou a ser reconstruído, tendo-se prolongado as obras, faseadamente, até final do século XIX, época na qual, adquiriu a sua forma actual onde nenhum elemento faz suspeitar das suas origens medievais. A reconstrução do templo iniciou-se com a obra da capela-mor, virada a poente, os corredores e as salas que a rodeiam, das quais sobressai a sacristia devido às suas dimensões e à sua localização por trás da capela-mor.

O Santuário ergue-se ao fundo de um espaçoso terreiro, num plano superior. O acesso ao interior faz-se por uma escadaria semi-circular, passando-se pelos alpendres. De cada lado da fachada estende-se um corpo de edifícios de dois pisos. Transposto o pórtico entra-se na igreja de uma só nave, em forma de cruz latina, medindo 42 m de comprimento por 10 de largo.

No corpo da igreja, iluminado por oito janelas, com cobertura semi-cilíndrica de madeira apainelada, existem quatro altares de talha dourada, de 1756, e dois púlpitos da mesma época. À entrada, sustentado por colunas dóricas caneladas, ergue-se o coro alto com um orgão no centro. Acede-se ao cruzeiro, coberto por uma cúpula de pedra com lanternim, por um grande arco encimado pelas armas reais. Em cada braço do transepto, coberto por abóbada de pedra, há um altar, estando as paredes dos topos cobertas por azulejos holandeses, que adornam as paredes de alto a baixo como tapeçarias. No braço direito os painéis descrevem cenas da vida de David. À esquerda mostram episódios da vida de José, filho de Jacob. Existem ainda dois outros painéis, com cenas do episódio bíblico de Jonas o profeta, com a baleia, encimados por anjos, situados sobre as portas que conduzem aos alpendres. No vão da porta sul vêem-se dois painéis mutilados com figuras de convite em forma de soldado romano. Todos estes painéis do transepto, num total de 6568 azulejos, foram encomendados pela administração do Santuário, em 1708, à empresa de Willelm van der Kloet (1666-1747), em Amesterdão, na Holanda.

 

A capela-mor, coberta por abóboda redonda, em pedra, está separada do restante espaço por uma balaustrada em pau santo, com colunas de mármore. O seu piso é de embutidos de mármore de várias cores e está elevado cinco degraus. Ao fundo o retábulo barroco, com colunas salomónicas de talha dourada e policromada, contem o nicho com vidraça onde se venera a sagrada imagem por trás e acima do altar-mor.

Tanto a sacristia como os corredores e outras salas em torno da capela-mor estão profusamente decoradas com azulejos portugueses de inícios de setecentos, da oficina lisboeta de António Oliveira Bernardes. São destacar os painéis da abóbada do corredor sul, com a assunção da Virgem, e das paredes da sacristia, com profetas. Esta imponente sala com tecto de caixotões com as armas reais no centro tem arcazes encimados por telas, cuja temática é a lenda da Nazaré. Entre os caixotões está um altar com um Calvário, em frente à porta. Junto ao tecto estão colocadas seis grandes telas alusivas à Paixão de Cristo. É daqui que parte a escadaria de ferro que conduz os peregrinos até junto da sagrada imagem de Nossa Senhora da Nazaré, na capela-mor.

 

Po dodaniu tłumacza Bing Translator do Safari w iPhone/iPad, uruchamiamy go z poziomu udostępniania w mobilnej przeglądarce.

Rail Operations Group hire Freightliners Two Tone Green Class 47 locomotive number 47830 and two translator coaches for another class 375 drag. Here is is photographed displaying the "Rail Operations Group" headboard hauling southeastern class 375/3 Electrostar number 375310 working 5Q57 from Ramsgate E.M.U.D to Derby Litchurch Lane on 19th September 2015.

 

It was also photographed earlier in the day by Wayne Walsh at Newington, by Lewis Smith at Gillingham and by Ian Cuthbertson at Swanley.

 

According to Realtime Trains the route and timings were;

Ramsgate E.M.U.D. [XRE]........1610............................1604.........................6E

Rm Mk Ext Dept Mgate End...1617/1617....................NoRep/1605.........12E

Margate [MAR] 3.......................1625...........................1613 3/4...................11E

Herne Bay [HNB] 1....................1635...........................1631 1/4....................3E

Faversham [FAV] 2...................1645 1/2/1645 1/2....1653/1654 1/4.........8L

Sittingbourne [SIT] 1.................1652 1/2.....................1710.........................17L

Gillingham [GLM] 2...................1702............................1719 1/2..................17L

Rochester [RTR] 2.....................1709............................1723 1/2..................14L

Rochester Bridge Jn................1711..............................1725........................14L

Sole Street [SOR] 1....................1719 1/2......................1732........................12L

Fawkham Junction ..................1726............................1737.........................11L

Swanley [SAY] 3........................1732............................1743 1/4...................11L

St Mary Cray Junction.............1736............................1804 3/4...............28L

Bickley Junction[XLY]..............1737............................1806......................29L

Shortlands Junction.................1740............................1811 1/4...................31L

Bellingham [BGM].....................1745............................1813 3/4................28L

Nunhead [NHD] 1......................1751.............................1820 3/4...............29L

Crofton Road Junction............1755............................1824 1/4................29L

Denmark Hill [DMK] 1...............1756............................1824 1/2................28L

Voltaire Road Junction............1800...........................1829.......................29L

Clapham Junction 6.................1812............................1853........................41L

Barnes [BNS] 4...........................1816 1/2......................1859 1/2...............43L

New Kew Junction...................1821............................1908.......................47L

Kew East Junction....................1824...........................1909......................45L

Acton Wells Junction...............1829...........................1916 1/2..................47L

Acton Canal Wharf...................1831.............................1918 1/2.................47L

Dudding Hill Junction..............1836 1/2.....................1924.......................47L

Brent Curve Junction...............1839 1/2....................1927 1/4..................47L

Hendon [HEN] DH....................1843 1/2.....................1929 1/2................46L

Silkstream Junction..................1848 1/2.....................1934 1/2................46L

Radlett Junction........................1855 1/2.....................1941 3/4...............46L

St Albans [SAC] 2......................1859 1/2.....................1949 1/2................50L

Luton [LUT] 3..............................1913.............................2001 1/2...............48L

Leagrave Junction....................1918 1/2......................2004 3/4..............46L

Flitwick [FLT] 2...........................1928...........................2010 3/4...............42L

Bedford South Junction..........1934 1/2.....................2020 3/4..............46L

Bedford [BDM] 2.......................1938...........................2024 1/2...............46L

Bedford North Junction..........1938 1/2.....................2026 1/4...............47L

Sharnbrook Junction...............1946...........................2034......................48L

Wellingborough [WEL] 3.........2003..........................2044 1/4................41L

Harrowden Junction................2006..........................2047 3/4...............41L

Kettering SouthJunction.........2009..........................2051 1/4................42L

Kettering [KET] 4.......................2011............................2052 1/4................41L

Kettering North Junction........2013...........................2053 3/4..............40L

Market Harborough 1...............2021 1/2.....................2101......................39L

Kilby Bridge Junction...............2029 1/2....................2109 1/2..............40L

Wigston South Junction.........2032 1/2/2032 1/2..NoRep/2112 3/4..40L

Wigston North Junction.........2034 1/2....................2113 1/2.................39L

Leicester [LEI] UDS...................2037 1/2....................2120 1/4...............42L

Syston South Junction............2044 1/2....................2127 3/4...............43L

Sileby Junction..........................2048 1/2....................2131.......................42L

Loughborough 3.......................2054..........................2136 3/4...............42L

Trent South Junction...............2059..........................2146 1/2.................47L

Sheet Stores Junction.............2100...........................2146 3/4...............46L

Spondon [SPO] 2......................2105...........................2152 1/4................47L

Derby [DBY]................................2110/2125..................2159/2205..........40L

Derby Adtranz Litchurch Ln...2130...........................2209.....................39L

 

en gare de valence, une semaine après la fin des éléctions présidentielles. alors que le numéro date d'avant (14 avril - 20 avril). même si ce journal est (je crois) de gauche, il tire la sonnette d'alarme par rapport à ce petit nicolas...

 

un très bon ami à moi m'a envoyé l'article en .pdf, et je l'ai restitué, car c'est assez surprenant, même déroutant...

le texte est assez long, mais j'aimerais que tous les francophones prennent le temps de le lire!

(for non-french speaking people : i'm sorry, i can't translate all this text, maybe try google translator...)

   

Ce que les grands médias n’osent pas ou ne veulent pas dévoiler

 

le vrai sarkozy

 

Glaçant ! Il a dit glaçant.Mais s’il ne l’avait pas dit ? Car enfin, sept jours avant que François Bayrou ne laisse tomber ce glacial jugement, le généticien Axel Kahn avait déjà, dans Marianne, agité le grelot. Ainsi Nicolas Sarkozy, qui, déjà (ceci explique cela), voulait faire repérer chez les marmots de 2 ans les bourgeons de la délinquance, avait pu, dans Philosophie Magazine, déclarer que, selon lui, la pédophilie et le suicide des adolescents étaient d’origine génétique, qu’on était en

quelque sorte biologiquement programmé pour la déviance ou l’autodestruction, que l’action éducative ou sociale n’y pouvait rien, le rachat ou la miséricorde divine non plus – retour terrifiant du concept eugéniste du gène du crime – sans que, pendant dix jours, aucun journal quotidien

ou hebdomadaire, aucune radio ou télévision réagisse. Ainsi, pour ne prendre qu’un exemple, avant la riposte bayrouiste, notre confrère le Monde, que des dérapages de Le Pen qui allaient beaucoup moins loin faisaient immédiatement monter au créneau, n’avait même pas consacré 10 lignes réprobatrices à cette stupéfiante rémanence de l’idéologie socio-biologique de l’extrême droite païenne. Comme s’il était beaucoup plus dangereux de tacler le patron de l’UMP que de stigmatiser le leader du Front national.

 

Comme si Sarkozy faisait peur.

 

Or cette sortie intervenait après l’annonce de la création, en cas de victoire de la droite, d’un « ministère de l’intégration et de l’identité nationale », annonce qui avait littéralement sidéré, et pour cause, la presse allemande, et dont même l’extrême droite autrichienne de Jörg Haider avait

tenu à dénoncer les « nauséeux relents ». Et, surtout, après la série de furieuses philippiques,

telles qu’on n’en avait plus entendu depuis quarante ans, inimaginables dans quelque pays européen civilisé que ce soit, relents de propagande stalinienne des années 50 et de rhétorique fascisante

d’avant-guerre, qui revenaient à décrire les concurrents du leader UMP, qu’ils fussent centristes ou sociaux-démocrates, comme les candidats protégeant les délinquants, le vol et la fraude, donc du crime, les suppôts des voyous, les représentants du parti des malhonnêtes gens et de la dégénérescence morale, l’anti-France enfin, c’est-à-dire l’incarnation de la haute trahison. Or, cela

n’avait nullement empêché que Jean-Louis Borloo, même malheureux comme les pierres, s’aplatissent ; que Simone Veil, fût-ce de la plus mauvaise grâce possible, assure la claque et, dans un premier temps au moins, que les médias, presque tous les grands médias, s’écrasent. Tant le personnage fait peur.

 

Ses Mots pour le dire

 

Pourquoi ? Parce que ses entreprises de séduction envoûtent. Parce qu’il dispose, partout, et surtout dans les médias, d’amis dans la place et très haut placés ? Ou parce qu’on redoute la brutalité de

ses réactions ? La preuve par l’affaire Azouz Begag. La scène se passe en 2006 : le ministre

délégué à l’Egalité des chances, interpellé à propos de quelques fortes saillies du ministre de l’Intérieur, s’excuse : « Je ne m’appelle pas Azouz Sarkozy. » En guise d’agression, on a connu plus destructeur ! Aussitôt, explosion de fureur de Sarkozy qui menace « de casser la gueule de l’insolent » et lui hurle, par saccades rageusement répétitives, qu’il est « un connard, un salaud, qu’il ne veut plus jamais le voir sur son chemin ». On imagine, un instant, Malek Boutih racontant, dans un livre, que Ségolène Royal lui a aboyé à la figure que François Hollande allait « lui casser

la gueule » parce qu’il aurait osé murmurer : « Je ne m’appelle pas Malek Royal. » Aussitôt, invitation sur tous les médias à raconter l’histoire, comme l’ex-socialiste Eric Besson. Là, service minimum. C’est Sarkozy qui a obtenu, comme toujours, le temps de parole. Pour expliquer que ce

n’était là qu’infâme menterie. D’ailleurs, a-t-il expliqué sur iTélé, il « croit n’avoir jamais rencontré Azouz Begag ». Surréaliste ! Depuis deux ans, ils font partie du même gouvernement. On imagine ce que signifierait le fait qu’effectivement, bien que siégeant sur les mêmes bancs et participant

aux mêmes conseils, Sarkozy ait refusé de voir Begag !

 

Pour une fois, cependant, le démenti sarkozyen fait flop.Tout le monde sait, en effet, que les mots que rapporte Azouz Begag sont les siens et pas les pires ; que ces derniers jours, par exemple, il n’a

cessé de traiter de « connards » ses propres conseillers et animateurs de campagne, accusés d’être responsables de la moindre difficulté de campagne. Un article qui le défrise dans Libération ? Il téléphone au propriétaire, qui est un ami : « Vous êtes un journal de merde ! Avec des journalistes

demerde ! » Il refuse, contrairement à Royal et à Bayrou, pourtant très maltraité par Libé, de se rendre dans ce journal pour un entretien avec la rédaction : « Libé n’a qu’à se déplacer ! ». Il considère qu’il n’a pas été reçu à France 3 national avec les honneurs qui lui sont dus. A l’adresse de la direction il hurle : « Si je suis élu, je vous ferai tous virer ! »

 

Insultes…

 

C’est d’« enculés » que se font traiter les confrères d’une radio qui lui ont apparemment tapé sur les nerfs…qu’il a sensibles. Il soupçonne un journaliste d’être favorable à FrançoisBayrou. « Ils couchent ensemble », commente-t-il. Evoquant certains de ses adversaires, il prévient, carnassier :« Je vais tous les niquer. Les niquer ! » Plus macho,tu ouvres un harem. Parlant de Michèle Alliot-

Marie, qu’il soupçonnait, à tort, d’avoir joué un rôle trouble dans l’affaire Clearstream, ne l’appelle-t-il pas « la salope » ? L’économiste et expert financier Patrick Artus critique certaines propositions du candidat UMP. Il reçoit aussitôt un mail de son chef de cabinet « On s’en souviendra ! » Même expérience rapportée par un industriel qui eut le malheur de déplaire : « On se retrouvera. On est pour moi ou contre moi ! » « Je n’ai jamais été confronté, raconte ce patron, à un entourage aussi

agressif, aussi belliqueux. » Pourquoi le préfet Dubois, responsable des relations presse de la Préfecture de police, est-il débarqué du jour au lendemain : parce qu’il aurait ricané des ennuis conjugaux du ministre ! Une enquête télé avait été réalisée dans les Hauts-de-Seine. Elle montrait

l’incroyable pesanteur des pressions (avec carotte et bâton, promesses et chantage) qui se sont exercées sur les élus UDF de ce « Sarkoland » pour qu’ils lâchent Bayrou. L’enquête en question a

été « trappée », comme on dit, sur ordre de la direction. Elle aurait déplu ! Sur une radio, interdiction a été faite à un confrère de rappeler, statistiques à l’appui, que le bilan du ministre en matière de sécurité n’est pas bon. Ça eût dérangé !

 

Il n’a plus besoin d’intervenir

 

Or, comme on ne prête qu’aux riches, on soupçonne systématiquement Sarkozy d’être intervenu. Mais, le plus souvent, ce n’est pas le cas. Ce n’est pas la peine. Il n’a même pas besoin. Quand Paris

Match avait publié un reportage sur les amours new-yorkaises de Cécilia et de son chevalier servant, il avait, effectivement, proclamé à la cantonade qu’il aurait la peau du directeur de la rédaction, Alain Genestar. Mais il en resta là. Mieux : il obligea Arnaud Lagardère à attendre plusieurs mois avant de le virer. Au Journal du dimanche, mieux encore :parce qu’il avait appris qu’on s’apprêtait à virer le directeur de la rédaction du journal, soi-disant pour lui complaire, il n’intervint cette fois, après avoir reçu et sans doute retourné le confrère, que pour exiger qu’il reste en place. Il a même tenu à donner son avis sur la journaliste politique que devrait embaucher une radio et sur le directeur que ne devrait pas engager Libération ! Ne prend-il pas un malin plaisir à lancer aux journalistes qui lui font cortège : « Je connais très bien votre patron. Je sais ce

qui se passe dans votre rédaction. » On s’interroge donc : outre ses très fortes accointances avec les grands patrons des groupes de médias, est ce la crainte qu’il suscite, la peur des représailles s’il est élu, qui expliquent cette relative impunité dont bénéficie Sarkozy quand il tient des propos ou

prend des initiatives qui, venant de Le Pen ou de Ségolène Royal, provoqueraient une irruption réprobatrice dans le landernau ? Pourquoi toutes ces angoisses affichées en privé, peut-être excessives, mais qui ne s’expriment jamais en public : cette star de la télévision évoque, en cas

de victoire du candidat UMP, « un risque de contrôle quasi totalitaire des médias » ; cette consoeur de LCI se dit « terrorisée à l’idée d’une présidence sarkozyste » ; cette journaliste du Figaro, qui connaît bien le candidat, et livre une description effectivement assez dantesque de son caractère.

Mais pas question de se dévoiler. Il fait peur. « Ma rupture avec lui, confie Jean-François Probst, ex-secrétaire général adjoint du RPR des Hauts-de-Seine et collaborateur de Charles Pasqua, c’est

le gaullisme. Je voulais, j’espérais qu’il serait l’homme de rassemblement. Or, il ne cesse de semer la division. Et j’ai passé l’âge de me laisser impressionner par un Hortefeux hystérique. » Mais les autres ?

 

Les confrères étrangers osent,eux !

 

Les confrères étrangers, eux, n’ont évidemment pas ces pudeurs. Le correspondant à Paris d’une radio suédoise interroge tout de go: « Sarkozy ne représente-t-il pas un risque de dictature ? » Un journaliste de la télévision croate qui a suivi le candidat dans ses pérégrinations en dresse un portrait, d’ailleurs exagéré, à faire dresser les cheveux sur la tête. Le Süddeutsche Zeitung de

Munich dépeint « un macho sans scrupule et brutal qui joue avec la peur des gens ». Le Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung lui décerne le prix de « l’homme politique le plus ambitieux et plus impitoyable d’Europe qui n’a pas de vraie conviction, mais s’aligne sur l’humeur du peuple». Le quotidien espagnol El Pais voit en lui un héritier populiste des « régénérationnistes de la droite espagnole de la fin du XIXe siècle ». Le Tageszeitung de Berlin (de gauche, il est vrai) décrit un

George Bush tricolore qui veut imposer en France l’idéologie de la droite néoconservatrice américaine. La presse italienne insiste sur sa proximité avec la droite post fasciste de la péninsule (qui s’est, avec Gianfranco Fini, ouverte à la modernité). Si la presse conservatrice britannique

identifie volontiers, avec admiration, Sarkozy à Mme Thatcher, la plupart des journaux européens, en particulier scandinaves, l’assimilent plutôt à un aventurier néobonapartiste qui représenterait une

grave menace pour la démocratie.

 

La peur de la trappe

 

En France, en revanche, tout se passe comme si ce type d’analyse était indicible. On n’ose pas. On a peur. De quoi ? Des représailles si Petit César l’emporte ? De la trappe qui s’ouvrira aussitôt ? Celle qui s’est ouverte, par exemple, sous les pieds de la députée UMP Nadine Morano. Elue de Lorraine, fervente sarkozyste, talentueuse femme de tempérament, n’ayant pas froid aux yeux, elle faisait partie de la task force du candidat. Et, soudain, à la trappe ! Officiellement, parce qu’un reportage diffusé sur France 3 lui a attribué un rôle un peu ridicule. Mais il se trouve qu’étant l’une des rares à oser s’adresser avec franchise à son héros elle lui avait fait remarquer que, entouré d’une nuée

de courtisans qui passaient leur temps à chanter ses louanges et sa gloire, il était devenu allergique à la moindre remarque critique. Elle s’était en outre inquiétée de sa tendance à s’immerger compulsivement dans les sondages qui lui renvoyaient constamment sa propre image. Résultat :

out ! « Cramée », disent les « bonnes camarades » de la pécheresse. Il fait peur. Eh bien, il est temps de soulever cette chape de plomb. De braver cette conspiration du silence.

 

Catherine Nay entre les lignes

 

Il y a quelques mois, Guillaume Durand consacrait deux heures de son émission « Esprits libres », au livre plutôt hagiographique de Catherine Nay consacré à Nicolas Sarkozy. Les livres hostiles au candidat UMP, assez nombreux, n’ont jamais eu cette chance. Or la lecture de cet ouvrage, honnête malgré tout, laisse une impression étrange. Certes il est censé vanter les qualités du « grand homme » ; mais, en même temps, et au second degré, il en dresse un portrait psychologique extraordinairement préoccupant : celui d’un homme dont l’unique véritable sujet de préoccupation est lui-même, sa propre saga et sa quête obsessionnelle du pouvoir. L’histoire qui le fascine, c’est la sienne ; de l’humanité, il ne retient que sa part ; son ascension, à quoi se réduit son seul idéal, débouche sur l’arrivée au sommet qui constitue son seul rêve. Il ne lit qu’un livre, celui dont son ambition constitue la trame. N’écoute qu’une seule musique, celle qui lui permet sans répit de chanter son épopée. Aucune ouverture sur une autre perspective que celle dont sa personne

dessine l’horizon, sur un autre monde que celui dont il occupe le centre. Analyse-t-il les changements qui se produisent autour de lui, dans la société ? Non... Mais, sans cesse, il revient sur le seul changement qui l’obsède et rythme ses discours :son propre changement, dont il fait comme un ressort. « C’est vrai, explique-t-il à Catherine Nay, j’étais égoïste, dépourvu de toute humanité, inattentif aux autres, dur, brutal… Mais j’ai changé ! » Sans cesse ensuite, au grand désarroi de ceux qui l’idolâtraient quand il était, à l’en croire, si mauvais, il fera l’aveu de tout ce que lui

reprochent ses adversaires pour mieux magnifier l’ampleur des métamorphoses par quoi il se transcende. Quitte à se révéler, à l’usage, plus égotique et plus brutal encore. Au philosophe Michel Onfray il déclare, dans Philosophie Magazine : « Je vais peut-être vous consterner, mais je suis en train de comprendre la gravité des choix que j’ai faits. Jusqu’à présent, je n’avais pas mesuré. »

 

Il n’a pas le droit de le dire

 

Finalement, le livre de Catherine Nay, bien que non suspect de malveillance, ne révèle-t-il pas une certaine folie et des pulsions autocratiques chez cet homme qu’elle qualifie elle-même de «bonapartiste» ? L’hypothèse formulée suscite, aussitôt, une levée de boucliers indignée sur le plateau de l’émission. On n’a pas le droit de dire ça ! Verboten ! Le directeur du Point, Franz-Olivier Giesbert, siffle le hors-jeu. Lequel Giesbert, pourtant, ne se gêne nullement pour déclarer Dominique deVillepin passible de l’asile d’aliénés. Un talentueux éditorialiste de droite convient,

en coulisse, qu’il y a « un vrai problème ! ». Halte là ! On n’a pas le droit de dire ça ! C’est tabou !

Pourtant, sur toutes les ondes. Eric Besson, l’ex-responsable socialiste, a pu expliquer que Ségolène Royal, Bécassine dangereusement allumée, déjà comparée par Brice Hortefeux à Pol Pot, au fasciste

Doriot et à Staline, représente un mixte du maréchal Pétain et du général Franco. Concernant Chirac, Villepin, Le Pen ou José Bové, on peut également tout oser. Ce n’est qu’à propos de Nicolas Sarkozy qu’on n’aurait « pas le droit de dire ça ! ». Mais qu’en revanche il serait loisible, comme Paris Match la semaine dernière, de lui consacrer, sur des pages et des pages, des dithyrambes grotesques dignes de Ceausescu, certains journalistes de ce magazine dussent-ils nous avouer qu’ils en auraient « pleuré de honte », mais qu’on ne peut rien contre un ordre d’en

haut! (L’Express a même fait, sur deux pages, ce titre ubuesque : « Sarkozy : il gardera son calme. »)

 

Et, pourtant, en privé, ils le disent

 

Tous les journalistes politiques savent, même s’ils s’interdisent (ou si on leur interdit) d’en faire état, qu’au sein même du camp dont Sarkozy se réclame on ne cesse de murmurer, de décliner, de conjuguer. Quoi ? Ça ! Lui confier le pouvoir, c’est, déclara Jacques Chirac à ses proches, « comme organiser une barbecue partie en plein été dans l’Estérel ». Claude Chirac a, elle, lâché cette phrase : « J’aurais préféré Juppé. Lui, au moins, c’est un homme d’Etat. » Le ministre libéral François Goulard ne le dissimule pas : « Son égotisme, son obsession du moi lui tient lieu de pensée. La critique équivaut pour lui à une déclaration de guerre qui ne peut se terminer que par la reddition, l’achat ou la mort de l’adversaire. » Sa principale faiblesse ? Son manque total d’humanisme. «Chirac, lui, a le souci des autres, de l’homme. Sarkozy écrase tout sur son passage. Si les Français

savaient vraiment qui il est, il n’y en a pas 5 % qui voteraient pour lui. » Un des plus importants hiérarques de l’UMP, officiellement soutien fervent du candidat (comment faire autrement ?),

renchérit : « Sarkozy, c’est le contraire de l’apaisement. Chirac, vous verrez, on le

regrettera. Lui, il n’a jamais eu de mots violents. » « Attention, met en garde le ministre de l’Agriculture, Dominique Bussereau, on va très vite à la révolte aujourd’hui. » « La France, c’est du cristal », dit, inquiet, Jean-Pierre Raffarin. Dominique deVillepin a mis sa langue dans sa poche. Il n’en pense pas moins… que Sarko « a loupé sa cristallisation » ; que « sa violence intérieure, son déséquilibre personnel, l’empêchent d’atteindre à la hauteur de la présidence ». Les chiraquiens du premier cercle, Henri Cuq (ministre délégué aux Relations avec le Parlement), ou Jérôme Monod, le conseiller, ne veulent pas déroger à la consigne du silence. Mais, en petit comité, les mêmes mots reviennent : « Ce garçon n’est pas mûr. Il n’est pas fini. Il a un compte à régler avec la vie qui le pousse à créer de l’affrontement partout, et non à rassembler. » D’autres brodent : « C’est un enfant qui n’atteindra jamais l’âge adulte. » A quoi Roselyne Bachelot réplique : « Mais tous les hommes sont immatures ! » On ne parle plus, on n’ose plus parler, comme hier – du moins tout fort –, de «malfrat » ou de « petit voyou » (pourtant, ce qu’on l’a entendu !). Mais, dans les coulisses de l’Elysée, on laisse simplement tomber : « On fait confiance au peuple français ! » Et, justement, il y

a encore trois semaines, on se communiquait, en jubilant, les sondages qui indiquaient une montée en puissance de François Bayrou. Non point qu’on l’aime, celui-là, ce « démocrate-chrétien jésuitique» mais, enfin, on ne va pas « laisser la France tomber entre les mains de Catilina », dangereux aventurier populiste romain dénoncé par Cicéron.

 

Comme une bande des «cités»

 

Un député UMP spécialiste des problèmes juridiques, eut le malheur de s’opposer au ministre de l’Intérieur à propos des « peines plancher ». Il est, et reste, sarkozyste. Pourtant, il fait part de son effarement. Cette simple prise de distance lui valut d’être désigné du doigt, menacé de représailles, ostracisé par le clan avec une violence « digne d’une bande des cités ». C’est d’ailleurs un ex-haut responsable du RPR qui raconte : « En septembre 1994, aux journées parlementaires de Colmar,

alors que Balladur était donné gagnant par tous les sondages, on eut affaire à la garde rapprochée de Sarkozy. Elle respirait l’arrogance, elle y allait de toutes les menaces. On disait aux députés restés fidèles à Chirac qu’il allait “leur en cuire”. » L’ancien vice-président du RPR des Hauts-de-Seine

Jean-François Probst confirme : « Sarkozy croit toujours, comme en 1995, qu’il peut intimider les gens. Quand je l’ai rencontré, dans les années 80, il avait déjà ses qualités – énergie, ténacité –, et ses défauts, dont j’imaginais qu’il les corrigerait. Je pensais, notamment, qu’il comblerait son

inculture. Bernique ! Il n’a fait que courir d’une lumière l’autre. Il est fasciné par ce qui brille, les nouveaux riches, le show off, les copains à gourmettes même s’ils trichotent avec les règles communes, Tom Cruise qu’il reçoit à Bercy, ébloui, et fait raccompagner en vaporetto. » Bien sûr, si les chiraquiens maintenus, les derniers villepinistes, les ultimes vrais gaullistes, quelques libéraux ou ex-centristes ralliés à l’UMP confient, à qui veut les entendre (mais les journalistes qui les entendent n’en rapportent rien), que l’hypothèse d’une présidence Sarkozy les terrifie ; qu’il y a «de la graine de dictateur chez cet homme-là » ; que, constamment, « il pète les plombs», de très nombreux élus UMP, les plus nombreux, sont devenus des groupies enthousiastes de l’homme qui

seul peut les faire gagner et dont personne ne nie les formidables qualités de battant. Et le courage. Mais même eux n’étouffent pas totalement leur inquiétude et soulignent volontiers sa violence. «Oui, c’est vrai, reconnaît l’un deux, il antagonise, il clive,il joue les uns contre les autres avec la

plus extrême cruauté. » « Il n’est vraiment totalement humain, confie un autre, que quand il s’agit de lui-même. » « Il a un problème de nerfs, de paranoïa, admettent-ils tous, mais il s’arrange, il mûrit, il se densifie. » Voire…

 

Un lourd secret

 

Donc, il y aurait, s’agissant du caractère de Sarkozy et de son rapport à la démocratie, comme un lourd secret qui, au mieux, préoccupe ses amis, au pis, angoisse ou affole ceux qui savent, un terrible non-dit dont bruissent les milieux politico-journalistiques, mais que les médias s’interdisent,

ou se voient interdire, de dévoiler. Il fait peur ! La gauche elle-même participe de cette occultation. Sans doute s’attaque-t-elle à Sarkozy, parfois même avec outrance et mauvaise foi. Mais que lui reproche-t-elle ? D’être de droite, ou même, stigmatisation suprême, une sorte de « néoconservateur

américain à passeport français », comme le clamait Eric Besson avant de retourner sa veste. Est-ce un crime ? La diabolisation de la différence est aussi contestable venant d’un bord que de l’autre. Le débat démocratique implique qu’il y ait une gauche, un centre, une droite, cette dernière n’étant

pas moins légitime que ses concurrents. De même qu’une partie de l’opinion reproche au PS d’avoir trahi l’idéal socialiste ; de même une autre partie, importante, estime que Jacques Chirac a blousé son électorat en menant une vague politique de « centre gauche » et exige un fort coup de barre à droite. C’est cette aspiration « à droite toute » que Sarkozy incarne avec énergie et talent. Le combattre n’exige nullement qu’on criminalise a priori cette incarnation.

 

Il est de droite, et après ?

 

Oui, Sarkozy, en son tréfonds – et même si on l’a convaincu de ne plus rien en laisser paraître –, est « atlantiste » et entend rompre avec la politique gaulliste d’« orgueilleuse» prise de distance à l’égard des Etats-Unis. Oui, il se réclama de George Bush à l’époque où celui-ci triomphait ;

oui, il est le candidat quasi unanimement soutenu par le CAC 40, le pouvoir financier et la très haute bourgeoisie ; oui, ses convictions en matière économique et sociale en font plus le disciple de

Mme Thatcher que de Philippe Séguin ; oui, il se sent beaucoup plus proche du modèle néolibéral anglo-saxon que du modèle français mixte tel que l’ont façonné les gaullistes, les sociaux-démocrates et les démocrates-chrétiens. Le publicitaire Thierry Saussez, qui lui est tout acquis, explique que « sa manière de faire de la politique renvoie à ce que les patrons et les salariés vivent dans leurs entreprises ». Tout est business. Mais, finalement, en tout cela, il ne se distingue guère des droites européennes qui, comme lui, veulent démanteler l’Etat providence et approuvèrent la guerre de George Bush en Irak. Au demeurant, son pragmatisme, son cynisme même, son «populisme » de tonalité bonapartiste, son intelligence instinctive, ne permettent nullement de le décrire en ultralibéral ou en idéologue illuminé. Enfin, même si sa proximité avec la droite

néofranquiste espagnole ou berlusconienne italienne n’en fait effectivement pas un « modéré », loin de là, et même si la rhétorique agressivement extrémiste qu’il déroule, depuis quelques semaines,

le déporte loin du centre, le qualifier de « facho » ou de « raciste », comme s’y risque l’extrême gauche, est une stupidité. Pourquoi faudrait-il (à condition de ne pas abuser des camouflages logomachiques comme le fait le champion UMP quand il cite Jean Jaurès ou multiplie les envolées « ouvriéristes ») que se situer à droite constitue, en soi, un délit ? On accuse également Sarkozy, ici de soutenir « l’Eglise de Scientologie », et là d’avoir promis à Chirac une amnistie contre son

soutien. Mais il n’existe aucune preuve. Donc, on ne retient pas.

 

Cette vérité interdite

 

Le problème Sarkozy, vérité interdite, est ailleurs. Ce que même la gauche étouffe, pour rester sagement confinée dans la confortable bipolarité d’un débat hémiplégique, c’est ce constat indicible : cet homme, quelque part, est fou ! Et aussi fragile. Et la nature même de sa folie est de celle qui servit de carburant, dans le passé, à bien des apprentis dictateurs. Oh, évidemment, cela se murmure, au point même de faire déjà, au sein de la couche supérieure de la France qui sait, et au

fond des souterrains de la France qui s’en doute, un boucan d’enfer. Les médiateurs savent, les décideurs le pressentent. Mais les uns et les autres ont comme signé un engagement : on ne doit pas, on ne doit sous aucun prétexte, le dire. Etrange atmosphère que celle qui fait que, dans cette campagne électorale, ce qui se dit obsède peu, mais ce qui obsède énormément ne se dit pas ; que ce dont on parle au sein des médias et chez les politiques, les médias, précisément, et les politiques n’en parlent pas ! « Fou », entendons-nous : cela ne rature ni l’intelligence, ni l’intuition, ni

l’énergie, ni les talents du personnage. « Fou » au sens, où, peut-être, de considérables

personnages historiques le furent ou le sont, pour le meilleur mais, le plus souvent, pour le pire. Ecoutons ce que nous confie ce député UMP, issu de l’UDF, officiellement intégré à la meute « de

Sarkozy » : « On dit qu’il est narcissique, égotiste. Les mots sont faibles. Jamais je n’ai rencontré une telle capacité à effacer spontanément du paysage tout, absolument tout, ce qui ne renvoie pas à lui même.Sarko est une sorte d’aveugle au monde extérieur dont le seul regard possible serait tourné vers son monde intérieur. Il se voit, il se voit même constamment, mais il ne voit plus que ça. »

 

Plus fort que lui…

 

Au fond, où est le mystère ? Sarkozy, c’est peut-être une qualité, est transparent. Aux autres et à lui-même. Moins il regarde, plus il se montre, s’affiche, se livre. D’autant, comme le reconnaît un publicitaire qui a travaillé pour lui, qu’il ne sait pas se réfréner, se contraindre. « Il est tellement fort, ajoute-t-il drôlement, qu’il est plus fort que lui. » La raison ne parvient jamais à censurer

son tempérament. Prompt à interdire, il ne sait pas s’interdire. Quelque chose en lui, d’irrépressible, toujours, l’entraîne au-delà. « Sur un vélo, rapporte Michel Drucker qui a souvent pédalé à ses côtés, même quand il s’agit d’une promenade, il se défonce comme s’il devait constamment

battre un record. » Tous ses proches emploient spontanément la même expression : « Il ne peut pas

s’empêcher. » Par exemple, de dire du mal de Chirac, même quand la prudence exigerait qu’il s’en abstienne. Ainsi, en 1994, cettesalve :« L’électroencéphalogramme de la Chiraquie est plat. Ce n’est plus l’Hôtel de Ville, c’est l’antichambre de la morgue. Chirac est mort, il ne manque plus que les

trois dernières pelletées de terre. » Il ne peut pas s’empêcher, non plus, de se livrer à un

jubilatoire jeu de massacre en direction de ceux, de son propre camp, qui ne sont pas

de sa bande ou de sa tribu. « Jamais, peut être, un leader politique n’avait aussi systématiquement

pris son pied – dixit une de ses victimes au sein de l’UMP – à assassiner, les unes après les autres, les personnalités de son propre camp pour, après le carnage, rester seul entouré de ses chaouches. » Après la défaite de 1995, ne s’est-il pas livré, dans le journal les Echos, sous pseudonyme, à une descente en flammes de ses propres comparses : François Fillon ? « Un nul qui n’a aucune idée. » Michel Barnier ? « Le vide fait homme. » Philippe Douste-Blazy ? « La lâcheté faite politicien. » Alain Juppé ? « Un dogmatique rigide. Fabius en pire. » Quant à Villepin, il s’est plu, si l’on en croit Franz-Olivier Giesbert, à lui promettre de finir « pendu au croc d’un boucher ». Vis-à-vis

des autres, fussent-ils des amis politiques, aucune tendresse ! Jamais !

 

Il suffit de l’écouter

 

Sarkozy, il suffit, au demeurant, de le lire ou de l’écouter. De quoi parle-t-il ? De lui. Toujours. Compulsivement. Psychanalytiquement. Que raconte-t-il ? Lui ! Qui prend-il comme témoin ? Lui ! Qui donne-t-il en exemple ? Lui ! Il est, jusqu’au délire parfois, sa propre préférence. Jamais hors «je ». Ce « je » qui, à l’entendre, est forcément « le seul qui », « le premier à », « l’unique capable de », « le meilleur pour ». Comme si l’univers tout entier était devenu un miroir qui ne lui renvoie plus que son reflet, quitte à entretenir constamment chez lui l’angoisse que le miroir lui dise

un jour, comme à la marâtre de Blanche-Neige, qu’il n’est « plus la plus belle ». C’est pourquoi, d’ailleurs – et même ses proches s’en effarent –, il vit constamment immergé dans les enquêtes d’opinion, qui, plusieurs fois par jour, ont pour objet de le rassurer sur l’évolution de son image. Un argument ne passe pas ? On y renonce. Un mot fait tilt ? On le répète à satiété. Une peur s’exprime ? On la caresse dans le sens du poil. Le public veut des expressions de gauche ? On lui en servira. Une musique d’extrême droite ? On la lui jouera. Il a même été jusqu’à faire l’éloge de la violence sociale… des marins pêcheurs. Il commande tellement de sondages qu’il est devenu le meilleur client de certains instituts, qui, du coup, ont quelques scrupules à ne pas satisfaire son

contentement de soi. Il a même réussi à inspirer à l’Ifop des sondages, publiés dans le Figaro, dont les questions quasiment rédigées par son entourage (sur l’affaire de Cachan ou lapolémique avec les juges) ne permettaient pas d’autres réponses que celles qui le plébiscitaient.

 

Il est « le seul qui… »

 

Etrangement, si, constamment confronté à son reflet, il ne cesse d’intervenir pour en

corriger les ombres, sa capacité d’écoute (ou de lecture) est extrêmement faible. Invite-t-il des intellectuels médiatiques à déjeuner au ministère de l’Intérieur que l’un d’eux, Pascal Bruckner (qui

pourtant le soutient), explique que, loin de s’imprégner de leurs analyses, il a pratiquement parlé tout seul. Reçue par lui, la démographe Michèle Tribalat lui écrit : « J’ai pu apprécier votre conception du débat. Vous n’imaginez pas qu’un autre point de vue (que le vôtre) présente un quelconque intérêt. » D’ailleurs, il refuse les débats. Lors de ses prestations télévisées, on s’arrange pour qu’il n’ait jamais de vrais contradicteurs pouvant exercer un droit de suite. Le plus souvent, il choisit, d’ailleurs, lui-même les autres intervenants. Cette abyssale hypertrophie du moi, à l’évidence, entretient chez Sarkozy cette hargne de conquête, de contrôle, cette boulimie de pouvoir exclusif, le conduit à éradiquer toutes les concurrences potentielles et à neutraliser, à étouffer contestations et critiques. Il suffit, d’ailleurs, de l’écouter, mais aussi de le regarder « être » et «faire». Jamais il ne se résout à n’être qu’un membre, fût-ce le premier,d’un collectif. Forcément l’unique, le soleil autour duquel tournent des affidés. D’où sa prédilection pour un entourage de groupies de grandes qualités et de grands talents, à la vie à la mort, « une garde rapprochée »

comme on dit, mais aussi de porte-serviettes et de porte-flingues, de personnages troubles encombrés de casseroles et de transfuges. Avec eux, peu de risques !

 

Double discours

 

Il y a, chez Sarkozy, une incroyable dichotomie du discours (ou plutôt du double discours). Seul peut l’expliquer le fait que le rapport à lui-même est, chez lui, à ce point central que cette centralité de l’ego épuise en elle-même, et donc en lui-même, toute contradiction. Ainsi, au lendemain de ses brutales tentatives de criminalisation de ses concurrents, Bayrou l’ayant épinglé sur l’affaire du déterminisme génétique, il déclare benoîtement : « Un candidat devrait s’abstenir de toute attaque contre ses adversaires ! » Le jour même où il décide de jouer à fond, contre les candidats qui lui sont opposés – et avec quelle violence ! –, la stratégie guerrière de l’affrontement manichéen, il présente un opuscule dans lequel il explique (sous la rubrique « J’ai changé ») qu’il eut, certes,

sa phase brutale, mais qu’il est désormais totalement zen et apaisé. Azouz Begag, dans son récit, rapporte que, lorsqu’il osa critiquer l’emploi du mot « racaille », le ministre de l’Intérieur hurla qu’ils’agissait d’un scandaleux manque de solidarité gouvernementale, qu’il était inconcevable

qu’un ministre critique un collègue. Or, depuis des mois, il avait lui-même déclenché un tir nourri contre Chirac et Villepin, son président de la République et son Premier ministre. D’une façon générale, il en appelle volontiers à une solidarité sans faille des siens, tout son camp devant se mettre à sa disposition, mais, pendant la crise du CPE, alors qu’il avait lui-même, le premier,

préconisé ce type de contrat de travail, non seulement il en pointa soudain l’inanité et exigea son retrait, mais, en outre, il incita l’un des leaders de la révolte estudiantine à « tenir bon ». Il s’agissait, évidemment, d’achever Villepin.

 

Comme on assassine tous les concurrents…

 

A entendre les chiraquiens, même ceux qui se sont ralliés à son panache, c’est lui, Sarkozy, qui, ministre du Budget de Balladur, lança la justice sur la piste du scandale des HLM de Paris après que, dans l’espoir d’un étouffement, l’industriel Poullain, le patron d’une société de revêtement, eut

emmené le dossier à son lieutenant, Brice Hortefeux. Objectif ? Abattre Chirac ! C’est lui encore, prétendent-ils, qui aurait fait révéler, au Canard enchaîné, l’affaire de l’appartement d’Hervé Gaymard, en qui il voyait un adversaire. C’est lui encore qui fit distiller, dans la presse, de quoi faire continuellement rebondir le feuilleton du scandale Clearstream transformé en machine à broyer et achever Dominique de Villepin. Quand, dans un grand meeting parisien, il lança que la victoire du oui au référendum européen permettrait de sortir, enfin, du modèle social français,

n’était-il pas conscient qu’il favorisait de la sorte le camp du non et, par voie de conséquence,

plombait le pauvre Jean-Pierre Raffarin ? Autrement dit, soyez avec moi, moi qui ai profité de toutes les occasions pour être contre vous. En fait Sarkozy vit ses contradictions comme une cohérente unicité de parcours dès lors que c’est lui, l’unique, le point central, qui porte et justifie

cette cohérence. Ainsi, lorsqu’il accuse ses concurrents, de gauche ou centristes, d’être les candidats de la fraude, de la voyoucratie et de la dégénérescence morale, c’est le jour où Tapie, l’un des rares affairistes qui lui manquait encore, se rallie à lui.

 

Faillite morale, dit-il

 

Quelle capacité d’auto-amnistie cela révèle ! Car, enfin, se faire, fût-ce en partie, offrir un luxueux appartement aménagé par le promoteur qu’on a systématiquement favorisé en tant que maire, et dans l’espace dont on a, toujours comme maire, financé l’aménagement, est-ce un exemple

d’attitude hautement morale ? Permettre, après qu’on fut devenu ministre, à son ancien cabinet d’avocats, en partie spécialisé dans les expulsions de locataires après vente à la découpe, de continuer à porter son nom – société Arnault Claude-Nicolas Sarkozy –, ce qui s’avère d’autant

plus intéressant qu’on continue à détenir un gros paquet d’actions et à toucher des dividendes –, est-ce le modèle même du comportement impitoyablement moral ? Publier un livre consacré à l’ancien ministre Georges Mandel qui se révèle, pour partie au moins, être un plagiat coupé collé de la thèse universitaire de Bertrand Favreau, certaines erreurs comprises, est ce la quintessence du moralisme intégral? Est-ce une moralité sans faille qui permit àThierry Gaubert d’organiser son vaste système de gestion arnaqueuse du 1 % logement dans les Hauts-de-Seine à l’ombre des réseaux sarkozystes dont il fut, un temps, l’un des principaux rouages? Est-ce sous le drapeau de la moralité qu’on envoya de gros clients très évasifs au banquier suisse Jacques Heyer qui, d’ailleurs, consuma leur fortune (celle de Didier Schuller en particulier)? Les rapports d’affaires (ou de tentatives d’affaires)

avec l’intermédiaire saoudien Takieddine étaient-ils placés sous le signe de l’intégrisme moral? Le soutien constant apporté aux intérêts du groupe Barrière dans les casinos et les machines à sous ne fut-il dicté que par des considérations moralistes ? Pourquoi, enfin, avoir promis de rendre public son patrimoine et être le seul à s’en être abstenu ?

 

Un système clanique

 

Sarkozy n’est pas du tout un malhonnête homme. Simplement il est, fût-ce à son corps défendant, le pur produit d’un système, celui du RPR des Hauts-de-Seine, dont Florence d’Harcourt, l’ex-députée

gaulliste de Neuilly, a crûment décrit l’irrépressible mafiosisation, renforcée par le déferlement des flux financiers immobiliers générés par le développement du quartier de la Défense, dont Sarkozy tint d’ailleurs à présider l’établissement public. Son suppléant, en tant que parlementaire, fut d’ailleurs le maire de Puteaux, Charles Ceccaldi-Raynaud, puis sa fille qui, bien qu’adjointe à la mairie de Puteaux, bénéficia en même temps d’un emploi fictif à la mairie de Neuilly. Quand Sarkozy voulu récupérer son siège de député, hop !, on la nomma au Conseil économique et social.

Devenu, à tort ou à raison, le symbole d’une certaine «ripouïsation» d’un demi-monde de politiciens locaux, Ceccaldi-Raynaud, petit dirigeant socialiste en Algérie française, dûre gagner précipitamment la métropole à la suite des graves accusations dont il était l’objet, y compris d’avoir toléré des mauvais traitements dans un camp de prisonniers dont il était responsable. En France, élu de la gauche SFIO à Puteaux, il passa à droite et, lors de l’une de ses premières campagnes électorales, ses gros bras tuèrent un militant socialiste et en blessèrent d’autres. Ensuite, il traîna derrière lui tellement de casseroles (dernière affaire : il est mis en examen dans une affaire de marché truqué de chauffage urbain) qu’il devint une sorte de mythe. Sarkozy, ce qui plaide peut-être en faveur de son sens de la fidélité, ne l’a jamais lâché, même quand, ministre des Finances, il aurait pu ou dû. Quand la fille Ceccaldi-Raynaud, députée-maire à son tour, mécontente des critiques d’un journaliste blogueur, laisse publier sur le site de la mairie une lettre laissant supposer une inclinaison infamante, Sarkozy ne moufte toujours pas. Il resta pareillement fidèle à son grand

ami le député-maire de Levallois Patrick Balkany. Quand ce dernier, archétype lui aussi du roi de la magouille affairisto-municipale, employeur à son seul profit du personnel de la mairie, accablé

par la justice et accusé, en prime, de se livrer à des fellations sur menace de revolver, écarté du RPR, est défié par un gaulliste clean, Olivier de Chazeaux, qui soutint Sarkozy ? Patrick Balkany.

C’est-à-dire le délinquant. Notons que les Levalloisiens, par suite d’une gestion que soutient Sarkozy, supportent une dette de 4000 à 6000 € par habitant. C’est, d’ailleurs, le cabinet d’avocats

Sarkozy qui défend, en autres, la mairie de Levallois, laquelle accumule les contentieux.

 

Qui sont ses soutiens ?

 

Faut-il rappeler que ses principaux et premiers supporteurs dans le monde politique ne furent et ne sont pas spécialement vêtus de probité candide : Alain Carignon, Gérard Longuet, Thierry

Mariani, Manuel Aeschlimann (150 procédures, 600 000 € de frais d’avocats par an) et même Christian Estrosi n’ont pas précisément défrayé la chronique à cause de la blancheur immaculée de leur curriculum vitae. Il paraît même que Pierre Bédier en pince désormais pour lui. Quant à son fan-club, qui prétendra qu’il n’est constitué que de parangons de vertu : Doc Gyneco, chargé comme un sherpa, Johnny Hallyday qui répudie la France pour ne plus payer d’impôts, comme Jean-Michel Goudard, l’un de ses principaux conseillers en communication, Antoine Zacharias, le Napoléon des stock-options ? Certes, à l’image de Simone Veil ou de l’écrivainYasmina Reza, de très nombreuses personnalités de grande qualité, représentant tous les milieux et toutes les professions, soutiennent également Sarkozy, y compris certaines en provenance d’une haute intelligentsia réputée de gauche, mais droitisée par leur soutien à la guerre d’Irak. Reste que le profil de ses partisans les plus enthousiastes et les plus engagés, y compris les plus faisandés des ex-

petits marquis mitterrandolâtres, ne font pas nécessairement de Sarkozy (dont il n’est pas question de mettre en doute l’intégrité ou l’allergie à la déviance) le mieux placé pour dépeindre l’ensemble

de ses adversaires en défenseurs de la fraude, de la délinquance et de la décadence morale.

 

« L’identité nationale », parlons-en…

 

Est-il, en revanche, fondé à se proclamer seul défenseur de « l’identité nationale »? Mais qui se déclarait « fier d’être surnommé Sarkozy l’Américain »? Qui affirma, aux Etats-Unis, qu’il se

sentait souvent « un étranger dans son propre pays »? Qui regretta que la France ait brandi

son droit de veto pour s’opposer à la guerre d’Irak? Qui stigmatisa, depuis l’Amérique,

« l’arrogance » dont aurait fait preuve Dominique de Villepin lors de son fameux discours devant le Conseil de sécurité de l’ONU? Qui, avant de confier au chiracoséguiniste Henri Guaino le soin de rédiger ses interventions, opposa sans cesse le ringardisme du « modèle français » à la modernité du modèle anglo-saxon? Nicolas Sarkozy pourrait d’ailleurs largement figurer dans la rubrique « Ils

ont osé le dire », tant ses propos, depuis quinze ans, illustrent éloquemment tout ce qui précède, c’est-à-dire une dichotomie rhétorique qui se cristallise dans l’unicité de son exaltation du moi !

Citons, presque au hasard : « Ilyena combien qui peuvent se permettre d’aller à La Courneuve ? Je suis le seul [toujours le seul !] à être toléré dans ces quartiers. Je suis le seul ! » « J’irai systématiquement, toutes les semaines, dans les quartiers les plus difficiles et j’y resterai le temps

nécessaire » (2005). « Kärcher en septembre, 200 000 adhérents [à l’UMP] en novembre. » «Racaille, le vocable était sans doute un peu faible.» « Vous savez pourquoi je suis tellement

populaire ? Parce que je parle comme les gens » (avril 2004). « Maintenant, dans les réunions

publiques, c’est moi qui fais les questions et les réponses et, à la sortie, les gens ont l’impression qu’on s’est vraiment parlé » (le Figaro, mai 2005). « Les gens qui habitent Neuilly sont ceux qui se sont battus pour prendre plus de responsabilités, pour travailler plus que les autres. » « Si je ne faisais pas attention, tous les jours je serais à la télévision jusqu’à ce que les téléspectateurs en aient la nausée» (1995). « Le rôle du politique est de tout faire pour ne pas exacerber les tensions. Plus

la société est fragile, moins le discours doit être brutal. La meilleure façon de faire avancer la société, c’est de la rassurer, non de l’inquiéter. La réforme doit être comprise comme un ciment, non comme une rupture » (juillet 2006 dans Témoignages). « Je n’aime pas étaler ce qui, finalement, appartient à ma vie privée. » « La France souffre de l’égalitarisme et d’un état de nivellement. » « Dans un monde où la déloyauté est la règle, vous me permettrez d’afficher, de

manière peut-être provocante, ma loyauté envers Jacques Chirac » (juin 1992). « Je refuse tout ce qui est artifice pour façonner à tout prix une image, les photos avec femme et enfants, la success-story, vouloir se faire aimer, poser en tenue décontractée. » On nous dira, ensuite : il faut lui faire

confiance, il faut le croire. Mais où est le filet de sécurité ?

 

Le vrai danger

 

On évoque obsessionnellementle danger Le Pen. Il existe un risque, en effet. Un terrible risque que, comme en 2002, le leader de l’extrême droite déjoue tout les pronostics et porte ainsi un nouveau

coup à notre système démocratique. Mais tout le monde sait que Le Pen, lui, ne sera pas élu président de la République. Heureusement, il ne dispose, lui, contrairement à son adversaire – concurrent de droite (à l’égard duquel il fait preuve d’une certaine indulgence), ni du pouvoir médiatique, ni du pouvoir économique, ni du pouvoir financier. Pouvoirs qui, en revanche, si Sarkozy était élu – et il peut l’être –, ainsi que le pouvoir policier et militaire, seraient concentrés, en même temps que les pouvoirs exécutif et législatif, entre les mêmes mains, lesquelles disposeront, en outre, d’une majorité au Conseil constitutionnel, au CSA et au sein de la plupart

des institutions du pays. Hier, le journal la Tribune trappait un sondage parce qu’il n’était pas favorable à Sarkozy ; une publicité pour Télérama était interdite dans le métro parce qu’elle

était ironique à l’égard de Sarkozy ; un livre était envoyé au rebut, le patron d’un grand magazine également, parce qu’ils avaient importuné Sarkozy ; Yannick Noah était censuré, parce que ses

propos déplaisaient à Sarkozy. Aucun journal, fût-il officiellement de gauche, n’a échappé aux efficaces pressions de Sarkozy. Voter Sarkozy n’est pas un crime. C’est même un droit. Nous ne dirons pas, nous, que ce candidat représente la fraude, la délinquance, l’anti-France et la faillite morale. Nous voudrions simplement qu’on se souvienne plus tard – quitte, ensuite, à nous en demander compte – que nous avons écrit qu’il représente pour la conception que nous nous faisons de la démocratie et de la République un formidable danger. S’il est élu, nous savons que nous pourrions en payer le prix. Nous l’acceptons !.

 

John Dryden (9 August 1631 – 12 May 1700) was an influential English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who dominated the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the period came to be known in literary circles as the Age of Dryden.

 

Dryden was born in the village rectory of Aldwincle near Thrapston in Northamptonshire, where his maternal grandfather was Rector of All Saints. He was the eldest of fourteen children born to Erasmus Dryden and wife Mary Pickering, paternal grandson of Sir Erasmus Dryden, 1st Baronet (1553-1632) and wife Frances Wilkes, Puritan landowning gentry who supported the Puritan cause and Parliament. He was also a second cousin once removed of Jonathan Swift. As a boy Dryden lived in the nearby village of Titchmarsh, Northamptonshire where it is also likely that he received his first education. In 1644 he was sent to Westminster School as a King’s Scholar where his headmaster was Dr Richard Busby, a charismatic teacher and severe disciplinarian.[1] Recently enough re-founded by Elizabeth I, Westminster during this period embraced a very different religious and political spirit encouraging royalism and high Anglicanism. Whatever Dryden’s response to this was, he clearly respected the Headmaster and would later send two of his own sons to school at Westminster. Many years after his death a house at Westminster was founded in his name.

 

As a humanist grammar school, Westminster maintained a curriculum which trained pupils in the art of rhetoric and the presentation of arguments for both sides of a given issue. This is a skill which would remain with Dryden and influence his later writing and thinking, as much of it displays these dialectical patterns. The Westminster curriculum also included weekly translation assignments which developed Dryden’s capacity for assimilation. This was also to be exhibited in his later works. His years at Westminster were not uneventful, and his first published poem, an elegy with a strong royalist feel on the death of his schoolmate Henry, Lord Hastings from smallpox, alludes to the execution of King Charles I, which took place on 30 January 1649.

 

In 1650 Dryden went up to Trinity College, Cambridge.[2] At Trinity he would have experienced a return to the religious and political ethos of his childhood: the Master of Trinity was a Puritan preacher by the name of Thomas Hill who had been a rector in Dryden’s home village.[3] Though there is little specific information on Dryden’s undergraduate years, he would have followed the standard curriculum of classics, rhetoric, and mathematics. In 1654 he obtained his BA, graduating top of the list for Trinity that year. In June of the same year Dryden’s father died, leaving him some land which generated a little income, but not enough to live on.[4]

 

Arriving in London during The Protectorate, Dryden procured work with Cromwell’s Secretary of State, John Thurloe. This appointment may have been the result of influence exercised on his behalf by the Lord Chamberlain Sir Gilbert Pickering, Dryden’s cousin. Dryden was present on 23 November 1658 at Cromwell’s funeral where he processed with the Puritan poets John Milton and Andrew Marvell. Shortly thereafter he published his first important poem, Heroique Stanzas (1658), a eulogy on Cromwell’s death which is cautious and prudent in its emotional display. In 1660 Dryden celebrated the Restoration of the monarchy and the return of Charles II with Astraea Redux, an authentic royalist panegyric. In this work the interregnum is illustrated as a time of anarchy, and Charles is seen as the restorer of peace and order.

 

After the Restoration, Dryden quickly established himself as the leading poet and literary critic of his day and he transferred his allegiances to the new government. Along with Astraea Redux, Dryden welcomed the new regime with two more panegyrics; To His Sacred Majesty: A Panegyric on his Coronation (1662), and To My Lord Chancellor (1662). These poems suggest that Dryden was looking to court a possible patron, but he was to instead make a living in writing for publishers, not for the aristocracy, and thus ultimately for the reading public. These, and his other nondramatic poems, are occasional— that is, they celebrate public events. Thus they are written for the nation rather than the self, and the Poet Laureate (as he would later become) is obliged to write a certain number of these per annum.[5] In November 1662 Dryden was proposed for membership in the Royal Society, and he was elected an early fellow. However, Dryden was inactive in Society affairs and in 1666 was expelled for non-payment of his dues.

 

On 1 December 1663 Dryden married the royalist sister of Sir Robert Howard—Lady Elizabeth. Dryden’s works occasionally contain outbursts against the married state but also celebrations of the same. Thus, little is known of the intimate side of his marriage. Lady Elizabeth however, was to bear him three sons and outlive him.

 

With the reopening of the theatres after the Puritan ban, Dryden busied himself with the composition of plays. His first play, The Wild Gallant appeared in 1663 and was not successful, but he was to have more success, and from 1668 on he was contracted to produce three plays a year for the King's Company in which he was also to become a shareholder. During the 1660s and 70s theatrical writing was to be his main source of income. He led the way in Restoration comedy, his best known work being Marriage A-la-Mode (1672), as well as heroic tragedy and regular tragedy, in which his greatest success was All for Love (1678). Dryden was never satisfied with his theatrical writings and frequently suggested that his talents were wasted on unworthy audiences. He thus was making a bid for poetic fame off-stage. In 1667, around the same time his dramatic career began, he published Annus Mirabilis, a lengthy historical poem which described the events of 1666; the English defeat of the Dutch naval fleet and the Great Fire of London. It was a modern epic in pentameter quatrains that established him as the preeminent poet of his generation, and was crucial in his attaining the posts of Poet Laureate (1668) and historiographer royal (1670).

 

When the Great Plague of London closed the theatres in 1665 Dryden retreated to Wiltshire where he wrote Of Dramatick Poesie (1668), arguably the best of his unsystematic prefaces and essays. Dryden constantly defended his own literary practice, and Of Dramatick Poesie, the longest of his critical works, takes the form of a dialogue in which four characters–each based on a prominent contemporary, with Dryden himself as ‘Neander’- debate the merits of classical, French and English drama. The greater part of his critical works introduce problems which he is eager to discuss, and show the work of a writer of independent mind who feels strongly about his own ideas, ideas which demonstrate the incredible breadth of his reading. He felt strongly about the relation of the poet to tradition and the creative process, and his best heroic play Aureng-zebe (1675) has a prologue which denounces the use of rhyme in serious drama. His play All for Love (1678) was written in blank verse, and was to immediately follow Aureng-Zebe.

 

Dryden’s greatest achievements were in satiric verse: the mock-heroic MacFlecknoe, a more personal product of his Laureate years, was a lampoon circulated in manuscript and an attack on the playwright Thomas Shadwell. Dryden's main goal in the work is to "satirize Shadwell, ostensibly for his offenses against literature but more immediately we may suppose for his habitual badgering of him on the stage and in print." [6]It is not a belittling form of satire, but rather one which makes his object great in ways which are unexpected, transferring the ridiculous into poetry.[7] This line of satire continued with Absalom and Achitophel (1681) and The Medal (1682). His other major works from this period are the religious poems Religio Laici (1682), written from the position of a member of the Church of England; his 1683 edition of Plutarch's Lives Translated From the Greek by Several Hands in which he introduced the word biography to English readers; and The Hind and the Panther, (1687) which celebrates his conversion to Roman Catholicism.

 

When in 1688 James was deposed, Dryden’s refusal to take the oaths of allegiance to the new government left him out of favour at court. Thomas Shadwell succeeded him as Poet Laureate, and he was forced to give up his public offices and live by the proceeds of his pen. Dryden translated works by Horace, Juvenal, Ovid, Lucretius, and Theocritus, a task which he found far more satisfying than writing for the stage. In 1694 he began work on what would be his most ambitious and defining work as translator, The Works of Virgil (1697), which was published by subscription. The publication of the translation of Virgil was a national event and brought Dryden the sum of ₤1,400.[8] His final translations appeared in the volume Fables Ancient and Modern (1700), a series of episodes from Homer, Ovid, and Boccaccio, as well as modernized adaptations from Geoffrey Chaucer interspersed with Dryden’s own poems. The Preface to Fables is considered to be both a major work of criticism and one of the finest essays in English. As a critic and translator he was essential in making accessible to the reading English public literary works in the classical languages.

 

Dryden died in 1700 and is buried in Westminster Abbey. He was the subject of various poetic eulogies, such as Luctus Brittannici: or the Tears of the British Muses; for the Death of John Dryden, Esq. (London, 1700), and The Nine Muses

Translators at IFLA 2010.

English

I used the Translator

The Shrine of Our Lady of Nazareth is situated on the site of Nazareth, a neighborhood in the town of Nazareth (Portugal). Inside, keep up the sacred image of Our Lady of Nazareth, a Black Madonna, carved in wood, brought from Merida to this Site, in the year 711. The story is told in this picture Legend of Nazareth.

On site there are three shrines where revered and worshiped the image since he arrived in the year 711, led by Father Romano, a monk of the convent of Cauliniana. After the defeat of the Christian army at the Battle of Guadalete, the monk fled the Muslim invaders in the company of D. Rodrigo, the last Visigoth king, escaped after the defeat of his army. The choice of destination on the Atlantic coast, comes perhaps the existence of a nearby monastery Visigoth, which remains the church of St. Gião, classified as a National Monument in 1986.

 

The first shrine on the Site is a small man-made cave, near the cliff, one hundred and thirty feet above the ocean beach. The image was placed there by Father Romano, on an altar. This shrine (erected probably in prehistoric times) served as a hermitage where he lived until his death. As his will was buried in the soil of the cave by King Rodrigo, who lived nearby, on the hill of St. Bartholomew. The ex-king after the death of the monk went to the outskirts of Viseu where he ended his days as a hermit. The image of Our Lady of Nazareth preserved in this shrine 711-1182.

 

The second shrine, the Chapel of Remembrance, was built on the edge of the cliff above the cave, at the initiative of D. Fuas Roupinho after the miracle that saved him in 1182. It is a small building of square plan, with pyramidal dome. The image was worshiped here from 1182 to 1377.

 

The third shrine of Our Lady of Nazareth, where he currently worships the sacred image, was founded by King Ferdinand I in 1377. In the early seventeenth century began to be rebuilt, having been extended works, in stages, until the late nineteenth century, at which time it acquired its present form where no element is suspicious of their medieval origins. The rebuilding of the temple began with the work of the chancel, facing west, corridors and rooms that surround it, which stands out from the sacristy due to its size and its location behind the chancel.

 

The Shrine stands on the bottom of a spacious yard, on a higher plane. Access to the interior takes place by a semi-circular staircase, moving the porches. On each side of the front body extends a two-storey buildings. Transposed the porch one enters the church has a single nave, Latin cross-shaped, measuring 42 m long by 10 wide.

 

In the body of the church, illuminated by eight windows, covered with semi-cylindrical wood paneled, there are four altars and gilded, 1756, and two pulpits the same time. At the entrance, supported by fluted Doric columns, stands the choir with an organ in the center. Accesses to the cruise, covered by a dome of stone lantern, a large arch surmounted by the royal arms. In each arm of the transept, covered by a vault of stone, there is an altar tops of the walls being covered with Dutch tiles, which adorn the walls from top to bottom as wall hangings. In the right hand panels depict scenes from the life of David. On the left show episodes from the life of Joseph, son of Jacob. There are two other panels with scenes from the Biblical story of Jonah the prophet with the whale, crowned by angels, located on the doors leading to porches. In the doorway south find themselves two panels with pictures of mutilated invitation in the form of a Roman soldier. All these panels of the transept, a total of 6568 tiles were ordered by the administration of the Shrine in 1708, the company Willelm van der Kloet (1666-1747) in Amsterdam, Holland.

 

The chapel, covered with round vaulted in stone, is separated from the remaining space by a balustrade in rosewood with marble columns. Your floor is inlaid marble of various colors and is elevated five steps. To fund the Baroque altarpiece, with Solomonic columns and gilded and polychrome glazed contains the niche where they venerate the sacred image behind and above the high altar.

 

Both the vestry as the hallways and other rooms around the main chapel are lavishly decorated with Portuguese tiles from the beginning of seven hundred, the Lisbon workshop of Antonio Oliveira Bernardes. They are highlighting the panels of the dome of the southern corridor, with the assumption of the Virgin, and the walls of the sacristy, with prophets. This impressive room with coffered ceiling with the royal arms in the center is surmounted by screens chests, whose theme is the legend of Nazareth. Among the caissons is an altar with a Calvary, at the door. Placed near the ceiling are six large canvases depicting the Passion of Christ. It is here that the iron staircase that leads up to the pilgrims at the sacred image of Our Lady of Nazareth, in the chancel.

 

Português

pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santu%C3%A1rio_de_Nossa_Senhora_da_...

 

O Santuário de Nossa Senhora da Nazaré fica situado no Sítio da Nazaré, um bairro da Vila da Nazaré (Portugal). No seu interior, guarda-se a Sagrada imagem de Nossa Senhora da Nazaré, uma Virgem Negra, esculpida em madeira, trazida de Mérida para este Sítio, no ano de 711. A história desta imagem é contada na Lenda da Nazaré.

No Sítio existem ainda os três santuários onde se venerou, e venera, a imagem desde que ali chegou no ano de 711, levada por frei Romano, monge do convento de Cauliniana. Após a derrota do exército cristão na batalha de Guadalete, o monge fugiu dos invasores muçulmanos, na companhia de D. Rodrigo, o último rei visigodo, fugitivo após a derrota do seu exército. A escolha do destino, no litoral Atlântico, advém porventura da existência nas proximidades de um mosteiro visigótico, do qual subsiste a igreja de São Gião, classificada como Monumento Nacional em 1986.

O primeiro santuário neste Sítio é uma pequena gruta feita pelo homem, junto à arriba, a cento e dez metros acima da praia oceânica. A imagem foi ali colocada, por frei Romano, sobre um altar. Este santuário (erigido provavelmente na época pré-histórica) serviu-lhe de eremitério no qual viveu até à sua morte. Conforme a sua vontade foi sepultado no solo da gruta pelo rei Rodrigo, que vivia ali perto, no monte de São Bartolomeu. O ex-rei após a morte do monge partiu para os arredores de Viseu onde terminou os seus dias como ermitão. A imagem de Nossa Senhora da Nazaré conservou-se neste santuário de 711 a 1182.

O segundo santuário, a Capela da Memória, foi construído à beira da falésia, sobre a gruta, por iniciativa de D. Fuas Roupinho após o milagre que o salvou, em 1182. É um pequeno edifício de planta quadrada, com abóbada piramidal. A imagem foi aqui venerada de 1182 a 1377.

O terceiro santuário de Nossa Senhora da Nazaré, onde actualmente se venera a sagrada imagem, foi fundado pelo rei D. Fernando I, em 1377. Em inícios do século XVII começou a ser reconstruído, tendo-se prolongado as obras, faseadamente, até final do século XIX, época na qual, adquiriu a sua forma actual onde nenhum elemento faz suspeitar das suas origens medievais. A reconstrução do templo iniciou-se com a obra da capela-mor, virada a poente, os corredores e as salas que a rodeiam, das quais sobressai a sacristia devido às suas dimensões e à sua localização por trás da capela-mor.

O Santuário ergue-se ao fundo de um espaçoso terreiro, num plano superior. O acesso ao interior faz-se por uma escadaria semi-circular, passando-se pelos alpendres. De cada lado da fachada estende-se um corpo de edifícios de dois pisos. Transposto o pórtico entra-se na igreja de uma só nave, em forma de cruz latina, medindo 42 m de comprimento por 10 de largo.

No corpo da igreja, iluminado por oito janelas, com cobertura semi-cilíndrica de madeira apainelada, existem quatro altares de talha dourada, de 1756, e dois púlpitos da mesma época. À entrada, sustentado por colunas dóricas caneladas, ergue-se o coro alto com um orgão no centro. Acede-se ao cruzeiro, coberto por uma cúpula de pedra com lanternim, por um grande arco encimado pelas armas reais. Em cada braço do transepto, coberto por abóbada de pedra, há um altar, estando as paredes dos topos cobertas por azulejos holandeses, que adornam as paredes de alto a baixo como tapeçarias. No braço direito os painéis descrevem cenas da vida de David. À esquerda mostram episódios da vida de José, filho de Jacob. Existem ainda dois outros painéis, com cenas do episódio bíblico de Jonas o profeta, com a baleia, encimados por anjos, situados sobre as portas que conduzem aos alpendres. No vão da porta sul vêem-se dois painéis mutilados com figuras de convite em forma de soldado romano. Todos estes painéis do transepto, num total de 6568 azulejos, foram encomendados pela administração do Santuário, em 1708, à empresa de Willelm van der Kloet (1666-1747), em Amesterdão, na Holanda.

 

A capela-mor, coberta por abóboda redonda, em pedra, está separada do restante espaço por uma balaustrada em pau santo, com colunas de mármore. O seu piso é de embutidos de mármore de várias cores e está elevado cinco degraus. Ao fundo o retábulo barroco, com colunas salomónicas de talha dourada e policromada, contem o nicho com vidraça onde se venera a sagrada imagem por trás e acima do altar-mor.

Tanto a sacristia como os corredores e outras salas em torno da capela-mor estão profusamente decoradas com azulejos portugueses de inícios de setecentos, da oficina lisboeta de António Oliveira Bernardes. São destacar os painéis da abóbada do corredor sul, com a assunção da Virgem, e das paredes da sacristia, com profetas. Esta imponente sala com tecto de caixotões com as armas reais no centro tem arcazes encimados por telas, cuja temática é a lenda da Nazaré. Entre os caixotões está um altar com um Calvário, em frente à porta. Junto ao tecto estão colocadas seis grandes telas alusivas à Paixão de Cristo. É daqui que parte a escadaria de ferro que conduz os peregrinos até junto da sagrada imagem de Nossa Senhora da Nazaré, na capela-mor.

 

www.al-islam.org/short/martyrdom/

 

Imam Husain And His Martyrdom

By Abdullah Yusuf Ali

Renowned English translator and commentator of the Holy Qur'an

(Progressive Islam Pamphlet No. 7, September, 1931)

Introduction:

 

The month of Muharram, the first month of the Islamic calendar, brings with it the memory of the sacrifice of Imam Husayn [a], the grandson of Prophet Muhammad [s], and his noble family and friends. This short text reflects the deep admiration of its author towards Imam Husayn [a] and an insight into the tragedy of Karbala, its reasons and its consequences. It is presented with the hope that it will foster the Islamic unity and the brotherly love that the author seeks in his preface.

 

The author, of course, is none other than the well-known Sunni English translator and commentator of the Qur'an, Abdullah Yusuf Ali, who died in 1952 in England. Little would he have known that his English translation and commentary of the Qur'an would become so popular in the West and East alike, wherever English is read and understood.

 

And little would he have known that later editions of his Qur'an translation and commentary would undergo tampering such that favorable references to Imam Husayn [a] would be deleted, amongst other changes!(*) Perhaps there are some out there who want to see the memory of Imam Husayn [a] wiped out. Perhaps Karbala is not quite over yet.

 

The Shi'a Encyclopedia team

 

(*) A detailed and documented case study is now available on Tahrif! Investigating Distortions in Islamic Texts.

Imam Husain And His Martyrdom, Abdullah Yusuf Ali (d. 1952), 41 pages

Lahore: M Feroz-ud-Din & Sons, 1931.

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Preface

 

The following pages are based on a report of an Address which I delivered in London at an Ashura Majlis on Thursday the 28th May, 1931 (Muharram 1350 A.H.), at the Waldorf Hotel. The report was subsequently corrected and slightly expanded. The Majlis was a notable gathering, which met at the invitation of Mr. A. S. M. Anik. Nawab Sir Umar Hayat Khan, Tiwana, presided and members of all schools of thought in Islam, as well as non-Muslims, joined reverently in doing honour to the memory of the great Martyr of Islam. By its inclusion in the Progressive Islam Pamphlets series, it is hoped to reach a larger public than were able to be present in person. Perhaps, also, it may help to strengthen the bonds of brotherly love which unite all who hold sacred the ideals of brotherhood preached by the Prophet in his last Sermon.

 

A. Yusuf Ali.

 

Imam Husain And His Martyrdom

 

Sorrow as a Bond of Union

 

I am going to talk this afternoon about a very solemn subject, the martyrdom of Imam Husain at Kerbela, of which we are celebrating the anniversary. As the Chairman has very rightly pointed out, it is one of those wonderful events in our religious history about which all sects are agreed. More than that, in this room I have the honour of addressing some people who do not belong to our religious persuasion, but I venture to think that the view I put forward today may be of interest to them from its historical, its moral and its spiritual significance. Indeed, when we consider the background of that great tragedy, and all that has happened during the 1289 lunar years since, we cannot fail to be convinced that some events of sorrow and apparent defeat are really the very things which are calculated to bring about, or lead us towards, the union of humanity.

 

How Martyrdom healed divisions

 

When we invite strangers or guests and make them free of our family circle, that means the greatest outflowing of our hearts to them. The events that I am going to describe refer to some of the most touching incidents of our domestic history in their spiritual aspect. We ask our brethren of other faiths to come, and share with us some of the thoughts which are called forth by this event. As a matter of fact all students of history are aware that the horrors that are connected with the great event of Kerbela did more than anything else to unite together the various contending factions which had unfortunately appeared at that early stage of Muslim history. You know the old Persian saying applied to the Prophet:

Tu barae wasl kardan amadi;

Ni barae fasl kardan amadi.

"Thou camest to the world to unite, not to divide."

That was wonderfully exemplified by the sorrows and sufferings and finally the martyrdom of Imam Husain.

 

Commemoration of great virtues

 

There has been in our history a tendency sometimes to celebrate the event merely by wailing and tribulation, or sometimes by symbols like the Tazias that you see in India, - Taboots as some people call them. Well, symbolism or visible emblems may sometimes be useful in certain circumstances as tending to crystallise ideas. But I think the Muslims of India of the present day are quite ready to adopt a more effective way of celebrating the martyrdom, and that is by contemplating the great virtues of the martyr, trying to understand the significance of the events in which he took part, and translating those great moral and spiritual lessons into their own lives. From that point of view I think you will agree that it is good that we should sit together, even people of different faiths, - sit together and consider the great historic event, in which were exemplified such soul-stirring virtues as those of unshaken faith, undaunted courage, thought for others, willing self-sacrifice, steadfastness in the right and unflinching war against the wrong. Islam has a history of beautiful domestic affections, of sufferings and of spiritual endeavour, second to none in the world. That side of Muslim history, although to me the most precious, is, I am sorry to say, often neglected. It is most important that we should call attention to it, reiterated attention, the attention of our own people as well as the attention of those who are interested in historical and religious truth. If there is anything precious in Islamic history it is not the wars, or the politics, or the brilliant expansion, or the glorious conquests, or even the intellectual spoils which our ancestors gathered. In these matters, our history, like all history, has its lights and shades. What we need especially to emphasise is the spirit of organisation, of brotherhood, of undaunted courage in moral and spiritual life.

 

Plan of discourse

 

I propose first to give you an idea of the geographical setting and the historical background. Then I want very briefly to refer to the actual events that happened in the Muharram, and finally to draw your attention to the great lessons which we can learn from them.

 

Geographical Picture

 

In placing before you a geographical picture of the tract of country in which the great tragedy was enacted, I consider myself fortunate in having my own personal memories to draw upon. They make the picture vivid to my mind, and they may help you also. When I visited those scenes in 1928, I remember going down from Baghdad through all that country watered by the Euphrates river. As I crossed the river by a bridge of boats at Al-Musaiyib on a fine April morning, my thoughts leapt over centuries and centuries. To the left of the main river you have the old classic ground of Babylonian history; you have the railway station of Hilla; you have the ruins of the city of Babylon, witnessing to one of the greatest civilisations of antiquity. It was so mingled with the dust that it is only in recent years that we have begun to understand its magnitude and magnificence. Then you have the great river system of the Euphrates, the Furat as it is called, a river unlike any other river we know. It takes its rise in many sources from the mountains of Eastern Armenia, and sweeping in great zig-zags through rocky country, it finally skirts the desert as we see it now. Wherever it or its interlacing branches or canals can reach, it has converted the desert into fruitful cultivated country; in the picturesque phrase, it has made the desert blossom as the rose. It skirts round the Eastern edge of the Syrian desert and then flows into marshy land. In a tract not far from Kerbela itself there are lakes which receive its waters, and act as reservoirs. Lower down it unites with the other river, the Tigris, and the united rivers flow in the name of the Shatt-al-Arab into the Persian Gulf.

 

Abundant water & tragedy of thirst

 

From the most ancient times this tract of the lower Euphrates has been a garden. It was a cradle of early civilisation, a meeting place between Sumer and Arab, and later between the Persians and Arabs. It is a rich, well watered country, with date-palms and pomegranate groves. Its fruitful fields can feed populous cities and its luscious pastures attract the nomad Arabs of the desert, with their great flocks and herds. It is of particularly tragic significance that on the border of such a well-watered land, should have been enacted the tragedy of great and good men dying of thirst and slaughtered because they refused to bend the knee to the forces of iniquity. The English poet's lines "Water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink" are brought home forcibly to you in this borderland between abundant water and desolate sands.

 

Kerbela and Its Great Dome

 

I remember the emotion with which I approached Kerbela from the East. The rays of the morning sun gilt the Gumbaz-i-Faiz, the great dome that crowns the building containing the tomb of Imam Husain. Kerbela actually stands on one of the great caravan routes of the desert. Today the river city of Kufa, once a Khilafat capital, is a mere village, and the city of Najaf is famous for the tomb of Hazrat Ali, but of little commercial importance. Kerbela, this outpost of the desert, is a mart and a meeting ground as well as a sacred place. It is the port of the desert, just as Basra, lower down, is a port for the Persian Gulf. Beautifully kept is the road to the mausoleum, to which all through the year come pilgrims from all parts of the world. Beautiful coloured enamelled tiles decorate the building. Inside, in the ceiling and upper walls, there is a great deal of glass mosaic. The glass seems to catch and reflect the light. The effect is that of rich coruscations of light combined with the solemnity of a closed building. The tomb itself is in a sort of inner grill, and below the ground is a sort of cave, where is shown the actual place where the Martyr fell. The city of Najaf is just about 40 miles to the South, with the tomb of Hazrat Ali on the high ground. You can see the golden dome for miles around. Just four miles from Najaf and connected with it by a tramway, is the deserted city of Kufa. The mosque is large, but bare and practically unused. The blue dome and the Mihrab of enamelled tiles bear witness to the ancient glory of the place.

 

Cities and their Cultural Meaning

 

The building of Kufa and Basra, the two great outposts of the Muslim Empire, in the 16th year of the Hijra, was a visible symbol that Islam was pushing its strength and building up a new civilisation, not only in a military sense, but in moral and social ideas and in the sciences and arts. The old effete cities did not content it, any more than the old and effete systems which it displaced. Nor was it content with the first steps it took. It was always examining, testing, discarding, re-fashioning its own handiwork. There was always a party that wanted to stand on old ways, to take cities like Damascus readymade, that loved ease and the path of least resistance. But the greater souls stretched out to new frontiers - of ideas as well as geography. They felt that old seats were like dead wood breeding worms and rottenness that were a danger to higher forms of life. The clash between them was part of the tragedy of Kerbela. Behind the building of new cities there is often the burgeoning of new ideas. Let us therefore examine the matter a little more closely. It will reveal the hidden springs of some very interesting history.

 

Vicissitudes of Mecca and Medina

 

The great cities of Islam at its birth were Mecca and Medina. Mecca, the centre of old Arabian pilgrimage, the birthplace of the Prophet, rejected the Prophet's teaching, and cast him off. Its idolatry was effete; its tribal exclusiveness was effete; its ferocity against the Teacher of the New Light was effete. The Prophet shook its dust off his feet, and went to Medina. It was the well-watered city of Yathrib, with a considerable Jewish population. It received with eagerness the teaching of the Prophet; it gave asylum to him and his Companions and Helpers. He reconstituted it and it became the new City of Light. Mecca, with its old gods and its old superstitions, tried to subdue this new Light and destroy it. The human odds were in favour of Mecca. But God's purpose upheld the Light, and subdued the old Mecca. But the Prophet came to build as well as to destroy. He destroyed the old paganism, and lighted a new beacon in Mecca - the beacon of Arab unity and human brotherhood. When the Prophet's life ended on this earth, his spirit remained. It inspired his people and led them from victory to victory. Where moral or spiritual and material victories go hand in hand, the spirit of man advances all along the line. But sometimes there is a material victory, with a spiritual fall, and sometimes there is a spiritual victory with a material fall, and then we have tragedy.

 

Spirit of Damascus

 

Islam's first extension was towards Syria, where the power was centred in the city of Damascus. Among living cities it is probably the oldest city in the world. Its bazaars are thronged with men of all nations, and the luxuries of all nations find ready welcome there. If you come to it westward from the Syrian desert, as I did, the contrast is complete, both in the country and in the people. From the parched desert sands you come to fountains and vineyards, orchards and the hum of traffic. From the simple, sturdy, independent, frank Arab, you come to the soft, luxurious, sophisticated Syrian. That contrast was forced on the Muslims when Damascus became a Muslim city. They were in a different moral and spiritual atmosphere. Some succumbed to the softening influences of ambition, luxury, wealth pride of race, love of ease, and so on. Islam stood always as the champion of the great rugged moral virtues. It wanted no compromise with evil in any shape or form, with luxury, with idleness, with the seductions of this world. It was a protest against these things. And yet the representatives of that protest got softened at Damascus. They aped the decadent princes of the world instead of striving to be leaders of spiritual thought. Discipline was relaxed, and governors aspired to be greater than the Khalifas. This bore bitter fruit later.

 

Snare of Riches

 

Meanwhile Persia came within the Muslim orbit. When Medain was captured in the year 16 of the Hijra, and the battle of Jalula broke the Persian resistance, some military booty was brought to Medina - gems, pearls, rubies, diamonds, swords of gold and silver. A great celebration was held in honour of the splendid victory and the valour of the Arab army. In the midst of the celebration they found the Caliph of the day actually weeping. One said to him, "What! a time of joy and thou sheddest tears?" "Yes", he said, "I foresee that the riches will become a snare, a spring of worldliness and envy, and in the end a calamity to my people." For the Arab valued, above all, simplicity of life, openness of character, and bravery in face of danger. Their women fought with them and shared their dangers. They were not caged creatures for the pleasures of the senses. They showed their mettle in the early fighting round the head of the Persian Gulf. When the Muslims were hard pressed, their women turned the scale in their favour. They made their veils into flags, and marched in battle array. The enemy mistook them for reinforcements and abandoned the field. Thus an impending defeat was turned into a victory.

 

Basra and Kufa: town-planning

 

In Mesopotamia the Muslims did not base their power on old and effete Persian cities, but built new outposts for themselves. The first they built was Basra at the head of the Persian Gulf, in the 17th year of the Hijra. And what a great city it became! Not great in war and conquest, not great in trade and commerce, but great in learning and culture in its best day, - alas! also great in its spirit of faction and degeneracy in the days of its decline! But its situation and climate were not at all suited to the Arab character. It was low and moist, damp and enervating. In the same year the Arabs built another city not far off from the Gulf and yet well suited to be a port of the desert, as Kerbela became afterwards. This was the city of Kufa, built in the same year as Basra, but in a more bracing climate. It was the first experiment in town-planning in Islam. In the centre was a square for the principal mosque. That square was adorned with shady avenues. Another square was set apart for the trafficking of the market. The streets were all laid out intersecting and their width was fixed. The main thoroughfares for such traffic as they had (we must not imagine the sort of traffic we see in Charing Cross) were made 60 feet wide; the cross streets were 30 feet wide; and even the little lanes for pedestrians were regulated to a width of 10.5 feet. Kufa became a centre of light and learning. The Khalifa Hazrat Ali lived and died there.

 

Rivalry and poison of Damascus

 

But its rival, the city of Damascus, fattened on luxury and Byzantine magnificence. Its tinsel glory sapped the foundations of loyalty and the soldierly virtues. Its poison spread through the Muslim world. Governors wanted to be kings. Pomp and selfishness, ease and idleness and dissipation grew as a canker; wines and spirituous liquors, scepticism, cynicism and social vices became so rampant that the protests of the men of God were drowned in mockery. Mecca, which was to have been a symbolical spiritual centre, was neglected or dishonoured. Damascus and Syria became centres of a worldliness and arrogance which cut at the basic roots of Islam.

 

Husain the Righteous refused to bow to worldliness and power

 

We have brought the story down to the 60th year of the Hijra. Yazid assumed the power at Damascus. He cared nothing for the most sacred ideals of the people. He was not even interested in the ordinary business affairs of administration. His passion was hunting, and he sought power for self-gratification. The discipline and self-abnegation, the strong faith and earnest endeavour, the freedom and sense of social equality which had been the motive forces of Islam, were divorced from power. The throne at Damascus had become a worldly throne based on the most selfish ideas of personal and family aggrandisement, instead of a spiritual office, with a sense of God-given responsibility. The decay of morals spread among the people. There was one man who could stem the tide. That was Imam Husain. He, the grandson of the Prophet, could speak without fear, for fear was foreign to his nature. But his blameless and irreproachable life was in itself a reproach to those who had other standards. They sought to silence him, but he could not be silenced. They sought to bribe him, but he could not be bribed. They sought to waylay him and get him into their Power. What is more, they wanted him to recognise the tyranny and expressly to support it. For they knew that the conscience of the people might awaken at any time, and sweep them away unless the holy man supported their cause. The holy man was prepared to die rather than surrender the principles for which he stood.

 

Driven from city to city

 

Medina was the centre of Husain's teaching. They made Medina impossible for him. He left Medina and went to Mecca, hoping that he would be left alone. But he was not left alone. The Syrian forces invaded Mecca. The invasion was repelled, not by Husain but by other people. For Husain, though the bravest of the brave, had no army and no worldly weapons. His existence itself was an offence in the eyes of his enemies. His life was in danger, and the lives of all those nearest and dearest to him. He had friends everywhere, but they were afraid to speak out. They were not as brave as he was. But in distant Kufa, a party grew up which said: "We are disgusted with these events, and we must have Imam Husain to take asylum with us." So they sent and invited the Imam to leave Mecca, come to them, live in their midst, and be their honoured teacher and guide. His father's memory was held in reverence in Kufa. The Governor of Kufa was friendly, and the people eager to welcome him. But alas, Kufa had neither strength, nor courage, nor constancy. Kufa, geographically only 40 miles from Kerbela, was the occasion of the tragedy of Kerbela. And now Kufa is nearly gone, and Kerbela remains as the lasting memorial of the martyrdom.

 

Invitation from Kufa

 

When the Kufa invitation reached the Imam, he pondered over it, weighed its possibilities, and consulted his friends. He sent over his cousin Muslim to study the situation on the spot and report to him. The report was favourable, and he decided to go. He had a strong presentiment of danger. Many of his friends in Mecca advised him against it. But could he abandon his mission when Kufa was calling for it? Was he the man to be deterred, because his enemies were laying their plots for him, at Damascus and at Kufa? At least, it was suggested, he might leave his family behind. But his family and his immediate dependants would not hear of it. It was a united family, pre-eminent in the purity of its life and in its domestic virtues and domestic affections. If there was danger for its head, they would share it. The Imam was not going on a mere ceremonial visit. There was responsible work to do, and they must be by his side, to support him in spite of all its perils and consequences. Shallow critics scent political ambition in the Imam's act. But would a man with political ambitions march without an army against what might be called the enemy country, scheming to get him into its power, and prepared to use all their resources, military, political and financial, against him?

 

Journey through the desert

 

Imam Husain left Mecca for Kufa with all his family including his little children. Later news from Kufa itself was disconcerting. The friendly governor had been displaced by one prepared more ruthlessly to carry out Yazid's plans. If Husain was to go there at all, he must go there quickly, or his friends themselves would be in danger. On the other hand, Mecca itself was no less dangerous to him and his family. It was the month of September by the solar calendar, and no one would take a long desert journey in that heat, except under a sense of duty. By the lunar calendar it was the month of pilgrimage at Mecca. But he did not stop for the pilgrimage. He pushed on, with his family and dependants, in all numbering about 90 or 100 people, men, women and children. They must have gone by forced marches through the desert. They covered the 900 miles of the desert in little over three weeks. When they came within a few miles of Kufa, at the edge of the desert, they met people from Kufa. It was then that they heard of the terrible murder of Husain's cousin Muslim, who had been sent on in advance. A poet that came by dissuaded the Imam from going further. "For," he said epigramatically, "the heart of the city is with thee but its sword is with thine enemies, and the issue is with God." What was to be done? They were three weeks' journey from the city they had left. In the city to which they were going their own messenger had been foully murdered as well as his children. They did not know what the actual situation was then in Kufa. But they were determined not to desert their friends.

 

Call to Surrender or Die

 

Presently messengers came from Kufa, and Imam Husain was asked to surrender. Imam Husain offered to take one of three alternatives. He wanted no political power and no revenge. He said "I came to defend my own people. If I am too late, give me the choice of three alternatives: either to return to Mecca; or to face Yazid himself at Damascus; or if my very presence is distasteful to him and you, I do not wish to cause more divisions among the Muslims. Let me at least go to a distant frontier, where, if fighting must be done, I will fight against the enemies of Islam." Every one of these alternatives was refused. What they wanted was to destroy his life, or better still, to get him to surrender, to surrender to the very forces against which he was protesting, to declare his adherence to those who were defying the law of God and man, and to tolerate all the abuses which were bringing the name of Islam into disgrace. Of course he did not surrender. But what was he to do? He had no army. He had reasons to suppose that many of his friends from distant parts would rally round him, and come and defend him with their swords and bodies. But time was necessary, and he was not going to gain time by feigned compliance. He turned a little round to the left, the way that would have led him to Yazid himself, at Damascus. He camped in the plain of Kerbela.

 

Water cut off; Inflexible will, Devotion and Chivalry

 

For ten days messages passed backwards and forwards between Kerbela and Kufa. Kufa wanted surrender and recognition. That was the one thing the Imam could not consent to. Every other alternative was refused by Kufa, under the instructions from Damascus. Those fateful ten days were the first ten days of the month of Muharram, of the year 61 of the Hijra. The final crisis was on the 10th day, the Ashura day, which we are commemorating. During the first seven days various kinds of pressure were brought to bear on the Imam, but his will was inflexible. It was not a question of a fight, for there were but 70 men against 4,000. The little band was surrounded and insulted, but they held together so firmly that they could not be harmed. On the 8th day the water supply was cut off. The Euphrates and its abundant streams were within sight, but the way was barred. Prodigies of valour were performed in getting water. Challenges were made for single combat according to Arab custom. And the enemy were half-hearted, while the Imam's men fought in contempt of death, and always accounted for more men than they lost. On the evening of the 9th day, the little son of the Imam was ill. He had fever and was dying of thirst. They tried to get a drop of water. But that was refused point blank and so they made the resolve that they would, rather than surrender, die to the last man in the cause for which they had come. Imam Husain offered to send away his people. He said, "They are after my person; my family and my people can go back." But everyone refused to go. They said they would stand by him to the last, and they did. They were not cowards; they were soldiers born and bred; and they fought as heroes, with devotion and with chivalry.

 

The Final Agony; placid face of the man of God

 

On the day of Ashura, the 10th day, Imam Husain's own person was surrounded by his enemies. He was brave to the last. He was cruelly mutilated. His sacred head was cut off while in the act of prayer. A mad orgy of triumph was celebrated over his body. In this crisis we have details of what took place hour by hour. He had 45 wounds from the enemies' swords and javelins, and 35 arrows pierced his body. His left arm was cut off, and a javelin pierced through his breast. After all that agony, when his head was lifted up on a spear, his face was the placid face of a man of God. All the men of that gallant band were exterminated and their bodies trampled under foot by the horses. The only male survivor was a child, Husain's son Ali, surnamed Zain-ul-'Abidin - "The Glory of the Devout." He lived in retirement, studying, interpreting, and teaching his father's high spiritual principles for the rest of his life.

 

Heroism of the Women

 

There were women: for example, Zainab the sister of the Imam, Sakina his little daughter, and Shahr-i-Banu, his wife, at Kerbela. A great deal of poetic literature has sprung up in Muslim languages, describing the touching scenes in which they figure. Even in their grief and their tears they are heroic. They lament the tragedy in simple, loving, human terms. But they are also conscious of the noble dignity of their nearness to a life of truth reaching its goal in the precious crown of martyrdom. One of the best-known poets of this kind is the Urdu poet Anis, who lived in Lucknow, and died in 1874.

 

Lesson of the Tragedy

 

That briefly is the story. What is the lesson? There is of course the physical suffering in martyrdom, and all sorrow and suffering claim our sympathy, ---- the dearest, purest, most outflowing sympathy that we can give. But there is a greater suffering than physical suffering. That is when a valiant soul seems to stand against the world; when the noblest motives are reviled and mocked; when truth seems to suffer an eclipse. It may even seem that the martyr has but to say a word of compliance, do a little deed of non-resistance; and much sorrow and suffering would be saved; and the insidious whisper comes: "Truth after all can never die." That is perfectly true. Abstract truth can never die. It is independent of man's cognition. But the whole battle is for man's keeping hold of truth and righteousness. And that can only be done by the highest examples of man's conduct - spiritual striving and suffering enduring firmness of faith and purpose, patience and courage where ordinary mortals would give in or be cowed down, the sacrifice of ordinary motives to supreme truth in scorn of consequence. The martyr bears witness, and the witness redeems what would otherwise be called failure. It so happened with Husain. For all were touched by the story of his martyrdom, and it gave the deathblow to the politics of Damascus and all it stood for. And Muharram has still the power to unite the different schools of thought in Islam, and make a powerful appeal to non-Muslims also.

 

Explorers of Spiritual Territory

 

That, to my mind, is the supreme significance of martyrdom. All human history shows that the human spirit strives in many directions, deriving strength and sustenance from many sources. Our bodies, our physical powers, have developed or evolved from earlier forms, after many struggles and defeats. Our intellect has had its martyrs, and our great explorers have often gone forth with the martyrs' spirit. All honour to them. But the highest honour must still lie with the great explorers of spiritual territory, those who faced fearful odds and refused to surrender to evil. Rather than allow a stigma to attach to sacred things, they paid with their own lives the penalty of resistance. The first kind of resistance offered by the Imam was when he went from city to city, hunted about from place to place, but making no compromise with evil. Then was offered the choice of an effectual but dangerous attempt at clearing the house of God, or living at ease for himself by tacit abandonment of his striving friends. He chose the path of danger with duty and honour, and never swerved from it giving up his life freely and bravely. His story purifies our emotions. We can best honour his memory by allowing it to teach us courage and constancy.

 

The End

English

I used the Translator

The Shrine of Our Lady of Nazareth is situated on the site of Nazareth, a neighborhood in the town of Nazareth (Portugal). Inside, keep up the sacred image of Our Lady of Nazareth, a Black Madonna, carved in wood, brought from Merida to this Site, in the year 711. The story is told in this picture Legend of Nazareth.

On site there are three shrines where revered and worshiped the image since he arrived in the year 711, led by Father Romano, a monk of the convent of Cauliniana. After the defeat of the Christian army at the Battle of Guadalete, the monk fled the Muslim invaders in the company of D. Rodrigo, the last Visigoth king, escaped after the defeat of his army. The choice of destination on the Atlantic coast, comes perhaps the existence of a nearby monastery Visigoth, which remains the church of St. Gião, classified as a National Monument in 1986.

 

The first shrine on the Site is a small man-made cave, near the cliff, one hundred and thirty feet above the ocean beach. The image was placed there by Father Romano, on an altar. This shrine (erected probably in prehistoric times) served as a hermitage where he lived until his death. As his will was buried in the soil of the cave by King Rodrigo, who lived nearby, on the hill of St. Bartholomew. The ex-king after the death of the monk went to the outskirts of Viseu where he ended his days as a hermit. The image of Our Lady of Nazareth preserved in this shrine 711-1182.

 

The second shrine, the Chapel of Remembrance, was built on the edge of the cliff above the cave, at the initiative of D. Fuas Roupinho after the miracle that saved him in 1182. It is a small building of square plan, with pyramidal dome. The image was worshiped here from 1182 to 1377.

 

The third shrine of Our Lady of Nazareth, where he currently worships the sacred image, was founded by King Ferdinand I in 1377. In the early seventeenth century began to be rebuilt, having been extended works, in stages, until the late nineteenth century, at which time it acquired its present form where no element is suspicious of their medieval origins. The rebuilding of the temple began with the work of the chancel, facing west, corridors and rooms that surround it, which stands out from the sacristy due to its size and its location behind the chancel.

 

The Shrine stands on the bottom of a spacious yard, on a higher plane. Access to the interior takes place by a semi-circular staircase, moving the porches. On each side of the front body extends a two-storey buildings. Transposed the porch one enters the church has a single nave, Latin cross-shaped, measuring 42 m long by 10 wide.

 

In the body of the church, illuminated by eight windows, covered with semi-cylindrical wood paneled, there are four altars and gilded, 1756, and two pulpits the same time. At the entrance, supported by fluted Doric columns, stands the choir with an organ in the center. Accesses to the cruise, covered by a dome of stone lantern, a large arch surmounted by the royal arms. In each arm of the transept, covered by a vault of stone, there is an altar tops of the walls being covered with Dutch tiles, which adorn the walls from top to bottom as wall hangings. In the right hand panels depict scenes from the life of David. On the left show episodes from the life of Joseph, son of Jacob. There are two other panels with scenes from the Biblical story of Jonah the prophet with the whale, crowned by angels, located on the doors leading to porches. In the doorway south find themselves two panels with pictures of mutilated invitation in the form of a Roman soldier. All these panels of the transept, a total of 6568 tiles were ordered by the administration of the Shrine in 1708, the company Willelm van der Kloet (1666-1747) in Amsterdam, Holland.

 

The chapel, covered with round vaulted in stone, is separated from the remaining space by a balustrade in rosewood with marble columns. Your floor is inlaid marble of various colors and is elevated five steps. To fund the Baroque altarpiece, with Solomonic columns and gilded and polychrome glazed contains the niche where they venerate the sacred image behind and above the high altar.

 

Both the vestry as the hallways and other rooms around the main chapel are lavishly decorated with Portuguese tiles from the beginning of seven hundred, the Lisbon workshop of Antonio Oliveira Bernardes. They are highlighting the panels of the dome of the southern corridor, with the assumption of the Virgin, and the walls of the sacristy, with prophets. This impressive room with coffered ceiling with the royal arms in the center is surmounted by screens chests, whose theme is the legend of Nazareth. Among the caissons is an altar with a Calvary, at the door. Placed near the ceiling are six large canvases depicting the Passion of Christ. It is here that the iron staircase that leads up to the pilgrims at the sacred image of Our Lady of Nazareth, in the chancel.

 

Português

pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santu%C3%A1rio_de_Nossa_Senhora_da_...

 

O Santuário de Nossa Senhora da Nazaré fica situado no Sítio da Nazaré, um bairro da Vila da Nazaré (Portugal). No seu interior, guarda-se a Sagrada imagem de Nossa Senhora da Nazaré, uma Virgem Negra, esculpida em madeira, trazida de Mérida para este Sítio, no ano de 711. A história desta imagem é contada na Lenda da Nazaré.

No Sítio existem ainda os três santuários onde se venerou, e venera, a imagem desde que ali chegou no ano de 711, levada por frei Romano, monge do convento de Cauliniana. Após a derrota do exército cristão na batalha de Guadalete, o monge fugiu dos invasores muçulmanos, na companhia de D. Rodrigo, o último rei visigodo, fugitivo após a derrota do seu exército. A escolha do destino, no litoral Atlântico, advém porventura da existência nas proximidades de um mosteiro visigótico, do qual subsiste a igreja de São Gião, classificada como Monumento Nacional em 1986.

O primeiro santuário neste Sítio é uma pequena gruta feita pelo homem, junto à arriba, a cento e dez metros acima da praia oceânica. A imagem foi ali colocada, por frei Romano, sobre um altar. Este santuário (erigido provavelmente na época pré-histórica) serviu-lhe de eremitério no qual viveu até à sua morte. Conforme a sua vontade foi sepultado no solo da gruta pelo rei Rodrigo, que vivia ali perto, no monte de São Bartolomeu. O ex-rei após a morte do monge partiu para os arredores de Viseu onde terminou os seus dias como ermitão. A imagem de Nossa Senhora da Nazaré conservou-se neste santuário de 711 a 1182.

O segundo santuário, a Capela da Memória, foi construído à beira da falésia, sobre a gruta, por iniciativa de D. Fuas Roupinho após o milagre que o salvou, em 1182. É um pequeno edifício de planta quadrada, com abóbada piramidal. A imagem foi aqui venerada de 1182 a 1377.

O terceiro santuário de Nossa Senhora da Nazaré, onde actualmente se venera a sagrada imagem, foi fundado pelo rei D. Fernando I, em 1377. Em inícios do século XVII começou a ser reconstruído, tendo-se prolongado as obras, faseadamente, até final do século XIX, época na qual, adquiriu a sua forma actual onde nenhum elemento faz suspeitar das suas origens medievais. A reconstrução do templo iniciou-se com a obra da capela-mor, virada a poente, os corredores e as salas que a rodeiam, das quais sobressai a sacristia devido às suas dimensões e à sua localização por trás da capela-mor.

O Santuário ergue-se ao fundo de um espaçoso terreiro, num plano superior. O acesso ao interior faz-se por uma escadaria semi-circular, passando-se pelos alpendres. De cada lado da fachada estende-se um corpo de edifícios de dois pisos. Transposto o pórtico entra-se na igreja de uma só nave, em forma de cruz latina, medindo 42 m de comprimento por 10 de largo.

No corpo da igreja, iluminado por oito janelas, com cobertura semi-cilíndrica de madeira apainelada, existem quatro altares de talha dourada, de 1756, e dois púlpitos da mesma época. À entrada, sustentado por colunas dóricas caneladas, ergue-se o coro alto com um orgão no centro. Acede-se ao cruzeiro, coberto por uma cúpula de pedra com lanternim, por um grande arco encimado pelas armas reais. Em cada braço do transepto, coberto por abóbada de pedra, há um altar, estando as paredes dos topos cobertas por azulejos holandeses, que adornam as paredes de alto a baixo como tapeçarias. No braço direito os painéis descrevem cenas da vida de David. À esquerda mostram episódios da vida de José, filho de Jacob. Existem ainda dois outros painéis, com cenas do episódio bíblico de Jonas o profeta, com a baleia, encimados por anjos, situados sobre as portas que conduzem aos alpendres. No vão da porta sul vêem-se dois painéis mutilados com figuras de convite em forma de soldado romano. Todos estes painéis do transepto, num total de 6568 azulejos, foram encomendados pela administração do Santuário, em 1708, à empresa de Willelm van der Kloet (1666-1747), em Amesterdão, na Holanda.

 

A capela-mor, coberta por abóboda redonda, em pedra, está separada do restante espaço por uma balaustrada em pau santo, com colunas de mármore. O seu piso é de embutidos de mármore de várias cores e está elevado cinco degraus. Ao fundo o retábulo barroco, com colunas salomónicas de talha dourada e policromada, contem o nicho com vidraça onde se venera a sagrada imagem por trás e acima do altar-mor.

Tanto a sacristia como os corredores e outras salas em torno da capela-mor estão profusamente decoradas com azulejos portugueses de inícios de setecentos, da oficina lisboeta de António Oliveira Bernardes. São destacar os painéis da abóbada do corredor sul, com a assunção da Virgem, e das paredes da sacristia, com profetas. Esta imponente sala com tecto de caixotões com as armas reais no centro tem arcazes encimados por telas, cuja temática é a lenda da Nazaré. Entre os caixotões está um altar com um Calvário, em frente à porta. Junto ao tecto estão colocadas seis grandes telas alusivas à Paixão de Cristo. É daqui que parte a escadaria de ferro que conduz os peregrinos até junto da sagrada imagem de Nossa Senhora da Nazaré, na capela-mor.

 

English

I used the Translator

The Shrine of Our Lady of Nazareth is situated on the site of Nazareth, a neighborhood in the town of Nazareth (Portugal). Inside, keep up the sacred image of Our Lady of Nazareth, a Black Madonna, carved in wood, brought from Merida to this Site, in the year 711. The story is told in this picture Legend of Nazareth.

On site there are three shrines where revered and worshiped the image since he arrived in the year 711, led by Father Romano, a monk of the convent of Cauliniana. After the defeat of the Christian army at the Battle of Guadalete, the monk fled the Muslim invaders in the company of D. Rodrigo, the last Visigoth king, escaped after the defeat of his army. The choice of destination on the Atlantic coast, comes perhaps the existence of a nearby monastery Visigoth, which remains the church of St. Gião, classified as a National Monument in 1986.

 

The first shrine on the Site is a small man-made cave, near the cliff, one hundred and thirty feet above the ocean beach. The image was placed there by Father Romano, on an altar. This shrine (erected probably in prehistoric times) served as a hermitage where he lived until his death. As his will was buried in the soil of the cave by King Rodrigo, who lived nearby, on the hill of St. Bartholomew. The ex-king after the death of the monk went to the outskirts of Viseu where he ended his days as a hermit. The image of Our Lady of Nazareth preserved in this shrine 711-1182.

 

The second shrine, the Chapel of Remembrance, was built on the edge of the cliff above the cave, at the initiative of D. Fuas Roupinho after the miracle that saved him in 1182. It is a small building of square plan, with pyramidal dome. The image was worshiped here from 1182 to 1377.

 

The third shrine of Our Lady of Nazareth, where he currently worships the sacred image, was founded by King Ferdinand I in 1377. In the early seventeenth century began to be rebuilt, having been extended works, in stages, until the late nineteenth century, at which time it acquired its present form where no element is suspicious of their medieval origins. The rebuilding of the temple began with the work of the chancel, facing west, corridors and rooms that surround it, which stands out from the sacristy due to its size and its location behind the chancel.

 

The Shrine stands on the bottom of a spacious yard, on a higher plane. Access to the interior takes place by a semi-circular staircase, moving the porches. On each side of the front body extends a two-storey buildings. Transposed the porch one enters the church has a single nave, Latin cross-shaped, measuring 42 m long by 10 wide.

 

In the body of the church, illuminated by eight windows, covered with semi-cylindrical wood paneled, there are four altars and gilded, 1756, and two pulpits the same time. At the entrance, supported by fluted Doric columns, stands the choir with an organ in the center. Accesses to the cruise, covered by a dome of stone lantern, a large arch surmounted by the royal arms. In each arm of the transept, covered by a vault of stone, there is an altar tops of the walls being covered with Dutch tiles, which adorn the walls from top to bottom as wall hangings. In the right hand panels depict scenes from the life of David. On the left show episodes from the life of Joseph, son of Jacob. There are two other panels with scenes from the Biblical story of Jonah the prophet with the whale, crowned by angels, located on the doors leading to porches. In the doorway south find themselves two panels with pictures of mutilated invitation in the form of a Roman soldier. All these panels of the transept, a total of 6568 tiles were ordered by the administration of the Shrine in 1708, the company Willelm van der Kloet (1666-1747) in Amsterdam, Holland.

 

The chapel, covered with round vaulted in stone, is separated from the remaining space by a balustrade in rosewood with marble columns. Your floor is inlaid marble of various colors and is elevated five steps. To fund the Baroque altarpiece, with Solomonic columns and gilded and polychrome glazed contains the niche where they venerate the sacred image behind and above the high altar.

 

Both the vestry as the hallways and other rooms around the main chapel are lavishly decorated with Portuguese tiles from the beginning of seven hundred, the Lisbon workshop of Antonio Oliveira Bernardes. They are highlighting the panels of the dome of the southern corridor, with the assumption of the Virgin, and the walls of the sacristy, with prophets. This impressive room with coffered ceiling with the royal arms in the center is surmounted by screens chests, whose theme is the legend of Nazareth. Among the caissons is an altar with a Calvary, at the door. Placed near the ceiling are six large canvases depicting the Passion of Christ. It is here that the iron staircase that leads up to the pilgrims at the sacred image of Our Lady of Nazareth, in the chancel.

 

Português

pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santu%C3%A1rio_de_Nossa_Senhora_da_...

 

O Santuário de Nossa Senhora da Nazaré fica situado no Sítio da Nazaré, um bairro da Vila da Nazaré (Portugal). No seu interior, guarda-se a Sagrada imagem de Nossa Senhora da Nazaré, uma Virgem Negra, esculpida em madeira, trazida de Mérida para este Sítio, no ano de 711. A história desta imagem é contada na Lenda da Nazaré.

No Sítio existem ainda os três santuários onde se venerou, e venera, a imagem desde que ali chegou no ano de 711, levada por frei Romano, monge do convento de Cauliniana. Após a derrota do exército cristão na batalha de Guadalete, o monge fugiu dos invasores muçulmanos, na companhia de D. Rodrigo, o último rei visigodo, fugitivo após a derrota do seu exército. A escolha do destino, no litoral Atlântico, advém porventura da existência nas proximidades de um mosteiro visigótico, do qual subsiste a igreja de São Gião, classificada como Monumento Nacional em 1986.

O primeiro santuário neste Sítio é uma pequena gruta feita pelo homem, junto à arriba, a cento e dez metros acima da praia oceânica. A imagem foi ali colocada, por frei Romano, sobre um altar. Este santuário (erigido provavelmente na época pré-histórica) serviu-lhe de eremitério no qual viveu até à sua morte. Conforme a sua vontade foi sepultado no solo da gruta pelo rei Rodrigo, que vivia ali perto, no monte de São Bartolomeu. O ex-rei após a morte do monge partiu para os arredores de Viseu onde terminou os seus dias como ermitão. A imagem de Nossa Senhora da Nazaré conservou-se neste santuário de 711 a 1182.

O segundo santuário, a Capela da Memória, foi construído à beira da falésia, sobre a gruta, por iniciativa de D. Fuas Roupinho após o milagre que o salvou, em 1182. É um pequeno edifício de planta quadrada, com abóbada piramidal. A imagem foi aqui venerada de 1182 a 1377.

O terceiro santuário de Nossa Senhora da Nazaré, onde actualmente se venera a sagrada imagem, foi fundado pelo rei D. Fernando I, em 1377. Em inícios do século XVII começou a ser reconstruído, tendo-se prolongado as obras, faseadamente, até final do século XIX, época na qual, adquiriu a sua forma actual onde nenhum elemento faz suspeitar das suas origens medievais. A reconstrução do templo iniciou-se com a obra da capela-mor, virada a poente, os corredores e as salas que a rodeiam, das quais sobressai a sacristia devido às suas dimensões e à sua localização por trás da capela-mor.

O Santuário ergue-se ao fundo de um espaçoso terreiro, num plano superior. O acesso ao interior faz-se por uma escadaria semi-circular, passando-se pelos alpendres. De cada lado da fachada estende-se um corpo de edifícios de dois pisos. Transposto o pórtico entra-se na igreja de uma só nave, em forma de cruz latina, medindo 42 m de comprimento por 10 de largo.

No corpo da igreja, iluminado por oito janelas, com cobertura semi-cilíndrica de madeira apainelada, existem quatro altares de talha dourada, de 1756, e dois púlpitos da mesma época. À entrada, sustentado por colunas dóricas caneladas, ergue-se o coro alto com um orgão no centro. Acede-se ao cruzeiro, coberto por uma cúpula de pedra com lanternim, por um grande arco encimado pelas armas reais. Em cada braço do transepto, coberto por abóbada de pedra, há um altar, estando as paredes dos topos cobertas por azulejos holandeses, que adornam as paredes de alto a baixo como tapeçarias. No braço direito os painéis descrevem cenas da vida de David. À esquerda mostram episódios da vida de José, filho de Jacob. Existem ainda dois outros painéis, com cenas do episódio bíblico de Jonas o profeta, com a baleia, encimados por anjos, situados sobre as portas que conduzem aos alpendres. No vão da porta sul vêem-se dois painéis mutilados com figuras de convite em forma de soldado romano. Todos estes painéis do transepto, num total de 6568 azulejos, foram encomendados pela administração do Santuário, em 1708, à empresa de Willelm van der Kloet (1666-1747), em Amesterdão, na Holanda.

 

A capela-mor, coberta por abóboda redonda, em pedra, está separada do restante espaço por uma balaustrada em pau santo, com colunas de mármore. O seu piso é de embutidos de mármore de várias cores e está elevado cinco degraus. Ao fundo o retábulo barroco, com colunas salomónicas de talha dourada e policromada, contem o nicho com vidraça onde se venera a sagrada imagem por trás e acima do altar-mor.

Tanto a sacristia como os corredores e outras salas em torno da capela-mor estão profusamente decoradas com azulejos portugueses de inícios de setecentos, da oficina lisboeta de António Oliveira Bernardes. São destacar os painéis da abóbada do corredor sul, com a assunção da Virgem, e das paredes da sacristia, com profetas. Esta imponente sala com tecto de caixotões com as armas reais no centro tem arcazes encimados por telas, cuja temática é a lenda da Nazaré. Entre os caixotões está um altar com um Calvário, em frente à porta. Junto ao tecto estão colocadas seis grandes telas alusivas à Paixão de Cristo. É daqui que parte a escadaria de ferro que conduz os peregrinos até junto da sagrada imagem de Nossa Senhora da Nazaré, na capela-mor.

 

secondlife.mitsi.com/secondlife/xlate

   

* Free!

* Super-easy to use.

* Totally Automatic 2-way translation

* Works in no-script zones !

* 16 different avatars can hear any custom translation of 42 languages including Simplified & Traditional characters for Mandarin at the same time and in their own language

* In-world Help Notes in all 42 Languages

* ** Web site is automatically translated to 42 languages.

* ** Information messages in 42 languages

* Spam-free - won't translate messages that are already in the target language

* Won't translate messages when translation is identical to original

* Arabic and Hebrew L-R rendering

* Supports /1 and /2 commands for Instant messages

* Auto-detect and auto-translation, as well as viewer detect mode

* Private, no-spam Instant Messaging

* 17-way Parallel operation. One In and 16 Out

* Super fast and mono-compiled.

* Built-in Avatar, distance, and language scanner.

* 16 different avatars can hear any of 42 translations at the same time, all in parallel

* Plain English Language Display- no ISO Codes

* Displays 150+ languages

* Information messages in 42 languages

* Supports all Unicode fonts, including accent characters

* Translate Objects or Avatars

* Attach to any HUD position with Auto-adjust

* Super Tiny HUD

  

created for:Treat This 232

Original art by:Abstractartangel

picture by: :Rembrant Harmenson van Rijn

 

Tak wygląda proces tłumaczenia strony internetowej w Safari iPhone za pomocą narzędzia Bing Translator - darmowego dodatku do przeglądarki.

A Reading & Conversation with Polish poet Krystyna Dąbrowska and translator Karen Kovacik. At the Pardee School of Global Studies. Thursday, November 10, 2022.

Esports translator Fannie and Candice interview Doran of T1 onstage at League of Legends Worlds 2025 Semifinal Stage on November 02, 2025 in Shanghai, China. (Photo by Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games)

I needed to send out one IR code when some other was pressed (a gateway or translator). so, arduino nano came to the rescue. some open-source code libraries and adapting the example code got this working in just a day.

 

3 senders ('blasters') and one receiver. usb powered.

 

I plan to put a small custom plastic box around it and call it a done deal. and I can finally get rid of that one extra remote, whose only purpose was to turn a thing on and off. that function is now integrated in this device and I can use the IR remote that I have been using and liking for the past few years to do everything.

 

sort of a 'universal remote' as a man-in-the-middle box, I guess ;)

 

key library for IR: github.com/shirriff/Arduino-IRremote

 

thanks, ken! good stuff.

 

for those with sharp eyes, you'll notice that I didn't use full pin headers for all the arduino module's pins. only a few were needed and since I had spare 4-pin headers and not many of the larger size, I just installed enough of the quads to support the module and give connectivity to the key pins I would need. it looks funny but I did not have to waste expensive pin headers!

The Rev. Henry Williams, translator of the Treaty, left the Bay of Islands on the Ariel on 2 April 1840 with two sheets. One was given to his brother William Williams at Tūranga (Gisborne) on 8 April (the East Coast sheet). The second was this Cook Strait sheet, also known as the Raukawa Moana sheet and the Henry Williams sheet.

 

Williams arrived at Port Nicholson (Wellington) in mid-April, but for 10 days no rangatira signed. A meeting was finally arranged on Williams's schooner Ariel on 29 April, and 34 rangatira signed.

 

Further rangatira signed at Queen Charlotte Sound (4-5 May) and Rangitoto (D’Urville Island, 11 May). He then travelled along the west coast of the North Island and received the agreement of several chiefs at Ōtaki, Waikanae, in the Manawatū, at Wanganui and Motu Ngārara, a small island off Kapiti.

 

Williams had intended to take the copy to Otago, when he returned to Kapiti in early June he learned that Bunbury had already taken his own sheet (the Herald sheet) south. Williams then returned to the Bay of Islands with his 132 signatures.

 

The sheet has the names of several women: Kahe Te Rau-o-te-rangi, Te Rangitopeora and Rere-o-maki. It is possible that other women may have signed, for example Pakewa and Kehu, the name that the mother of Wiremu Kingi Te Rangitake was known by.

 

You can view the names of those who signed, as well as an interactive map, at the NZ History website ‘Making the Treaty’ page:

- nzhistory.govt.nz/politics/treaty/read-the-treaty/draftin...

- nzhistory.govt.nz/media/interactive/henry-williams-treaty...

 

The Cook Strait sheet is quite different from the rest: carefully set out within a double border, the text is set out in three neat columns with marks indicating which are the principal chiefs of different tribes and other explanatory symbols. The signature of Hobson is genuine but shaky.

 

Archives Reference: IA9/9 Sheet 8

 

This sheet, along with the 8 other Tiriti o Waitangi sheets, He Whakaputanga and the Women's Suffrage Petition, are now on display at the National Library: natlib.govt.nz/he-tohu

 

This record is part of #Waitangi175, celebrating 175 years since the signing of of te Tiriti o Waitangi. You can see other real time tweets on Twitter (twitter.com/ArchivesNZ), or explore the Waitangi 175 album here on Flickr.

 

Caption information from New Zealand History

 

Material from Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga

 

Guidelines on re-using this image:

 

• images of the Treaty of Waitangi will be used in context, ie, where it is reasonably clear that the images cannot be mistaken for another document

• images will be of sufficient size to be recognised as the Treaty of Waitangi

• portions of the Treaty of Waitangi can be used for stylistic effect, but any portion so used will not include Māori signatories

• other text or images will not be used over an image of the Treaty of Waitangi, nor will the Treaty be used over other text or images, and

• images of the Treaty of Waitangi should always be used appropriately, ie, not for advertising endorsements or commercial purposes.

Esports translator Fannie and Candice interview Doran of T1 onstage at League of Legends Worlds 2025 Semifinal Stage on November 02, 2025 in Shanghai, China. (Photo by Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games)

Adam runs a small bookstore and cafe in Haapsalu, Estonia. He is originally from the USA and his parents are Irish and Swedish. Today he is married to an Estonian. His main occupation is translating books from Estonian to English. He has learned the demanding profession through self-study, he is a self-taught translator. The bookstore is also his office where he works while serving and discussing with his guests. That's how I also met him and asked to take a photo. Here is Adam. Thanks for the nice and interesting discussion.

 

This picture is #65 in my 100 strangers project. Find out more about the project and see pictures taken by other photographers at the 100 Strangers Flickr Group page www.flickr.com/groups/100strangers/

 

See also other persons in my album Mikael´s 100 Strangers www.flickr.com/photos/wellmeri/albums/72157627005508395/

See more here: Ebonics Translator

John Dryden (9 August 1631 – 12 May 1700) was an influential English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who dominated the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the period came to be known in literary circles as the Age of Dryden.

 

Dryden was born in the village rectory of Aldwincle near Thrapston in Northamptonshire, where his maternal grandfather was Rector of All Saints. He was the eldest of fourteen children born to Erasmus Dryden and wife Mary Pickering, paternal grandson of Sir Erasmus Dryden, 1st Baronet (1553-1632) and wife Frances Wilkes, Puritan landowning gentry who supported the Puritan cause and Parliament. He was also a second cousin once removed of Jonathan Swift. As a boy Dryden lived in the nearby village of Titchmarsh, Northamptonshire where it is also likely that he received his first education. In 1644 he was sent to Westminster School as a King’s Scholar where his headmaster was Dr Richard Busby, a charismatic teacher and severe disciplinarian.[1] Recently enough re-founded by Elizabeth I, Westminster during this period embraced a very different religious and political spirit encouraging royalism and high Anglicanism. Whatever Dryden’s response to this was, he clearly respected the Headmaster and would later send two of his own sons to school at Westminster. Many years after his death a house at Westminster was founded in his name.

 

As a humanist grammar school, Westminster maintained a curriculum which trained pupils in the art of rhetoric and the presentation of arguments for both sides of a given issue. This is a skill which would remain with Dryden and influence his later writing and thinking, as much of it displays these dialectical patterns. The Westminster curriculum also included weekly translation assignments which developed Dryden’s capacity for assimilation. This was also to be exhibited in his later works. His years at Westminster were not uneventful, and his first published poem, an elegy with a strong royalist feel on the death of his schoolmate Henry, Lord Hastings from smallpox, alludes to the execution of King Charles I, which took place on 30 January 1649.

 

In 1650 Dryden went up to Trinity College, Cambridge.[2] At Trinity he would have experienced a return to the religious and political ethos of his childhood: the Master of Trinity was a Puritan preacher by the name of Thomas Hill who had been a rector in Dryden’s home village.[3] Though there is little specific information on Dryden’s undergraduate years, he would have followed the standard curriculum of classics, rhetoric, and mathematics. In 1654 he obtained his BA, graduating top of the list for Trinity that year. In June of the same year Dryden’s father died, leaving him some land which generated a little income, but not enough to live on.[4]

 

Arriving in London during The Protectorate, Dryden procured work with Cromwell’s Secretary of State, John Thurloe. This appointment may have been the result of influence exercised on his behalf by the Lord Chamberlain Sir Gilbert Pickering, Dryden’s cousin. Dryden was present on 23 November 1658 at Cromwell’s funeral where he processed with the Puritan poets John Milton and Andrew Marvell. Shortly thereafter he published his first important poem, Heroique Stanzas (1658), a eulogy on Cromwell’s death which is cautious and prudent in its emotional display. In 1660 Dryden celebrated the Restoration of the monarchy and the return of Charles II with Astraea Redux, an authentic royalist panegyric. In this work the interregnum is illustrated as a time of anarchy, and Charles is seen as the restorer of peace and order.

 

After the Restoration, Dryden quickly established himself as the leading poet and literary critic of his day and he transferred his allegiances to the new government. Along with Astraea Redux, Dryden welcomed the new regime with two more panegyrics; To His Sacred Majesty: A Panegyric on his Coronation (1662), and To My Lord Chancellor (1662). These poems suggest that Dryden was looking to court a possible patron, but he was to instead make a living in writing for publishers, not for the aristocracy, and thus ultimately for the reading public. These, and his other nondramatic poems, are occasional— that is, they celebrate public events. Thus they are written for the nation rather than the self, and the Poet Laureate (as he would later become) is obliged to write a certain number of these per annum.[5] In November 1662 Dryden was proposed for membership in the Royal Society, and he was elected an early fellow. However, Dryden was inactive in Society affairs and in 1666 was expelled for non-payment of his dues.

 

On 1 December 1663 Dryden married the royalist sister of Sir Robert Howard—Lady Elizabeth. Dryden’s works occasionally contain outbursts against the married state but also celebrations of the same. Thus, little is known of the intimate side of his marriage. Lady Elizabeth however, was to bear him three sons and outlive him.

 

With the reopening of the theatres after the Puritan ban, Dryden busied himself with the composition of plays. His first play, The Wild Gallant appeared in 1663 and was not successful, but he was to have more success, and from 1668 on he was contracted to produce three plays a year for the King's Company in which he was also to become a shareholder. During the 1660s and 70s theatrical writing was to be his main source of income. He led the way in Restoration comedy, his best known work being Marriage A-la-Mode (1672), as well as heroic tragedy and regular tragedy, in which his greatest success was All for Love (1678). Dryden was never satisfied with his theatrical writings and frequently suggested that his talents were wasted on unworthy audiences. He thus was making a bid for poetic fame off-stage. In 1667, around the same time his dramatic career began, he published Annus Mirabilis, a lengthy historical poem which described the events of 1666; the English defeat of the Dutch naval fleet and the Great Fire of London. It was a modern epic in pentameter quatrains that established him as the preeminent poet of his generation, and was crucial in his attaining the posts of Poet Laureate (1668) and historiographer royal (1670).

 

When the Great Plague of London closed the theatres in 1665 Dryden retreated to Wiltshire where he wrote Of Dramatick Poesie (1668), arguably the best of his unsystematic prefaces and essays. Dryden constantly defended his own literary practice, and Of Dramatick Poesie, the longest of his critical works, takes the form of a dialogue in which four characters–each based on a prominent contemporary, with Dryden himself as ‘Neander’- debate the merits of classical, French and English drama. The greater part of his critical works introduce problems which he is eager to discuss, and show the work of a writer of independent mind who feels strongly about his own ideas, ideas which demonstrate the incredible breadth of his reading. He felt strongly about the relation of the poet to tradition and the creative process, and his best heroic play Aureng-zebe (1675) has a prologue which denounces the use of rhyme in serious drama. His play All for Love (1678) was written in blank verse, and was to immediately follow Aureng-Zebe.

 

Dryden’s greatest achievements were in satiric verse: the mock-heroic MacFlecknoe, a more personal product of his Laureate years, was a lampoon circulated in manuscript and an attack on the playwright Thomas Shadwell. Dryden's main goal in the work is to "satirize Shadwell, ostensibly for his offenses against literature but more immediately we may suppose for his habitual badgering of him on the stage and in print." [6]It is not a belittling form of satire, but rather one which makes his object great in ways which are unexpected, transferring the ridiculous into poetry.[7] This line of satire continued with Absalom and Achitophel (1681) and The Medal (1682). His other major works from this period are the religious poems Religio Laici (1682), written from the position of a member of the Church of England; his 1683 edition of Plutarch's Lives Translated From the Greek by Several Hands in which he introduced the word biography to English readers; and The Hind and the Panther, (1687) which celebrates his conversion to Roman Catholicism.

 

When in 1688 James was deposed, Dryden’s refusal to take the oaths of allegiance to the new government left him out of favour at court. Thomas Shadwell succeeded him as Poet Laureate, and he was forced to give up his public offices and live by the proceeds of his pen. Dryden translated works by Horace, Juvenal, Ovid, Lucretius, and Theocritus, a task which he found far more satisfying than writing for the stage. In 1694 he began work on what would be his most ambitious and defining work as translator, The Works of Virgil (1697), which was published by subscription. The publication of the translation of Virgil was a national event and brought Dryden the sum of ₤1,400.[8] His final translations appeared in the volume Fables Ancient and Modern (1700), a series of episodes from Homer, Ovid, and Boccaccio, as well as modernized adaptations from Geoffrey Chaucer interspersed with Dryden’s own poems. The Preface to Fables is considered to be both a major work of criticism and one of the finest essays in English. As a critic and translator he was essential in making accessible to the reading English public literary works in the classical languages.

 

Dryden died in 1700 and is buried in Westminster Abbey. He was the subject of various poetic eulogies, such as Luctus Brittannici: or the Tears of the British Muses; for the Death of John Dryden, Esq. (London, 1700), and The Nine Muses

M'agrada molt comunicar.

I fer de pont entre persones que volen entendre's.

I unir interessos.

I construir.

 

Hui és el dia del traductor. :)

.

Soy traductora y fotógrafa.

Me gusta mucho comunicar.

Y servir de puente entre personas que quieren entenderse.

Y unir intereses.

Y construir.

 

Hoy es el día del traductor. :)

 

.

I'm translator and photographer.

I love communicating.

I love being a bridge between people who want to understand each other.

I love linking others' interests.

I love building.

 

Today's the International Translator Day.

 

:)

 

new website coming SOON at www.martaortells.com

find me on twitter: @MartaOrtells

 

enjoy future starts slow

"Writer and translator. Arts and Culture Editor (Karnataka), South First. Author of 'The Pollen Waits on Tiptoe', a book of English translations of selected Kannada poems by Da Ra Bendre. His essays, poems, and translations have appeared in publications such as 'The Hindu', 'EKL Review', and 'Kyoto Journal'. Interested in the creation of a Kannada identity for Bengaluru."

John Dryden (9 August 1631 – 12 May 1700) was an influential English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who dominated the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the period came to be known in literary circles as the Age of Dryden.

 

Dryden was born in the village rectory of Aldwincle near Thrapston in Northamptonshire, where his maternal grandfather was Rector of All Saints. He was the eldest of fourteen children born to Erasmus Dryden and wife Mary Pickering, paternal grandson of Sir Erasmus Dryden, 1st Baronet (1553-1632) and wife Frances Wilkes, Puritan landowning gentry who supported the Puritan cause and Parliament. He was also a second cousin once removed of Jonathan Swift. As a boy Dryden lived in the nearby village of Titchmarsh, Northamptonshire where it is also likely that he received his first education. In 1644 he was sent to Westminster School as a King’s Scholar where his headmaster was Dr Richard Busby, a charismatic teacher and severe disciplinarian.[1] Recently enough re-founded by Elizabeth I, Westminster during this period embraced a very different religious and political spirit encouraging royalism and high Anglicanism. Whatever Dryden’s response to this was, he clearly respected the Headmaster and would later send two of his own sons to school at Westminster. Many years after his death a house at Westminster was founded in his name.

 

As a humanist grammar school, Westminster maintained a curriculum which trained pupils in the art of rhetoric and the presentation of arguments for both sides of a given issue. This is a skill which would remain with Dryden and influence his later writing and thinking, as much of it displays these dialectical patterns. The Westminster curriculum also included weekly translation assignments which developed Dryden’s capacity for assimilation. This was also to be exhibited in his later works. His years at Westminster were not uneventful, and his first published poem, an elegy with a strong royalist feel on the death of his schoolmate Henry, Lord Hastings from smallpox, alludes to the execution of King Charles I, which took place on 30 January 1649.

 

In 1650 Dryden went up to Trinity College, Cambridge.[2] At Trinity he would have experienced a return to the religious and political ethos of his childhood: the Master of Trinity was a Puritan preacher by the name of Thomas Hill who had been a rector in Dryden’s home village.[3] Though there is little specific information on Dryden’s undergraduate years, he would have followed the standard curriculum of classics, rhetoric, and mathematics. In 1654 he obtained his BA, graduating top of the list for Trinity that year. In June of the same year Dryden’s father died, leaving him some land which generated a little income, but not enough to live on.[4]

 

Arriving in London during The Protectorate, Dryden procured work with Cromwell’s Secretary of State, John Thurloe. This appointment may have been the result of influence exercised on his behalf by the Lord Chamberlain Sir Gilbert Pickering, Dryden’s cousin. Dryden was present on 23 November 1658 at Cromwell’s funeral where he processed with the Puritan poets John Milton and Andrew Marvell. Shortly thereafter he published his first important poem, Heroique Stanzas (1658), a eulogy on Cromwell’s death which is cautious and prudent in its emotional display. In 1660 Dryden celebrated the Restoration of the monarchy and the return of Charles II with Astraea Redux, an authentic royalist panegyric. In this work the interregnum is illustrated as a time of anarchy, and Charles is seen as the restorer of peace and order.

 

After the Restoration, Dryden quickly established himself as the leading poet and literary critic of his day and he transferred his allegiances to the new government. Along with Astraea Redux, Dryden welcomed the new regime with two more panegyrics; To His Sacred Majesty: A Panegyric on his Coronation (1662), and To My Lord Chancellor (1662). These poems suggest that Dryden was looking to court a possible patron, but he was to instead make a living in writing for publishers, not for the aristocracy, and thus ultimately for the reading public. These, and his other nondramatic poems, are occasional— that is, they celebrate public events. Thus they are written for the nation rather than the self, and the Poet Laureate (as he would later become) is obliged to write a certain number of these per annum.[5] In November 1662 Dryden was proposed for membership in the Royal Society, and he was elected an early fellow. However, Dryden was inactive in Society affairs and in 1666 was expelled for non-payment of his dues.

 

On 1 December 1663 Dryden married the royalist sister of Sir Robert Howard—Lady Elizabeth. Dryden’s works occasionally contain outbursts against the married state but also celebrations of the same. Thus, little is known of the intimate side of his marriage. Lady Elizabeth however, was to bear him three sons and outlive him.

 

With the reopening of the theatres after the Puritan ban, Dryden busied himself with the composition of plays. His first play, The Wild Gallant appeared in 1663 and was not successful, but he was to have more success, and from 1668 on he was contracted to produce three plays a year for the King's Company in which he was also to become a shareholder. During the 1660s and 70s theatrical writing was to be his main source of income. He led the way in Restoration comedy, his best known work being Marriage A-la-Mode (1672), as well as heroic tragedy and regular tragedy, in which his greatest success was All for Love (1678). Dryden was never satisfied with his theatrical writings and frequently suggested that his talents were wasted on unworthy audiences. He thus was making a bid for poetic fame off-stage. In 1667, around the same time his dramatic career began, he published Annus Mirabilis, a lengthy historical poem which described the events of 1666; the English defeat of the Dutch naval fleet and the Great Fire of London. It was a modern epic in pentameter quatrains that established him as the preeminent poet of his generation, and was crucial in his attaining the posts of Poet Laureate (1668) and historiographer royal (1670).

 

When the Great Plague of London closed the theatres in 1665 Dryden retreated to Wiltshire where he wrote Of Dramatick Poesie (1668), arguably the best of his unsystematic prefaces and essays. Dryden constantly defended his own literary practice, and Of Dramatick Poesie, the longest of his critical works, takes the form of a dialogue in which four characters–each based on a prominent contemporary, with Dryden himself as ‘Neander’- debate the merits of classical, French and English drama. The greater part of his critical works introduce problems which he is eager to discuss, and show the work of a writer of independent mind who feels strongly about his own ideas, ideas which demonstrate the incredible breadth of his reading. He felt strongly about the relation of the poet to tradition and the creative process, and his best heroic play Aureng-zebe (1675) has a prologue which denounces the use of rhyme in serious drama. His play All for Love (1678) was written in blank verse, and was to immediately follow Aureng-Zebe.

 

Dryden’s greatest achievements were in satiric verse: the mock-heroic MacFlecknoe, a more personal product of his Laureate years, was a lampoon circulated in manuscript and an attack on the playwright Thomas Shadwell. Dryden's main goal in the work is to "satirize Shadwell, ostensibly for his offenses against literature but more immediately we may suppose for his habitual badgering of him on the stage and in print." [6]It is not a belittling form of satire, but rather one which makes his object great in ways which are unexpected, transferring the ridiculous into poetry.[7] This line of satire continued with Absalom and Achitophel (1681) and The Medal (1682). His other major works from this period are the religious poems Religio Laici (1682), written from the position of a member of the Church of England; his 1683 edition of Plutarch's Lives Translated From the Greek by Several Hands in which he introduced the word biography to English readers; and The Hind and the Panther, (1687) which celebrates his conversion to Roman Catholicism.

 

When in 1688 James was deposed, Dryden’s refusal to take the oaths of allegiance to the new government left him out of favour at court. Thomas Shadwell succeeded him as Poet Laureate, and he was forced to give up his public offices and live by the proceeds of his pen. Dryden translated works by Horace, Juvenal, Ovid, Lucretius, and Theocritus, a task which he found far more satisfying than writing for the stage. In 1694 he began work on what would be his most ambitious and defining work as translator, The Works of Virgil (1697), which was published by subscription. The publication of the translation of Virgil was a national event and brought Dryden the sum of ₤1,400.[8] His final translations appeared in the volume Fables Ancient and Modern (1700), a series of episodes from Homer, Ovid, and Boccaccio, as well as modernized adaptations from Geoffrey Chaucer interspersed with Dryden’s own poems. The Preface to Fables is considered to be both a major work of criticism and one of the finest essays in English. As a critic and translator he was essential in making accessible to the reading English public literary works in the classical languages.

 

Dryden died in 1700 and is buried in Westminster Abbey. He was the subject of various poetic eulogies, such as Luctus Brittannici: or the Tears of the British Muses; for the Death of John Dryden, Esq. (London, 1700), and The Nine Muses

TED Translator Welcome Drinks at TEDSummit: A Community Beyond Borders. July 21-25, 2019, Edinburgh, Scotland. Photo: Bret Hartman / TED

Sadly it is clear the translator panel has developed a fault. Only one place in the UK still diagnose and repair these units. So it is going to have to be shipped to Sheffield and their technicians I hope can breathe life back into the unit.

Siempre hace ilusión... os prometo que olía a nueva :)

And after-show antics.

English

I used the Translator

The Shrine of Our Lady of Nazareth is situated on the site of Nazareth, a neighborhood in the town of Nazareth (Portugal). Inside, keep up the sacred image of Our Lady of Nazareth, a Black Madonna, carved in wood, brought from Merida to this Site, in the year 711. The story is told in this picture Legend of Nazareth.

On site there are three shrines where revered and worshiped the image since he arrived in the year 711, led by Father Romano, a monk of the convent of Cauliniana. After the defeat of the Christian army at the Battle of Guadalete, the monk fled the Muslim invaders in the company of D. Rodrigo, the last Visigoth king, escaped after the defeat of his army. The choice of destination on the Atlantic coast, comes perhaps the existence of a nearby monastery Visigoth, which remains the church of St. Gião, classified as a National Monument in 1986.

 

The first shrine on the Site is a small man-made cave, near the cliff, one hundred and thirty feet above the ocean beach. The image was placed there by Father Romano, on an altar. This shrine (erected probably in prehistoric times) served as a hermitage where he lived until his death. As his will was buried in the soil of the cave by King Rodrigo, who lived nearby, on the hill of St. Bartholomew. The ex-king after the death of the monk went to the outskirts of Viseu where he ended his days as a hermit. The image of Our Lady of Nazareth preserved in this shrine 711-1182.

 

The second shrine, the Chapel of Remembrance, was built on the edge of the cliff above the cave, at the initiative of D. Fuas Roupinho after the miracle that saved him in 1182. It is a small building of square plan, with pyramidal dome. The image was worshiped here from 1182 to 1377.

 

The third shrine of Our Lady of Nazareth, where he currently worships the sacred image, was founded by King Ferdinand I in 1377. In the early seventeenth century began to be rebuilt, having been extended works, in stages, until the late nineteenth century, at which time it acquired its present form where no element is suspicious of their medieval origins. The rebuilding of the temple began with the work of the chancel, facing west, corridors and rooms that surround it, which stands out from the sacristy due to its size and its location behind the chancel.

 

The Shrine stands on the bottom of a spacious yard, on a higher plane. Access to the interior takes place by a semi-circular staircase, moving the porches. On each side of the front body extends a two-storey buildings. Transposed the porch one enters the church has a single nave, Latin cross-shaped, measuring 42 m long by 10 wide.

 

In the body of the church, illuminated by eight windows, covered with semi-cylindrical wood paneled, there are four altars and gilded, 1756, and two pulpits the same time. At the entrance, supported by fluted Doric columns, stands the choir with an organ in the center. Accesses to the cruise, covered by a dome of stone lantern, a large arch surmounted by the royal arms. In each arm of the transept, covered by a vault of stone, there is an altar tops of the walls being covered with Dutch tiles, which adorn the walls from top to bottom as wall hangings. In the right hand panels depict scenes from the life of David. On the left show episodes from the life of Joseph, son of Jacob. There are two other panels with scenes from the Biblical story of Jonah the prophet with the whale, crowned by angels, located on the doors leading to porches. In the doorway south find themselves two panels with pictures of mutilated invitation in the form of a Roman soldier. All these panels of the transept, a total of 6568 tiles were ordered by the administration of the Shrine in 1708, the company Willelm van der Kloet (1666-1747) in Amsterdam, Holland.

 

The chapel, covered with round vaulted in stone, is separated from the remaining space by a balustrade in rosewood with marble columns. Your floor is inlaid marble of various colors and is elevated five steps. To fund the Baroque altarpiece, with Solomonic columns and gilded and polychrome glazed contains the niche where they venerate the sacred image behind and above the high altar.

 

Both the vestry as the hallways and other rooms around the main chapel are lavishly decorated with Portuguese tiles from the beginning of seven hundred, the Lisbon workshop of Antonio Oliveira Bernardes. They are highlighting the panels of the dome of the southern corridor, with the assumption of the Virgin, and the walls of the sacristy, with prophets. This impressive room with coffered ceiling with the royal arms in the center is surmounted by screens chests, whose theme is the legend of Nazareth. Among the caissons is an altar with a Calvary, at the door. Placed near the ceiling are six large canvases depicting the Passion of Christ. It is here that the iron staircase that leads up to the pilgrims at the sacred image of Our Lady of Nazareth, in the chancel.

 

Português

pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santu%C3%A1rio_de_Nossa_Senhora_da_...

 

O Santuário de Nossa Senhora da Nazaré fica situado no Sítio da Nazaré, um bairro da Vila da Nazaré (Portugal). No seu interior, guarda-se a Sagrada imagem de Nossa Senhora da Nazaré, uma Virgem Negra, esculpida em madeira, trazida de Mérida para este Sítio, no ano de 711. A história desta imagem é contada na Lenda da Nazaré.

No Sítio existem ainda os três santuários onde se venerou, e venera, a imagem desde que ali chegou no ano de 711, levada por frei Romano, monge do convento de Cauliniana. Após a derrota do exército cristão na batalha de Guadalete, o monge fugiu dos invasores muçulmanos, na companhia de D. Rodrigo, o último rei visigodo, fugitivo após a derrota do seu exército. A escolha do destino, no litoral Atlântico, advém porventura da existência nas proximidades de um mosteiro visigótico, do qual subsiste a igreja de São Gião, classificada como Monumento Nacional em 1986.

O primeiro santuário neste Sítio é uma pequena gruta feita pelo homem, junto à arriba, a cento e dez metros acima da praia oceânica. A imagem foi ali colocada, por frei Romano, sobre um altar. Este santuário (erigido provavelmente na época pré-histórica) serviu-lhe de eremitério no qual viveu até à sua morte. Conforme a sua vontade foi sepultado no solo da gruta pelo rei Rodrigo, que vivia ali perto, no monte de São Bartolomeu. O ex-rei após a morte do monge partiu para os arredores de Viseu onde terminou os seus dias como ermitão. A imagem de Nossa Senhora da Nazaré conservou-se neste santuário de 711 a 1182.

O segundo santuário, a Capela da Memória, foi construído à beira da falésia, sobre a gruta, por iniciativa de D. Fuas Roupinho após o milagre que o salvou, em 1182. É um pequeno edifício de planta quadrada, com abóbada piramidal. A imagem foi aqui venerada de 1182 a 1377.

O terceiro santuário de Nossa Senhora da Nazaré, onde actualmente se venera a sagrada imagem, foi fundado pelo rei D. Fernando I, em 1377. Em inícios do século XVII começou a ser reconstruído, tendo-se prolongado as obras, faseadamente, até final do século XIX, época na qual, adquiriu a sua forma actual onde nenhum elemento faz suspeitar das suas origens medievais. A reconstrução do templo iniciou-se com a obra da capela-mor, virada a poente, os corredores e as salas que a rodeiam, das quais sobressai a sacristia devido às suas dimensões e à sua localização por trás da capela-mor.

O Santuário ergue-se ao fundo de um espaçoso terreiro, num plano superior. O acesso ao interior faz-se por uma escadaria semi-circular, passando-se pelos alpendres. De cada lado da fachada estende-se um corpo de edifícios de dois pisos. Transposto o pórtico entra-se na igreja de uma só nave, em forma de cruz latina, medindo 42 m de comprimento por 10 de largo.

No corpo da igreja, iluminado por oito janelas, com cobertura semi-cilíndrica de madeira apainelada, existem quatro altares de talha dourada, de 1756, e dois púlpitos da mesma época. À entrada, sustentado por colunas dóricas caneladas, ergue-se o coro alto com um orgão no centro. Acede-se ao cruzeiro, coberto por uma cúpula de pedra com lanternim, por um grande arco encimado pelas armas reais. Em cada braço do transepto, coberto por abóbada de pedra, há um altar, estando as paredes dos topos cobertas por azulejos holandeses, que adornam as paredes de alto a baixo como tapeçarias. No braço direito os painéis descrevem cenas da vida de David. À esquerda mostram episódios da vida de José, filho de Jacob. Existem ainda dois outros painéis, com cenas do episódio bíblico de Jonas o profeta, com a baleia, encimados por anjos, situados sobre as portas que conduzem aos alpendres. No vão da porta sul vêem-se dois painéis mutilados com figuras de convite em forma de soldado romano. Todos estes painéis do transepto, num total de 6568 azulejos, foram encomendados pela administração do Santuário, em 1708, à empresa de Willelm van der Kloet (1666-1747), em Amesterdão, na Holanda.

 

A capela-mor, coberta por abóboda redonda, em pedra, está separada do restante espaço por uma balaustrada em pau santo, com colunas de mármore. O seu piso é de embutidos de mármore de várias cores e está elevado cinco degraus. Ao fundo o retábulo barroco, com colunas salomónicas de talha dourada e policromada, contem o nicho com vidraça onde se venera a sagrada imagem por trás e acima do altar-mor.

Tanto a sacristia como os corredores e outras salas em torno da capela-mor estão profusamente decoradas com azulejos portugueses de inícios de setecentos, da oficina lisboeta de António Oliveira Bernardes. São destacar os painéis da abóbada do corredor sul, com a assunção da Virgem, e das paredes da sacristia, com profetas. Esta imponente sala com tecto de caixotões com as armas reais no centro tem arcazes encimados por telas, cuja temática é a lenda da Nazaré. Entre os caixotões está um altar com um Calvário, em frente à porta. Junto ao tecto estão colocadas seis grandes telas alusivas à Paixão de Cristo. É daqui que parte a escadaria de ferro que conduz os peregrinos até junto da sagrada imagem de Nossa Senhora da Nazaré, na capela-mor.

 

secondlife.mitsi.com/secondlife/xlate

Translator Lunch and Workshop at TED2019: Bigger Than Us. April 15 - 19, 2019, Vancouver, BC, Canada. Photo: Dian Lofton / TED

Translators receive daily instructions at the 2012 United Methodist General Conference in Tampa, Fla. A UMNS photo by Kathleen Barry.

And after-show antics.

And after-show antics.