(no subject)

I grieve for Madrid, in my own graceless self-centered way. I keep seeing September 11th, or Picasso's Guernica. If there is anyone reading this who has lost someone, or fears for them, you have my sympathy.

Since I had no words of my own worth the reading, I went Googling for Endechas/oinas, mourning laments from Sephardic tradition, but I couldn't find any. Apparently the women who sing them don't let them be recorded. The best I could do was this:

el dia se eskuresio
de la vida resparesio [desparesio]
fue rebatado sin piadad
triste fue su muerte
amanziante su suerte
yevo repozo de la vida
de su famiya kerida

It is in Ladino (Judeo-Spanish) and it is clumsily edited (by me) from a gravestone inscription in Mt. Hebron Cemetary. It means

The day grew dark
He disappeared from life
He was brought down without pity
His death was a sad one
Pitiful his luck
He took away from his loving family
The peace of their lives.

*****

Massachusetts gives gay marriage ban preliminary approval

California Supreme Court halts gay marriages

House passes indecency bill

Not a good news day. But I am off tomorrow with mom of Mer to see how maple sugar is made, like I've wanted to do since I was seven and read the Laura Ingalls Wilder books.

Mer