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On Finishing and Funambules

I, like everybody else, have a certain fear of heights and I have to be very careful when I am in the clouds but it is also what I love, it is my domain, so when you love something you don’t have fear. Philippe Petit (1949–) Recently, I completed a … Continue reading

Author : nike

Translating Rilke: The (First) Duino Elegy

Lots of people speak about the difficulty of translating the first line of Rilke’s Duino Elegies, perhaps because it’s so well known (Wer, wenn ich schriee, hörte mich denn aus der Engel/Ordnungen?). It’s a little like the opening line of Don Quixote, which can be used as a litmus test … Continue reading

Author : nike

Rain-beaten flowers and Rough Drafts

From the morning’s pages, unedited: The driveway is littered with blossoms knocked out of the canopy by the rain. The trees make a different sound in the rain, not rattling their limbs and leaves, but shirring, whispering like wet silk skirts. I knock on the door and hear her call … Continue reading

Author : nike
Tags : Ana , Samuel

Owl

Outside my office there is a beautiful, distracting swathe of native bushland. I’ve had many visitors in my office, most of them human, but occasionally some creature wanders in. A glorious green tree snake spent a few days curled up between the window and the screens, rock wallabies and koalas … Continue reading

Author : nike
Comments : 7 Comments

Samuel visits his mother

I went to see her straight from the airport. (Was I, then, a good son, or only the semblance of one, going through the motions, performing goodness because, perhaps, there was someone up in the carpark above me, watching me swim back and forth, back and forth?) I knew my … Continue reading

Author : nike
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