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Re: tempi passati
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Alexey Sklyarenko: 'Okh, nado passati!' exclaimed Percy in the Slavic slang he affected, blowing out his cheeks and fumbling frantically at his fly. (Ada, 1.39) As I pointed out before (Nab-l, 24.05.10), the phrase tempi passati (It., "past times") occurs in Heinrich Heine's "The Journey from Munich to Genoa" (Chapter XXX). But this phrase also occurs in Herzen's Byloe i dumy ("Bygones and Meditations," Part Four, Chapter XXX, 2): Note the mention of Mmes de Staёl and Recamier (there is a Recamier room in Ada: 3.3). ..The noun pisatel' comes from pisat' (to write). If stressed on the first, rather than second, syllable, pisat' means "to piss." Percy de Prey's vulgar slang phrase (the first of the two a's in passati should be changed to o) means: "Oh, I must piss."
JM: Alexey moved on from Heine to Herzen, and came to Mme Stael and Recamier. He added a translation of "pisat" (write;piss). The act of writing and ever-flowing death lie very close to John Shade's plights with Gradus (rather unlike "Here papa pisses" or "Pippa passes").
Going back to "Ada": Percy was going to die very soon, wasn't he?*
Juliette Recamier reminds one of her famous "couch" (cf. painting by J-Louis David) and her salon, where she received ever-present Francois-Rene de Chateaubriand for years.
She was also a friend of Mme Stael.
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* Times flees: ( retrieved from ... www.merriampark.com/horcarm214.htm )
Vergil, Georgics 3.284: "But meanwhile it flees, irretrievable time flees" (sed fugit interea, fugit inreparabile tempus).
Horace,Ode 2:14" Eheu fugaces, Postume, Postume,/labuntur anni"
Horace,Odes 1.11.7-8: "Jealous time will have fled" (fugerit inuida / aetas).
Horace, Odes 2.5.13-14: "For savage time is running" (currit enim ferox / aetas).
Horace, Odes 3.30.4-5: "An uncountable succession of years and the flight of seasons" (innumerabilis / annorum series et fuga temporum).
Ovid, Amores 1.8.49: "Winged time slips by in secret and escapes our notice" (labitur occulte fallitque uolatilis aetas).
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