[Sca-cooks] something about Gourds

Jadwiga Zajaczkowa / Jenne Heise jenne at fiedlerfamily.net
Thu Feb 8 12:19:47 PST 2007


We talked about gourds at one point, and I think it was on one of these 
lists I said that I would try to get the stuff about them from the 9th 
century text. Here it is:

Gourds, from Walafrid Strabo's _Hortulus_

    The gourd too aspires to grow high from a humble beginning...
    ... Even so my gourd, rising on brittle stems,
    Welcomes the props that are put there for it, hugging the alder
    in the grip of its curly tentacles. It's so determined
    Not to be wrenched away by even the wildest storm
    That it thrusts out a cable at every joint and, each
    Extending two strands, siezes support on this side and that.
    It reminds me too of girls spinning, when they draw
    The soft heaps of wool to their spindles, and in great twists
    Measure off the endless thread into trim balls-- Just so
    The wandering thongs of my gourd twist and cling; quick
    To wrap their coils round the smooth sticks set as ladders for them
    They learn to use borrowed strength and, with a swimmer's thrust,
    Climb the steep rooms of the covered cloister. Oh, who now
    Can praise as he ought the fruits that hang from its branches
    Everywhere? They are as perfectly formed from every angle
    As a piece of wood that is turned and shaved on a lathe.
    They hang on a slender stalk and swell from a long, thin neck
    Into huge bodies, their great mass broadening at the flanks.
    They are all belly, all pauch. Inside
    That cavernous prison are nourished, each in its place, the many
    Seeds that promise another harvest as good as this one.
    At the approach of tardy autumn, while yet they are tender
    And before the hidden moisture that is sealed inside them dries
    To leave but the withered shells, we often see the fruit
    Handed round among the good things of the dinner-table
    and soaking up the rich fat in a piping-dish;
    For often these juicy slices, served as dessert,
    Delight the palate. But if you let the gourd stay
    Enjoying the summer sun on its parent tree and only
    Set your blade to it late in the year, then after scooping
    The flesh from its ponderous belly and shaving the sides
    On a nimble lathe, you can put it to practical use as a vessel.
    A pint this mighty paunch will sometimes hold, sometimes
    Half a gallon or more; and if you seal your jar
    With gummy pitch it will keep wine good for many a day.


Translated by Raef Payne. (Pittsurgh, PA: Hunt Botanical Library, 1966)
-- 
-- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika jenne at fiedlerfamily.net 
"History doesn't always repeat itself. Sometimes it screams
'Why don't you ever listen to me?' and lets fly with a club."



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