Dr. Filomena

Romance Sonambulo
Federico García Lorca

Verde que te quiero verde.
Verde viento. Verdes ramas.
El barco sobre la mar
y el caballo en la montaña.
Con la sombra en la cintura
ella sueña en su baranda,
verde carne, pelo verde,
con ojos de fría plata.
Verde que te quiero verde.
Bajo la luna gitana,
las cosas la están mirando
y ella no puede mirarlas.
Verde que te quiero verde.
Grandes estrellas de escarcha
vienen con el pez de sombra
que abre el camino del alba.
La higuera frota su viento
con la lija de sus ramas,
y el monte, gato garduño,
eriza sus pitas agrias.
¿Pero quién vendra? ¿Y por dónde…?
Ella sigue en su baranda,
Verde came, pelo verde,
soñando en la mar amarga.
–Compadre, quiero cambiar
mi caballo por su casa,
mi montura por su espejo,
mi cuchillo per su manta.
Compadre, vengo sangrando,
desde los puertos de Cabra.
–Si yo pudiera, mocito,
este trato se cerraba.
Pero yo ya no soy yo,
ni mi casa es ya mi casa.
–Compadre, quiero morir
decentemente en mi cama.
De acero, si puede ser,
con las sábanas de holanda.
¿No ves la herida que tengo
desde el pecho a la garganta?
–Trescientas rosas morenas
lleva tu pechera blanca.
Tu sangre rezuma y huele
alrededor de tu faja.
Pero yo ya no soy yo,
ni mi casa es ya mi casa.
–Dejadme subir al menos
hasta las altas barandas;
¡dejadme subir!, dejadme,
hasta las verdes barandas.
Barandales de la luna
por donde retumba el agua.
Ya suben los dos compadres
hacia las altas barandas.
Dejando un rastro de sangre.
Dejando un rastro de lágrimas.
Temblaban en los tejados
farolillos de hojalata.
Mil panderos de cristal
herían la madrugada.
Verde que te quiero verde,
verde viento, verdes ramas.
Los dos compadres subieron.
El largo viento dejaba
en la boca un raro gusto
de hiel, de menta y de albahaca.
¡Compadre! ¿Donde está, díme?
¿Donde está tu niña amarga?
¡Cuántas veces te esperó!
¡Cuántas veces te esperara,
cara fresca, negro pelo,
en esta verde baranda!
Sobre el rostro del aljibe
se mecía la gitana.
Verde carne, pelo verde,
con ojos de fría plata.
Un carámbano de luna
la sostiene sobre el agua.
La noche se puso íntima
como una pequeña plaza.
Guardias civiles borrachos
en la puerta golpeaban.
Verde que te qinero verde.
Verde viento. Verdes ramas.
El barco sobre la mar.
Y el caballo en la montaña.

We’ve been waiting for you, little one.

Welcome to the world!

Love from auntie Fil

Ljubim zeleno
In belo
In ljubim sonce, ki razbija
Oblake
Ljubim njo
Ki se skriva za njimi
In me pozdravlja v sanjah

Ljubljana Lights

Every now and then it really feels good to simply take a walk. If you happen to be in a great town like Ljubljana, even better for you! So after just another fun-filled day at work (BTW, the website is being refurbished completely by a great angelically devilish team as we speak) and an uplifting cup of coffee with my beloved sister, I decided to take a stroll downtown that had just been lit up with a zillion colourful lights and extras, a cheerful reminder of the shopping season that spreads love and wrapping paper all around us.

Exhibition at Mestni muzej

So as not to succumb to the shopping spree completely (whoops, one does require a certain type of paper for that purpose… or plastique plastic), a visit to the museums seemed in order. The artefacts above were excavated at the site of the museum, from the Roman period when this city went by the name of Emona.

Copper Age; style truly is timeless, eh?

Mestni muzej (City Museum) has interesting exhibitions year-round and one of the amazing rooms, at least to me, is the one featuring some of the objects found in the Ljubljana area going all the way back to the period of the so-called pile dwellings (mostišča) at Ljubljana marshes during the late stone age and the copper age (4,500 – 1,800 B.C.), such as the one pictured above.

The many faces of Ljubljana

One does tend to discover many interesting bits and pieces… and people at museums, but one’s uncle is rarely among them. My eye caught a familiar pace and when the monk on the wall projection turned around and gave me that big all-knowing smile, my jaw dropped so low I had to struggle to pick it up. I wasn’t sure if it was just my eyes playing games with my brains on account of the delicious mulled wine I’d just consumed at one of the stands at the Three Bridges as part of the December tradition… Confirmed with a follow-up phone call, yep, that’s my uncle up there, featuring as one of the “many faces of Ljubljana” through the ages. Also re-confirmed, he never really was a monk. Phew.

The new exhibition at the School Museum

Desperately in need of some enlightenment, I swiftly entered not the school, but the next best thing. The Slovenian School Museum where a new exhibition was just presented. With lots of wine available, but in view of the as yet unconfirmed sighting of uncle at the other museum, I decided to pass on that particular temptation. The exhibition “The Teacher in a New Social Reality between 1945 and 1963” makes for an interesting addition to the regular pieces.

We build schools, we build knowledge, we build socialism
(replace with an -ism of your choice any time)

One inscription that stuck was that “any system, anywhere, always wants to claim the society’s children”. Kids, you’re all we’ve got, guys!

Hey, it was time to get some more fresh air.

The festive Three Bridges

What better way to finish a day than to hang out with interesting people. I think the guy in whose honour admission to museums was free of charge yesterday would have approved. Especially if he’d had a chance to share a glass of wine with us. Mulled or otherwise.

Fetalij, the star blogger

Fetalij showing off (ok, so I sorta forced him to) with his own image in the very first printed blogger publication in Slovenia, Blogorola. Grayscale photo per his request 😉

Happy birthday, Dr. Fig!

My own Pumpkin Face alter ego on a bad hair day

(Live, March 2007)

You with the sad eyes… Don’t be discouraged
Oh I realize it’s hard to take courage
In a world full of people you can lose sight of it all
and the darkness inside you can make you feel so small

But I see your true colors shining through
I see your true colors and that’s why I love you
So don’t be afraid to let them show your true colors
True colors are beautiful, like a rainbow

Show me a smile then, don’t be unhappy,
can’t remember when I last saw you laughing

If this world makes you crazy and you’ve taken all you can bear
you call me up because you know I’ll be there

And I’ll see your true colors shining through
I see your true colors and that’s why I love you
So don’t be afraid to let them show your true colors

True colors are beautiful, like a rainbow

This is how I feel right now. Don’t come close! 😈
Can anyone guess where the photo was taken? It’s a very central location…

Binula and Dr. Fil

Some of my very favourite people seem to have their birthdays very close to one another, so it’s been a sort of a birthday season lately. You guys, I love you just the way you are.

Happy birthday!

A call for homeless folks to join soccer practice…

EDIT: Adding translation and links to the mobile post

Translation:

I’m looking for homeless people interested in playing soccer according to the homeless’ rules.
Dare! (Please note: Dare is a Slovenian first name 😉 )

Sign up!
(Those who have not signed up yet)!!

Those of you who’ve signed up for soccer, please attend the practice at Poljanska road. See you on Sunday at 2 p.m.
Dare

I guess what sums this up is: Dare to change your life with Dare!

Links:

• Homeless World Cup
• Slovenian Team
• Prime Minister of Slovenia supports Homeless World Cup

Memory Lane (photo by dr. fil)
where the Rog sawmill‘s timber railway used to run

Kočevski rog covers an area of over 500 square kilometres of Karstic terrain in Southern Slovenia. Human interventions in nature have been minimal over the centuries, so that the entire area is beautifully preserved in terms of nature and bustling with wildlife, including predators extinct in most other European countries. Bears, wolves, lynx and birds of prey abound. Hey, we even export them 🙂 Three of the forests have been completely intact for centuries.

The first WW2 resistance fighter groups in the area were formed in 1941 already, with the famous Baza 20 (Base 20) set up in 1943. Wooden boards were hewn at the Spreitzer sawmill in Stare Žage and at a sawmill in Soteska. Doors and already glazed windows were taken from the abandoned Götscher houses, but tools and other necessary material were procured in shops in the valley.

BAZA 20 provided home and working environment members of the Slovenian resistance. By the time of Italian capitulation on 9 September 1943, thirteen buildings had been erected. In addition to those accommodating the members of the leadership, a radio and telegraph building, a radio station, a kitchen and two dormitories for the kitchen staff and the guards were constructed. In 1944 a kitchen warehouse was built along with a separate kitchen and warehouse for the guard battalion, an electric power plant, two dormitories for the guards and propaganda activists and additional buildings for officials.

The population of BAZA 20 kept growing with the base accomodating almost 200 people by the end of 1944, but thanks to exceptional security and camouflage measures, it was never discovered.

BAZA 20 is the only such headquarters of a European resistance movement that remains preserved. It has become an important monument of the state. Together with the preserved hospitals of Jelendol and Zgornji Hrastnik it was declared a cultural monument in 1952. All 26 buildings still stand.

See the main source for the above text

At Lukov Dom, visitors can see a short film about Kočevski Rog and hire a guide. Custodian & Information: Dolenjski muzej Novo mesto (offers guided tours for groups and individuals, Phone: +386 7 373 11 11)