Without Lifting A Finger

Did we need another "super" market -- probably not. That corner already has three sizable grocery stores: Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, and Ralph's. And to top that off: another Lucille's and another CVS Pharmacy (coming soon!!!). * We didn't get there till Sunday afternoon (apparently the "grand opening" was Thursday). We "watched our step" with the crowd in the deli section, got a few bites for lunch, got some Peet's coffee at the bakery (lots of overpriced teases there), then climbed up to the balcony to jockey for a couch and eat. Beautiful day and all that. A bit of a view to the harbor and boats (squinting through afternoon sunlight). * 

From the entry "Martin Heidegger" in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy : 

      [From Heidegger and Asian Thought,  edited by Graham Parkes] 

Arnica, Eyebright, the drink from the well with the star-die on top [Arnika, Augentrost, der Trunk aus dem Brunnen mit dem Sternwurfel drauf] [From Celan's TODTNAUBERG. Translation by John Felstiner]   ***   Heidegger at the well with the star-die on top

Unfortunately, we didn't make it all the way to Heidegger's Hut. For one thing our directions were not crystal clear (even a cross country skier seemed to have no clue). For another thing there was snow and cold, my partner and I were already tired, and we had miles to go to get back to Stuttgart (our plane left early the next morning). By the time we gave up the fog was already rolling in. Here's as far as we got. We stopped at Waldblick for a little lunch and to get our bearings (we weren't entirely lost but ...). It was Good Friday and very few places were open. The Cross (my directions had mentioned this)  A Sign (sometimes helpful) Pilgrim Rest, Pilgrim Valley View  Valley View with Fog

CIMG0566 , a photo by dapog on Flickr. Don't know if I'll have the time to take the hike and get my own photos. It's the last leg of our journey--from Montreux back to the Stuttgart Airport--and if we just drive through or close to Todtnauberg I'll consider myself lucky.

Excited? Maybe. But--whatever the reality--I thought it'd be fun to hang a few photos (borrowed from Photobucket or elsewhere--we'll compare my photos once we return) re our 99% certain trip (got the flights, hotels, car; pretty much locked into the somewhat "literary" itinerary--e.g., hope to get to Frisch's Berzona) to Switzerland. Let's see what I can find. We fly into Stuttgart, Germany, and I plan to make a little stop, heading south, near (and within view of) the Hohenzollern Castle: Then we head to Zurich to see something of what Celan saw from the Hotel zum Storchen: Then on to Locarno (see below) and Berzona (see earlier posts re this shier village and the Frisch connection): Next stop: Montreux and Nabokov's grave (maybe I'll shoot Freddie Mercury if he's convenient): After two days in Montreux we'll head back to Stuttgart, possibly making a detour through the Schwarzwald for fairy tales and Celan/Heidegger (Tod...

It's been a long while since I've dabbled in Heidegger. I see lots of red lines and marginalia, but little do I remember. I remember bits and pieces (as though in fog): Being (Beyng), woodpaths, "thinking" ( Denken is somehow superior to thinking),... Jargon-larded language that could only truly appeal to a dyed-in-the-wool Heidegger fan. That I am not. That said, I don't believe he really wanted to say only poets can think. Otherwise he'd be eliminating himself from that sacred act. If not a real poet, Heidegger did recognize the power of the Word and IMO could sometimes wax poetic: Thinking is on the descent to the poverty of its provisional essence. Thinking gathers language into simple saying. In this way language is the language of Being, as clouds are the clouds of the sky. With its saying, thinking lays inconspicuous furrows in language. They are still more inconspicuous than the furrows that the farmer, slow of step, draws through the f...

I've already mentioned the meeting between Celan and Heidegger in relation to Grass's My Century (maybe I'll turn to that next or soon), but I thought it worthwhile to post Celan's own cryptic account: "Todtnauberg" (see below). I'll also throw in an interesting exegesis of the poem (one of many, I'm sure) I unearthed on Google this morning. Though I've personally only skimmed it today (I spent a few hours with this essay, or a similar one, a couple years ago), I particularly liked the admission at the end: "A translation of a poem has to be a poem."   http://epc.buffalo.edu/authors/joris/todtnauberg.html * TODTNAUBERG Arnica, Eyebright, the drink from the well with the star-die on top, in the hut, into the book -- whose name did it take in before mine? -- the line written into this book about a hope, today, for a thinker's (un- delayed coming) word in the heart, woodland turf, unleveled, Orchis and Orch...