Claudian’s Magnes: Obscure and Shining
Today is Realo’s day. He is the text man here. And he starts to find a ground for his selfproduction when he looks up old words in a dictionary:
He likes the sequence of letters and blanks:
Decolour obscurus vilis = black, dull, and common = entfärbt, dunkelfarbig, entartet/ dunkel, finster, undeutlich/ wohlfeil, wertlost, gering, verächtlich, gleichgültig.
With the words
Non = not = nicht
Nor = not = noch
Ornat = adorn = schmückt
Splendet = shine = scheint, glänzt, erschimmert.
A scene of light and glamour is called onto the stage of the mind. Then the text sets into this light again something black:
Nigri videas miracula saxi = and you will see the marvellous properties of this dull-looking stone = des schwarzen siehst Wunder des Steines.
This is too much for Jabès – one who lives with Realometer at Headfarm. He tries to render the latin words in German so he writes:
Magnes ist der Name des Steins
Farblos, dunkel, und gemein schmückt er nicht das kaiserlich gestrichene Haar, noch den schneeweissen Hals einer Jungfrau auch erglänzt er nicht als Zeichen der Verdienste im Waffengehänk; sondern das unbekannte Wunder des schwarzen Steins übertrifft die gewohnten Schönheiten und was an den östlichen Ufern des Indus und Roten Meers in Algen gesucht wird.
Platnauer translated the latin words with: There is a stone called the loadstone; black, dull, and common. It does not adorn the braided hair of kings nor the snowy necks of girls, nor yet shine in the jewelled buckles of warriors’ belts. But consider the marvellous properties of this dull-looking stone and you will see that it is of more worth than lovely gems and any pearl sought of Indian amid the seaweed on the Red Sea’s shores. (Source: Penelope)