Thursday, April 1, 2010

I Made This

Whan that aprill with his shoures soote
The droghte of march hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veyne in swich licour
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
Whan zephirus eek with his sweete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heath
Tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the ram his halve cours yronne,
And smale foweles maken melodye,
That slepen al the nyght with open ye
(so priketh hem nature in hir corages);
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages,
And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes,
To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes;
And specially from every shires ende
Of engelond to caunterbury they wende,
The hooly blisful martir for to seke,
That hem hath holpen whan that they were seeke.
        [Geoffrey Chaucer, Canterbury Tales: Prologue]

At the end of every episode of the X-Files series, after the credits have been shown, the last screen appears showing the fuzzed imprint of TEN THIRTEEN PRODUCTIONS, and while this image lasts, the bright young voice of a boy is heard saying “I made this!” This always brings a slight chuckle because the child’s enthusiasm is infectious. And that voice, in a way, mirrors my delight in the words quoted above. I wish I had made this.

A translation into modern English is available here.

1 comment:

  1. In 2nd year High School we were encouraged to memorise the Intro to Chaucer's work.

    "I made this" is interesting:

    "hoc feci" is a follow up to a "fiat lux", for example; creation, and pride of creation, and it seems "pride" is not properly an emotion separate from "creation", but is an important part of the creative process itself...pride, not arrogance.
    It makes me think of the pride of God,Creator, or even in Genesis "a pride" of Elohim.
    (in the sense of "pride" of lions...)

    ReplyDelete

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