ch.4, v.1-20 (visitors at midwinter)

Strange patterns come upon us as the sun approaches and surpasses its winter stand.
Karen Who Is Tall fills once again her satchels for a voyage and departs,
With her the poodle who bears now a heavy coat of wool upon her hide.
My companion obtains a reprieve from her diurnal absence and keeps council in the den
Or together we inspect the paths of our snow-bound territory.







She performs only short excursions alone
Returning sometimes perfumed with strange fragrances.
The spoors of grandhumans are about her
And once the aromas of duck and cattle, of ginger tamarind
And other spices of lands far beyond both the rising and the setting of the sun.




In the deepest recesses of a night, travelers break our solitude--
Two pilgrims whose odor is known to me and one that is new but welcome.
I luxuriate in this good company--it is generous of praises and rubs for my belly.
They fill up the beds of our den and warm its air with the livingness of their bodies.
The pack grows.

We make many and unusual excursions together
Unto the new den of the grandhumans and
Unto the public house known as brendan behan
Where hospitable canines congregate upon the worn timber of the floor
While their humans grow relaxed with goodly libation.





Should not our days be always thus, my companion?

Exegesis and Commentary This is obviously Frida's take on the recent and unusual events of Christmas break, which were a welcome break from the usual routine for both of us. Since the MHS now closes from Xmas to New Year's, I was able to stay home much of the time, and have many more dog walks before the sun went down at the absurdly early hour of about 4pm.

Since neither of my brothers was able to make it to Massachusetts for Xmas day, my parents and I opted for a traditional Jewish Xmas with Marcia in Brookline, tho' we never made it to the movie portion of the day once the Chinese food indulgence was over (actually, I watched the DVD of the new biopic about Edith Piaf and regretted it--what is this French fascination with and glamorizing of women who are damaged and wildly self-destructive?).

At the very end of Xmas day Edmond arrived with Sibel and her son Eren, and Frida was very happy with their company. One evening at the Brendan Behan, where they allow dogs b/c they don't serve any food, was especially good. Oh, for a world where the faithful and well-behaved hound could follow one everywhere.

ch. 3, v.121-157 (journey to mansfield: summit)

(If you look in the lower left-hand corner of the picture,
you'll see me and Len posed to provide some scale.)

This day my companion you have chosen a path of greater wisdom.
You neglect not the inheritance of homo sapiens,
The abundant grey matter that crafts numberless tools from the rawness of the earth,
The accumulated wealth of experiments trials and errors
Until with the ease and swiftness of a vast herd of horses
We may travel this mountain from its foot to its crown
Conquering in the space of one brief nap the ascent that before
Consumed of us many hours and much labor.




(Do you then ask of me what goodness we find in our daily perambulations?
Should we not quickly upon wheels of mineral and sap advance each morn to our destination?
Nay, this question is foolishness, for the destination you imagine is no purpose
But only a point in the compass of the pack's knowledge.
For we traverse the ground upon our paws to know its smells and its sights
To trace the history of other packs as they have followed this path
And to know if they are good to avoid, good to meet in fellowship,
Or good to chase and growl upon.
In the grasses and the sod of our quartering, accident may bring unto us
Rich odors erstwhile unknown--for in other wilderness have we not discovered
The droppings of large hoofed hinds or small canines who are our cousins?
Therein we enlarge the territory of our mind.)

So my companion I offer my praise for this ascent and for this walk it allows unto us.

Oh for this here is a wondrous confluence of condensation and suspension
That makes the atmosphere all about us as a cooling bath.
Yea, tho' we tread the sharpened edge of the earth's incisor
Several hundreds of rods above the vast salted water of our home
Towering even above the broad valleys whose roads we traveled only this forenoon,
All is hidden now from us in this curtain of moisture.







Tho' the heat of the sun could parch and again weaken us
Yet these mists caress and protect us
So dense that even should a pack of fogdogs come to walk with us,
Letting us to see with our eyes the territory below
Allowing the sun in gentleness to warm the furless hide of humans
Doubt not that it is a righteous place for your canine companions--




See upon the very pinnacle of the summit of the mountain of mansfield
This cooling and murky pool
In it I shall make my bath taking unto my coat its good water
And anointing it also with my water, the mark of Frida.



Exegesis and Commentary
Yes, we drove around Mt. Mansfield, through Stowe, and up the road that meets the Long Trail. It is still necessary to hike a bit of a ways from the parking lot to the summit, tho' as Frida here reminds us, the summit in and of itself is a meaningless goal. But of course that pool of water that was, literally, only a yard or so from the summit marker, gave her considerable satisfaction. And she did pee in it, only I didn't get a picture of that.

Our trek the day before had been on the Sunset Ridge Trail (which I think we misidentified in a previous post as the Crescent Ridge Trail), and here we found the sign for where it meets up with the Long Trail. After Len's report on the intervening bit, I'm glad we didn't try to hike it all the way with the dogs.

ch. 3, v.121-157

(If you look in the lower left-hand corner of the picture,
you'll see me and Len posed to provide some scale.)

This day my companion you have chosen a path of greater wisdom.
You neglect not the inheritance of homo sapiens,
The abundant grey matter that crafts numberless tools from the rawness of the earth,
The accumulated wealth of experiments trials and errors
Until with the ease and swiftness of a vast herd of horses
We may travel this mountain from its foot to its crown
Conquering in the space of one brief nap the ascent that before
Consumed of us many hours and much labor.




(Do you then ask of me what goodness we find in our daily perambulations?
Should we not quickly upon wheels of mineral and sap advance each morn to our destination?
Nay, this question is foolishness, for the destination you imagine is no purpose
But only a point in the compass of the pack's knowledge.
For we traverse the ground upon our paws to know its smells and its sights
To trace the history of other packs as they have followed this path
And to know if they are good to avoid, good to meet in fellowship,
Or good to chase and growl upon.
In the grasses and the sod of our quartering, accident may bring unto us
Rich odors erstwhile uknown--for in other wilderness have we not discovered
The droppings of large hoofed hinds or small canines who are our cousins?
Therein we enlarge the territory of our mind.)

So my companion I offer my praise for this ascent and for this walk it allows unto us.

Oh for this here is a wondrous confluence of condensation and suspension
That makes the atmosphere all about us as a cooling bath.
Yea, tho' we tread the sharpened edge of the earth's incisor
Several hundreds of rods above the vast salted water of our home
Towering even above the broad valleys whose roads we traveled only this forenoon,
All is hidden now from us in this curtain of moisture.







Tho' the heat of the sun could parch and again weaken us
Yet these mists caress and protect us
So dense that even should a pack of fogdogs come to walk with us ,
Letting us to see with our eyes the territory below
Allowing the sun in gentleness to warm the furless hide of humans
Doubt not that it is a righteous place for your canine companions--




See upon the very pinnacle of the summit of the mountain of mansfield
This cooling and murky pool
In it I shall have my bath taking unto my coat its good water
And anointing it also with my water, the mark of Frida.



Exegesis and Commentary

ch.3, v.87-120 (catechism of the egg)

"And should the hand of human present to thee an egg from a chicken?
What dost thou with a gift of such worth?"

"Not one answer will suffice to answer this question,
For as many dogs as populate the world
So there are as many ways for taking the gift of an egg.
She who descends from the house of one breed and has grown up in the den of plenty, of full bowls and luxury,
She may sniff the egg with her nose and taste it with her tongue before taking it to swallow.
Yea, she may even bite of it only one half first to chew and to eat before retrieving the other
Never allowing the sharpness of her teeth to touch upon the weakly flesh of the human.
Thus she trusts in the hand and the egg and knows they shall abide in time to satisfy her hunger."



"But thine is not the house of one breed nor the puppyhood of plenty--
How dost thou with the egg of chicken held forth in the hand of human?"

"Yea, for she who descends from the abandoned barns and back alleys of canine anonymity,
Whose head and haunches are shaped by chance and promiscuity,
Whose name goes forth in the world as 'mongrel' or 'mutt' or 'heinz 57',
Whose puppyhood knew not snuggle balls and snausages--
She must linger over the egg of chicken neither with the sniffing of her muzzle nor the licking--
Nay, she wastes not the moment of generosity in queries and examinations
But seizes upon the riches of protein and fat that come before her."


"Thy counsel imparts great wisdom and knowledge unto dogkind,
But may it please thee also to address this quandary--
Should astonishment and trembling befall us upon receiving the egg
And should it then drop from our jaws and become unclean in the dust and the dirt,
What manner of redemption then?"


"Nay, this accident defiles not the oval portion of goodness
And need for redemption or even for delay impedes not the way of fulfillment
For as the egg itself is good so also is the earth that now coats its succulence.
It remains only for a dog to clean the lips of her mouth
And allow no morsel no crumb no iota, nay not even a particle of dust, to be lost."



"This truly is wisdom and experience, but please grant us further patience
And enlightenment as to this one last conundrum:
Should the hand of human or agentless circumstance bring before a dog
Instantly and at once a chicken and the egg of a chicken, of which should she partake first?"

"Yes."

[Here endeth the lesson.]

Commentary and Exegesis
The appearance of an interlocutor for Frida is new to me, but of course I have had many opportunities to observe Frida's communication with other dogs, so possibly this is the word distillation of a sharing of smells (one dog must know when another has eaten an egg) and body language. Maybe it also demonstrates the value of the dog elder, whose experience and judgement can be of value to young whippersnappers. Certainly Frida thinks it is her job to offer some guidance to young and rambunctious peers--she frequently takes it upon herself to bark at the tangle of playing adolesecents at a dog park.

I'm not sure why the "thee" and "thou" forms turned up in the queries here: maybe it also suggests the immaturity of the pupil, who is attempting formal sounding modes of address, somewhat awkwardly. Frida, of course, would not mind this, since she rather enjoys the obsequiousness of dogs even less confident than she is.