a voice from the chorus (stiller than water. lower than grass)

'you need paper to lose yourself in its whiteness. writing means diving into a page and coming up with some idea or word...' 

it is the centenary of the birth of andrei sinyavsky (aka. abram tertz).

horsemouth has a number of his books most notably a voice from the chorus taken from his letters to his wife while he was in prison and edited by him when he was freed. sinyavsky had to be very careful in what he wrote because of the possibility of reprisals by the prison authorities. consequently we get his thoughts on the few books he can find to read or on random things he remembers, irish myths, alice in wonderland, robinson crusoe, the poetry of anna akhmatova, on the speech and song of the convicts, sea shanties, chechen songs, the feast of the assumption etc

for his birthday sinyavsky is given a biro refill. the next day he writes the following; 

'in the autumn the orange colour blends with the violet and they both have something in common - over and above their yellow and blue foundation, and that common quality rushes about and darts in and out of the two colours like lightning and suddenly strikes - red.' (9th october 1969)

the title is taken from that of an aleksandr blok poem.

'then be content with life today.

stiller than water. lower than grass...'  

horsemouth has his the makepeace experiment round here somewhere. 

horsemouth is up. for now the sun is shining but it will soon ascend above the clouds. today the usual. tomorrow a visit to the commons water committee rather than a dose of bell-ringing.