Author Archives: JMN

About JMN

I live in Texas and devote much of my time to easel painting on an amateur basis. I stream a lot of music, mostly jazz, throughout the day. I like to read and memorize poetry.

Rough Handling of Paint

Posted on November 9, 2022 by JMN

[His] early Sugar Bowl, Pears and Blue Cup (1865-70)… shows Cézanne seeing and painting in a relatively traditional way. Apart from the rougher handling of paint, it is a close relative of traditional scenes like Harmen Steenwyck’s… (Matthew Wilson) I … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary | Tagged language, painting, personal | 4 Comments

The Zephyr Soughs My True Love’s Name: Saoirse… Saoirse… Saoirse…

Posted on November 8, 2022 by JMN

Posted in Commentary | Tagged language, miscellaneous | Leave a comment

‘O Thou There, Who Barkest at the Bènū ‘s Sīd’

Posted on November 5, 2022 by JMN

Below is jargon improvised for gauging how a translation navigates its source text. Note how the verbiage is strewn with hedging adverbials, conceding a priori that the labels are judgments, which by definition are subjective, privative, compromised, blinkered and fallible. … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthology | Tagged Arabic-English, language, poetry, translation | 2 Comments

The Case for Rhythm and Emptiness

Posted on November 1, 2022 by JMN

Brazilian artist Maxwell Alexandre speaks of how exposure to Kerry James Marshall’s painting made him aware of “an absence of representation. You would ask a Black kid to draw a person and he would draw a white person… Just by … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary, Quotations | Tagged art, drawing, language, painting, personal, style | Leave a comment

Bedrock: The Oyster

Posted on October 29, 2022 by JMN

“Oysters are the bedrock for the vitality of our bays along the mid and upper Texas coast… They are essential to the health of our fish and wildlife, water quality, commercial and recreational fishing, tourism and coastal economies.” (Carter Smith, … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary, Quotations | Tagged miscellaneous | Leave a comment

The Precedent: El Precedente

Posted on October 28, 2022 by JMN

Traducción:“Don’t talk to me that way!”Translation:“¡No me hables así!” Traducción:I’m the Precedent of the Unighted Steaks!”Translation:¡Soy Precedente de los Bistecs Anochecidos!” Traducción:Don’t EVER talk to the Precedent that way!”Translation:¡No le hables NUNCA al Precedente de esa manera!” (Filtered from the … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary | Tagged English-Spanish, language, Spanish-English, translation | Leave a comment

Three Deaths

Posted on October 23, 2022 by JMN

Angela Lansbury (1925 – 2022): ActorPatrick Healy, theater reporter and deputy Opinion writer for The New York Times, recounts how the actor gamely and gracefully confronted the vulnerabilities of advancing age in pursuing her long career (1). In the past … Continue reading →

Posted in Quotations | Tagged language, rhetoric | Leave a comment

When Is a Viper Just a Snake?

Posted on October 21, 2022 by JMN

I share my neck of the world with rattlesnakes, water moccasins, copperheads, coral snakes (red-on-yellow, kill a fellow) and cottonmouths. I can’t tell a moccasin from a cottonmouth — they frequent water, and I don’t. When I see one of … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthology, Commentary | Tagged Arabic-English, grammar, language, lexicon, poetry, rhetoric, style, syntax, translation | Leave a comment

Je pense, donc je blague

Posted on October 19, 2022 by JMN

When I’m tempted to post something here with greater frequency than usual, I ask myself: Am I in thrall to a voracious craving for plaudits? Am I a prelapsarian Ozymandias? An attention-seeking missile? Look what I’ve thought — done! — … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary | Tagged blogging, language, personal, poetry, rhetoric, style, writing | 2 Comments