Some time ago on a Spanish guided tour we came upon a coach stop/ toilet break. Strange to see a rail line disused, the rail stop buffet and shop still there and two or maybe three wagons. They stood on a deserted line under the trees. They reminded me of the cattle wagons one sees in Nazi deportation films. I could not help thinking of Franco and his influence and whether they had been used for such.
The trees were walnut trees. I had not come on one before but I noticed the shells below. Some unconscious link to brutality slipped into mind. A dog ,a woman and a walnut tree the more they're beaten the better they will be.
Such a thought I rarely dwelt upon and have heard before, only a couple of times. Looking up the derivation, it seems it is a corruption of an Aesop Fable presumably from the Greek in translation to the Latin and first translated by Caxton in 1484. The corruptions came later.
The original being:
"De nuce, asino et mulier verbere opus habent" the nut tree an ass and a woman are subject to the same law and will do nothing right if not beaten. The tree needs certain branches broken before it will bear fruit abundantly or a stick is needed to knock the fruit from the branches.
Think on this as you crack your Christmas nuts.
JL Dec 12 10:32
No comments:
Post a Comment