Saturday, July 2, 2011

Lost In Translation

What if Francis Scott Key, a young, aspiring, 34 year old lawyer and amateur poet, had used his cell phone to text his poem, Defence of Ft. McHenry...a poem inspired by the view of a large, 30' x 42' American flag, made by Mary Young Pickersgill and her 13 year old daughter Caroline, and for that moment flying over Ft. McHenry...texting it to his dear wife Mary, as she huddled in their home with their 11 children during the war of 1812?

Well, it would have read something like this..."OsA cn UC by d dawn's erly lyt...OsA dz dat (*) spangled banner yet ~~~, over d l& of d fre n d hom of d brave"...

and...what if he had not be feeling poetically inclined? Well, he might have texted her saying..."Mary cn UC d big (_!_) flag @ d fort?" And if he had done that, then what would folks incorrectly mumble the lyrics to at ball games?

Thank you for bearing with me today and translating my silly attempt at interpreting our Saturday Centus prompt, "O! say can you see". Please check out what will certainly be an interesting and thoughtful collection of writings, poems and such at Jenny Matlock's Saturday Centus.

Jenny Matlock


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9 comments:

  1. UnknownJuly 2, 2011 at 9:10 AM

    Oh Jeff. You are a gem! I love this one!
    Anna
    A Rainy Day in July-Anna's SC wk 61

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  2. cj SchlottmanJuly 2, 2011 at 10:07 AM

    jc! You are a genius. Your fertile imagination has outdone itself! I hope your 4th is wonderful.

    Namaste..........cj

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  3. Susan AndersonJuly 2, 2011 at 11:00 AM

    You are too funny, Jeff! And so creative, too...

    =)

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  4. BookieJuly 2, 2011 at 2:09 PM

    You are so right with the text thing! One more example of what we loose if we loose real language, beautiful words!

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  5. JoJuly 3, 2011 at 6:11 PM

    ha! loved it! thank goodness it wasn't just a text or tweet ... we are robbing ourselves with those little shortcuts ...

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  6. FireblossomJuly 4, 2011 at 11:14 AM

    2 funE !

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  7. TgoetteJuly 4, 2011 at 1:50 PM

    Awesome Jeff! What a creative take on the prompt this week! Hilarious! Have a great 4th!

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  8. JennyJuly 4, 2011 at 8:03 PM

    Jeff. I love you! It's okay if you tell Kathy. It is in the spirit of well...

    Oh geez.

    Let me just rephrase the whole thing before she comes and beats me up!

    You. Are. Fabulous!

    Thanks for an amazing twist to this prompt. I'm listening to Nanci Griffith and it was a perfect backdrop to your writing.

    I'm glad ours paths have crossed.

    I am richer for it.

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  9. Bargain Decorating with LaurieJuly 5, 2011 at 10:07 AM

    Oh, I am laughing out loud! What a great interpretation of the prompt! Loved it! laurie

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