"Saramago. Did you know that Giovanni Portiero, my longtime English translator, died?

Interviewer. When?

S. In February. He died of AIDS. He was translating Blindness, which he finished, when he died. Toward the end, he himself started to go blind as a result of the medication his doctors gave him. He had to choose between taking the medication, which would sustain him a little longer, and not taking it, which would create other risks. He chose, shall we say, to preserve his vision..." --Paris R*vi*w #149


"A poetic that is bigger than itself." (via Po*sy Galor*)


Lingua Franca.


Saturn raucous stir · rubric pram
anguish grasp pall · gulf scowl follow
full as Iscariot · storp milch
prog Arabic pump · aboard try
wisp scoot · apropos brillig fang



"So much depends upon a red SUV filled with high-octane beside the dark snack bar."