Twenty-some years ago, I dreamed about Mark Hofmann reciting what he called a "haiku" made up of nonsense syllables:
The broo jerrooIh is yerrooThe broo jerroo
This was supposed to sound simultaneously like "The blue Jell-O / It is yellow / The blue Jell-O" and "The Brother of Jared / He is a hero / The Brother of Jared."
A few nights ago, this strange poetic Hofmann reappeared in my dreams, this time with a new nonsense poem of a single line only. It sounded something like this:
Anna bytera junnalen mawtela swaw
I don't think I would have been able to make anything at all of that, but in the dream I instantly understood that this, like the haiku, was supposed to sound like two things simultaneously:
And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword
And the bitter groan of the Martyr's woe
I know it doesn't actually sound much like either of those, but in the dream it did, somehow, and I knew that this single ambiguous line was meant to evoke two quatrains, from Byron and Blake, respectively:
And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail,And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal;And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword,Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord!For a Tear is an intellectual thing,And a Sigh is the sword of an Angel King,And the bitter groan of the Martyr's woeIs an arrow from the Almighty's bow.
I guess the two verses have a bit in common. Each begins with tears and ends with the Lord fighting with unconventional weapons.
4 comments:
Aside from the main topic - I read about the Mark Hofmann affair in Wikipedia (i previously had only a very vague notion about somebody that had successfully forged Mormon documents).
It confirmed the conclusion I reached after attending a lecture on fine art forgeries - which is that The Experts in authentication of historical art and artefacts are incompetent, overconfident fools - and that our museums and libraries are (therefore) chock-full of frauds and forgeries.
Of course, the same (mutatis mutandis) applies to science - especially big money science like medical research.
The Jell-O is both blue and yellow at the same time. So that would mean it’s green.
Theodore is the Green Chip Monk, and my current working guess is that he is the Brother of Jared, which would map to your first Hofmann haiku.
Bruce, yes, Hofmann fooled both the academic and the religious Experts, and should have taught us to put less trust in Experts of either type.
WW, well I wouldn't draw any conclusions. Part of the meaning of the dream must be that the haiku was put in the mouth of a notorious liar and fraud.
No conclusions, only guesses and observations, which can still include stories..
But your answer to Bruce helped answer at least part of my question as to why Hofmann. And you yourself have several times in the past mentioned seeing your syncs and other ‘truths’ in the words and experiences of those who you’ve otherwise deemed somewhat disreputable. Hofmann isn’t the only one.
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