I woke up in the middle of the night with this bit of verse in my head. I wasn’t going to post it, but a recent comment from Bill about "tart wine" makes me think sour grapes may be synchronistically relevant.
The grapes were theirs,The teeth are ours.Our palate bearsTheir sweets and sours.'Twas theirs to tellBut I that spoke.'Twas night that fell,But morning broke.
8 comments:
For those who are not KJV readers, this is a reference to a Hebrew proverb mentioned by Jeremiah and Ezekiel.
https://newworldisland.org/bible/?grape%20teeth%20edge
Also a shout-out to my readers from the great country of Grape Teeth.
https://narrowdesert.blogspot.com/2025/07/countries-in-translation.html
William,
Lo and Behold, the sync Faires have shown up again!
Case in point:
Yesterday July 18th when I was doing a bit of
research about the significance of the wheel
to include in my comment,
I remembered Ezekiel's Wheel but I decided
not to add that connection to my comment.
Copy and paste ( this is from a 2012 article
written by the movie critic Rodger Ebert
who is discussing the Nick Cage 2009 Movie
Knowing.
I have commented before about my
perspective about the symbolism
in the movie Knowing. It's a great
movie . One ( out of a gazillion )
of my favorites.
There is also a black
stones connection throughout this movie.
Here's the copy and paste:
"Now to the Biblical overtones.
The movie has generated enormous interest
because it seems, some say, to be based
on the Book of Ezekiel, and the plot fulfills
prophecies about the end of the world,
visitation by aliens, wheels with wheels,
and so on.
I’m not as expert on Ezekiel as I should be,
but I can see the parallels — especially since it
has been pointed out to me that the figures
at the end might be angels, might be aliens,
or might be one resembling the other."
~~~~~~~~~~~
In the Knowing trailer clip, note all
of the Blue-Green.
What's the odds?
https://www.rogerebert.com/roger-ebert/love-and-hate-and-knowing-or-do-wings-have-angels
Knowing (2009) Official Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2zSFElhgE0
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ophanim
This verse was something you had previously written and it came to mind as you woke up, or was something new altogether?
New. I think it’s missing a quatrain in the middle which I haven’t been able to recover, which is why I wasn’t originally going to publish it in this form.
The poem definitely seems Numenorean/ Pharazonic, for sure, with the opening reference to a group of people eating someone else's grapes.
I particularly liked the third line, with the play on word for "Bears". If you remember, I ultimately concluded that it was Wine that was in my dream refrigerator that the one I was supposed to beware of was taking (presumably you), citing that wines are many times stored in a wine cooler or refrigerator. You recently shared the t-shirt image of a Bear raiding the refrigerator. A Bear whose palate Bears what was taken.
I also liked the tie between palate, in terms of what was tasted, to speaking or telling what others were meant to. The term palate is not only used to refer to taste, but also to sounds that come out of one's mouth, specifically as the tongue touches the palate. The palate plays a critical role in our ability to speak, so it seemed like a clever transition to me as I read it within the poem.
Definitely more than one meaning here.
I understood it, in light of the biblical proverb and my recent "original sin" musings, as saying "They (the fathers) have eaten sour grapes, and our (the children's) teeth have been set on edge," with the next two lines reiterating that we experience the consequences of what they did. The closing lines repeat this yet again: they in the night of the past fell, but we in the morning of the present break. Of course, the other meaning of "morning broke" introduces a hopeful note. I didn't really know what to make of the fifth and sixth lines, except that perhaps we, who have experienced the full consequences of their actions, are able to tell their story in a way that they themselves were not.
Read at face value, though, without the biblical allusion, the opening lines do seem to be saying "We ate grapes that belonged to someone else." You're right about the dual role of "palate" serving as a bridge from eating to telling. I hadn't caught that one.
Possibly relevant: Because it is beyond the Pillars of Hercules, the land of Grape Teeth (Portugal) has occasionally been proposed as the location of Atlantis. I believe Steven Sora says this in Triumph of the Sea Gods.
Also:
I like bananas, coconuts, and grapes
I like bananas, coconuts, and grapes
I like bananas, coconuts, and grapes
That’s why they call me Tarzan of the Apes
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