Wild words

Random quirks of the mind...discovering Dohnányi

Echinocereus canus

Don’t look for deep meaning in this picture…yet: I literally closed my eyes and pressed on a random shot I’d taken on my phone from this past month…and this popped up.

What this post is really about is a phenomenon that has plagued/delighted/pestered me my whole life. I can be resting, or walking somewhere, or at a meeting and a word pops into my head. Not your typical narration that accompanies our lives, the sort of undertow of worries, curiosity, concerns and daily details that constitute our internal monologue. What occurs to me is a word that pops out of NOWHERE—often a word I barely know or some bizarre artifact of my past I haven’t thought of in years…

I often have to look these up—or marvel at their remanifestation in my life—rather like those hoary words Nabokov spoke of that emerge out of their grave in Elizabethan costume and speak out again…although mine are usually in English, they can be Greek, proper nouns or any form of speech. I finally realized that cell phones make it easy to record these—when one pops into my head, I just open my phone’s notebook and type it in. Here’s my list from when I started doing this a week or two ago:

Οδός Πατησίων

Avoir du Pois

Mutton chop

Mrs. Brown

Lagarta

Lagunita

Zurbaran

Dohnany

I started compiling these to see 1) if there was any pattern they revealed 2) or subtle meaning they possessed 3) or connection to one another 4) or (horrors!) some Freudian depth to them. Aside from the two Spanish words that may have resulted one from the other (a day apart), there honestly does not appear to be ANY logical reason for any of these to have popped into my brain or connection between them.

Let’s start with Οδός Πατησίων. Which I THINK may be the street in Athens where Katina Pateraki, my mom’s second cousin lived. We stayed with her one or two times when I was a teenager. I had no idea then (or since then—the word has probably popped into my mind two or three times over the last 60 years) what Patision meant. I just looked it up: it refers to a neighborhood in Athens. Google kindly provided a link to a watercolor painted in 1984 in this neighborhood (https://repository.brynmawr.edu/peschke/22/) I must say I cannot think why this two word phrase came to me ten or twelve days ago. But thanks to writing this I now know what it refers to.

I looked up Avoir du Pois after I heard it in my head. I’ve already forgotten what it means. I do not recall ever having heard anyone say that word, or having read it before. Must of. Else why would it pop into my brain!?

I love lamb chops and cook them once a month or so. I don’t have a clue how mutton chops differ from lamb chops—except they must be tougher and maybe smellier and something I’d never buy, however cheap. I vaguely recall a conversation in the last month with someone about facial hair style where the word may have been used—and it might trace back to that—which would explain it. When it popped into my head, however, it came in the guise of a sheep and not a facial hairstyle.

I don’t have the faintest idea which Mrs. Brown is responsible for intruding into my brain’s random word selection process. I am not going to even going to try and figure that one out.

I lovc Spanish, and Spanish poetry and words often grace my thoughts. Why lizards and little lagoons (or ponds) decided to do so doesn’t seem to make any logical sense to me—I do like both things and there was a Reptile Show at Tagawa’s a week or so ago and I asked a staff member who worked there if they’d have bearded dragon lizards (which I rather fancy: I can’t imagine buying one—but who knows what strange urges might do to one…)

When Zurbaran popped into my head I knew he was a Spanish painter. I looked him up and realized I should have known which painter he was. I will remember NEXT time (I knew he was not contemporary, but couldn’t place the century he lived in till I looked it up. I’ve always liked the sound of his name, and love all words that start with “Z”. In fact, I love the letter z. Buzz. Busy should be spelled bizzy.

Today’s word is Dohnányi (which I miss-spelled on my list). I have heard that name on National public radio and vaguely knew he was a Hungarian composer. I couldn’t attach his name to any composition or even style or era of classical music—I was ignorant. I recall when I was in my mid thirties I was just as ignorant about Antonín Leopold Dvořák, who has since become one of my favorite composers I listen to as much as I can. When I’d hear the word Dohnányi on the radio I realize I liked the sound of it, and was curious about the proper pronunciation…and promptly buried it in my cortex somewhere, where it reappeared this morning.

I looked it up: it turns out Ernst von Dohnányi (or Dohnányi Ernő) is a very interesting individual (reading the account of him in Wikipedia). I listened to a fantastic rendition of his Serenade for Strings Op 10 performed in Utrecht, Netherlands and realized he composed the sort of “modern” classical music I enjoy enormously. I shall now add him to my Apple Music account and perhaps he’ll join the constellation of composers who provide the ongoing soundtrack of my life.

There is no rhyme or reason for wild words—but I will be paying closer attention to them in the future!

Oh yes, the cactus: never got a decent shot of it mid-day when it was in full bloom: it perhaps occupies a similar spot in my garden that Dohnányi just attained in my musical heart: it’s my current favorite!