D.M. Spitzer

Critical

from Immanuel Kant, Kritik der reinen Vernunft, Introduction to Second Book, “The Analytic of Principles,” 1st Division, “Of the Schematism of the pure Concepts of the Understanding [A145, B184]


Das Schema der Wirklichkeit ist das Dasein in einer bestimmten Zeit.


The shape of what threads


                 across the actual


is


                 a presence


lodged within the flash
                 of time’s pinpoint.

 

Das Schema der Nothwendigkeit das Dasein eines Gegenstandes zu aller Zeit.

 

                                                                     The shape of destiny’s curvature:     




                                        a presence     

   
of eternal                                                                 


resistance.     

 

Numina: Shadows

[Psalm 90 (transfigured from the Vulgate, both columns, and occasionally from LXX)]

 

              loudness & dread ode, chants agency
                                                            as          given–ness
 

(1)                                                                       name

                                                                           of uncertainty, a
                                             habitat in the noise
              of           absence, super–
               
                                                          –lative descent:    shadows_____of entangled nomina

& their dominions—a moratorium

                                                                           of togetherness, enclosures of intimacy

 

(2) anti–luminous spacings
                                                                           point through
                                                                           all numbers, a refugee
                             to                                                                       your                                 great




                                                          fortress

 

(3)     self drawn other self, trap sprung, the wild pulse, artery of pursuit—hungers;  the turbulence       
          insidious as death


(4)                  umbrous recess along
                                                                     the shoulders’ peak


                                     like wings
                                     of god



                                     hope beneath shadow

 

(5)                                                            bodied truths    
                                     circle, trembling
                                     as nightfall

 

(6)                                each day the god—flight of arrows, tenebrous
                                                                                                                                                        cycle of destructions

                                                                                     meridian of jaws, mouths____________________________________insanities!

 

(7)     along body’s flank & edge stumble countless
                                         longings, hands multiplied towards another, advances



                                                                                                                                                    nothing

 

(8)                                    eyes of another
                                                        self, the sifted
                                                        hostilities

 

(9)     you                                                     are my hope, threshold
                                                                                                     &
                                                                                                     chamber of self, poised



                        on the edge
                        of each                              open palm

 

(10)                                                                            tabernacle unfallen, encampment
                                                                                  unfazed

 

(11)     the angels teeming upon thy hand,
                                         desire’s warden

 

(12)                                  both hands translate 
                                        you, slide            
                                       between naked feet        
                                       &           stone

 

(13)     your face, a calque:                                  serpentine, bestial

 

(14)                                              clutch other self, I draw near from depths, heights    
          a name on      the tongue

 

(15)                                              voice releases itself, tongue
                                                                                                   presses ear; roam &       uncover          wonders

 

(16)     i overflow         the other        one
                                        through          the         long        days
                                                       i        lean       towards that other                         self    
                                                                                                                                                               securing       me

 

Vulgate Psalm 90

1 laus cantici David qui habitat in adiutorio Altissimi in protectione Dei caeli commorabitur
2 dicet Domino susceptor meus es tu et refugium meum Deus meus sperabo in eum
3 quoniam ipse liberabit me de laqueo venantium et a verbo aspero
4 in scapulis suis obumbrabit te et sub pinnis eius sperabis
5 scuto circumdabit te veritas eius non timebis a timore nocturno
6 a sagitta volante in die a negotio perambulante in tenebris ab incursu et daemonio meridiano
7 cadent a latere tuo mille et decem milia a dextris tuis ad te autem non adpropinquabit
8 verumtamen oculis tuis considerabis et retributionem peccatorum videbis
9 quoniam tu Domine spes mea Altissimum posuisti refugium tuum
10 non accedent ad te mala et flagellum non adpropinquabit tabernaculo tuo
11 quoniam angelis suis mandabit de te ut custodiant te in omnibus viis tuis
12 in manibus portabunt te ne forte offendas ad lapidem pedem tuum
13 super aspidem et basiliscum ambulabis et; conculcabis leonem et draconem
14 quoniam in me speravit et liberabo eum protegam eum quia cognovit nomen meum
15 clamabit ad me et exaudiam eum cum ipso sum in tribulatione eripiam eum et clarificabo eum
16 longitudine dierum replebo eum et ostendam illi salutare meum

Septuagint (LXX) Psalm 90

1 Αἶνος ᾠδῆς τῷ Δαυιδ. Ὁ κατοικῶν ἐν βοηθείᾳ τοῦ ὑψίστου ἐν σκέπῃ τοῦ θεοῦ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ αὐλισθήσεται.
2 ἐρεῖ τῷ κυρίῳ Ἀντιλήμπτωρ μου εἶ καὶ καταφυγή μου, ὁ θεός μου, ἐλπιῶ ἐπ᾽ αὐτόν,
3 ὅτι αὐτὸς ῥύσεταί με ἐκ παγίδος θηρευτῶν καὶ ἀπὸ λόγου ταραχώδους.
4 ἐν τοῖς μεταφρένοις αὐτοῦ ἐπισκιάσει σοι, καὶ ὑπὸ τὰς πτέρυγας αὐτοῦ ἐλπιεῖς· ὅπλῳ κυκλώσει σε ἡ ἀλήθεια αὐτοῦ.
5 οὐ φοβηθήσῃ ἀπὸ φόβου νυκτερινοῦ, ἀπὸ βέλους πετομένου ἡμέρας,
6 ἀπὸ πράγματος διαπορευομένου ἐν σκότει, ἀπὸ συμπτώματος καὶ δαιμονίου μεσημβρινοῦ.
7 πεσεῖται ἐκ τοῦ κλίτους σου χιλιὰς καὶ μυριὰς ἐκ δεξιῶν σου, πρὸς σὲ δὲ οὐκ ἐγγιεῖ·
8 πλὴν τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς σου κατανοήσεις καὶ ἀνταπόδοσιν ἁμαρτωλῶν ὄψῃ.
9 ὅτι σύ, κύριε, ἡ ἐλπίς μου· τὸν ὕψιστον ἔθου καταφυγήν σου.
10 οὐ προσελεύσεται πρὸς σὲ κακά, καὶ μάστιξ οὐκ ἐγγιεῖ τῷ σκηνώματί σου,
11 ὅτι τοῖς ἀγγέλοις αὐτοῦ ἐντελεῖται περὶ σοῦ τοῦ διαφυλάξαι σε ἐν πάσαις ταῖς ὁδοῖς σου·
12 ἐπὶ χειρῶν ἀροῦσίν σε, μήποτε προσκόψῃς πρὸς λίθον τὸν πόδα σου·
13 ἐπ᾽ ἀσπίδα καὶ βασιλίσκον ἐπιβήσῃ καὶ καταπατήσεις λέοντα καὶ δράκοντα.
14 ὅτι ἐπ᾽ ἐμὲ ἤλπισεν, καὶ ῥύσομαι αὐτόν· σκεπάσω αὐτόν, ὅτι ἔγνω τὸ ὄνομά μου.
15 ἐπικαλέσεταί με, καὶ εἰσακούσομαι αὐτοῦ, μετ᾽ αὐτοῦ εἰμι ἐν θλίψει καὶ ἐξελοῦμαι καὶ δοξάσω αὐτόν.
16 μακρότητα ἡμερῶν ἐμπλήσω αὐτὸν καὶ δείξω αὐτῷ τὸ σωτήριόν μου.

King James Version Psalm 91

[1] He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
[2] I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.
[3] Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.
[4] He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.
[5] Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day;
[6] Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.
[7] A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.
[8] Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked.
[9] Because thou hast made the LORD, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation;
[10] There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.
[11] For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.
[12] They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.
[13] Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet.
[14] Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name.
[15] He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him.
[16] With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.

Currently a doctoral candidate at Binghamton University in the Philosophy, Literature, and Theory of Criticism Program within the Department of Comparative Literature, D.M. Spitzer works primarily on early Greek thinking and its modern and contemporary reception and on translation theory. In August 2016, Etruscan Press published his book of poems, A Heaven Wrought of Iron: Poems from the Odyssey. Some poems and excerpts from book–length works of his have appeared or are forthcoming in North American Review, TRANSverse, Metonym, Numéro Cinq, and Cyphers (Ireland). Abyss of departures, an image|text collaboration with digital artist Sara Shiva Spitzer, is in production for Hawai’i Review’s e–chapbook series. At present, Spitzer is co-editing a volume on philosophy and translation.

 
 

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