Go backward along the path
to go forward.
technorati tags: memory, healing the past, Kurosawa's Rhapsody in August.
Sheath of feeling. Words groping to touch air.
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A little like a koan.
ReplyDeleteI find this very moving, Brenda.
MB, you're so very intuitive -this came out of meditation, an intense, silent one. Only it was "Go backwards along the path
ReplyDeleteto go forward." Grammatically I can't figure out which is better - what do you think? In our minimalist poetry universe, even the placement of a comma is of great magnitude! An "s" or no "s," oh my! Or would, "Go back along the path
to go forwards," be even better? xo
Used as an adjective, it would be backward, but used as an adverb the way you have it here, it can be either, grammatically speaking. (At least in American English; I don't know about Canadian!) I like the way you have it in your post, without the s, myself. I don't think "Go back" would be better because that allows for circling around or spiralling, as opposed to the more "perplexing" instruction to physically move backwards in order to go forward. That's what makes it so koan-like and, in my opinion, effective.
ReplyDeleteMe, I think it's just right as it is! ;-)
Great taste in films!
ReplyDeleteFowler's Dictionary of Modern English Usage, 1965 edition, verifying MB, says, "As an adverb either form may be used; as an adjective *backward* only." Fowler also has an entry on forward/forwards which is too complicated for me. But who cares? The statement has wisdom in it, a wisdom I haven't yet mastered.
ReplyDeleteI agree with mb. I think the added "s" is more common in British (versus US) spellings, but I don't know which Canadian English prefers. Marvelous phrase and lesson. It also applies to the bridge I used to cross to get to work during Boston winters, turning my back on the headwind! :)
ReplyDeleteI loved Kurosawa's "Dreams" -- am putting "Rhapsody..." on my To See list.
They didn't actually walk backwards in Kurosawa's film. But they went back along the path that she went on on that terrifying day in Nagasaki. Revisiting the path that you took to get where you are now, a redemption in that perhaps. Which is why "back" would closer to the scene itself, but "backward" it is!
ReplyDeleteThanks Richard, I should put Fowler's on my list! It's most fascinating - what an "s" can do, I mean. Canadians are supposed to do it like the English do, but more and more we're tending towards American usage.
So are the British! It's shocking to me when I read the Harry Potter books and can scarcely tell from the dialogue that the characters are British. The fact that this is more apparent in kids' books than in adults' indicates to me that a rapid media-induced leveling is going on. (I think they make some word changes for American editions, but surely not an overall shift in vocabulary and cadence.)
ReplyDelete