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The singing gives birth to light
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Victor Fet [Following Shimanovich's comment] yes, Lermontov could not find right grammar for "fire" to fit it in Russian line with "light"[...] it is probably important that VN's novel is NOT called "Pale Light"[...] Are there cultures which have different terms for celestial lights than earthly ones [...]Fire is source of light, not the other way round, but why we refer to sunlight - not sunfire? Still brimming with intellectual-emotional-fire-light charge from this week's Stephen-Blackwell's[...] hyperwonderful symposium at Knoxville, TN.
JM:Just for the fun (in the mood of your observation on "Pale Light"), here is the image of a box of "safe" matches produced by "Fiat Lux"( Thomas A. Edison should have kept these in his pockets).
On the issue of "earthly lights", I often hear "fireflies" in Brazil being referred to as "vagalumes" (wandering-lights) and "pirilampos" ( "piri" probably indicates fire) - but I think this popular designation is entomologically incorrect.
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