Monday, August 27, 2018

239/365/Poetry and Form

Sometimes fly recipes read like poems. I was reminded of this when listening to some of the coverage that The Feather Thief is getting lately. I don’t tie flies, and I should find a modern recipe that is short and pretty, but instead I refer you to a book I mentioned in July, that oldest book I’ve ever touched. Here is the translation of some mid-fifteenth-century recipes, a found poem of sorts.

How one should bind hook[s] for the
whole year and according to each month
In the first May thus take a dark feather and black
light brown under that so it gives a good shine underneath.
And what you may have of black feather, that
you should lay on top and golden and black silk under that
and a red hook with red feather and gold and red [silk]
under it. Therefore you have quite enough for first May.
Should the water be turbid or swollen, then make your hook
or the feather so much larger.
In June [“second May”] take a light brown feather and
black and red [silk] under that and take a white feather and
gold and black [silk] under that and take a reddish brown feather
and white and red [silk] under that and for a black
hook tied with it and a red hook also always
on the line as I have written before and make that
well tied and large and adjust yourself according to
the water [conditions] as I have written before.
In the first August you should bind a red tuft of
red feathers with red and with brown [silk] and a golden
breast under that. After that you should bind dark gray
feather and bind silver and red silk under that and
take white partridge  feather and bind white and a red
silk under that. Take a red stingel feather and bind
red and yellow [silk] under that and for always a black
hook and a red [one] on the line and adjust yourself always
according to the water [conditions].
In September [“second August”] thus take ash-colored feather
and bind under that gray and light blue [silk] and take
yellow feather and bind red and yellow [silk] under that
with a golden breast and take
wryneck feather and bind gray and white [silk] under that
and take the white [feathers] of the woodpecker which he has beneath
the crop and mix them among another feather that is
light gray and bind red and white [silk] under that and
bind the two hooks as before and adjust yourself
according to the water.
In October [“first autumn”] thus take pale mousey brown feather
with white and with red [silk] and a golden breast
under that and take a gray feather from a
heron and take gold and gray [silk] under that and
take dark glass-colored [feather] and bind red and white
under that and a yellow hook as I have previously
written and work hard so that the smaller the water
is, so the smaller you should tie and black
and red [hooks on the line] as before.
In November [“other autumn”] you should bind really small and should
lay down a light gray feather and light blue and white [silk]
under that and take green woodpecker feathers and wind green
and yellow [silk] under that and take light ash-colored feather and
wind gold and white [silk] under that. What you take thus of pale feathers,
that is all good, and take red and white [silk] as before.
So you have the entire art/craft [chunst] of the tying and what you
would make as a breast for every month and on
all hooks, which you should do in the color as this is tied.

4 comments:

  1. I read this, and heard the echoes of long ago church services, the cadences, the long swell of "ands" and "thats."

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  2. My favorite line:
    Should the water be turbid or swollen, then make your hook
    or the feather so much larger.

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  3. I became a little giddy (and giggly) while reading this. I think I wouldn't have had the patience for fishing in the 15th century.

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  4. I love this. I felt my Dad was reading it with me - poetry he would have been able to relate to.

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