Thursday, July 21, 2005

Why 'unhemmed'?

It's an anal reference to Finnegans Wake, of all the things in the world, where Joyce rewrites the Lord's Prayer, or part of it, like this:

"In the name of Annah the Allmaziful, the Everliving, the Bringer of
Plurabilities, halved be her eve, her signtime sung, her rill be run,
unhemmed as it is in heaven."


Which is pretty cool, I think. Also I just like the idea of things
being unhemmed.

There is a slightly different version, however, on this page:

"In the name of Annah the Allmaziful, the Everliving, the Bringer of Plurabilities, haloed be her eve, her singtime sung, her rill be run, unhemmed as it is uneven!"

This version is corroborated on this rather extraordinary page. I need a copy of the book. I copied my version down from Hugh Kearney's Transitions (1988), page 43, sometime in the second half of 2003. And I could well have introduced some 'mistakes' of my own. I hope that it is 'signtime', and not 'singtime' - but on the other hand I hope that they are right about 'unhemmed as it is uneven'. As far as 'halved' and 'haloed' goes, I'd be happy with either.

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