“The Appointment in Samarra”
(as retold by W. Somerset Maugham [1933])
The speaker is Death
There was a merchant in Bagdad who sent his servant to market to buy provisions and in a little while the servant came back, white and trembling, and said, Master, just now when I was in the marketplace I was jostled by a woman in the crowd and when I turned I saw it was Death that jostled me. She looked at me and made a threatening gesture, now, lend me your horse, and I will ride away from this city and avoid my fate. I will go to Samarra and there Death will not find me. The merchant lent him his horse, and the servant mounted it, and he dug his spurs in its flanks and as fast as the horse could gallop he went. Then the merchant went down to the marketplace and he saw me standing in the crowd and he came to me and said, Why did you make a threating getsture to my servant when you saw him this morning? That was not a threatening gesture, I said, it was only a start of surprise. I was astonished to see him in Bagdad, for I had an appointment with him tonight in Samarra.
Interesting, Eddie! And I thought, “gobble, gobble, gobble” was just about turkeys!
You have a great Christmas!
Cheers,
Geoff
That is so cool. It’s on your houseboat?
Nice find, lovely composition 🙂
Cool image.
Happy Holidays my friend.
~Oswegan
It reminds me of a Portuguese tile, MA. Where did you find that treasure?
It’s icicles time! The one at the Rock House are getting longer every day, so yours I bet.
interesting image. 😀 merry christmas! 😀
Nice and original picture! I wish you a merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
That is a very ‘cool’ shot.
Have a Merry Christmas.
Very different…Merry Christmas:-)
Hi dear Eddie, I find this photo breathtaking. Singularly beautiful and peaceful. The fish image is lovely done in simple blue on the dove gray background….BUT it is the icicles that make the whole photo startling. I love how they are somewhat off to the left side AND how they reflect the blue from the fish design. This is absolutely ZEN, stunning. Most people would have knocked the icicles down and then taken the photo. See? That is where you see the world in a whole different way. Without the icicles the photo might be passed by as just an interesting design. I just love how the long vertical icicles slice through the round fish image….carrying the blue with them. I also love how the upper right corner is slightly bluer. Just stunning. This is one of your very best….but then I say think that about them all! 🙂 🙂 Happy Holidays Eddie!!! Robin
It looks like an Ouroboros and a Triskele in one! Two views of the cyclic nature of the Universe. I wonder what the artist was thinking?
Learning is perpetual. The circle rmeinds beings of oneness, unity and overcoming adversity through interdependence and love. Another view regards the circle as a symbol of protection or the boundary of inner power (reach of energy field). Its said that those beings who have outer body experiences symbolically imagine a circle around their physical bodies so nothing “uninvited” enters the body during their own spirit’s absence.