An Epic on Childhood - 22 Pachakuthira
why they called you green horse
you beautiful hopper on grass
i have no idea
but they said that you bring luck
and the brown one didn't
so human
i loved you all the same
despite their bias
or maybe because of it
i always looked for your beauty
and that of the silver fish and the kingfisher
in the women i loved
La cigale (The Grasshopper) -- Jules Joseph Lefebvre
why they called you green horse
you beautiful hopper on grass
i have no idea
but they said that you bring luck
and the brown one didn't
so human
i loved you all the same
despite their bias
or maybe because of it
i always looked for your beauty
and that of the silver fish and the kingfisher
in the women i loved
La cigale (The Grasshopper) -- Jules Joseph Lefebvre
A pachakuthira is a graasshopper, a member of the order Orthoptera, suborder Caelifera (which includes some 2,400 genera and about 11,000 species), and is probably the oldest extant chewing herbivorous insect. It is sometimes referred to as a short-horned grasshopper to distinguish it from a katydid (bush cricket), which has much longer antennae. In response to overcrowding, tactile stimulation of the hind legs increases among grasshoppers in the Acrididae family, leading to higher
ReplyDeletelevels of serotonin, causing them to change color, eat more, breed faster, and transform into a swarm. Under these circumstances, grasshoppers are known as locusts. Large grasshoppers, such as locusts, can jump about 20 body lengths (a meter) without using their wings.
The Lefebvre painting of the cigale represents the grasshopper's realization that winter is nearing and that she is defenseless against its coming. "Grasshopper" has often been a nickname for an unfaithful woman (who hops from man to man), such as in Anton Chekhov's short story, "Poprygunya", or in Jerry Paris' film. "The Grasshopper."
ReplyDelete"The meadow was wet with dew and Nick wanted to catch grasshoppers for bait before the sun dried the grass. He found plenty of good grasshoppers. They were at the base of the grass stems. Sometimes they clung to a grass stem. They were cold and wet with the dew and could not jump until the sun warmed them. Nick picked them up, taking only the medium-sized brown ones, and put them into the bottle. He turned over a log and just under the shelter of the edge were several hundred hoppers. It was a grasshopper lodging house. Nick put about fifty of the medium browns into the bottle. While he was picking up the hoppers the others warmed in the sun and commenced to hop away. They flew when they hopped. At first they made one flight and stayed stiff when they landed, as though they were dead.
ReplyDelete"Nick knew that by the time he was through with breakfast they would be as lively as ever. Without dew in the grass it would take him all day to catch a bottle full of good grasshoppers and he would have to crush many of them, slamming at them with his hat. He washed his hands at the stream. He was excited to be near it. Then he walked up to the tent. The hoppers were already jumping stiffly in the grass. In the bottle, warmed by the sun, they were jumping in a mass. Nick put in a pine stick as a cork. It plugged the mouth of the bottle enough so the hoppers could not get out, and left plenty of air passage.
...
"He stepped into the stream. It was a shock. His trousers clung tight to his legs. His shoes felt the gravel. The water was a rising cold shock.
Rushing, the current sucked against his legs. Where he stepped in, the water was over his knees. He waded with the current. The gravel slid under his shoes. He looked down at the swirl of water below each leg and tipped up the bottle to get a grasshopper.
"The first grasshopper gave a jump in the neck of the bottle and went out into the water. He was sucked under in the whirl by Nick's right leg and came to the surface a little way down stream. He floated rapidly, kicking. In a quick circle, breaking the smooth surface of the water, he disappeared. A trout had taken him.
"Another hopper poked his head out of the bottle. His antennae wavered. He was getting his front legs out of the bottle to jump. Nick took him by the head and held him while he threaded the slim hook under his chin, down through his thorax and into the last segments of his abdomen. The grasshopper took hold of the hook with his front feet, spitting tobacco juice on it. Nick dropped him into the water.
"Holding the rod in his right hand he let out line against the pull of the grasshopper in the current. He stripped off line from the reel with his left hand and let it run free. He could see the hopper in the little waves of the current. It went out of sight.
"There was a tug on the line. Nick pulled against the taut line. It was his first strike."
--Ernest Hemingway, "The Big Two-Hearted River."