GR translation: Around the bloom

[Michael Bailey]

It’s the primary meaning, but the passage develops a sense that “paying
attention to something makes it bloom in your mind, while the rest of the
surroundings tend to fade”

At the end of the poem, a bomb blast in a city is referred to as a bloom,
whereas lights in windows having been turned off all around in observance
of blackout demonstrate the “fade.”

Pointsman’s poetry elaborates on his and Pavlov’s concepts of neurology,
taking off from a Pavlov lecture quoted right before the poem:

“Ordinarily in our behavior, we react not singly, but complexly, to fit the
ever present contents of our environment. In old people,” Pavlov was
lecturing at the age of 83, “the matter is altogether different.
Concentrating on one stimulus we exclude by negative induction other
collateral and simultaneous stimuli because they often do not suit the
circumstances, are not complementary reactions in the given setting.”





On Sun, Nov 24, 2024 at 2:18 PM Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
wrote:

> V226.23-30, P229.13-20
> Thus [Pointsman never shows these excursions of his to
> anyone], reaching for some flower on my table,
> I know the cool mosaic of my room
> Begin its slow, inhibitory dissolve
> Around the bloom, the stimulus, the need
> That brighter burns, as brightness, quickly sucked
> From objects all around, now concentrates
> (Yet less than blinding), focuses to flame.
>
> Here the word "bloom" means "flower", is that correct?
> --
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>