There's a strong sense of intimacy about the shot, to me - I don't feel solitude when I look at it. Though the suggestion of a gate lock might lead there - otherwise the two objects are meeting, if not communicating, exactly.

Well, they're not quite touching, Bob. Seriously, this had a look of intimacy to me, too, the product of protecting, touching, and greeting.

"Two solitudes" -- so poetic. I wonder who first translated it like that? 'Because Rilke, though a marvelous poet, simply referred to "two lonely ones," meaning two lonely people.

Of course, now I will have to read up on Hugh MacLennan and his novel. Being bi-lingual and bi-cultural myself, the subject holds much interest for me.

And that's why you shouldn't read literature in translation, Sarah. Penguin used to publish a translation of La Peste that had the working people of Oran dropping their aitches.

I had to read MacLennan (thanks for reminding me of the correct spelling of his name, by the way) in high school. I re-read it later, too, and discovered that a racy paragraph had been left out of the schools edition. Anyway, I remember nothing of it except that one of the characters is named Athanase Tallard. You have been warned.

Of course, over 50 years have passed since I graduated from high school, and I don't remember much of anything I read back then.

Nancy Huston writes in French and then does the English translation herself. I suppose the English translation might elucidate the French original. She's also done it the other way, sort of. Cantique des Plaines is an adaptation of Plainsong.

Superb abstract - and your comment is food for thought!

Thanks, Diane.

;-)) but actually there are three ... lol

Certainly there are in Canada, aNNa.