azure

PossibleUnderscore HA! Feb 22, 2010

bilby Wish I could add sionnach's lit crit to his own darn list. Feb 22, 2010

sionnach Azure pupils, eh? Now there's something you don't see every day. Marcel needed to get out more, instead of slurping down interminable infusions in that bloody cork-lined room, reminiscing about maman tucking him in every night, the snivelling little toad. Feb 22, 2010

knitandpurl "After walking across the garden of the Arena in the glare of the sun, I entered the Giotto chapel, the entire ceiling of which and the background of the frescoes are so blue that it seems as though the radiant daylight has crossed the threshold with the human visitor in order to give its pure sky a momentary breather in the coolness and shade, a sky merely of a slightly deeper blue now that it is rid of the glitter of the sunlight, as in those brief moments when, though no cloud is to be seen, the sun has turned its gaze elsewhere and the azure, softer still, grows deeper."
--The Captive & The Fugitive by Marcel Proust, translated by C.K. Scott Moncrieff and Terence Kilmartin, revised by D.J. Enright, p 878 of the Modern Library paperback edition Feb 22, 2010

knitandpurl "And during the few minutes that the Prince was standing beside their table, M. de Norpois never ceased for an instant to keep his azure pupils trained on Mme de Villeparisis, with the mixture of indulgence and severity of an old lover, but principally from fear of her committing one of those verbal solecisms which he had relished but which he dreaded."
--The Captive & The Fugitive by Marcel Proust, translated by C.K. Scott Moncrieff and Terence Kilmartin, revised by D.J. Enright, p 858 of the Modern Library paperback edition Feb 22, 2010

knitandpurl "But much later, when I went back gradually, in reverse order, over the times through which I had passed before I had come to love Albertine so much, when my healed heart could detach itself without suffering from Albertine dead, then I was able to recall at length without suffering that day on which Albertine had gone shopping with Françoise instead of remaining at the Trocadéro; I recalled it with pleasure as belonging to an emotional season which I had not known until then; I recalled it at last exactly, no longer injecting it with suffering, but rather, on the contrary, as we recall certain days in summer which we found too hot while they lasted, and from which only after they have passed do we extract their unalloyed essence of pure gold and indestructible azure."
-- The Captive & The Fugitive by Marcel Proust, translated by C.K. Scott Moncrieff and Terence Kilmartin, revised by D.J. Enright, p 656 of the Modern Library paperback edition Feb 15, 2010

knitandpurl "Likewise, too, no more than the seasons to its flowerless creeks, do modern times bring any change to the Gothic city; I knew it, even if I could not imagine it, or rather, imagining it, this was what I longed for with the same desire which long ago, when I was a boy, in the very ardour of departure, had broken and robbed me of the strength to make the journey: to find myself face to face with my Venetian imaginings, to observe how that divided sea enclosed in its meanderings, like the sinuosities of the ocean stream, an urbane and refined civilisation, but one that, isolated by their azure girdle, had evolved independently, had had its own schools of painting and architecture, to admire that fabulous garden of fruits and birds in coloured stone, flowering in the midst of the sea which kept it refreshed, lapped the base of the columns with its tide, and, like a sombre azure gaze watching in the shadows, kept patches of light perpetually flickering on the bold relief of the capitals."
-- The Captive & The Fugitive by Marcel Proust, translated by C.K. Scott Moncrieff and Terence Kilmartin, revised by D.J. Enright, p 556 of the Modern Library paperback edition Feb 10, 2010

thtownse Thet's purty, azure as ah'm settin' hayr. Feb 10, 2010

knitandpurl "I kissed her then a second time, pressing to my heart the shimmering golden azure of the Grand Canal and the mating birds, symbols of death and resurrection."
--The Captive & The Fugitive by Marcel Proust, translated by C.K. Scott Moncrieff and Terence Kilmartin, revised by D.J. Enright, p 538 of the Modern Library paperback edition Feb 10, 2010

knitandpurl "The Fortuny gown which Albertine was wearing that evening seemed to me the tempting phantom of that invisible Venice. It was overrun by Arab ornamentation, like Venice, like the Venetian palaces hidden like sultan's wives behind a screen of perforated stone, like the bindings in the Ambrosian Library, like the columns from which the oriental birds that symbolised alternatively life and death were repeated in the shimmering fabric, of an intense blue which, as my eyes drew nearer, turned into a malleable gold by those same transmutations which, before an advancing gondola, change into gleaming metal the azure of the Grand Canal. And the sleeves were lined with a cherry pink which is so peculiarly Venetian that it is called Tiepolo pink."
--The Captive & The Fugitive by Marcel Proust, translated by C.K. Scott Moncrieff and Terence Kilmartin, revised by D.J. Enright, p 531 of the Modern Library paperback edition Feb 10, 2010

Meeg It's interesting to note that in Spanish "azul" means simple blue and that in Italian "azzurro" is the preferred word for the color as opposed to "blu" which is used to describe darker blue or navy blue.

In English azure is often taken to mean "sky blue" or "light blue" (i.e. the light blue color of the sky). "Azure sky" is a common word pairing, but the word was probably originally applied to the more intense, lapis lazuli color of the sky as seen in Mediterranean countries. Jun 10, 2009

myth Azure is a nice simple word - makes me think of the sky, no where nears as pretentious a color as incarnadine. Feb 20, 2009

knitandpurl "Tossing her head like a royal palfrey embarrassed by its halter of pearls, of an incalculable value but an inconvenient weight, she let fall here and there a soft and charming gaze, of an azure which, as it gradually began to fade, became more caressing still, and greeted most of the departing guests with a friendly nod."
--Sodom and Gomorrah by Marcel Proust, translated by C.K. Scott Moncrieff and Terence Kilmartin, revised by D.J. Enright, p 163 of the Modern Library paperback edition Feb 6, 2009

Prolagus That's so creepy. This is the only X-files episode I have ever watched, many years ago, and I was thinking about this... yesterday. Dec 31, 2008

rubah I liked it because of that episode of X-Files, where the guy who could take over your mind by talking to you tried to convince mulder he was about to be run over by a semi-truck that was azure colored Dec 31, 2008

lampbane So you're not a big fan of the actress Azura Skye, then? Oct 7, 2008

tbtabby ...Not seeing what's so bad about it. Oct 7, 2008

yarb I think Milton is chiefly responsible for the popularity among poetasters of this rephrensible word. Nov 30, 2007

vanishedone What do you think of Milton? ('...uneasy steps/Over the burning marle, not like those steps/On Heaven’s azure...') Nov 30, 2007

yarb I don't really like cerulean, but for some reason it doesn't make my piss boil like 'azure'. Nov 30, 2007

sionnach How do you feel about cerulean, yarb? Nov 30, 2007

yarb One of the most pretentious words ever - an adjective which communicates more about its deployer than its subject. A deplorable word which must be eschewed by all writers (for have you ever heard it used in conversation?) of imagination and / or panache. Nov 30, 2007