Bosphorus snd Embankment

The Bosphorus connects the Sea of Marmara to the Black Sea at Istanbul, and it also serves to separate the European land mass from the middle east (it is often incorrectly said that it separates Europe from Asia). The Embankment refers to the Thames Embankment, a built-up area in London originally built to allow low-lying, marshy land to be drained, which increased the amount of land which could be used for building in the city of Westminster, a part of metropolitan London.

I have no idea what the author thinks the use of Bosphorus and Embankment are supposed to mean to the reader. It is obscure.

Yes it is.

It seems to be about losing one's employment/ livelihood in differing societies and in different ages.

Getting the sack in the style of the Bosphorus: being thrown into the water?

In the sense of The Embankment: becoming jobless and therefore homeless, and having to sleep rough (in a sack?) by the river.

Only a guess, though.

Good point about the Embankment, McT. Are there not benches at the Embankment? Do not the homeless already sleep there, it they are not rousted by the police?

Yes, they do.

Turkish sultans used to execute unwanted courtesans, opponents, etc, by tying them in a weighted sack and throwing them in the Bosphorus.

So there you have it. The final piece of the jigsaw.

Thank you, contrex.

Very cool. there's been a lot of research done lately on group intelligence/crowd sourcing--how when you get a bunch of people together to collaborate on something the total can be smarter than its individual parts and can sometimes come up with something that the individual people acting alone never would have been able to, and I think we may just have seen it here in action.

Group intelligence be damned...



Incidentally...

The seraglio was where the harem lived.

Moonlight On The Bosphorus
Victor Hugo

Translated by John L. O'Sullivan.

Bright shone the merry moonbeams dancing o'er the wave;
At the cool casement, to the evening breeze flung wide,
Leans the Sultana, and delights to watch the tide,
With surge of silvery sheen, yon sleeping islets lave.

From her hand, as it falls, vibrates the light guitar.
She listens--hark! that sound that echoes dull and low.
Is it the beat upon the Archipelago
Of some long galley's oar, from Scio bound afar?

Is it the cormorants, whose black wings, one by one,
Cut the blue wave that o'er them breaks in liquid pearls?
Is it some hovering sprite with whistling scream that hurls
Down to the deep from yon old tower a loosened stone?

Who thus disturbs the tide near the seraglio?
'Tis no dark cormorants that on the ripple float,
'Tis no dull plume of stone--no oars of Turkish boat,
With measured beat along the water creeping slow.

'Tis heavy sacks, borne each by voiceless dusky slaves;
And could you dare to sound the depths of yon dark tide,
Something like human form would stir within its side.
Bright shone the merry moonbeams dancing o'er the wave.

Yes; apparently thay WERE carried out, in the sacks.

To execute means to follow out
or to carry out. In America,
when a prisoner is killed in prison
by a government, it is usually
in execution of a death warrant,
after which the remains of the prisoner
can be carried out of the prison.

If the prisoner is executed
before he is killed, then he can get away and recidivate.





David

Why OMsigDavid wrote that load of bollocks I am not sure, folks. Just ignore it. Must be off his meds. Damn fool.

I am SURE that everyone needs U
to tell him what to ignore.





David

No, I don't think so. Most people that decide you don't contribute anything seem to decide that on their own.

Yeah? Have u done a survay
on how and what "most people" decide?
What is the percentage of "most" ??

Did u include abstentions ?
or did u ask only people who say: "PAY - so" ?





David

Please stop trolling.

U seem to be in a very nasty mood today,
but u will not bring me down! I am HAPPY, CHEERFUL n in a very good mood!

LIFE IS BEAUTY. JOY ABOUNDS IN MY BEING!






David