måndag 12 april 2010

KAPRIS (intellektuella trumfkort)


T skickar mig ett meddelande efter middagen han just intagit. Jag inbillar mig att han är naken, eftersom han använder uttrycket, "prancing", något jag, vad gäller män, inbillar mig, insinuerar en form av déshabillé. Han har till sin förvåning upptäckt att ordet caper, för kapris, in hans uppslagsbok saknar definitionen "salted berry", och istället har
1. to prance, to frisk, to gambol.
2. a prank or trick, a harebrained escapade.

Kapris har aldrig varit en av mina pickles of choice. Jag finner den runda formen och den fuktiga salta smaken högst otilltalande. Istället påminner den salta aromen och det fuktiga kristalliserade bäret mig om en crustacean, en vårtlik havsväxt som sväller likt acne över stenarna och de rostiga bryggorna ute vid Seaton Sands. Kanske är det den kallbrandsgröna färgen, eller den sjukligt vitfläckiga våta hinnan över knoppen.
Efter någon timme kontrar jag T med följande pretention:

"On the topic of capers (random finds):

"In Biblical times the caper-berry was apparently supposed to have aphrodisiac properties; the Hebrew word abiyyonah (אֲבִיּוֹנָה) for caper-berry is closely linked to the Hebrew root אבה, meaning "desire". The word occurs once in the Bible, in the book of Ecclesiastes, at verse 12:5.
The King James Version translates on the basis of the Hebrew root (and perhaps the metaphorical meaning):

...the grasshopper shall be a burden,
and desire shall fail.

The medieval Jewish commentator Rashi also gives a similar gloss. However ancient translations, including the Septugint, Vulgate, Peshitta, and Aquila, render the word more concretely as κάππαρις, "caper berry". Thus in the words of one modern idiomatic translation (2004),

...the grasshopper loses its spring,
and the caper berry has no effect;"

Bizzarely, if we consult Pliny the elder, we find the following:


"The Caper too, should be sown in dry localities more particularly, the plot being hollowed out and surrounded with an embankment of stones erected around it: it this precaution is not taken, it will spread all over the adjoining land, and entail sterility upon the soil. The caper blossoms in summer, and retains its verdure till the setting of the Vergiliæ; it thrives the best of all in a sandy soil. As to the bad qualities of the caper which grows in the parts beyond the sea, we have already enlarged upon them when speaking of the exotic shrubs." (19:48)

The paradoxical nature of this horrid tasteless bud amuses me. On the one hand an aphrodisiac, on the other it entails sterility.

Love, J"