Also of possible interest is the death monday of Stanisław Lem

from http://serwisy.gazeta.pl/kraj/1,71898,3239723.html

"W Krakowie w wieku 85 lat zmarł w poniedziałek Stanisław Lem, jeden z największych pisarzy fantastyki naukowej. Jest wiele jego zasługi w tym, że "naukowa" dziś jest ona nie tylko z nazwy. ...
Urodzony w 1921 r. we Lwowie Lem po wojnie repatriował się wraz z rodziną do Krakowa. Niemal natychmiast zaczął też pisać utwory wojenne i fantastyczne..."

"Stanislaw Lem died at the age of 85 in Cracow Monday. He was one of the greatest science fiction writers and it's partly thanks to him that the word 'science' is not an empty modifier....
Born in 1921 in Lvov, he resettled with his family in Cracow after the war (my note: prewar Lvov was part of Poland, post war Lvov was part of the Soviet Union). He began almost at once to write war and science fiction stories..."

Umm, that headline looks like an imperative. Some periods might have been useful.

I must be stone-thick. And deaf.

WAVE ave is a poem?

It's concrete poetry (based on the forms of words and letters at least as much as meaning). Not everyone's cup of tea, obviously, but you'd want to see it in context at Little Sparta before making a final judgment.

Sounds like he was loaded--how many artists can afford to travel around and buy a lot of land without scoring any blockbusters?

I find it interesting that he translates "rutabaga" as "rhubarb". If I understand correctly, rutabaga is the turnip-like vegetable (Brassica napus, I think) which Brits would call "swede" and we Scots would call a "neep". (Mashed neeps and tatties are of course the traditional accompaniment to haggis.) Presumably Finlay felt the similar sound was more important than the exact reference.

So does anybody know where "rutabaga" comes from? It sounds such a strange word to those of us east of the pond!

Araucaria, this clears it up. And Scots were as British as anyone else, last I checked ...

Thanks Aidan. I now have my fill of neeps... And yes, I count myself as both Scots and British.

I saw it in the pictures you linked to, LH. You mean the one with the stream of water coming down from the stone wall with the word "wave" above the opening?

Very unimpressive, if you ask me. As poetry as much as gardening exercise as much as exercise in typographic fonts.

And those stepping stones with inscriptions on them are downright dangerous: try not to get dizzy while reading and walking on water simultaneously.

Hamilton Finlay's 'Unda' was just a hundred yards or so from my office in grad school. It's a work of art I looked at many times, and really appreciated.