Reposted by @lemondifficult.bsky.social
This was the Telegraph's big front page splash this morning.
The headline is wrong and the lead is... rather carefully worded, shall we say
Also please enjoy the Telegraph's data editor being called Butcher...
![22
In all things I yearn for the past. Modern fashions seem to keep on growing more and more debased. I find that even among the splendid pieces of furniture built by our master cabinetmakers, those in the old forms are the most pleasing.
And as for writing letters, surviving scraps from the past reveal how superb the phrasing used to be. The ordinary spoken language has also steadily coarsened. People used to say "raise the carriage shafts" or "trim the lamp wick," but people today say "raise it" or "trim it." When they should say, "Let the men of the palace staff? stand forth!" they say,
"Torches! Let's have some light!" & Instead of calling the place where the lectures on the Sutra of the Golden Light* are delivered before the emperor "the Hall of the Imperial Lecture," they shorten it to "the Lecture Hall," a deplorable corruption, an old gentleman complained.
1. This is apparently a reference to Genji Monogatari; it might therefore be better to translate kano ki no michi no takumi as "that [well-known] master cabinetmaker."
2. Tonomoryo is translated by R. K. Reischauer as "Bureau of Palace Equipment and Upkeep."
3. Kenkô contrasts the old, oblique command and the present, direct one.
4. The full title of the sutra in Japanese is Konkömy Saishoö-kyo (Sutra of the excellent golden light). It was the most influential Buddhist text in eighth-century Japan, and in Kenkö's day lectures on it were delivered at the palace in the fifth month every year.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:g5vb4ggu7lf22b52qqvb2bqc/bafkreiapawrwdtbcdg5tsxqcurwl52r42swobvi6oag6qzdme7poc4bt7e)
