Sanctuary Line
Page 20
Standing on those limestone platforms with the bright expanse of an inland sea my only horizon, I watched three lost children, one of them me, fold their paper boats one last time while the poets spoke in my mind: the dark arguing with the bright palette, neither of them wrong. It was Mandy who filled the atmosphere in the end, her recitation so clear, it was almost as if she were standing beside me at the water’s edge.
Away down the river,
A hundred miles or more,
Other little children
Shall bring my boats ashore.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Several individuals have given me help and advice during the writing of this novel. Chris Peters provided valuable information concerning the working conditions of Mexican migrant workers, while Sue Adamson shared her family’s intimate knowledge of fruit farming in southern Ontario. The late Clifford Quinn’s “Down on the Farm” was an excellent source of details concerning pioneer agricultural practices, and Andrew Trant spoke to me about science and orchardists. I am most grateful to them all.
I would also like to thank Dr. Michael Hurley and Lt.-Col. Ian Hope, both of the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ontario, for clarifying some facts; Bonnie Mulligan for keeping a significant part of my life in order and for being such a devoted reader; and my brother John Carter for his attentive reading.
Thanks also to Emily Urquhart, Tony Urquhart, Mieke Bevelander, and Andrew Trant for being enthusiastic and insightful first readers of this novel, and to Rasha Mourtada, also a first reader and one with unique knowledge.
I am very thankful for Ellen Levine, my agent of many years, who has constantly provided the warmest of professional and personal support.
I am extremely grateful for Heather Sangster’s meticulous attention to my work in this book and in all the other books of mine she has worked on.
I sincerely appreciate all of McClelland & Stewart’s efforts on my behalf, and would particularly like to thank Kendra Ward, Ashley Dunn, and Anita Chong.
Thanks also are due to Michael Levine for all the sound guidance he has given me on various occasions.
Finally, and as always, I would like to express my deepest affectionate gratitude to my publisher and editor, Ellen Seligman, for her brilliant work with the text and for her unwavering loyalty to its author.
The verses on page 43 are from “The Playhouse Key” by Rachel Field.
The song lyrics quoted on page 75 are from the traditional folk song “Little Sadie.”
The verse on page 99 is from Pablo Neruda’s poem “La Canción Desesperada” (“The Song of Despair”), from Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair by Pablo Neruda, translated by W.S. Merwin (Penguin Classics).
The line by Carl Sandburg on page 152 is from the poem “Fog.”
The Spanish lyrics and English-language translation for the traditional folk song “La Chamuscada” quoted on page 224 are from The Mexican Corrido by Maria Herrera-Sobek (Indiana University Press, 1993).
The verse quoted on pages 251–252 is from the poem “Daddy” by Sylvia Plath, from Ariel.
The verses by Robert Louis Stevenson are taken from the following poems: on page 27, “Farewell to the Farm”; on page 199, “At the Sea-side”; on page 250, “The Unseen Playmate” and “Time to Rise”; on pages 263 and 272, “Where Go the Boats?”
The verses by Emily Dickinson are taken from the following poems: on page 214, “The Soul selects her own Society-”; on pages 263–264, “Adrift! A little boat adrift!”; on page 250, “I dreaded that first robin so” and “She died at play.”
Lines adapted from “Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)” on page 47 are used with the permission of the following publishers:
Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)
Words and Music by Irving Burgie and William Attaway
Copyright © 1955; Renewed 1983 Cherry Lane Music Publishing
Company, Inc. (ascap), Lord Burgess Music Publishing Company
(ASCAP) and FSMGI (IMRO)
Worldwide Rights for Lord Burgess Music Publishing Company
Administered by Cherry Lane Music Publishing Company, Inc.
All Rights for FSMGI Administered by State One Songs America
International Copyright Secured All Rights Reserved
Reprinted by permission of Cherry Lane Music Company
Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)
Words and Music by William Attaway and Irving Burgie
© 1957 (Renewed) FSMGI (IMRO) and Cherry Lane Music
Publishing Co. (ascap)
All Rights for FSMGI (IMRO) Administered by Chrysalis One
Music (ASCAP) All Rights Reserved
Used by Permission of Alfred Music Publishing Co., Inc.
Copyright © 2010 by Jane Urquhart
All rights reserved. The use of any part of this publication reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system, without the prior written consent of the publisher – or, in case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, a licence from the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency – is an infringement of the copyright law.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Urquhart, Jane
Sanctuary line / Jane Urquhart.
eISBN: 978-0-7710-8647-2
I. Title.
PS8591.R68S25 2010 C813′.54 C2010-901483-9
We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program and that of the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Media Development Corporation’s Ontario Book Initiative. We further acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program.
McClelland & Stewart Ltd.
75 Sherbourne Street
Toronto, Ontario
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