¡Carámbanos!

I like this word. But in Spanish.

It is pronounced with a hard "K" Kah- ram- bah- nose . It rolls on your tongue and whispers out. Carámbanos.

The thing in English is called an antiseptic "icicle", in French it is a nasal "glaçon", in German a barked "Eizsapfen", even in náhuatl it is a sweet "acectli". Melodic insensible words. They do not convey the idea of the criminal water, which refuses to drip, to be liquid and dares to hang.

But in Spanish you holler ¡Carámbanos! which dangle from the window sills, waiting waiting for a walker who will stand, waiting for him to stop and then they fly, and then they break and crack and drop and kill and become weapons and pikes and then shatered carámbanos, fractured carámbanos, and carámbanos destroyed.


I like them like so.