Carmina Saturnalia
Ed Cryer
Far sunken from the healthy breath of morn,
Far from the fiery noon, and eve's one star,
Sat gray-hair'd Saturn, quiet as a stone,
So far we've had;
1. http://tinyurl.com/yhzpfu8
(Beaseley Street) (Via Beisliana)
2. http://tinyurl.com/ybhbpmr
(Desolation Row) (Via Desolationis)
3. http://tinyurl.com/ce79qb
(Hang on St. Christopher) (Agedum persevera, Sancte Christopher)
Here's Leonard Cohen's "Closing Time"
http://tinyurl.com/6qp4gl
(Tempus iam tabernam claudi)
Ed
Ed Cryer
"B. T. Raven" <ni...@nihilo.net> wrote in message
news:CoqdnRzLRo-n9LDW...@sysmatrix.net...
> B. T. Raven wrote:
>
>>>
>>
>>
>> Here are Leonard's Latin lyrics. While translating I listened to it
>> over
>> and over but still found it impossible to stay on that wavelength.
>> Lyrics here:
>
>
>
>
>
>> Tōtus malus locus bis fit cerrītus
>> Semel Sātanae et semel prō Chrīstō
>
> Oops! read Satanae. First vowel is corrept.
Well done, Ed. I like your "Horast Clausulae".
poena luenda quum fīdēs tacent:
I find the song strangely attractive; like many other Cohen songs. But
it's not "me", I'm glad to say. I seem almost naive alongside Cohen's
pessimism.
The thing with Bob Dylan is that every now and then he has a cheerful
silly song; enough to let you know that you could raise a glass with him
at a bar and drink mutually to life's awfulness while laughing and
smiling.
Edus Britannicus
Ed Cryer
Michael Sheen as Nero; music = Inside by Stiltskin.
Princeps Nero sub representatione Michaelis Sheen; una cum musica
Stiltskin.
Ed
Ed Cryer
> post-Christian Dies Irae. _If it be your will_ (presumably about
> Golgotha) is actually overflowing with hope:
>
> "
> _If It Be Your Will_
>
> If it be your will
> That I speak no more
> And my voice be still
> As it was before
> I will speak no more
> I shall abide until
> I am spoken for
> If it be your will
> If it be your will
> That a voice be true
> From this broken hill
> I will sing to you
> From this broken hill
> All your praises they shall ring
> If it be your will
> To let me sing
> From this broken hill
> All your praises they shall ring
> If it be your will
> To let me sing
>
> If it be your will
> If there is a choice
> Let the rivers fill
> Let the hills rejoice
> Let your mercy spill
> On all these burning hearts in hell
> If it be your will
> To make us well
>
> And draw us near
> And bind us tight
> All your children here
> In their rags of light
> In our rags of light
> All dressed to kill
> And end this night
> If it be your will
>
> If it be your will.
> "
>
> Shades of _Suzanne_!
>
> This would be much easier to turn into Latin than _Closing Time_ but
> the
> result would still be far inferior to the English, just as the Latin
> versions of Dante's Commedia don't quite measure up. Another "happier"
> one is _Hallelujah_ for me at least maybe because I can't dissociate
> it
> from Shrek. Somehow even when the words are lighter, the voice and
> music
> express an immeasurable unsatisfied longing.
>
> Eduardus
>
I think my favourite Leonard Cohen song is "Joan of Arc".
Now the flames they followed Joan of Arc
As she went riding through the dark.....
http://tinyurl.com/yht5tcl
But faith and salvation don't win; the flames do.
I once saw him perform this on stage at a concert in Portsmouth, S.
England, back in the 80s. At the end of it he went into a dirge, playing
on a comb & tissue paper. He kept repeating it over and over until the
drummer came drumming in to end it. Then he regained his composure,
faced the mic and said "Some people criticise my vision, but they can't
deny that I know how to play the comb".
Well, I congratulate him for on-stage recovery, but that's his message
for me. A dirge; a lament for life and the way it tramples on the good
and innocent. Maybe if you could convert enough people to this view then
they could gang up on the fascists and yobs and ignorant low-life, and
the higher aspirations of educated people might come to predominate
through the world.
But history shows us that this is highly unlikely, as new people get
born into the crucible of life and fitted out for survival in the actual
real environment.
If you gaze up the aisle of a church and see a god hanging from a cross
at the far end, up near the altar of God, what effect does it have on
you?
Well, it awakens my fighting spirit. And I have a survival stamina well
hardened in life.
One thing I find it hard to do is bow my head in humility to this
situation as acceptable. I fight it.
"Fight the good fight with all thy might". Keep the spirit alive inside.
Two things I dislike; Christ on a cross, and the tubby Buddha, sitting
cross-legged with his mind turned away from the world.
Ed