Leonard Cohen in any language (tinybit Dylan content)
Janice
just about any and all languages since I am only bound to English and
a bit of pitiful high school French (and some Latin, which turned out
to be more valuable in the long run than I'd ever thought). I like
how the unfamiliar language of the lyrics melds with the musical
composition because I am not separating my listening into two foci --
music and words. In fact, the lyric language becomes music, another
instrument in the whole, making the voice even more musical. I
especially like cover songs done in different languages than what I am
familiar with -- the song is as if new again, and the often cultural
phrasing lends a rich and revelatory layer to a song I once thought I
knew.
So I wax and ramble here, but I am full of delight after just hearing
the music from the "Acordes con Leonard Cohen" CDs of the live concert
recorded at Teatre Auditori, Sant Cugat del Vallès, Barcelona, in
January 2007. The languages in the concert included English, Spanish,
Catalan, and Basque... all singing Leonard Cohen songs. According to
Cohen's website, there is also a DVD, which includes the finale with
John Cale and all the other performers singing Hallelujah (this is not
on the CDs). Adam Cohen, Leonard's son, sings Bird on the Wire in
English and "Pequeño vals vienés" (Take This Waltz) in Spanish
(beautifu!). Elliot Murphy (who lives in France now, and probably
speaks several languages) sings Diamonds in the Mine (in English), and
sounds more Dylanesque than Dylan would were he singing it (Dylan
content! :).
If this is all old news to dylan and cohen fans, I apologize (I did
not find mention of it in the archives here or on alt.music.leonard-
cohen)... I am enthralled by the music.
Here is Adam Cohen singing "Pequeño vals vienés" (different concert),
at first explaining to the audience that his father wrote the song as
a tribute to the Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAd_POWWGXE
Here is a translation of Lorca's poem:
Little Viennese Waltz (Pequeño vals vienés)
by Federico Garcia Lorca
translated by MackJohnny (SaltandIce.blogspot.com)
In Vienna there are ten girls waiting
for death to sob on their shoulders;
there's a forest where the doves fall
to pieces every morning,
and their feathers are five thousand windows
in a gallery in the museum of frost.
Ay, ay, ay, ay,
Take this waltz with its lips sewn together.
This waltz, this waltz, this waltz
with its flavours of cognac and death,
and the sea splashing salt on its tail.
I need you, I want you, I'll love you
in the armchair with the book of the dead,
in corridors with their shadows of sadness
and the irises’ lofty scent in the dark,
in our bed as pale as the moonlight
and our dance in the shell of our dreams.
Ay, ay, ay, ay,
Take this waltz with its broken waist.
In Vienna there are forty mirrors
where the echoes of your smile still play,
there's a piano with its keys all dying
and no blues left for the boys,
and poor people hang freshly-wept garlands
on the tiles of the roofs every day.
Ay, ay, ay, ay,
Take this waltz that died in my arms
Oh I love you, I want you, I need you,
in an attic where young people play
speedy Hungarian polkas
on quiet July afternoons
and sing of the lamb-white snow iris
(its petals opening slowly,
like your face with its dark edge of silence).
Ay, ay, ay, ay,
Take this waltz called “I’ll Always Want You.”
.
In Vienna we’ll dance it together,
this waltz disguised as a river.
And you’ll see that hyacinths surround us,
their petals and my mouth on your legs,
and I’ve left my soul in photographs and lilies
and in the dark undulations of your walk.
And I want, my love, to leave you
this violin with the dark in its hollows,.
this violin and its measure of the waltz,
this violin with the tomb built in.
~`~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Melia32
Thank you Janice for the thoughtful beauty you share.
In a strange kind of way, i can't analyze why, it just feels that
way, Lorca's poem brings to mind Leonard's words:
"For the Christ who has not risen
From the caverns of the heart."
May the 4th of July shine upon the good land and may all its merits
and good points become a key to the opening of those caverns into the
light.
And to you Abby, I also say "thank you".