Völkerlieder … komm’ mal wieder

 

Des voix depuis l’Allemagne profonde.

Und ich, vielenorts daheim,

send echoes  of each kind.

 

 

Die Gedanken sind frei

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNTVachAmNc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tM9AvEWgwfI&t=144s

 

Frei sind die Gedanken;

zwar so, wie Sie meinen.

Aber Ach --  die Gefühle!

Man erliegt wohl den seinen.

 

Die Gedanken sind frei;

ich denk’ an dich immer.

Mein Herz bricht entzwei

hör’ ich deine Stimme.

 

Sei es Hirn, sei es Herz,

sei es Ernst, sei es Scherz --

Die Wahrheit liegt da:

au coeur   ses raisons,

que Raison ne connaît pas.

 

*

 

Wenn ich ein Vöglein wär

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9AGBOFQYnE

 

Wenn du ein Vöglein wärest

flög ich zu dir,  my dearest --

could   I    but     fly !

Möcht’ ich so gerne,

bleibst doch in Ferne --

so far, so high ….

 

Yet, here  within  my  breast

hast  thou, O bird,  thy nest --

sanft, warm, und rein.

Far,  and yet  near   to   me,

here  may I cherish thee --

so   bist   du   mein.

 

*

 

Es zogen einst fünf wilde Schwäne

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MH3MbuCL5xY

Thy very voice   evokes   wild swans,

winging their way to westward.

 

At the final crescendo, it soars,

skywards,

till   ‘tis out  of sight …

 

Dispatches from the Buffyverse

(1) Precedent for the Hellmouth:

On an island in the west of Ireland,  an entrance to Purgatory was revealed to St Patrick, that he might overcome the obstinacy of those whom he was trying to convert.

-- The Oxford Companion to English Literature

More re antecedents for the Hellmouth:

http://worldofdrjustice.blogspot.com/2016/02/the-proto-buffy.html


(2) The vision of “Once More with Feeling” (“They Got the Mustard Out”):

If reapers sing while reaping, why should not auditors sing while auditing, and bankers while banking?

-- G.K. Chesterton, Tremendous Trifles (1909)

Contributions to Exobiology

It has been said that exobiology is "the subject without subject-matter".  Here, then, an attempt to remedy the lack.

(1)  Reason would suggest that so splendid a species as the penguin  must somewhere have their own planet.  And yet, it is not so.  For the Megapenguins of the galaxy of Arcturia  are restricted to no single orb, but stride across the bridges of stars, ceaselessly, blasted by the stellar winds, circulating along the spiral arms.  They are searching for something, and they think that they know what it is, but it cannot be put into words.  And with this, dear people, we must rest content.

(2) One of the lesser-known species of our own planet is the snow bunnies.  These come out in winter, and scamper rapidly across the tundra until they are happy and tired.  But they have never been observed, because they blend in with the snow.

            On the planet Lemuria, snow bunnies are the sole species.  Like our own snow bunnies, they are white – because they like to be.  Yet remarkably, snow on Lemuria is a pale, pale green.  Hence on Lemuria the snow bunnies can actually be made out, flitting ghostlike across the frozen, phosphorescent wastes.  This planet has no atmosphere, therefore there is no sound.

(3)  A lovely planet to contemplate is Numlandia.  It is larger than Jupiter, and proud of the fact.  There are many curious species, but here the koala is king.  Accordingly, too, the eucalpytus reigns supreme.  Lacking all competition, it grows to a height of seven miles, penetrating the eternal cloud cover  out into a skyful of stars.

            When night falls on Numlandia, it covers the expanse of the planet, envelops the whole globe.  At that time the koalas climb to the tops of their tree-homes, and snuggle, and whisper sleepy secrets among the leaves.  Night on Numlandia lasts for a thousand years.  Softly, deeply, they sleep.

Got a pen(cil)?

Now -- me (as you might imagine), I’m a writin’ kina guy.   And yet nevertheless sometimes, I find myself stranded somewhere someplace, with a brilliant idea in my brain -- and no pen.  Unforgivably unprepared.  I mean -- do you go out without wearing pants??  Then how can you go out without carrying a pen ????

Just watched the movie “State of Play”, with a very good Russell Crowe.  One of his shticks is twitting his fellow-reporter about needing to have a pen on her at all times.  This throwaway mini-motif is embodied, towards the end, in a quite lovely scene.

It is a tribute to the depth of “Memento” that, after smiling at the romantic whimsy of that scene, I was recalled, with a thump, to the existential crisis  of Leonard’s not having a pencil on him, at one crucial juncture.    There is some analogy with the way the mystic mindset  infuses each squirrel, each rose, with abundance.  In “Memento”, every each least action is serious stuff ….

End of World Postponed for Now

Here is a much nicer California traffic-story;  humanity is redeemed.

Shortly after the proof of the Heawood conjecture had been announced, Ringel was driving along the California expressway and was stopped by a traffic cop for a minor traffic violation.  As soon as he found that the culprit’s name was ‘Ringel’, the cop asked, ‘Are you the one that solved the Heawood conjecture?’  Ringel, surprised, admitted that he was, and was duly let off with only a warning.

[Recounted in Robin Wilson, Four Colors Suffice (2002), p. 172]