An Elirian anthology of words

[andelarion]

Feel free to share words...

If we must die

If we must die, let it not be like hogs
Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,
While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,
Making their mock at our accursed lot.
If we must die, O let us nobly die,
So that our precious blood may not be shed
In vain; then even the monsters we defy
Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!
O kinsmen we must meet the common foe!
Though far outnumbered let us show us brave,
And for their thousand blows deal one deathblow!
What though before us lies the open grave?
Like men we'll face the murderous, cowardly pack,
Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!

--- Claude McKay (1919)

[andelarion]

Tro ikke frosten

Tro ikke frosten som senker
En fred av sne i ditt hår
Alltid er det på jorden et sted
Evig vår

Tro ikke mørket når lyset
Går ned i skumringens fang
Alltid er det på jorden et sted
Soloppgang

-- André Bjerke

[Ari Rahikkala]

And death shall have no dominion

And death shall have no dominion.
Dead men naked they shall be one
With the man in the wind and the west moon;
When their bones are picked clean and the clean bones gone,
They shall have stars at elbow and foot;
Though they go mad they shall be sane,
Though they sink through the sea they shall rise again;
Though lovers be lost love shall not;
And death shall have no dominion.

And death shall have no dominion.
Under the windings of the sea
They lying long shall not die windily;
Twisting on racks when sinews give way,
Strapped to a wheel, yet they shall not break;
Faith in their hands shall snap in two,
And the unicorn evils run them through;
Split all ends up they shan't crack;
And death shall have no dominion.

And death shall have no dominion.
No more may gulls cry at their ears
Or waves break loud on the seashores;
Where blew a flower may a flower no more
Lift its head to the blows of the rain;
Though they be mad and dead as nails,
Heads of the characters hammer through daisies;
Break in the sun till the sun breaks down,
And death shall have no dominion.

-- Dylan Thomas (1933)

[andelarion]

Nothing gold can stay

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

-- Robert Frost

[benkern]

Loved that last one. Keep 'em coming!

[andelarion]

Glad you like it

I rörese

Den mätta dagen, den är aldrig störst.
Den bästa dagen är en dag av törst.

Nog finns det mål och mening i vår färd -
men det är vägen, som är mödan värd.

Det bästa målet är en nattlång rast,
där elden tänds och brödet bryts i hast.

På ställen, där man sover blott en gång,
blir sömnen trygg och drömmen full av sång.

Bryt upp, bryt upp! Den nya dagen gryr.
Oändligt är vårt stora äventyr.

-- Karin Boye

On the Move

On The Move

The day of plenty, never is the greatest.
The best day is a day of craving thirst.

Yes, there is a meaning in our journey --
But `tis the pathway, which is worth our while.

The thing to aim for is a nightlong rest,
Where the fire´s lit and bread is shared in haste.

In places, where you go to sleep but once,
Your sleep is safe, your dream is full of song.

Move on, move on! The new day dawns ahead.
Endless is our marvellous adventure.

-- translated by H. Corell

In motion

IN MOTION




The sated day is never first.
The best day is a day of thirst.

Yes, there is goal and meaning in our path -
but it's the way that is the labour's worth.

The best goal is a night-long rest,
fire lit, and bread broken in haste.

In places where one sleeps but once,
sleep is secure, dreams full of songs.

Strike camp, strike camp! The new day shows its light.
Our great adventure has no end in sight.

- Translated by David McDuff

[andelarion]

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of Circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of Chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find me, unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

-- William Ernest Henley (1875)

[hypatias mom]

Such a noble, brave-sounding poem, but ultimately how futile and empty!!

[benkern]

How do you mean Carol? The poem opens and ends with statements about the undiminishable spirit of the voice, I think there's no futility in strength of character, especially if you go through bad things.

[hypatias mom]

It is a strong thing to hold on with all your strength in whever you face, and many of us do so, while faced with what seem insurmoutable odds. But, ultimately, man is not the sole arbiter of his soul, if one believes in a being above or beyond onesself. Yes, you can decide to be captain of your soul, but that then leaves out anything beyond life. An existence in which one lives entirely to self leaves one alone with just himself. Even when he thanks "whatever gods may be," he still sees only the looming grave beyond his life, but chooses to "face it unafraid." To be willing to face death as an enemy is noble, perhaps, but ultimately, empty. It is essentially saying that is all there is--noble facing of huge obstacles, then death and emptiness. Some of us choose to believe there is so much more beyond that, that as strong an affirmation as this is, it is, ultimately, futile. That is why I answered as I did.

[Aurangzeb Khan]

I on the other hand find this poem to be a powerful expression of the dignity and power of the human protagonist, represented here in the narrative voice. The human is the master of his own destiny and he is posessed of his own free will. Not only will he answer any charges laid against him, should there be life beyond the mortal sphere, but he will stand by his actions for they were his own and none forced his hand.

I note that the poet does not address a single god but rather whatever gods may be, in doing so he acknowledges the futility of the illusion of certainty that comes with dogmatic faith. Nonetheless, whatever force there may be, he thanks them for his unconquerable soul. It has served him well to this point and there is no reason to be regretful now so close to the end. We cannot know what lies beyond with any certainty without an excessive reliance upon that nebulous quality known as fair, so in the end we can only rely upon ourselves.

Also this is a perhaps somewhat stoical poem considering that the poet's conception of the afterlife seems to bear a closer resemblance to Hades and the Old Testement Sheol, the undeworld of silence and forgetfulness where all the dead live in shadowy and powerless obscurity. I find this poem and the character portrayed to be noble because of the unwillingness to break beneath the burden of circumstances and the refusal to sucumb to the "Horror of the shade" which is the secret fear of all mortal creatures who know that to live is to die. The hardest thing for the concious self to accept is that it will one day cease to be and just as we hope to survive in this world by subordinating ourselves to society so too exists the temptation to subordinate oneself to a divinity for the hope of preserving the self, the spirit, the shade, call it what you will, beyond the point at which that fragile vessel, which carried the vital spark, is destroyed. But to which divinity? There are so many, and each worshipped in so many different ways - amidst such discord there can be no hope of relying upon a true picture to emerge of what lies ahead. Better by far then to strike out alone and face whatever there is, confident at least in yourself.


Furthermore, I might say that it is my own personal reaction that it is better by far to be the captain of your own soul than to debase yourself before a god who, it is alleged, is only prepared to offer salvation to those prepared to offer unending love and uncritical praise to his benevolence over all eternity.