sealed

I’ll send you all my love
Every day in a letter
Sealed with a kiss

Casual Friday – I wish I were …

swimming….

reading….

or just chilling with my books and a glass of crispy white wine!

On A July Monday

image via 

Libraries gave us power
Then work came and made us free
What price now for a shallow piece of dignity
….
We don’t talk about love we only want to get drunk
And we are not allowed to spend
As we are told that this is the end

Manic Street Preachers, A design for Life

lyrics

“Come Undone”

I stumble and I fall, your time is on my side
Don’t make sense of it all, despite my foolish pride
It’s got me on my knees, tearin’ up my heart
I’m shakin’ at my bones, tearin’ me apart

When I can’t get close to you
I come undone, I come undone
Come undone, babe, I come undone

I’m not scared of the dark though you tangle and tease me
But worse than your bark please say you’ll never leave me
The devil make everybody, don’t please believe me
Oh love of my life, won’t you let me down easy?

Undone, I come undone
Come undone, babe, I come undone
I come undone, I come undone
Come undone, babe, I come undone

Isobel Campbell and Marc Lanegan

Leonard Cohen meets Robert Frost

Some times the most seemingly unrelated things entwine in your brain like one big colorful tangle you can no way make out. It happens with song lyrics, poems, even ad jingles or these gross Jumbo ads that play on the radio all the time, like a brain deja-pense (thought equivalent to deja-vu) that tumbles in your brain and won’t go away.

Like when I read a fragment of verse from a poem last night…

“Miles to go before I sleep”…………..

“and many promises to keep” echoed in my sleepy mind, searching its endless (so not) lyric database. I finally remembered where I had last read this verse (my translation of The last book in the Universe) but I had to google the poet (sorry, Robert) and voila! Stopping by woods on a snowy evening, by Robert Frost:

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Now this is what I call Music In Poetry.

This has been playing in my head all day and really reminds me of one of my favorite songs by Leonard Cohen, Famous Blue Raincoat:

“…I hear that you’re building

your little house

deep in the desert

you’re living for nothing now

i hope you’re keeping,

some kind of record…”

The man to whom Cohen is writing is for me the same man whose woods these are in the Frost poem. Maybe the rider is Cohen himself, going down there to see if Jane’s with that other man…

And that, for me, is Poetry in Music….

Translating With Music

Translation is undeniably a type of mind labor that calls for focus and miminum distractions. This is why i find it astonishingly difficult to work in cafeterias and other outdoor places -even my own home, with… my full fridge, my books, and the laundry- for  more than a few hours.

Everything can be distracting in that case. however, It can also be very lonely, especially when one is translating a big contract, a book etc. When you have set your phone to mute, vowed Not to Check Your e-mail for at least 10 minutes (that’s why you have the pop-up mail box, in case something urgent comes) and closed the door what is there left between you and the hauntigly empty word document? What can soothe your tormented translator’s soul when the work load is so much you can only hope to finish months from that moment?

Well…. Music! Music is for me the only way to keep from drowning in a sea of words and although it,too, can be distracting, a careful selection of songs – or radio station – will do wonders! It allows my mind to think but it won’t let it get distracted by lyrics and meanings. It allows it to drift for a while but never very far away. I usually prefer peaceful songs and low volume. I only turn the volume up when I’m making my coffee or take a small phone break.  I don’t mind producers as long as they don’t speak all the time and have interesting things to say.

Do you listen to music when translating/working? Does it bother you if the person next door is headbanging or shower-singing when you are trying to focus or do you just turn your own music louder on? Is music distraction for you or a sought for companion?

New music – Κ. Βήτα by Jumping Fish

Γιατί η μουσική πάει με τη μετάφραση!

 

Η μουσική εβδομάδα ανήκει στον Κ. Βήτα, του οποίου ο καινούργιος δίσκος με τίτλο “Χρυσαλλίδα” κυκλοφορεί σήμερα από την Inner Ear (το Jumping Fish δημοσίευσε το πρώτο review του άλμπουμ εδώ) και αποτελεί προάγγελο της συναυλίας του το Σάββατο 31 Μαρτίου στο Gagarin 205, όπου θα παρουσιάσει τα 13 νέα κομμάτια του μαζί με κάποια παλιότερα που έχει ξαναμιξάρει, “ντυμένα” με ατμοσφαιρικά visuals. Και επειδή μια “Χρυσαλλίδα” μπορεί να φέρει την άνοιξη, ο σημαντικός δημιουργός περνάει και από επιλεγμένες πόλεις της υπόλοιπης Ελλάδας (μετά τη Θεσσαλονίκη και τη Βέροια, σειρά έχουν τα Ιωάννινα και η Πάτρα τον Μάιο).

Παρακάτω, ο Κ. Βήτα απαντά υπαινικτικά (=μονολεκτικά) στο λεύκωμα του Jumping Fish με αφορμή τη δισκογραφική και live επιστροφή του.Μουσική είναι… ένας δρόμος
Φίλος είναι… ο φίλος
Αγάπη είναι… η αλήθεια
Σεξ είναι… το σεξ
Θάνατος είναι… η γέννηση
Σπίτι είναι… ο νους
Έμπνευση είναι… μμμ, δύσκολο να εξηγήσω
Τέχνη είναι… η ένωση
Πολιτική είναι… θα μπορούσε να είναι κάτι πολύ καλό
Ηθική είναι… χωρίς αυτήν, όλα δύσκολα
Kαριέρα είναι… δεν γνωρίζω καλά
Eπιτυχία είναι… κάτι που το φωτίζουν
Xρήματα είναι… χρειάζονται κι αυτά
Kόλαση είναι… μάλλον η έλλειψη συνείδησης
Hρεμία είναι… σημαντική για τις αποφάσεις μας
Zωή είναι… μάλλον να καταδεικνύεις αυτό που είσαι
Tαξίδι είναι… χρειάζεται κι αυτό
Eμπιστοσύνη είναι… εδώ θέλουμε αρκετές σελίδες
Σκοτάδι είναι… η έλλειψη φωτός
Μοναξιά είναι… υπάρχει κι αυτή

ΠΗΓΗ: http://www.jumpingfish.gr/music/interviews/3330