dedalus Posted December 21, 2012 Share Posted December 21, 2012 People do die so no reason to sigh if and when they do. It is all very sad neither good nor bad no other end in view. Mounds of skulls and bones lovingly preserved, piled in cages, can be seen all over Europe. Heine dear, mein Mendelssohn, please sing to us a plaintive song! This Massacre, this or that War! Vienna and Dublin, both ghoulish cities, preserve even scraps of clothing. People die, it’s not news, so who can care about the Jews? all of them would have died in time, you know? Hitler and Stalin (Uncle Joe) simply speeded things along. Quote Drown your sorrows in drink, by all means, but the real sorrows can swim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benjamin Posted December 22, 2012 Share Posted December 22, 2012 It's would be nice if we could apply a metaphorical brake to linger on the purple patches ( of life)-- they seem to speed on by all too quickly. B. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dedalus Posted December 23, 2012 Author Share Posted December 23, 2012 Mmmm, I'll get crap over this one: the tone doesn't fit the theme at all - nor was it supposed to. Purple patches, forsooth!! Quote Drown your sorrows in drink, by all means, but the real sorrows can swim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benjamin Posted December 23, 2012 Share Posted December 23, 2012 The first six lines seem out of context unless you can imagine the whole piece recited by John Cleese in his Basil Fawlty voice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dedalus Posted December 23, 2012 Author Share Posted December 23, 2012 Or Peter Sellers in his Inspector Closeau Franglais .... Quote Drown your sorrows in drink, by all means, but the real sorrows can swim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyv Posted January 13, 2013 Share Posted January 13, 2013 Though personally I'm not too far removed from the Continent, the third verse exhibits an Old World paradigm I can't forget but would rather not dwell on. It's just a bit macabre. Tony Quote Here is a link to an index of my works on this site: tonyv's Member Archive topic Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dedalus Posted January 14, 2013 Author Share Posted January 14, 2013 I was playing with the tone on this one, Tony. The verse (on another list described as 'disgusting doggerel', which rather made me smile) is a pastiche of Hallmark Greeting Card, but the underlying reality, as you quickly perceived, is not .... The music of both Heine and Mendelssohn was banned by the Nazis. Long beloved songs were thus arbitrarily erased from the consciousness of Germany ... but were they really? Heine's haunting and yearning song is still played on all the River Rhine steamers as they carry their passengers past the Lorelei Rock and all the Germans on board still seem to know the words: fact is, they never forgot them! Quote Drown your sorrows in drink, by all means, but the real sorrows can swim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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