“No one thing shows the greatness and power of the human intellect or the loftiness and nobility of man more than his ability to know and to understand fully and feel strongly his own smallness.” Giacomo Leopardi
Giacomo Leopardi’s delicate sense of the smallness of man in relation to the universe, both in space and in time, and the sense of solitary wonder, is perfectly expressed in most famous poem: The Infinite
Always dear to me was this hermit’s hill, And this hedge that always separates me From looking at the distant horizon, but Seated here and lost in an endless meditation Which discovers a vaster space within, Boundless silence and deep inner quiet, My heart is nearly overcome. And like the wind Murmuring among the leaves to which I compare Its beating, this infinite silence, this inner voice So with my mind I encompass an eternity, And the seasons die, and the present lives In that sound. And in the middle of all that Immensity, my thought drowns itself: Sweet to me, to be shipwrecked in this sea.
Alternative translation:
I always loved this solitary hill, This edge as well, which takes so large a share Of the far-flung horizon from my view; But seated here, in contemplation lost, My thought discover vaster spaces beyond Supernatural silence and unfathomed peace; Almost I am afraid; then, since I hear The murmur of the wind among the leaves, I match that infinite calm unto this sound And with my mind embrace eternity, The vivid, speaking present and dead past; In such immensity my spirit drowns, And sweet to me is shipwreck in this sea.
Like the wind which I hear tossing the trembling plants which surround me, a voice from the inner depths of spirit shakes the certitudes of thought. Eternity breaks through time, past and present intermingle in her image. In the inner shadows I lose myself, drowning in the sea-depths of timeless love.
“No one thing shows the greatness and power of the human intellect or the loftiness and nobility of man more than his ability to know and to understand fully and feel strongly his own smallness.” Giacomo Leopardi
... Infinite things desired, lofty visions 'Got on desirous thoughts by natural virtue, And the wise concord, whence through delicious seas The arcane spirit of the whole Mankind Turns hardy pilot . . . and if one wrong note Strike the tympanum, Instantly That paradise is hurled to nothingness.
O mortal nature, If thou art Frail and so vile in all, How canst thou reach so high with thy poor sense; Yet if thou art Noble in any part How is the noblest of thy speech and thought So lightly wrought Or to such base occasion lit and quenched? From Her Monument, the Image Cut Thereon from the Italian of Giacomo Leopardi By Ezra Pound
"It is related that the crow lives three hundred years and more...while the eagle's life span is but thirty years." From Khavas al-Haivan
Sadness filled the eagle's soul and heart, When his youthful days began to depart.
The end was approaching fast, he saw, With only sunsets remaining to draw.
Leaving this world full of desire, To another world he must retire.
The incurable demanded quick cure, A medicine at once fresh and pure.
Early one morn he took to flight, To end, for good, the mortals' plight...
Death, immediate, in the firmament today, Is worth a hundred lives enmeshed in decay." He then rose into the air, gained altitude, on and on, With the crow watching in amazement, there upon.
He reached his own abode, passed even that, To the abode of light, where the firmament's at.
He became a point that had existed a while, Then turned into a dot that was not servile.
"It is related that the crow lives three hundred years and more...while the eagle's life span is but thirty years." From Khavas al-Haivan
The Little Flowers of St. Francis of Assisi, Patron saint of animals, the environment & ecology.
St. Francis believed that nature itself was the mirror of God. He called all creatures his “brothers” and “sisters,” and even preached to the birds, "wait for me while I go to preach to my sisters the birds." He preached that the world was created good and beautiful by God but suffers a need for redemption because of the primordial sin of man and the duty of men to protect and enjoy nature as both the stewards of God's creation and as creatures ourselves.
"not to behave like dissident predators where nature is concerned, but to assume responsibility for it, taking all care so that everything stays healthy and integrated, so as to offer a welcoming and friendly environment even to those who succeed us." John Paul II
It was in the most wild of places that Francis felt most free, where he was restored and strengthened and refilled with enthusiasm. On the forested mountain above the walls of Assisi, he found the earthly paradise which many in his day assumed humanity had lost forever. Having found it there, he sought it wherever he went.
My Forever Faithful Companion Oh, you who have come to rescue me, from my days of self destruction, Oh, you who are the light of kindness, in my nights of horror. You are the truth when I have doubts, You took the darkness away from me and brought me to the sun Whether you are here or not, You are who I count on, who I rely on, For me who is a stranger in this world, you are my true friend, you are my all. Oh, forever faithful companion, leave, may blessings surround you, Don't worry about me, I am used to this cruel separation, You are my heart saviour, My poems acquire their strength from you! My dry and exhausted body boasts its life from you! If I am in your debt, If I am alive because of you, It is not worthy of that moment when you chose me When the night was the night of your departure, in the valleys of horror, When every shadow was there to take me back to darkness, When every second of that night was the heartbeat of my fear When the wound of a dagger inflicted by my friend was my best suit You arrived with your kind hands to caress and cure my body. You spoke to me about light and you saved me from the darkness. Oh, forever faithful companion, leave, may blessings surround you, Don't worry about me, I am used to this cruel separation, Oh, you, who are the sunrise of the first friend, Oh, you, my friend, my soul mate to the end, Have a Safe journey, Oh my special, faithful companion, Whatever your fate is, wherever your destination, beyond the borders of the universe limitations or behind the moments, Always remember that your heart, was my shield, my protection Only your hands were my true guide in life. Oh, forever faithful companion, leave, may blessings surround you, Don't worry about me, I am used to this cruel separation
My Forever Faithful Companion
Meditation from the opera Thaïs by Jules Massenet
“personal lullaby for a frenetic world. A manifesto for a slower pace of existence.” Max Richter
Jean Vanier, Community And Growth
“Communities need tensions if they are to grow and deepen. Tensions come from conflicts within each person - conflicts born out of a refusal of personal and community growth, conflicts between individual egoisms, conflicts arising from a diminishing gratitude, from a class of temperaments and from individual psychological difficulties. These are natural tensions. Anguish is the normal reaction to being brought up against our own limitations and darkness, to the discovery of our deep wound. Tension is the normal reaction to responsibilities we find hard because they make us feel insecure. We all weep and grieve inwardly at the successive deaths of our own interests.
“A community is only being created when its members accept that they are not going to achieve great things, that they are not going to be heroes, but simply live each day with new hope, like children, in wonderment as the sun rises and in thanksgiving as it sets. Community is only being created when they have recognized that the greatness of man is to accept his insignificance, his human condition and his earth, and to thank God for having put in a finite body the seeds of eternity which are visible in small and daily gestures of love and forgiveness. The beauty of man is in this fidelity to the wonder of each day.” ― Jean Vanier, Community And Growth
Beethoven - Piano Concerto No. 5 Op. 73 The first movement, Allegro, is full of complex thematic transformations. When the piano enters with the first theme, the expository material is repeated with variations. The main theme is march-like and assertive; the somewhat more relaxed second theme first appears cloaked in mystery, in a minor-key version that soon gives way to the expected statement in the dominant major. The grandeur of the movement is colored by excursions to remote keys that, however, never fully thwart the powerful forward drive. The lyrical and idyllic second movement, Adagio un poco moto, is one of Beethoven's most tender and intimate statements. Calm and reflective, the piano predominates here - in a manner and texture that prefigure the nocturnes of Chopin. A long dominant pedal underpins a muted, even ethereal transition to the third movement, Rondo. In contrast to the noble magnificence of the opening Allegro, the Rondo is a movement of jubilant affirmation, evidenced at once by the upward-surging, dance-like main theme. Though the ambitious conception of the Concerto remains ever at the fore in the Rondo, Beethoven nevertheless does not shy away from providing the soloist with passages of exceptional brilliance.
Beethoven - Piano Concerto No. 5 Op. 73
Summertime by George Gershwin for the 1935 opera Porgy and Bess
Chopin Etude Op 10 No.12 "Revolutionary" (Fall of Warsaw 1831) dedicated to his friend Franz Liszt
Gustav Mahler - "Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen" based on a poem by Friedrich Rückert. The song begins with a mournful melody played by solo English horn. This melody is then restated and extended by the singer during the first stanza, which speaks of the artists isolation in a world that already thinks him dead. The tempo increases slightly for the second stanza, during which the artist reflects that he does not really care what the world thinks. The third stanza is remarkably peaceful as the artist describes the other world in which he resides: I live alone in my heaven, in my love, in my song. The gentle consonant-dissonant alternation of the violins and English horn in the coda seems to portray the artist staring beyond the horizon into his musical paradise. Mahler once said, “It is truly me.” In this poem, Rückert exquisitely captures the ethos of a solitary figure, withdrawn from the world and all of its earthly distractions, destined to be alone and forgotten. The poetry’s tone of peaceful resignation is captured and amplified in the Mahler's music
I am lost to the world with which I used to waste so much time, It has heard nothing from me for so long that it may very well believe that I am dead! It is of no consequence to me Whether it thinks me dead; I cannot deny it, for I really am dead to the world. I am dead to the world's tumult, And I rest in a quiet realm! I live alone in my heaven, In my love and in my song!
Piano Sonata No. 14 in C sharp minor, Almost a fantasy (Moonlight), Op. 27 by Beethoven
Piano Sonata No. 14 in C sharp minor, Almost a fantasy (Moonlight), Op. 27 by Beethoven The first movement (Adagio Sostenuto) is a virtual invitation to draw out the music, leaving listeners to be hypnotized by the undulating arpeggios that serve as an introduction and then (theoretically) recede into accompaniment. "is one of those poems that human language does not know how to qualify." Berlioz The second movement (Allegretto) transforms the first movement's contemplative broken chord into a frantic, obsessive figure whose upward ripple that even infects the melody, investing the finale with a character that looks forward to the "Waldstein" Sonata. Franz Liszt described the second movement as "a flower between two chasms." The stormy final movement (Presto agitato) is the weightiest of the three and was the inspiration for Frédéric Chopin's Fantaisie-Impromptu. "it is the most unbridled in its representation of emotion." Charles Rosen. If the Adagio was a reflection of private, inner thought, the Presto is high public drama, an unexpected and effective contrast to the sonata's intimate beginning
"If politics must truly be at the service of the human person, it follows that it cannot be a slave to the economy and finance." the Declaration of Independence
Why are deadly weapons being sold to those who plan to inflict untold suffering on individuals and society? Sadly, the answer, as we all know, is simply for money: money that is drenched in blood, often innocent blood. In the face of this shameful and culpable silence, it is our duty to confront the problem and to stop the arms trade. Pope Francis
Glenn Gould playing J.S.Bach's Partita #2 from "The art of Piano" documentary
Glenn had a very endearing habit of humming and honking along with what he was playing: “One of the joys of leading your own life is to control as many factors as you can to achieve comfort.” That’s right, you just do what you can to stay comfy, playing the piano at teeth level, running away to the woods, howling along to your own music like a fox stuck in a bin, washing your hands in boiling water every time someone touches you, or having your arms hanging through a chair like you’ve just prolapsed, then so be it. All power to your elbow. Just keep on keeping on. Alida Altemburg Happy Birthday Glenn
