Sunday 29 June 2008

If you let a bully come in your front yard, he'll be on your porch the next day and the day after that he'll rape your wife in your own bed

If you let a bully come in your front yard, he'll be on your porch the next day and the day after that he'll rape your wife in your own bed.
Fay Weldon

Friday 27 June 2008

Never mistake knowledge for wisdom

Never mistake knowledge for wisdom. One helps you make a living; the other helps you make a life.
Sandra Carey

Sunday 22 June 2008

Birth, and copulation, and death

Birth, and copulation, and death. That's all the facts when you come to brass tacks.
T. S. Eliot, Sweeney Agonistes

Saturday 21 June 2008

Sooner murder an infant in its cradle than nurse unacted desires, William Blake

Sooner murder an infant in its cradle than nurse unacted desires.
William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

Friday 20 June 2008

Greek love poems

Greek love poems written and/or translated into English by Spiros Doikas:

Manos Hatzidakis, Manoula mou (singer: Liougos)



Στίχοι: Ιάκωβος Καμπανέλλης
Μουσική: Μάνος Χατζιδάκις
Πρώτη εκτέλεση: Λάκης Παππάς
Άλλες ερμηνείες: Χαρούλα Αλεξίου

Αχ, τι ντροπή, τέτοια ντροπή
μάνα μου και πως βγαίνει
ούτε κι αν τρέξει ο ποταμός
μάνα μου δε την πλένει

Τι να μου κάνουν δάκρυα δυο
και στεναγμοί σαρανταδυό, μανούλα μου
τι κι αν το δάκρυ μου νωπό
βουβό το στόμα και πικρό, μανούλα μου

Και ψάχνω κάποιον για να βρω
και με ρωτάει και τον ρωτώ τι θα γενεί
ποιος θα πονεί, ποιος θα πονεί
μανούλα μου, μανούλα μου

Wednesday 4 June 2008

Feist, Mushaboom (lyrics and video clip



Helping the kids out of their coats
But wait the babies haven't been born oh
Unpacking the bags and setting up
And planting lilacs and buttercups oh

But in the meantime we've got it hard
Second floor living without a yard
It may be years until the day
My dreams will match up with my pay

Old dirt road,
(mushaboom, mushaboom)
knee deep snow
(mushaboom, mushaboom)
Watching the fire as we grow
(mushaboom, mushaboom)
o-o-o-o-old

I got a man to stick it out
And make a home from a rented house oh
And we'll collect the moments one by one
I guess that's how the future's done oh

How many acres, how much light
Tucked in the woods and out of sight
Talk to the neighbours and tip my cap
On a little road barely on the map

Old dirt road,
mushaboom, mushaboom)
knee deep snow
mushaboom, mushaboom)
Watching the fire as we grow,
mushaboom, mushaboom)
o-o-o-o-old
(mushaboom, mushaboom)
Old dirt road rambling rose
(mushaboom, mushaboom)
Watching the fire as we grow
(mushaboom, mushaboom)
Well I'm Sold...

Monday 2 June 2008

Pulchrum est paucorum hominum

Pulchrum est paucorum hominum.
(Beauty is for the few)

Horace

Sunday 1 June 2008

Sunt verba voces quibus hunc lenire dolorem

Note Horace saying:

Sunt verba voces quibus hunc lenire dolorem
Possis, Magnam morbi deponere partem

(Words will avail the wretched mind to ease
and much abate the dismal black disease.)

Similarly, Keats in Endymion speaks for beauty:

A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.
Therefore, on every morrow, are we wreathing
A flowery band to bind us to the earth,
Spite of despondence, of the inhuman dearth
Of noble natures, of the gloomy days,
Of all the unhealthy and o'er-darkened ways
Made for our searching: yes, in spite of all,
Some shape of beauty moves away the pall
From our dark spirits.

Thats make me think that Horace was a romantic at heart.

Adriano Celentano, 24000 baci (lyrics and video clip)



Ah... ma mi...
Ti voglio bene

Con 24 (venti quatro) mila baci
oggi saprei perche' l'amore
vuole ogni tanto mille baci
mille carezze all'ora all'ora
Con 24 mila baci
felici corrono le ore
un giorno splendido perche'
ogni secondo bacio te

Niente bugie meravigliose
frasi d'amore appassionate
ma solo baci che do a te.. ie..
ie.. ie.. ie.. ie.. ie.. ie
Con 24 mila baci
cosi' frenetico e' l'amore
in questo giorno di follia
ogni minuto e' tutto mio

Niente bugie meravigliose
frasi d'amore appassionate
ma solo baci che do a te.. ie..
ie.. ie.. ie.. ie.. ie.. ie
Con 24 mila baci
cosi' frenetico e' l'amore
in questo giorno di follia
ogni minuto e' tutto mio
Con 24 mila baci
felici corrono le ore
un giorno splendido perche'
Con 24 mila baci
tu mi hai portato alla follia
Con 24 mila baci
ogni secondo e' tutto mio
Con 24 mila baci
ogni secondo bacio te...