Thursday 15th November

I'm very disappointed with our government.

I think the cats have got the right idea about this Brexit business;

All the politicians and wunderkinds who promoted Brexit and said how wonderful it would be have all disappeared. Boris and Gove are the worst offenders. They and all the others appear to have taken very little part in working out the terms and conditions for arranging an orderly exit from the EU. All they seem to do is criticise everyone else's efforts without getting stuck in themselves.

'That's not good enough', they cry. 'Make it better'. How? Any suggestions? Answers come there none.

Enough.

Today's music is Mahler's 2nd symphony, 4th movement. Up till now I haven't ever listened to Mahler on purpose. I think of it as heavy, over-crowded, sturm-und-drang stuff. But this, this is ethereal, pellucid, restrained. I listened to several versions - this one gives the English translation of the words of the song. Also, it is played by the Simon Bolivar Orchestra of Venezuela, a world leader in Youth Orchestras, although it is no longer a Youth Orchestra as the players are older now!  (what is going to happen to them now with their new President?).  Anyway, I really enjoyed this performance, especially the lovely, lyrical violin solo which illustrates the broad leading to God.

Here are the words;
 

O Röschen rot!                            

 Der Mensch liegt in größter Not!

Der Mensch liegt in größter Pein!                       

Je lieber möcht ich im Himmel sein.               

 Da kam ich auf einen breiten Weg;

da kam ein Engelein und wollt' mich abweisen.

Ach nein! Ich ließ mich nicht abweisen!

Ich bin von Gott und will wieder zu Gott!

Der liebe Gott wird mir ein Lichten geben,

wird leuchten mir bis an das ewig selig Leben!

Oh Red Rose

Mankind stands in deep distress

Mankind suffers great sorrow

I would dearly love to be in heaven

I came upon a broad path

An angel appeared and tried to turn me aside

Ah no, I would not let myself be turned aside

I come from God and will return to God

My Beloved God will grant me a light

He shall light my way to the life of eternal blessedness

Let's not despair too soon?

The finale is worth a listen too, and it's only a couple of minutes long - a relief as the total length of the symphony is around 90 minutes. 

I'm still not going in to work, although I have been teaching a couple of pupils in the evenings. But I', steadily improving. The weird thing at the moment is that coffee doesn't taste right at all. To bitter. Tea is not much of an improvement. Water it has to be, then.

I'm getting quite a lot of knitting done today; I added a row of hearts to this scarf yesterday evening, and now I am halfway through these birds. I'm having to knit the picture upside down as I am nearing the other end of the scarf. So far I have done their heads and necks. That's those pink bits close to the needles