1. |
Preface
02:24
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...And with their river trac'd it from the skies.
While there my laws alone despotic reign'd,
And kings as well as people proud obey'd;
I taught them science, virtue, wisdom, arts;
By poets, sages, legislators sought;
The school of polish'd life and humankind;
But when mysterious Superstition came,
And, with her legal sister leagu'd, involv'd
In studied darkness the desponding mind,
Then tyrant Power the righteous scourge unloos'd;
For yielded reason speaks the soul a slave.
Instead of useful works, like Nature's great,
Enormous, cruel wonders crushed the land-
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2. |
The Fever Called Living
04:06
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Thank Heaven! the crisis-
The danger is past,
And the lingering illness
Is over at last-
Sadly, I know
I am shorn of my strength,
And no muscle I move
As I lie at full length-
But no matter! (I feel I'm better at length)
The moaning and groaning,
Are quieted now,
Have ceased, with the fever
That maddened my brain-
Bathing in many
A dream of the truth
And the beauty of Annie-
Drowned in a bath
Of the tresses. (of Annie)
And I rest so composedly,
Now, in my bed
That any beholder
Might fancy me dead-
the fever called living is conquedred at last
With that horrible throbbing
At heart
For the naphthaline river
Of Passion accurst:-
I have drunk of a water
That quenches all thirst:-
Of a water that flows,
With a lullaby sound,
From a spring but a very few
Feet under ground-
And I rest so composedly,
Now, in my bed
That any beholder
Might fancy me dead-
the fever called living is conquedred at last
With that horrible throbbing
At heart
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3. |
Gentle Doom
05:31
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Those lips that Love's own hand did make
Breathed forth the sound that said 'I hate'
To me that languish'd for her sake;
But when she saw my woeful state,
Straight in her heart did mercy come,
Chiding that tongue that ever sweet
Was used in giving gentle doom,
And taught it thus anew to greet:
A woman's face with nature's own hand painted,
Hast thou, the master mistress of my passion;
A woman's gentle heart, but not acquainted
Mine be thy love and thy love's use their treasure.
'I hate' she alter'd with an end,
That follow'd it as gentle day
Doth follow night, who like a fiend
From heaven to hell is flown away;
Straight in her heart did mercy come,
Chiding that tongue that ever sweet
Was used in giving gentle doom,
And taught it thus anew to greet:
A woman's face with nature's own hand painted,
Hast thou, the master mistress of my passion;
A woman's gentle heart, but not acquainted
Mine be thy love and thy love's use their treasure.
'I hate' from hate away she threw,
And saved my life, saying 'not you.'
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4. |
Sometimes A Lover
03:53
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Don't call. Without any summons
I'll reach the shrine.
And droop my head in even silence
To your feet fine.
I will your orders shyly listen
And will remain
To catch our meetings, short and instant,
And wish again.
I fell before your passions' power,
Before its wave,
Sometimes -- a serf; sometimes -- a lover;
Always -- a slave.
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5. |
When Helen Lived
03:57
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We have cried in our despair
That men desert,
For some trivial affair
Or noisy, insolent, sport,
Beauty that we have won
From bitterest hours;
Yet we, had we walked within
Those topless towers
Where Helen walked with her boy,
Had given but as the rest
Of the men and women of Troy,
A word and a jest.
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6. |
My Monastery
06:20
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My monastery, where I’m badly pining,
Is granite, melted by the burning mind.
I’m strangled and blinded under this heat, lying,
And leave it, trying a new cell to find…
There’ll be still heat, but one that’s always warming.
The bloody ball will melt my brain to ash,
I’ll lose my mind in ways, the more calming,
Than in this one, oppressing blood and flesh.
Where’s the new cell? Where is my cloister, novel?
Not on the skies, the grave’s darkness behind,
But on the Earth it’s healthy one and low,
Where I’ll find all, when having lost my mind!...
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7. |
Walls Of Home
05:28
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He did not lie – the ghost, so sad and thoughtful,
That from a star took his name by a chance,
When he had said, “Don’t fear the Lord”, to us,
“Just try the fruit and be like Him immortal”.
I’m sick, for sure: deep darkness holds my heart,
I’m bored with the people and the stories,
And dream of treasures of the kingdoms, glories,
And yataghans, all covered with blood.
All routs for youths were opened in glow,
And all forbidden works – for older ones,
And amber fruits -- for gaily girls, at once,
And the rhinoceros forever white as snow.
I’m mute. I pine… They vanish – walls of home:
There is a sea in spots of silver foam,
The sun of evening – on the stones’ lead,
The city, with blue domes, like its wardens,
With flourish and decor of jasmine gardens,
We’d fought right there … Oh, yes! And I was killed!
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8. |
Hug The Chain
05:43
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She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that’s best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes;
One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impaired the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o’er her face;
Could Love for ever
Run like a river,
And Time’s endeavour
Be tried in vain—
No other pleasure
With this could measure:
We’d hug the chain.
Wait not, fond lover!
Till years are over,
And then recover
As from a dream.
While each bewailing
The other's failing,
With wrath and railing,
All hideous seem ---
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9. |
Cradle Song
03:44
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Sweet dreams form a shade,
O'er my lovely infants head.
Sweet dreams of pleasant streams,
By happy silent moony beams
Sweet sleep with soft down.
Weave thy brows an infant crown.
Sweet sleep Angel mild,
Hover o'er my happy child.
Sleep sleep happy child,
All creation slept and smil'd.
Sleep sleep, happy sleep.
While o'er thee thy mother weep
Sweet moans, dovelike sighs,
Chase not slumber from thy eyes,
Sweet moans, sweeter smiles,
All the dovelike moans beguiles.
Sleep sleep happy child,
All creation slept and smil'd.
Sleep sleep, happy sleep.
While o'er thee thy mother weep
Sweet babe in thy face,
Holy image I can trace.
Sweet babe once like thee.
Thy maker lay and wept for me.
While o'er thee thy mother weep
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10. |
Valse Des Fleurs
06:48
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You tilt your head and smile - as if
across the countryside
a breeze had rippled through the grass
out of a brilliant sky.
The sullen stranger you brush past
stops, turns and relishes
that radiant health which aureoles
your shoulders and your arms.
Often, when I would drag myself
into some leafy park
and when the sun like a rebuke
would lacerate my breast.
In all that panoply of silks
that colors you parade
awaken in our poets' minds
a giddy valse des fleurs -
garish gowns which designate
the motley of your mind:
infectious folly! all I loathe
is one with all I love!
Often, when I would drag myself
into some leafy park
and when the sun like a rebuke
would lacerate my breast,
so deeply did the Spring's new green
humiliate my heart
that I would punish in one rose
all Nature's insolence . . .
I'll come like that to you some night
when lovers ought to come,
creeping in silence till I reach
the treasures of your flesh,
Often, when I would drag myself
into some leafy park
and when the sun like a rebuke
would lacerate my breast.
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11. |
Vernal Autumn
02:31
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Небывалая осень построила купол высокий,
Был приказ облакам этот купол собой не темнить.
И дивилися люди: проходят сентябрьские сроки,
А куда провалились студеные, влажные дни?..
Изумрудною стала вода замутненных каналов,
И крапива запахла, как розы, но только сильней,
Было душно от зорь, нестерпимых, бесовских и алых,
Их запомнили все мы до конца наших дней.
Было солнце таким, как вошедший в столицу мятежник,
И весенняя осень так жадно ласкалась к нему,
Что казалось - сейчас забелеет прозрачный подснежник...
Вот когда подошел ты, спокойный, к крыльцу моему.
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Cruel Wonders Israel
Cruel Wonders is a joint neofolk/post-metal project of Tamar Singer (Zeresh) and Vlad Shusterman (Ghost Bike). Their music, weaving sorrowful vocals and sweeping guitars around Mideastern-tinged electronics, has been described as cinematic and haunting. They have shared stage with such heavyweights as ROME and Spiritual Front. ... more
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