Auld Lang Syne

Happy new year to all my readers! As it is a tradition on this blog, I am sharing Auld Lang Syne. I hope you enjoy.

All Souls Night by Edith Wharton

Here is the reading of a poem by Edith Wharton, set on Halloween night. Not to be confused with a short story of the same writer, with the same name. which I have blogged about here. Nevertheless, the poem is also a sort of ghost story (a ghost poem?) and it is quite eerie in its own right, if not a tad scary. Tell me if you shiver listening to it.

L'escargot de Prévert?

 Nous allions chercher notre fils à l'école il y a quelques jours. Comme d'habitude, nous faisons attention de ne pas piler sur les escargots sur le sol. J'ai donc dû en déplacer un hors de la chaussée, je l'ai mis sur une feuille morte et je l'ai pris en photo. Ce qui m'a fait penser au fammeux poème de Jacques Prévert, Chanson des escargots qui vont à l'enterrement, que vous pouvez lire ici. Je suis plus familier avec ses dérivés et ses mentions dans d'autres oeuvres. Cela dit, grâce à Prévert, j'associe les escargots à l'automne... et à Prévert.

For Auld Lang Syne...

Happy New year everyone! I am starting it with u Auld Lang Syne, as it is a tradition here in the UK and elsewhere.

Auld Lang Syne (as always)

Happy new year everyone! As it is a tradition on this blog, I am sharing again the classic Auld Lang Syne. Which also reminds me that I have Scottish blood, so there might be something of me in this song, in a way. You tell me.

"For auld lang syne my jo"

Happy new year everyone! As a tradition on this blog, I am sharing again the classic Auld Lang Syne, sung here by Scottish artist Julie Fowlis. It's not the first time she shows up on this blog and it's been long overdue. She's an amazing artist. And she says "my jo" and not "my dear" and that's a bonus reason for me to choose her take on the song. Anyway, happy new year again.

For Auld Lang Syne

Today is the New Year, so Happy New year everyone! And of course as it is tradition I am sharing with you Auld Lang Syne. Brought you this year by the Peanuts gang.

Should auld acquaintance be forgot?

Happy new year everyone! It has been a long and difficult one for most of us, even if mine ended up better than it started (but this is for another post). As it is a new tradition on Vraie Fiction (dating back from 2017), I am starting the new year with the Scottish classic with Auld Lang Syne. Ironically maybe for a British song, it is here sung by The Choral Scholars of University College Dublin. Because their rendition is absolutely gorgeous an probablyencapsulates a lot of people's state of mind this new year.

Auld Lang Syne, and all that...

It's 2020 already according to the meridian of Greenwich, and this blog is set on it, so Happy New Year everyone reading this! Now it is time for Auld Lang Syne and all that... Enjoy it and happy new year again.

Halloween Forest

For today's countdown to Halloween's reading suggestion, some children literature, as well as poetry. Because Amazon knows me too much, it suggested me to buy Halloween Forest, by Marion Dane Bauer, illustrated by John Shelley. It's a rather sweet narrative poem, the story of a dreamlike walk during or after trick or treat. It's not devoid of a few good chilly, even macabre moments, but it remains suitable for children. In the poem, fear takes forms and shapes of its own and is incarnated into a forest of bones, the Halloween Forest of the title. And in the end, the child ("you") easily overcomes his fears and enjoys trick or treat. This is, in a nutshell, what Halloween is all about. When Wolfie is old enough, I hope to read it with him when the witching season arrives.

Posthumous Cohen

As you probably know already, there is a new song of Leonard Cohen that has just been released, posthumously. Well, more like a poem turned into music. I think I actually read it. Anyway, it is called The Goal and I share it below. I have not much more to say, except that apart from the melancholy, it feels like the action is set in Montreal. Don't ask me why, I always picture Montreal when I listen to Cohen.

"Patience dans l'azur..."

"Patient, patience,
Patience dans l’azur!
Chaque atome de silence
Est la chance d’un fruit mûr!"

Je cite Paul Valéry. C'est mon frère PJ qui m'a rappelé ces vers, pour me dire de patienter sur certaines choses qui n'arrivent pas. Je mets la sagesse de Valéry à l'épreuve et je n'en dis pas plus pour le moment. On verra bien à quel point c'est véridique.

Halloween at last!

I will be short as I try to celebrate my favourite holiday outside the virtual world as much as possible. Happy Halloween everyone! It is Halloween at last. I say this, and I always feel a bit sad: it comes and goes and it is gone far too quickly, when I feel like I barely had time to appreciate. I will share something to start All Hallow's Eve: a song I found on YouTube no later than yesterday, by a certain Michelle Cross (don't know her), inspired by the poem All Souls of Edith Wharton and Mozart's Requiem's Lacrimosa. This has the perfect atmosphere for tonight.

Auld Lang Syne

Happy new year everyone! I thought I would start 2017 on this blog in music and with a British tradition. You will of course recognize Auld Lang Syne. It is not midnight anymore here, but there you go... So have a happy 2017 again and enjoy the day.

The Divine Comedy for children?

''Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita,
mi ritrovai per una selva oscura,
ché la diritta via era smarrita.''

Dante, The Divine Comedy

I found out of total chance this image on Facebook, apparently of an adaptation for children (and I think in Spanish) of Dante's epic poem. Okay so seriously, tell me, does this book cover fit well the above verses, which, translated into English, mean: "Midway upon the journey of our life, I found myself within a forest dark, for the straightforward pathway had been lost." I mean really? Is this a joke? I have been obsessing about it since I saw it in my timeline. I have a confession to make: I don't like Dante much. His masterpiece is for me a disgusting display of devout Catholic propaganda, plagued with antisemitism. But one should at least respect his importance and not turn his work into... Well, into this. Because this is worse than my worst nightmares. A pastel Hell? If it looks like this, I am really afraid of ending up in it.

César dans sa pourpre est tombé...

"Tu l'as vu ce fantôme altier
Qui jadis eut le monde entier
Sous son empire.
César dans sa pourpre est tombé:
Dans un petit manteau d'abbé
Sa veuve expire."

À mon frère, revenant d'Italie, Alfred de Musset

Je reviens sur les Ides de Mars d'hier. Quand je pense à la mort de Jules César, il me vient souvent en tête ces vers d'Alfred de Musset. Le poème est un grand hommage à l'Italie, dans ces vers il y a aussi un résumé parfait de ce qu'était et ce qu'est devenu Rome: d'abord un empire, maintenant plus qu'une ombre d'elle-même, avec des petits curés catholiques qui voient décliner la ville lentement mais sûrement. À peu près deux mille ans d'histoire en six vers. Il faudra bien que je visite Rome un jour et que je voie le fantôme altier évoqué par Musset...

The Mistletoe Bough

 As 'tis the season to be reading, I have a new read to suggest you. It is a recent discovery for me: I found it yesterday in A Literary Christmas. It is a poem/song by Thomas Haynes Bayly, music by Henry Bishop, based on the Legend of the Mistletoe Bough. I blogged yesterday about the dark side of Christmas. Well, Yuletide cannot get any darker than this. It is more a horror tale than anything else. You can read the poem/song here. I have also put a performance of the song below. In the story, there is no spirit, no ghost, no devil, not even an evil man, only tragic irony. And there is also the presence of the mistletoe bough, which, like in the old lore (see here), is an omen of tragedy.

Lammas Day

"And as the daylight's fading
When Lammas has come in
And gleamers go to work among the stubble
There comes an autumn sickle
To cut the summer's throat
Before the season knows it is in trouble"

Martin Newell, Black Shuck

Today is the first of August, or Lammas Day a I learned in the above quoted epic poem. I used to dislike August, but now I learned to appreciate it as a transitory month, a month that shows the passage of summer to autumn and marks the beginning of harvest. It makes me long for Halloween, my favourite holiday. When I read the poem, these verses about Lammas struck me. Cutting summer's throat with an autumn sickle, this is what August does.So I wanted to share it with you tonight. I will talk more about the poem in upcoming posts. It is beautiful and eerie.

Midway upon the journey of our life...

''Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita,
mi ritrovai per una selva oscura,
ché la diritta via era smarrita.''

Dante, The Divine Comedy

Well, of course it is The Divine Comedy. The first three lines. Translated it means: “Midway upon the journey of our life, I found myself within a forest dark, for the straightforward pathway had been lost.” I read it all during my university years, in English, from Inferno to Paradisio. One of my Italian friends teased me saying that one cannot appreciate Dante if one does not read him in Italian, and thus that I should read it in the original language, my poor knowledge of Italian at the time be darned. My Italian now is still not up to scratch for Dante. A darn shame. I quoted Dante because I am still 35, midway in a man's life's journey, and because it is my birthday soon. And I thought this blog needed a bit of literary depth and meaning.

Fit au pays son adieu saugrenu...

J'ai déjà blogué sur Jehan l'advenu de Norge, mis en musique par Georges Brassens. J'ai souvent cette chanson en tête quand je reviens ou quand je quitte le pays natal et je me suis rendu compte que depuis mai 2010, date de mon premier billet sur le poème, il a été mis sur YouTube, alors j'ai décidé de le télécharger ici sur Vraie Fiction.