I just discovered Jonathan Woody's muscal setting of Arab poet Nizar Qabbani's I Conquer The World With Love. Qabbani (1923-1998) was popularly known as Syria's National Poet. His resistance to both foreign imperialism and domestic authoritarianism makes this poem all the more telling in our own global circumstances. The recording here comes from the vocal group Skylark who will be appearing in the greater Boston area three times this month.
If you find your mind and soul torn by the news these days, I encourage you to spend some time with these words - and especially with their musical expression on the recording. (If a video doesn't appear above, click here!)
I conquer the world with words,
Conquer the mother tongue,
Verbs, nouns, syntax.
I sweep away the beginning of things
And with a new language
That has the music of water the message of fire
I light the coming age and stop time in your eyes
And wipe away the line that separates time
From this single moment.
Conquer the mother tongue,
Verbs, nouns, syntax.
I sweep away the beginning of things
And with a new language
That has the music of water the message of fire
I light the coming age and stop time in your eyes
And wipe away the line that separates time
From this single moment.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please THINK before you write
and PRAY before you think!