This was Allen's last book - that is, the last one he never stopped trying to read. It's a notebook he built up during his final 10 or so years, when music became his greatest consolation. In it, he had pasted translations of the lieder he listened to over and over again. Like this one (Maiden's song), from a Brahms song cycle:
On Judgment Day I will rise again,
and immediately look for my sweetheart
and if I cannot find him,
I will lie down again and sleep.
Heartache, you Eternity!
Only with another comes happiness!
And if my sweetheart comes not in,
then I don't wish to be in Paradise!
9 comments:
What a lovely post. I only stopped reading to look up the music you mentioned because my familiarity with classical music is such that I couldn't remember how the first went, and I didn't know the second.
It's good to stop and remember on any anniversary of a loss. One of my young friends, who lost her husband, says, "Phil talks to me everyday." It's the same for you as Allen is there in many things you do as you once did.
Hi Chartreuse,
Sorry I am so late to get here and say how sorry I am to hear your husband has died. I know that he was ill for a long time and you've been a wonderful loving carer. I'm sure you'll grieve him for a long time but I really hope that things look brighter for you soon. Sending love and hugs across the Internet :)
It is rare to find such beautiful poetry in a song and it is appropriate for your feeling of loss. But I see by the previous post that you are 'moving in and on' as I knew a person of your strength and practicality would. XX
Thank you all for your kind words. I had expected it would be easier, having told myself so many times that I lost the best part of my husband gradually over several years. I thought there was little left to mourn. But I was so wrong.
Golly, your last post is from May! It's a very powerful post indeed, but updates are nice too. I hope you're not losing interest in your blog.
I guess I have lost interest in this in the past year. But I have been keeping busy - which is essential to me at the moment. I think I will return soon, though maybe I need to give this a bit of a makeover to renew my interest. Thank you for visiting, Snowbrush.
I note you have not posted in a while. Why not!! :-)
I had written a longish answer here, Stafford Ray, but Blogger swallowed it. I'll just say I'm well, moving on (at last) and thinking about future activities. Not sure these will include coming back to this blog. Something about it feels like the past. But we shall see. Thank you for asking. How about you?
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