I insist now upon speaking in very positive tones, but I am rocky and discouraged many days and I am in a state of distress about many things. More than I realize. I am improved but I should still recognize the foregoing squarely. It makes life easier. What I can see, I can cure. And there is something which is trying to get born and it is a good thing – but it is frightening me. What am I concerned about? I am perhaps concerned that the new birth may mean the resurgence of some old constraints. NO, I WILL NOT ALLOW IT. Have no fear.
Te Deum: …eres el hijo eterno del Padre (here is the Catholic version of that, a hymn of thanksgiving). I have always felt, but still do not understand the following poem:
LOMO DE LAS SAGRADAS ESCRITURAS – Sin haberlo advertido jamás, exceso por turismo y sin agencias de pecho en pecho hacia la madre unánime. Hasta París ahora vengo a ser hijo. Escucha, Hombre, en verdad te digo que eres el HIJO ETERNO, pues para ser hermano tus brazos son escasamente iguales, y tu malicia para ser padre, es mucha. La talla de mi madre, moviéndome por índole de movimiento, y poniéndome serio, me llega exactamente al corazón: pesando cuanto cayera de vuelo con mis tristes abuelos, mi madre me oye en diámetro, callándose en altura. Mi metro está midiendo ya dos metros, mis huesos concuerdan en género y en número, y el Verbo encarnado habita entre nosotros, y el Verbo encarnado habita, al hundirme en el baño, un alto grado de perfección.
–C.V.
*
But it is the weekend, so we will sing! Vallejo was a Communist and so it is strangely fitting that I have decided to post from him on a day I had originally planned to post on the Red Army Choir. I took these notes one day I decided I did not like Vladimir Putin’s accent, and searched for more pleasing Russian sounds. By chance I discovered that the Red Army Choir still exists as a performing arts ensemble. It brings us the official music of the Soviet Union from its MySpace page. It has performed with the Finnish rock band Leningrad Cowboys, and now it apparently performs traditional Russian music.
This is already mirabilis but moreso is the archival footage of whose existence I learned while discovering the Red Army Choir. You can watch Soviet celebrations on Red Square. The victory celebration after the Great Patriotic War leads inevitably to footage of the Battle of Stalingrad.
From Stalingrad you are led back in time to Verdun. I was amazed to find so much footage of the Great War, so I decided to try the earlier Boer War. There is footage of that, too, including staged footage by Thomas Edison. He also filmed the Spanish American war, including Cuban prisoners waiting for transport, but I could not discern how much of his footage was staged and how much was not.
Axé.
This is a weird post, not fully developed, but I want to study this poem and I also feel like saying CESAR VALLEJO C’EST MOI.
What is trying to get born, the old constraints some of this is discussed in Kiita’s post, here.
http://112yearsold.wordpress.com/2008/09/08/ode/
Just because I write this book and so on does not mean I have to follow the “be good” formula and toe the line and so on … it means the opposite.
My family used to own a recording of the Red Army Choir, and I loved it, but I don’t remember the name. Now I should look instead of grading papers. I have a headache that feels like a spike has been driven into the the right side of the base of my skull, so grading feels impossible, yet I must.
I got over my headache, and am making headway on grading – hope you have the same progress. I heard that recording at your family’s house. It was in the days of the USSR. In honor of that, observe this recording, from 1987 – it looks so antiquated.