Aufklarung: My mistress eyes

In the end is the beginning

Five "cornerstone" poems by authors whose work marked Europe's (and the whole world's) literary history - the famous Shakespeare sonnet My Mistress' Eyes Are Nothing Like the Sun, Wordsworth's The Solitary Reaper and She Dwelt Among the Untrodden Ways, Home Is Where One Starts From by T. S. Eliot (from the Four Quartets) and When You Are Old by W. B. Yeats - set to music in an ambitious yet unpretentious album, merging past and modern resonances in a peculiarly attractive mix.

Arne Pahlke: Heimweh

Subterranean homesick blues

Each album by Arne Pahlke is a new adventure in style and a personal auto da fe. In Heimweh he embarks on a journey of return to his own sources by making direct and indirect references to his first albums, Dunkel and Abgrundtiefen, whose publication marked him as a powerful and singular poetic voice.

Days of December 2008

What Is Our Homeland?

Days of December 2008. Violent riots in Athens as a reaction to the killing of a young student by a policeman. The beautiful historical city center reduced to ashes, ruined properties, vandalized buildings and monuments. Who protects us from the protectors of all flags and ideologies? A video that does not try to take sides nor explain anything, but simply records (and deplores) one of the most irrational events in Greece's modern history. The patriotic poem What Is Our Homeland? by Ioannis Polemis (1862-1924) takes on a bitterly sarcastic twist, juxtaposed to those images of hate, destruction and despair.

Arne Pahlke: flugUNtauglich

Walking on wings

And just when one might have thought that the variability and perfection of form in Suchen would not be easily surpassed, or even equalled, this new album comes to subvert this idea and give an even more intriguing dimension to Arne's already multifaceted work...

Der tollwuetige Kasper: Manchmal kommen sie wieder

God lives nowhere

The new album by Der Tollwuetige Kasper (Arne Pahlke's side project) "welcomes us into our lives" - in a life that we shouldn't feel too happy or privileged to be living... I will not refer to the technicalities concerning this particular musical style - others have done that much better than I ever could - but I will approach this work subjectively and emotionally, based on my impressions after repeated listens of Manchmal kommen sie wieder.

XKTDra: Presentations

The voice of fairies and mermaids

This is an album out of this world... Music that comes from an unknown, seductive universe, and the voice of a mermaid or a fairy, with an almost archetypal sound that speaks directly to the heart.

Arne Pahlke: Suchen

Another face of Arne Pahlke

First of all, the cover is wonderful - both the composition and the colours set perfectly the mood for what is about to ensue... And what ensues is one more panorama of Arne Pahlke's familiar themes and stylistic explorations - this time with more emphasis on the voice and the acoustic arrangements, relying on guitars and the discreet presence of virtual instruments for the most part.

Juan Shaman: Juan Shaman-Reevolucion

Dark, seductive melodies

An album of strangely seductive melodies - sweet sonorities with an epic and poignant, or at times even violent touch, an element of originality and some unexpected "turns of phrase".

Kray Van Kirk: Seven Years Light, Seven Years Dark.

Wonderful songs, a stunning voice

This is one of the very first albums I discovered on Jamendo, and one of those that are seldom made any more. Each song is a jewel of rare beauty, combining splendid melodies and a voice of crystalline perfection with lyrics that tell sensitive, nostalgic stories from the distant or more recent past, from the dreamlike world of maritime legends and fairy tales.

Arne Pahlke: Abgrundtiefen

Powerful mix of sarcasm and despair

An extremely interesting album from an artist who knows well how to make contradictions co-exist in a far from harmonious, but deeply thought-provoking way. The poetry of the lyrics is cruel but intriguing, while the theatrical singing style reminds me a little of Udo Kier.

20th Century Poetry

The latest (and perhaps the last, but not least) turning point

This last century has been one of the world's most decisive eras. Progress in all fields has been lightning fast and spectacular - another Renaissance, whose technologically "upgraded" alchemy has changed the face of the earth radically and irrevocably. And of course, art and poetry had to reflect all the unavoidable vicissitudes, while also keeping an eye on its equally inescapable archetypal foundations.

Invitation au Voyage

A poetic voyage around the world

Folk or formal, classical or modern, rhymed or in free verse, idyllic or melancholy, from any country and in any language, poetry is the most reliable vehicle for a dream trip through time and space, in the known and unknown universe.

Federico Garcia Lorca

The Sonnets to His Dark Love

The Sonnets to His Dark Love (Sonetos del Amor Oscuro - written in 1936 and published posthumously, in 1983) are Lorca's last poetic work, inspired by the style and themes of San Juan de la Cruz, Shakespeare and Gongora. They are his personal statement about love and poetic art, made even more poignant by the fact that he was arrested and executed by his country's dictatorial government the very same year the poems were written. The Sonnets are therefore not a complete work, cut horifically short by the poet's unjust and untimely death at the age of 37.

Literature in Translation

An introduction

Translation is more than the mere issue of a mental process. It is both an intellectual enterprise and a physical task. Things become even more difficult when having to deal with a literary text: literature has its own determining features, and language, the instrument of its expression, is a self-sufficient living system in which every presupposition of perfection has been fulfilled. The risks a translator is obliged to take in this case are much similar to those taken by a surgeon who performs a delicate operation: although the result may perfectly be accomplished under conditions of utmost conscientiousness and knowledge, nothing can guarantee that the patient will eventually survive. In fact, a literary text rarely manages to survive without any more or less serious damages when transferred from one language into another. The task is excessively hazardous; skill in manipulating written speech is as essential as profound linguistic intuition and instruction; a wide spectrum of academic information is as indispensable as personal sensitivity to the subject one is occupied with.

George MacBeth - An Approach

Clutching at things, plain things

The poetic universe of George MacBeth is determined and defined, in a large number of his poems, by plain, common, everyday things, personal objects and sometimes plants or animals which are obsessionally used in a variety of poetic images. But the poetic image is not created for its own sake; it carries along with it a great number of connotations which sometimes elevate it to the point of becoming a universal symbol and a key for the poet's philosophical anxiety.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge - A Tribute

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

The present six verses of The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner by Samuel Coleridge are extracted from the fourth part of the poem and constitute in fact the ending of this part. The Mariner, who has been subject to complete material and moral deprivation for having killed the beneficent Albatross, immobilised in a tormentingly static universe and surrounded by corpses, now attains absolution through the ability to recognise the beauty of living creatures and finally to feel genuine love for them. This turning point in the Mariner's soul and mentality will signal his reconciliation with the natural elements and his gradual re-integration in a friendlier, familiar world.

An Attempt at Comparative Analysis: A Sketch

Brian Patten VS. D. H. Lawrence

The two poems in question present, first of all, a similarity in subject: they both deal with the cinema. The first one refers to an unexpected incident during the projection of a film, while the second one describes the personal feelings of the poet while watching a love story οn the screen. In the first poem the event is narrated in the third person singular, which actually represents the "projectionist" mentioned in the first line, while in the second poem the "Ι" of the poet-narrator is very obviously present.