{"id":449,"date":"2016-01-25T13:20:22","date_gmt":"2016-01-25T12:20:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.elizabethanpartsongs.nl\/wordpress\/?page_id=449"},"modified":"2016-09-26T13:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-09-26T11:00:00","slug":"postlude","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.elizabethanpartsongs.nl\/wordpress\/contents-summaries\/three-elizabethan-partsongs\/part-2-complete\/postlude\/","title":{"rendered":"postlude to part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

A challenge to the reader<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

For some reason OMM echoes in the Dutch translation of\u00a0Twelfth-<\/i>Night<\/i>\u00a0by Gerrit Komrij (1943-2012) the words: \u2018all\u00a0must die.\u2019 Komrij\u2019s translation also includes some wordplay on OMM\u2019s later title, which is\u00a0Carpe Diem<\/i>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Mijn lief, waar ben je? Draal niet langer.<\/i><\/span>\u00a0\u00a0My love, where are you? Tarry no longer.<\/span>
\nToef bij je trouwe minnezanger, \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/i>Dwell with your faithfull love-singer,<\/span>
\n—–<\/span>Hoor zijn zucht, zijn luid geraas.<\/i>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0—–<\/span>Hear his sigh, his loud din.<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
Vlinder, wil nu niet meer zwerven: \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Butterfly, now don’t want to wander anymore,<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
Wat zich niet versmelt moet sterven, \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 What does not fuse itself must die,<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
—–<\/span>Dat weet zelfs de grootste dwaas.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0—–<\/span><\/i>This even knows the greatest fool.<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
————-<\/span><\/div>\n
Liefde is niet iets voor morgen,<\/i>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Love is not something for tomorrow,<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
\n
Tijd komt er genoeg voor zorgen:<\/i>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Plenty time will come for worries:<\/span>
\n—–<\/span>Nu is nu, dus pluk de dag,<\/i>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0——<\/span><\/i><\/span><\/span><\/em><\/span>Now is now, so pick the day,\u00a0<\/span>
\nWie zal straks de tranen tellen?<\/i>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Who will presently count the tears?<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
Kus me, want de jeugd gaat snel en \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/i>Kiss me, for the youth goes quickly and<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
—–<\/span>Daarom, kus me, engel: lach<\/i>. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0——<\/span>Therefore, kiss me, angel : laugh.<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
———<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n

A\u00a0butterfly is definitely not the kind of mistress to expect a\u00a0monogamous attitude from. In consequence two lines in the second verse\u00a0are pointing straight at her fate of ending up singing the\u00a0Song of Willow<\/i>.\u00a0According to line six Komrij also noticed Shakespeare\u2019s habit to reverse\u00a0things, and the funny grammar of line 3 is relocated to line 5. If \u2018versmelt\u2019\u00a0(\u2018fuse\u2019) is used in the usual meaning as \u2018becoming one\u2019, which equals \u2018to die\u2019,\u00a0Komrij appears in this same line to contradict himself. Which happens to\u00a0correspond remarkably well with Shakespeare in the\u00a0Song of Willow<\/i>\u00a0– a scene\u00a0also translated by Komrij – and with RVW in\u00a0Sweet Day<\/i>\u00a0(see Part One), so\u00a0Komrij did not insert some pure nonsense. And it is a nice little challenge to\u00a0make sense of it.<\/p>\n

In this attempt the answer of Part One\u2019s challenge will prove very usefull:\u00a0the precise nature of the love affair as reflected by OMM\u2019s structure. This will\u00a0not only remove the contradiction from Komrij\u2019s fifth line, but also the\u00a0contrast from Shakespeare\u2019s third. If you are still working on that riddle, try\u00a0to solve it the other way round. Different as they are, both lines are\u00a0describing the very same thing that is reflected by the structure. There is no\u00a0need to consult me to compare notes. By the time you\u2019ll drop from your\u00a0chair, you\u2019ll know you have cracked the nut.<\/p>\n

With his fifth line Gerrit Komrij puts on the record that he had gone all the\u00a0way a long time before us. And, what is more, he has managed with\u00a0superior ease to incorperate this hidden layer in his translation. At which\u00a0point in my analysis my own clumsy attempts to that result went straight\u00a0into the paper bin. But then; Gerrit Komrij is in The Netherlands not primarly\u00a0acknowledged as a first rate translator, he principally is the country\u2019s first\u00a0ever appointed Poet Laureate.<\/p>\n

Judged by the contents of my paper bin, it is no pleasure to have the results\u00a0of one\u2019s analysis confirmed by an authority. And the results themselves were\u00a0no better. To discover the sexual innuendo in\u00a0O Mistress Mine<\/i>\u00a0was a real\u00a0disappointment for this amateur songtext translator, who had been looking\u00a0forward to this opportunity to submerge himself in some first rate poetry.\u00a0But in the next and final part of this article we will find out there is much\u00a0more to discover, and the conclusion must be that OMM is a masterpiece by\u00a0all standards. Porn included.<\/p>\n

As we have seen it is possible to interprete SD the same way as OMM,\u00a0turning it into an exact copy of her. And\u00a0The Willow Song<\/i>\u00a0brings no improvement:<\/p>\n

The \u2018dew\u2019 will weep your fall tonight\u2018<\/i><\/p>\n

Apparently it is possible to weep in company, which makes this song is as\u00a0ambiguous as the others, for there is no word on the poor soul weeping in\u00a0so…… \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0CENSORED<\/span><\/p>\n

It is a little premature to interrupt the line of reasoning already at this early\u00a0stage, but it will lead up to the same break as at the first occasion anyway.\u00a0Yet, this second part of\u00a0“The Art of Ralph Vaughan Willams”<\/em>\u00a0has widened the visible crack in this\u00a0marvellous crossword enough to allow the real enthousiast a reconstruction\u00a0of all deleted information. This is no crossword contest, so there will be\u00a0no reward. Except, of course, the perpetual banishment of Desdemona from school\u2019s\u00a0dull poetry lessons.<\/p>\n

The first piece of vital information on her song is to be found in Book of Genesis (a photographic precise illustration of the verse in\u00a0question can be consulted instead), because in matters of love, symbolism is\u00a0not restricted to willows. The next tip of the veil is lifted by a remark at\u00a0the centre of this second part. And to appreciate\u00a0its value it is paramount to know that\u00a0The Song of\u00a0<\/i>Willow<\/i>\u00a0has the poor soul \u2018singing\u2019\u00a0\u00a0in the 1623 folio edition,\u00a0<\/span>where\u00a0The Willow Song<\/i>\u00a0makes her \u2018sighing\u2019.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, this song\u2019s deleted four lines in reversed chronology are not just\u00a0replaced by OMM, its first line answers the replacement\u2019s opening question\u00a0as well. Good reason to re-arrange the order of songs at the first\u00a0opportunity, which comes down on connecting OMM directly to SD. Their go-between being moved out of the way as \u00a0recorded on CD by the Holst Singers (CDA 66777).\u00a0A demonstration of textexpression which makes one nearly wonder what\u00a0kind of reasoning made this release to carry a number that refers to the\u00a0total of lines in the Part Songs.<\/p>\n

Who fully understands in what peril the pour soul is submerged, is free to\u00a0apply this knowledge on Part Two’s censored paragraph\u00a0, and to reconstruct its deleted lines. This will drag\u00a0Sweet Day<\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0O Mistress Mine<\/i>\u00a0together to\u00a0the new fathomed (wil)low level, if not deeper down. The porn-movie then\u00a0emerging from their lines is confirmed by every detail in OMM\u2019s structure. As\u00a0preluded: the authors were centuries ahead of their time. The third and final\u00a0chapter of this love story will therefore be titled:<\/p>\n

Revolutionary Art<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

—<\/span><\/p>\n

—<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

At the time of my research the only traced CD-recording of \u2018Three Elizabethan Part Songs\u2019 was part of the 1995 Hyperion release\u00a0CDA 66777:<\/p>\n

Vaughan Williams
\nOver hill, over dale.<\/i><\/b><\/em>
\nHolst Singers; Stephen Layton, conductor.
\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In 2007\u00a0Move Records followed suit with
\nMD3306:<\/b>\u00a0Laughing<\/i><\/b><\/em>
\nChoir of Ormond College; Douglas Lawrence, conductor.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A challenge to the reader For some reason OMM echoes in the Dutch translation of\u00a0Twelfth-Night\u00a0by Gerrit Komrij (1943-2012) the words: \u2018all\u00a0must die.\u2019 Komrij\u2019s translation also includes some wordplay on OMM\u2019s later title, which is\u00a0Carpe Diem. Mijn lief, waar ben je? … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":1078,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethanpartsongs.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/449"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethanpartsongs.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethanpartsongs.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethanpartsongs.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethanpartsongs.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=449"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethanpartsongs.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/449\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1364,"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethanpartsongs.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/449\/revisions\/1364"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethanpartsongs.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethanpartsongs.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}