Rebekka Guðleifsdóttir's Fairish World

I have confessed that I believe in Fairies. As a matter of fact, I do believe in more: somewhere, perhaps next door, there is a different world, FairyLand, where fairies and other magical creatures live and prosper.

Once upon a time the boundaries between our world, The Gray World, and FairyLand were somewhat more porous.

Not anymore.

Yet, every now and then, some terse eyes can sometimes cross those boundaries and take a glimpse of that enchanted land.

Such are the eyes of Rebekka Guðleifsdóttir. I have nothing more to say, but this:

click and watch

Poetry Readings VIII: Stef Grassi's Frosty Trap

This fragment is from the notebook of Stefania Grassi, a contemporary tuscan poet, from her 2006 visit to Russia. It was not intended for publication, at least in this preliminary form, but I find it nonetheless extremely powerful as it is, a speck of burning heat in the midst of Moscow's frost.

A minimal metrical editing has been done by myself.

TRAPPOLA

Sapesse

la neve
ricalcare

la striscia

di desideri

non formulati
E il fuoco
starmi

dentro

con meno

danno.
Preparerei

io stessa
cumuli

di carta
per farlo

divampare

Ingoiando

calore liquido
dalla bocca

finalmente

aperta.

Ma troppo

a lungo
è stato

freddo
per poter

sciogliere

i capelli
e vedere
ciò che

stavo

guardando.

*******************************************

TRAP

If only the snow knew

to trace the footprints

of unformulated desires

And the fire follow me

with less damage.

I would prepare

myself

heaps of papers

'to make it blaze

Swallowing

liquid heat

from the mouth

finally open.

But all too long

it has been cold

to untie

my hair

and see

what

I

was

watching

(translation by PolyMathicus 2008)

Stefania Grassi retains all the rights of the above. No copy or redistribution is allowed without explicit permission of the author. She can be contacted at her blog Aobliquo.

Musical Rambling X: Libre Vermell

The Libre Vermell found in the monastery of Monserrat is a magnificent example of sacred music with an underlying profane texture.

It is precisely this mix of religious and secular, holy and earthly, that fascinates me to the extreme.

Here is one of the 10 surviving songs, Cuncti sumus conanentes, in the magisterial direction of Jordi Savall.


Earth and Heaven are not that far, if our hearts are open..