The Island Weekly » advent

Peter, Björn and John: Young Folks

Anne — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 07:01:47 +0000

Young Folks

If I told you things I did before
Told you how I used to be
Would you go along with someone like me
If you knew my story word for word
Had all of my history
Would you go along with someone like me

I did before and had my share
It didn’t lead nowhere
I would go along with someone like you
It doesn’t matter what you did
Who you were hanging with
We could stick around and see this night through

And we don’t care about the young folks
Talkin’ ’bout the young style
And we don’t care about the old folks
Talkin’ ’bout the old style too
And we don’t care about their own faults
Talkin’ ’bout our own style
All we care ’bout is talking
Talking only me and you

Usually when things have gone this far
People tend to disappear
No one will surprise me unless you do

I can tell there’s something goin’ on
Hours seem to disappear
Everyone is leaving I’m still with you

It doesn’t matter what we do
Where we are going to
We can stick around and see this night through

Peter, Björn and John

second song of the week englischlernen mit liedern

Z is for zen

Anne — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 07:06:22 +0000

Lovely snowflakes, they fall nowhere else!
No snowflake ever falls in the wrong place.
Two Zen sayings, or two translations of one saying?

When I was a little girl, taking ballet lessons at St. Mark’s, my parents would take me to see the Nutcracker around this time of year. And like most girls, I would go home pretending to be a snowflake.
(Bolshoi Ballet: The Nutcracker, Snowflakes)

Advent was over on Christmas Eve, and Z, letter 26, falls on Boxing Day, the British day for gifting friends. Thanks so much for your interesting comments and kind encouragement and recommendations throughout the Advent Calendar Alphabet Game. And now: Game over!

X is for exult

Anne — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 07:02:42 +0000

Kiri Te Kanawa sings Mozart’s Exsultate Jubilate with the Royal Opera House Orchestra, conducted by Stephen Barlow, in Greenwich.

I grew up in the joyful German Christmas Eve tradition, thanks to my mother, who brought her beliefs and practices to the US. Whatever your religion and practice, peace, joy and love to you this evening and always.

The Book of Habakkuk, 3:18

New International Version (©1984)
yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior.

New Living Translation (©2007)
yet I will rejoice in the LORD! I will be joyful in the God of my salvation!

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
Yet I will exult in the LORD, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.

GOD’S WORD® Translation (©1995)
even then, I will be happy with the LORD. I will truly find joy in God, who saves me.

King James Bible
Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.

American King James Version
Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.

American Standard Version
Yet I will rejoice in Jehovah, I will joy in the God of my salvation.

Bible in Basic English
Still, I will be glad in the Lord, my joy will be in the God of my salvation.

Douay-Rheims Bible
But I will rejoice in the Lord: and I will joy in God my Jesus.

Darby Bible Translation
Yet I will rejoice in Jehovah, I will joy in the God of my salvation.

English Revised Version
Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.

Webster’s Bible Translation
Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.

World English Bible
yet I will rejoice in Yahweh. I will be joyful in the God of my salvation!

Young’s Literal Translation
Yet I, in Jehovah I exult, I do joy in the God of my salvation.

Christmas quiz about what can go wrong at Christmas.

W is for who

Anne — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 06:59:50 +0000

2 little whos — ee cummings

2 little whos
(he and she)
under are this
wonderful tree

smiling stand
(all realms of where
and when beyond)
now and here

(far from a grown
-up i&you-
ful world of known)
who and who

(2 little ams
and over them this
aflame with dreams
incredible is)

Have a laugh on me: I made a Christmas quiz about what can go wrong at Christmas.

V is for violin

Anne — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 05:59:06 +0000

Life is like playing a violin solo in public and learning the instrument as one goes on. — Samuel Butler (1835-1902)

Here is virtuoso Itzak Perlman finding his way into Klezmer with the Klezmatics (don’t miss magic minute 7):

I did a fun Christmas exercise for Spotlight: A Great Christmas

U is for understand

Anne — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 06:58:25 +0000

I understand. — Empathy, part 2: an effective active-listening phrase when you don’t really want to listen to somebody (”too much information”), but don’t want to sound rude. Laughs c/o sitcom Two and a Half Men, 1st season, 7th episode.

I put together tips and a language exercise on active listening here.

T is for thee

Anne — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 07:00:38 +0000

“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day” is the beginning of possibly the most beautiful love poem ever written, of William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18.

Pity that there is no “Du” in English. The intimacy of “thou, thee, thine”, the “du, dich, dein” we have lost in English, is one of the things that makes German my language of love.

For those of you who were hoping that T is for test, here is a great test of Shakesperean pronouns.

Here’s David Gilmore of Pink Floyd interpreting Sonnet 18:

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate;
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date;
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

– William Shakespeare

Thank you to Leslie of English Desk for this video.