My favourite Christmas Carol

The origin of the Christmas carol we know as Silent Night was a poem that was written in 1816 by an Austrian priest called Joseph Mohr. On Christmas Eve in 1818 in the small alpine village called Oberndorf it is reputed that the organ at St. Nicholas Church had broken. Joseph Mohr gave the poem of Silent Night (Stille Nacht) to his friend Franz Xavier Gruber and the melody for Silent Night was composed with this in mind. The music to Silent Night was therefore intended for a guitar and the simple score was finished in time for Midnight Mass. Silent Night is the most famous Christmas carol of all time!

Lyrics:

Silent night, holy night

All is calm, all is bright

Round yon Virgin Mother and Child

Holy Infant so tender and mild

Sleep in heavenly peace

Sleep in heavenly peace

Silent night, holy night!

Shepherds quake at the sight

Glories stream from heaven afar

Heavenly hosts sing Alleluia!

Christ, the Saviour is born

Christ, the Saviour is born

Silent night, holy night

Son of God, love's pure light

Radiant beams from Thy holy face

With the dawn of redeeming grace

Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth

Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth

It's so lovely to be listening to Christmas carols, bake cookies and Christmas cakes and do all Christmassy things! This is a lovely cake recipe. Please follow the links:

Recipe:http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/chocolatefruitcake_84675.shtml

Video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TC_tA8sdFo

This looks like the yummiest Christmas cake ever. (Though I haven't tried it myself yet! )

WISH YOU ALL A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Respite

Sometimes
             the blueness of sky is
             not enough reprieve,
             the lapping of waves is
             no sufficient relief.

And
             a steaming pot of tea is
             too hot for the mouth,
             a piping mug of espresso
             too bitter for the tongue.

May the poem never end

Will the Poem End?

-Dilip Chitre

Will the poem end where

Barbed letters stare their black spells

Aimed at my eyes

Blood turns into tears shed by

An absent eye

And the admonition:

"Thou shalt not love this world

And sleep with thy enemy."

Will the poem end when

All his light is spent

And to a standstill, to a standstill come

All heartbeats and all drums

The cosmic drone

Buzzes back into life

Looking for its beginning.

Veteran poet, filmmaker, musician and artist Dilip Chitre passes away. He was suffering from cancer for the past few years.
His contribution to post independent Indian literature has been immense. His translations of Tukaram's work into English have been a celebration of the saint and Indian literature alike.
He is well known for his films, Vijeta and Ardha Satya with Govind Nihalani.
He has written numerous poems, Marathi and English and is the author of a good many anthologies.
There have been numerous exhibitions of his paintings.
He was a rare individual whose presence and creations touched so many facets of the world and its people. His contribution to the arts is all encompassing and can never be forgotten.
We'll miss him.
May the poem never end.

Mark Anthony's speech from Julius Caesar

William Shakespeare

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him;
The evil that men do lives after them,
The good is oft interred with their bones,
So let it be with Caesar ... The noble Brutus
Hath told you Caesar was ambitious:
If it were so, it was a grievous fault,
And grievously hath Caesar answered it ...
Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest,
(For Brutus is an honourable man;
So are they all; all honourable men)
Come I to speak in Caesar's funeral ...
He was my friend, faithful and just to me:
But Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man….
He hath brought many captives home to Rome,
Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill:
Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?
When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept:
Ambition should be made of sterner stuff:
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man.
You all did see that on the Lupercal
I thrice presented him a kingly crown,
Which he did thrice refuse: was this ambition?
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And, sure, he is an honourable man.
I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke,
But here I am to speak what I do know.
You all did love him once, not without cause:
What cause withholds you then to mourn for him?
O judgement! thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason…. Bear with me;
My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar,
And I must pause till it come back to me.

This speech is perhaps the most famous, most loved and most powerful speech in the history of English literature. The use of sarcasm (around the word 'honourable' and 'ambitious') is evident and so is the point that Anthony is trying to make here. He feels for Caesar in a heart wrenching way ('My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar') but uses it with poignancy to convince and remind people the truth about Caesar's actions and character as opposed to whatever Brutus has accused him of. Commendable and great. 

TO AN ISLE IN THE WATER

by: William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)

SHY one, shy one,
Shy one of my heart,
She moves in the firelight
Pensively apart.

She carries in the dishes,
And lays them in a row.
To an isle in the water
With her would I go.

She carries in the candles,
And lights the curtained room,
Shy in the doorway
And shy in the gloom;

And shy as a rabbit,
Helpful and shy.
To an isle in the water
With her would I fly.

Source: http://www.poetry-archive.com