In December last year I was challenged - or "commissioned" as I like to regard it - by Eva Turnová to produce an English version of Vratislav Brabenec's poem, poď .
I have lost count of the versions and I am not totally happy with this one but here it is. There is plenty of psychedelic intertext which I shall leave for the reader to wrestle with. I would draw your attention to the neologism, supersticians, which conjures up images of lying politicians, spin doctors, along with religious leaders and other quacks. (Well, you need to know that it isn't a typo!).
This poem, along with several others, has been set to music by the wonderful plastic people from Prague. You can catch up with their universe on Maska za maskou, released in December last year and premiered in front of an international audience in London in January.
Anyway, enjoy!
COME
Come look inside the flesh of the melon
and leave behind the knives,
burn the laws of the gorgon,
swimming is easier with an empty head.
Be a frog or be a fish
in evolution, a blemish,
a dream of birds, a secret
underneath an ocean of wreckage.
To taste the absurd is sweetness
to ride in melon juice, treacherous,
the soul is a burden and so is thinking of it,
in the garden of god there is time enough.
Stop giving birth to ghosts,
supersticians and hopes;
it's a leap in the clouds,
the bush burns within
and slanders in a coffin.
Be a frog or be a fish
in evolution, a blemish,
a dream of birds, a secret
underneath an ocean of wreckage.
To taste the absurd is sweetness
to ride in melon juice, treacherous,
the soul is a burden and so is thinking of it,
in the garden of god there is time enough.
Wednesday 28 April 2010
Friday 16 April 2010
Leaders' debate less rivetting the DIY SOS
I had made up my mind that I wasn't going to watch The Leader's Debate as it was announced with some fanfare a few months ago. The notion of a ""British TV First" seemed important to various mainstream media organisations and thus of little importance to me.
However, curiosity got the better of me and I persuaded my children to let me have a peek about eight minutes into the "show", for that what it was. I should point out, that the only time our children are allowed to use swear words without being told off, is when a politician comes on the telly. Though not encouraged to use such phrases as "duplicitous cunt" or "fuck off, shithead", I will not deny that a certain feeling of pride wells up when my daughter uses such phrases.
Anyhow, I digress. I managed to catch ten seconds of Gordon Brown sounding like an angry old guard dog before switching back to what my children were watching before. DIY SOS is more suitable viewing for your eyes and ears.
Nick Clegg was pronounced the winner of the debate by the Guardian and the other paper I bothered to check. Quite how Clegg could fail to beat a psychotic bulldog and a deluded poodle seemed to elude those same papers. He did and that's what they think is important, so it must be....Therefore I must be some sort of deviant for thinking the opposite.
However, curiosity got the better of me and I persuaded my children to let me have a peek about eight minutes into the "show", for that what it was. I should point out, that the only time our children are allowed to use swear words without being told off, is when a politician comes on the telly. Though not encouraged to use such phrases as "duplicitous cunt" or "fuck off, shithead", I will not deny that a certain feeling of pride wells up when my daughter uses such phrases.
Anyhow, I digress. I managed to catch ten seconds of Gordon Brown sounding like an angry old guard dog before switching back to what my children were watching before. DIY SOS is more suitable viewing for your eyes and ears.
Nick Clegg was pronounced the winner of the debate by the Guardian and the other paper I bothered to check. Quite how Clegg could fail to beat a psychotic bulldog and a deluded poodle seemed to elude those same papers. He did and that's what they think is important, so it must be....Therefore I must be some sort of deviant for thinking the opposite.
Thursday 8 April 2010
Karel Schwarzenberg invokes Malcolm X in Prague today
I do love a bit of posturing especially by those pigs snubbed at the high trough. The trough doesn't get much higher than the dinner this evening in Prague after America's historically black President Obama signs something with Russia's histrionically puppet-like President Medvedev.
Quite what this something actually is will not be discussed much beyond this evening, as it is really all a polite bun fight.
One of those refusing to be part of this horrendous narrative is the delightfully anachronistic and aristocratic Prince Karel Schwarzenberg. A man who has campaigned forcefully, if at times comically, about pigs eating at troughs. (Or localized Czech corruption as the less well-born would describe it). He was quoted in the Prague papers this morning saying he will not attend this evening's meal as he and the other non-global diners are only there to act as waiters.
What does he mean?!
This invokes the memory of one Malcolm X, the straight talking black American unfortunately airbrushed out of online histories but you can find him speak here about house niggers eating better than field niggers. Not on that clip is the statement, "I'm not a diner unless you let me dine. Then I become a diner". Brother Malcolm was referring to the rather unfortunate history of the United States when it comes to looking after its own citizens.(Though this could apply equally to Russia and elsewhere for that matter).
However, in a moment of petulance rather than intelligent irony, Schwarzenberg does remind us of Malcolm X. Obama won't be paying attention but we should. Those gathered at the baroque trough this evening are dining on the future of this planet, paid for by the suckers who let them be there.
Quite what this something actually is will not be discussed much beyond this evening, as it is really all a polite bun fight.
One of those refusing to be part of this horrendous narrative is the delightfully anachronistic and aristocratic Prince Karel Schwarzenberg. A man who has campaigned forcefully, if at times comically, about pigs eating at troughs. (Or localized Czech corruption as the less well-born would describe it). He was quoted in the Prague papers this morning saying he will not attend this evening's meal as he and the other non-global diners are only there to act as waiters.
What does he mean?!
This invokes the memory of one Malcolm X, the straight talking black American unfortunately airbrushed out of online histories but you can find him speak here about house niggers eating better than field niggers. Not on that clip is the statement, "I'm not a diner unless you let me dine. Then I become a diner". Brother Malcolm was referring to the rather unfortunate history of the United States when it comes to looking after its own citizens.(Though this could apply equally to Russia and elsewhere for that matter).
However, in a moment of petulance rather than intelligent irony, Schwarzenberg does remind us of Malcolm X. Obama won't be paying attention but we should. Those gathered at the baroque trough this evening are dining on the future of this planet, paid for by the suckers who let them be there.
Thursday 1 April 2010
UCL, London's Illegal University
I must confess surprise that The Independent ran a story about how the CIA now holds data on 900 current and former members of University College London's Islamic Society. After all, it is 1 April and the student body itself and their representatives don't seem bothered that they have not only broken the union's own data protection guidelines, they have also broken British and EU law.
Never mind, Britain's own secret police aren't concerned either. Not only did they act outside Britain's Data Protection Act when they gathered the data, the secret police also acted outside the act by passing on the data to the CIA.
I am reminded of this lackadaisical attitude to data protection when I think back to UCL Union's Annual General Meeting held on 23 February, this year. The students' union were the very opposite of lackadaisical in the build up to that meeting. Emails to clubs and societies reminded "to send two representatives to this meeting, as important decisions about the future of UCL Union and about Clubs and Societies get made there" and threatened non-attendence with reduced funding.
Unfortunately, the lackadaisical attitude returned in time for the meeting:
James "Tubby" Hodgson, the Student Activities Officer responsible for handing over the Islamic Society membership lists was asked to give a report on his activities this year. In questions afterwards, only one student of the 400 assembled, actually asked whether he had acted illegally. He said that it was Christmas, no-one at the University was available to give advice, he felt under pressure to act to prevent further terrorist acts. That being the scripted way of saying, "yes".
And that was that. The "important decisions made" were that the student body was bullied into accepting minutes of meetings that remain unpublished and unattended and worse, that a paid officer of the students' union acted illegally was not viewed as "important" at all.
The AGM then continued on its merry way with its various gimmicks and novelties such as the wi-fi voting gadgets and the comedy French chair, who did hid best to sound like Peter Sellers' Inspector Clouseau.
Maybe the students were distracted by the entertainment of Dave Spart's grandson invading the stage to protest about the proposed staff cuts. Maybe the students just didn't know one of their own representatives acted illegally by handing over those lists and now the CIA holds that data, too.
UCL's branding, "London's Global University" has bothered me for a long time. Not because it isn't catchy, not because it isn't true. It has bothered me because UCL invests more in publicizing its brand than its staff or complying with basic human rights legislation. "Global University"? Well, its data is shared among global secret services. That bothers other people.
Never mind, Britain's own secret police aren't concerned either. Not only did they act outside Britain's Data Protection Act when they gathered the data, the secret police also acted outside the act by passing on the data to the CIA.
I am reminded of this lackadaisical attitude to data protection when I think back to UCL Union's Annual General Meeting held on 23 February, this year. The students' union were the very opposite of lackadaisical in the build up to that meeting. Emails to clubs and societies reminded "to send two representatives to this meeting, as important decisions about the future of UCL Union and about Clubs and Societies get made there" and threatened non-attendence with reduced funding.
Unfortunately, the lackadaisical attitude returned in time for the meeting:
James "Tubby" Hodgson, the Student Activities Officer responsible for handing over the Islamic Society membership lists was asked to give a report on his activities this year. In questions afterwards, only one student of the 400 assembled, actually asked whether he had acted illegally. He said that it was Christmas, no-one at the University was available to give advice, he felt under pressure to act to prevent further terrorist acts. That being the scripted way of saying, "yes".
And that was that. The "important decisions made" were that the student body was bullied into accepting minutes of meetings that remain unpublished and unattended and worse, that a paid officer of the students' union acted illegally was not viewed as "important" at all.
The AGM then continued on its merry way with its various gimmicks and novelties such as the wi-fi voting gadgets and the comedy French chair, who did hid best to sound like Peter Sellers' Inspector Clouseau.
Maybe the students were distracted by the entertainment of Dave Spart's grandson invading the stage to protest about the proposed staff cuts. Maybe the students just didn't know one of their own representatives acted illegally by handing over those lists and now the CIA holds that data, too.
UCL's branding, "London's Global University" has bothered me for a long time. Not because it isn't catchy, not because it isn't true. It has bothered me because UCL invests more in publicizing its brand than its staff or complying with basic human rights legislation. "Global University"? Well, its data is shared among global secret services. That bothers other people.
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