Rhenish Outtakes

Rhine Dancing.....

So.... what follows are pictures I took on my recent trip up and down the Middle Rhine, but these are outtakes, pictures not included in the two 'official' pieces about my journey.  And these have been processed using a limited piece of software on my iPad, so they will, and are intended to, look different. The point is these are part of the visual experience. I am not going to try and explain, or add opinion or information, though I am Rhine Dancing to some poetry and popular songs as I go.... so bear with the quotes [Or ignore them entirely: Ed.]:

We start with Chaucer, as my boat happened to be named after him:

But shortly myn entente I wol devise:

I preche of no thing but for coveityse.

Therefore my theme is yet, and evere was,

Radix malorum est Cupiditas.....

Geoffrey Chaucer

The Pardoner's Prologue

The river flows

It flows to the sea

Wherever that river goes

That's where I want to be

Roger McGuinn

There was a young girl, whos heart was a frown 

'Cause she was crippled for life, 

and she couldn't speak a sound 

And she wished and prayed she could stop living, 

So she decided to die 

She drew her wheelchair to the edge of the shore 

And to her legs she smiled "you won't hurt me no more" 

But then a sight she'd never seen made her jump and say 

"look a golden winged ship is passing my way" 

And it really didn't have to stop, it just kept on going... 

And so castles made of sand 

Slips into the sea, eventually

Jimi Hendrix

The fascination of what's difficult

Has dried the sap out of my veins, and rent

Spontaneous joy and natural content

Out of my heart.

W B Yeats

Each new daybreak we are born again.

All our life till now has flown away.

What we did yesterday's already gone.

All we have left of life begins today.

Tony Harrison

Palladas:  Poems - 13

Ach Liebste, lasst uns eilen,

Wir haben Zeit:

Es schadet das Verweilen

Uns beiderseit.

Martin Opitz

Lied

And on that cheek, and o'er that brow,

So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,

The smiles that win, the tints that glow,

But tell of days in goodness spent,

A mind at peace with all below,

A heart whose love is innocent!

Byron

She Walks in Beauty

If we make it through December

Everything's gonna be alright I know

It's the coldest time of winter

And I shiver when I see the falling snow

If we make it through December

Got plans to be in a warmer town come summer time

Maybe even California

If we make it through December we'll be fine

Merle Haggard

Je vous ai apporté des bonbons

Parce que les fleurs c'est périssable

Puis les bonbons c'est tellement bon

Bien que les fleurs soient plus présentables

Jacques Brel

When something goes wrong

I'm the first to admit it

I'm the first to admit it

But the last one to know

When something goes right

Oh, it's likely to lose me

It's apt to confuse me

It's such an unusual sight

Oh, I can't, I can't get used to something so right

Something so right

Paul Simon

Will I see you tonight

On a downtown train?

Every night, every night is just the same

Oh baby

Will I see you tonight

On a downtown train?

All of my dreams just fall like rain

Oh, baby, on a downtown train

Kathleen Brennan, Tom Waits

Sad deserted shore, your fickle friends are leaving

Ah, but then you know it's time for them to go

But I will still be here, I have no thought of leaving

I do not count the time

For who knows where the time goes?

Who knows where the time goes?

Sandy Denny

I don't miss you like I should

But I kissed you all those times I shouldn't have

There's a Tesla outside your old flat

And all I have to show for you is how 

I'm angered by that fact

I'm angered by that fact

CMAT

Lord, let that TESLA Crash

Libiamo, libiamo ne' lieti calici

che la bellezza infiora;

e la fuggevol, fuggevol ora

s'inebrii a voluttà.

Libiam ne' dolci fremiti

che suscita l'amore,

poiché quell'occhio al core onnipotente va.

Libiamo, amore, amor fra i calici

più caldi baci avrà.

Giuseppe Verdi, Francesco Maria Piave

La Traviata

Silent night! Holy night!

Where on this day all power

of fatherly love poured forth

And like a brother lovingly embraced

Jesus the peoples of the world,

Jesus the peoples of the world.

Joseph Mohr, Franz Xaver Gruber

Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht! (1818)

Now in Kilkenny it is reported 

On marble stones as black as ink 

With gold and silver I will support her 

But I'll sing no more now ‘till I get a drink 

Cause I'm drunk today and I'm seldom sober 

A handsome rover from town to town 

Ah but I'm sick now my days are numbered 

Come all you young men and lay me down

Traditional

Carrickfergus

I hear the ancient footsteps like the motion of the sea

Sometimes I turn, there’s someone there, other times it’s only me

I am hanging in the balance of the reality of man

Like every sparrow falling, like every grain of sand

Bob Dylan

Every Grain of Sand

Oh!  The Cologne

The Eau, the Cologne

I owed her

Her odour

Oh, Dear....

Anonymous

what I hate about derelict buildings is their reluctance to disintegrate

what I love about a cloud is its unpredictability

what I hate about you, chum, is your china

what I love about many waters is their inability to quench love

Edwin Morgan

A View of Things

It rheined, and rained, and reigned,

The Rind was bitter, the Rhine was deep,

We wined, and dined, and rhymed,

And then the Rhino-saw-us 

Rhine Dancing

Anonymous

And as Schubert's Ave Maria, Ellens Gesang III, D839, performed by Renée Fleming & Christoph Eschenbach, plays us out, the watery themes career downstream towards the sea, as rivers do, unending, never finished, always there, wishing us well - wishing us better.....

Ave Maria! Reine Magd!

Der Erde und der Luft Dämonen

Von deines Auges Huld verjagt

Sie können hier nicht bei uns wohnen

Wir woll'n uns still dem Schicksal beugen

Da uns dein heil'ger Trost anweht;

Der Jungfrau wolle hold dich neigen

Dem Kind, das für den Vater fleht

Ave Maria!

******

With love

R

*****

(dedicato alla mia speranza)

*****