Antlitz

... in der Liebe, die alles umfängt...

Sanftmut - Gentleness - Lightness II

What a procession:

Chekhov is sitting at his desk, neatly and unhurriedly he jots something on a piece of paper. Then he gets up, puts on his overcoat, his hat and galoshes, and goes to the corner where a mousetrap has been placed. He comes back, holding a mouse, still alive, by its tail, and goes out on the porch and walks slowly across his garden to the fence, behind which stands a Tartar cementary on a stony hillock. Gently he throws the mouse over the fence ... A tame stork and two small dogs are following behind him.

Ivan Bunin in On Chekhov

And something very contemporary, though being a century old, and at the heart quite deconstructivist :-):

Im übrigen ist Humor eben Humor und hat jederzeit seinen eigenen Sinn und - Ernst für sich. Ja, es ist seine Mission, zumindest heutzutage, im Menschen den dumpfen trübseligen Ernst, in den ihn eine materialistische Gegenwart verstrickt hält, ein wenig aufzulockern, anzubröckeln.

Von einer Zeit umfangen, die im wesentlichen von Gelehrten ihre Parolen empfängt und demgemäß auf allen Seiten zur Sackgasse verurteilt ist, meint er (i e der gegenwärtige Mensch Anmerkung moi) vor solchen Versen gleichsam aufzuatmen, als in einer Atmosphäre, in der die erdrückende Schwere und Schwerfälligkeit des sogenannten physischen Plans, der heute mit dem ganzen bitteren Ernst einer geist- und gottlos gewordenen Epoche als die alleinige und alleinseligmachende Wirklichkeit dekretiert wird, heiter behoben, durchbrochen, ja mitunter völlig auf den Kopf gestellt zu sein scheint

Christian Morgenstern in Brief Fragmente aus Über die Galgenlieder von Christian Morgenstern

Finally the lyrics of one of the most beautiful Flemish songs ever:

Mia by Gorky or Gorki


When I was hungry, I came to you.
You said: "You may eat if you do the washing up"
 People like you must have a hard time.
Give them a chance before they grow silent/ crazy.

The middle class governs the country
better than ever before.
Mia has seen the light.
She says: "Nobody is lost."

Momentarily we still go ahead
on the bright path, the wrong track
People like me you meet everywhere
on the job market in this valley of tears

Stars may come and stars may go
Only Elvis remains
Mia has never quit
She asks: " Can you still dream?"

The middle class governs the country
better than ever before.
Mia has seen the light.
She says: "Nobody is lost."



Stars may come and stars may go
Only Elvis remains
Mia has never quit
She asks: " Can you still dream?"



Stars may come and stars may go
Only Elvis remains
Mia has never quit
She asks: " Can you still dream?"

Homo homini lupus est - Sakhalin - An Evening with Michael Pennington Part 3

The ensuing talk dealt with Anton Chekhov's journey to Sakhalin in 1890. So it is arguable if it was an evening spent with Michael Pennington or rather one in the company of Anton Chekhov, for as the lecturer pointed out at the beginning the talk was a sort of "dramatisation" of this journey - mostly in Chekhov's own words (of course translated into English), though this time unlike in his one-man-play  "Anton Chekhov" (and I would rather use play instead of show, for here we actually meet the lead character(!!) and I highly recommend it to anybody who has not yet attended a performance!! It is worth any detour just to catch one) Michael Pennington was not dressed up to look like Chekhov. After some comment on the weather, which had been really extraordinarily snowy for England, he mentioned something that exactly echoes my thoughts and feelings when reading "Die Insel Sachalin" (Anton Chekhov's report on his journey). He said that when reading it and especially the anecdotes and small stories about Sakhalin's inhabitants, that are interspersed within the more scientifical and precisely stated facts of the report, one wishes it was just literature. I personally was and am still very shocked at the realisation that this was people's actual lives instead.
The first part of the evening took the audience along Chekhov's travel through Siberia and along the Amur River to Sakhalin, with excerpts from his letters. Then Michael Pennington read out some of the episodes and stories from the report. "Sakhalin Island" by Anton Chekhov is available in print.

At the end of his talk Michael Pennington referred to the fact that Chekhov's report though sort of ill-received in Russia, nevertheless served to better some of the appaling circumstances prisoners and settlers on Sakhalin had to live with. Personally I was very impressed by the talk and the artfulness of the lecturer, who not only did deliver Chekhov's disturbing report, but also left me with a warm feeling of hope despite the talk's  gloomy and dark subject.
For further reading I highly recommend not only "Sakhalin Island" by Anton Chekhov, but also "Rossya - A Journey Through Siberia" and "Are You There Crocodile - Inventing Anton Chekhov", both by Michael Pennington, both charming, insightful, highly readable, entertaining and surprising accounts of Michael Pennington's relationship to Russia and especially to Anton Chekhov.

Snowy Weather - An Evening with Michael Pennington

 

If  anybody is interested in an account of the evening and the journey, these subsequent posts (and some yet to come) http://das-unmoegliche.blogspot.com/2010/12/to-go-or-not-to-go-is-surely-no.html and http://das-unmoegliche.blogspot.com/2010/12/tradurre-e-tradire.html do offer more insight.

Strange chances, as it is I felt a little bit ignorant at not giving it even a  thought to go to the Almeida instead and give Stephen Dillane a chance to convince me of his Solness, yet I've found out yesterday (December 21st) that the performance of the Master Builder at the Almeida on November 30th was cancelled due to the fact that Stephen Dillane could not make it to the theatre because of the snow!!! (I do not blame him for getting stuck on his way, looking into the landscape from the Eurostar there really seemed to be very adverse weather conditions!!)