Scatterbrain

A Drowning  

-fragments in German are from the poem Die Lorelei by Heinrich Heine (1824)-

My Scatterbrain,

Your reign seems unending;

All is silent, 

Save for the echo of the Siren’s call.

Die schönste Jungfrau sitzet           [The loveliest maiden is sitting

Dort oben wunderbar,                       Up there, so wondrously fair;

Sie kämmt ihr goldenes Haar.          She combs her golden hair]

Depriver of Reason,

Your claws entered so deep;

Muse of the depths,

Insensible ravager of worlds.

The song must not cease,

For your silence would ensure 

Forever being in thrall: 

Captive paralysis of desire.

Die schönste Jungfrau sitzet           [The loveliest maiden is sitting

Dort oben wunderbar,                       Up there, so wondrously fair;

Sie kämmt ihr goldenes Haar,          She combs her golden hair,

Und singt ein Lied dabei;                  And sings a song, passing time]

Constrained, gaping,

The Rendered-Helpless are frozen;

Mesmerised for eternity,

By terrible enchantment.

Graceful indifference,

Impassive torturer; a timeless ascendancy 

Exercised from the river’s high bank,

Through exquisite carelessness.

Sie kämmt ihr goldenes Haar,           [She combs her golden hair,

Und singt ein Lied dabei;                   And sings a song, passing time;

Das hat eine wundersame,                It has a most wondrous, appealing

Gewalt'ge Melodei.                             And powerful melodic rhyme]

The delicious song attracts,

Love wounds, and all is lost;

Silence then holds

The wreckage still.

I am pierced and pinned, but

Your gaze is dumbly elsewhere;

Repeating stupidly your calling,

Luring indiscriminately to oblivion.

Den Schiffer im kleinen Schiffe,            [The boatman aboard his small skiff,

Ergreift es mit wildem Weh;                   Enraptured with a wild ache,

Er schaut nicht die Felsenriffe,              Has no eye for the jagged cliff]

My Scatterbrain,

Your reign seems unending;

All is silent, 

Save for the echo of the Siren’s call.

Ich glaube, die Wellen verschlingen           [I think that the waves will devour

Am Ende Schiffer und Kahn,                       Both boat and man, by and by,

Und das hat mit ihrem Singen,                   And that, with her dulcet-voiced power

Die Loreley getan.                                        Was done by the Loreley]



Peter Jennings : London : February  2015

Scatterbrain (music video) is performed on youtube at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6wngMnD-sQ&feature=youtu.be