Va où les autres sont allés - jusqu'á la sombre limite
chercher la toison d'or du néant ta récompense derničre

redresse-toi et va parmi ceux á genoux
parmi ceux qui se détournent parmi les effondrés

tu n'as pas été préservé pour vivre
tu as très peu de temps il faut témoigner

ose même lorsque la raison défaille ose
dans le bilan final cela seul comptera

Que ta Colère impuissante soit comme la mer
chaque fois que tu entendras les humiliés les battus

garde-toi de la sécheresse du cœur aime la source matinale
l'oiseau au nom inconnu le chêne d'hiver
la lumière au mur la splendeur du ciel
Ils n'ont pas besoin de ta chaude haleine
ils sont lá pour dire: il n'y a pas de consolation

veille - et quand la lumière sur les monts te donne le signal- lève toi et va
tant que le sang fait tourner dans ta poitrine la sombre étoile

redis les exorcismes anciens des hommes les légendes les contes
tu conquerras ainsi le bien que tu ne conquerras pas
redis le paroles tendres redis-les avec entętement
comme ceux qui traversaient le désert et périssaient aux sables

pour cela ils te récompenseront de ce qu'ils auront sous la main
d'une fustigation de rires d'un meurtre sur le tas d'ordures

va c'est la seule façon d'accéder au cercle des crânes froids
au cercle de tes ancêtres Guilgamesh Hector Rolland
défenseurs du royaume sans limites et de la ville des cendres
Sois fidèle Va

[trad. Alfred Sproede]

( The same poem in English )

( Deutsche Version )

( Versión española )

I was rather fond of this poem when I was younger. Now I see it as more bitter than idealistic. Or bitter AND YET idealistic. I don't know myself.
Multilanguage compilations are fun. Somehow I like the French version.
Oh, right, the author. Zbigniew Herbert.

An interesting philological question: can a translator be proud of her work - and show it - when she's merely transcribing an already existing work into another language? Thanks to abelarda, I'm feeding my over ten years of hunger for Les Misérables fanfiction in my native Polish, realising by the way how much, not to offend anyone, "Polish school of fanfiction" differs from most of the mass production in English. Yet English is Latin of our times, one has to use it to let the verbal communicate cross the borders of a relatively small linguistic community. Therefore I've decided to use my humble skills on abelarda's work. She did something almost impossible, connecting in one story Jean Prouvaire, Grantaire and sexual undertones with, well, not what one might expect at the end. The translation was not a request, I decided I simply want to do it. While working, I started to like the characters more and more (I thought it's already impossible!) and when finished, I realised that I, too, want this little story to be at least seen. I also understood how important it is when you know, actually know that somebody read you. I feel the need and got the author's kind permission to post the link to the story on my LJ.

So, here it is - Polish experiment with French classic. In English. Blame the Polish-to-English translator for all faults you may find!

The Fall

I go to open my bottle of absinthe...

Heavens - a year! I think I'll start with cleaning the mess and putting my small collection of rating stamps from the user info site elsewhere.

( Manga/anime ratings )

( Mythological ratings )

( Other )

from abelarda

Comment and I'll give you a letter; then you have to list ten things you love that begin with that letter. Afterward, post this in your journal and give out some letters of your own...

Got letter R. Made the said meme in Polish.

( R like Rosencrantz )

For the Fearless Leader abelarda with love ^^

( Andre Chenier in Polish )

I do wonder how much disillusioned and yet stubbornly idealistic I am...

( The Truly Great )

I like this poem. The source... well, not that hard to guess, probably.

( [Vous rappelez-vous notre douce vie] )

"ENJOLRAS:

À la volonté du peuple
Et à la santé du progrès,
Remplis ton coeur d'un vin rebelle
Et à demain, ami fidèle.
Si ton coeur bat aussi fort
Que le tambour dans le lointain,
C'est que l'espoir existe encore
Pour le genre humain.

COMBEFERRE:

Nous ferons d'une barricade
Le symbole d'une ère qui commence.
Nous partons en croisade
Au coeur de la terre sainte de France.

COURFEYRAC:

Nous sommes désormais
Les guerriers d'une armée qui s'avance..."

"À la volonté du peuple dont on n'étouffe jamais la voix
Et dont le chant renaît toujours et dont le chant renaît déjà
Nous voulons que la lumière déchire le masque de la nuit
Pour illuminer notre terre et changer la vie

Il viendra le jour glorieux où dans sa marche vers l'idéal
L'homme ira vers le progrès du mal au bien du faux au vrai
Un rêve peut mourir mais on n'enterre jamais l'avenir

Joignez-vous à la croisade de ceux qui croient au genre humain
Pour une seule barricade qui tombe cent autres se lèveront demain
À la volonté du peuple un tambour chante dans le lointain
Il vient annoncer le grand jour et c'est pour demain"

From labingi - if you'd like to, I'd be happy to talk.

001. Leave me a comment saying you want to do the meme.
002. I'll respond by asking you five personal questions so I can get to know you better.
003. You should update your LJ with the answers to the questions.
004. You should include this explanation and offer to ask someone else in the post.
005. When others comment asking to be asked, you will ask them five questions.


1) What is it about Misora Naomi that interests you in particular?

She's a strong woman and in her cameo appearance she seems to be one of the most clever DN characters, which in this particular story really means something. I think that the thing making her way of thinking so special is the ability to connect logic and intuition, while the males of the fandom focus on the first only. It's very sad that if she had not died, a woman so much brighter than her fiance would have ended as a housewife... which would be fine, if she herself wanted it (some of my female friends really enjoy taking care of their families and houses much more than making career, and I respect their point of view), but it seems to me she does not. How long would she be happy, being a traditional wife? Even if she stayed alive and married Ray (I don't deny she may love him), accepting her inferior position (he calmly, yet strongly stresses that he expects it) I think problems might appear sooner or later. Naomi is everything but not a naturally submissive person, which makes me think that if her relationship with Ray had a chance, and nothing changed, she would focus her agression on her partner or herself... possibly ending the way she ends in the canon. Being treated as a child for a longer time, when you are not, kills.

2) To get broader, what characteristics make you like a manga/anime in general?

Arts and visual design of the characters play important part, and in the case of an anime, so does music, including voice actors (I'd like to point that I don't understand Japanese in the slightest, but appreciate verbal interpretation of the text a lot). The story must be good, too. I appreciate detailed background (Mirage is a good example here), intertextual references (some people know why Ludwig praising Vermilia in Meine Liebe made me fall from my chair :))) and like the ones you can follow on many levels, if you know what I mean: focusing not so much on the plain intrigue, as having your interest kept by the side stories, small details and secondary characters. Somebody said that if a book is not worth reading a second time, it's not worth reading at all, and I think is applies to manga/anime, too. When it comes to the plot, nothing beats Monster and Wolf's Rain - can these two ever become boring? But what would these two be without their unforgetable heroes? I think that the characters are for me the most important part of every manga/anime I choose. They make me accept the outrageous design with all plot holes and naivete of the main story. In manga, Minami Ozaki's Zetsuai/Bronze would be a silly melodrama, if not for the well-developed characters. In anime, I skipped the whole intrigue (saving the world - not *again*...) in Koutetsu Sangokushi, interested only in the relations between Koumei and Rikuson. Weiss Kreuz has stupid plot, but what characters! Meine Liebe, a.k.a "how NOT to make a revolution", is amusing in its naivete, but the underestimated (by most of the fans) adult characters of the story really make it going for me. The characters in general are so much more important for me that I admit to quiting Death Note after L's death. Unable to focus on the story, I just checked the ending - the whole intrigue wasn't as interesting as the "game of minds" between him and Light...

3) Story behind your user name?

One must know that I'm a philologist - it's not a snobism from my side to state it, but a key point here. Being a night person, years ago, I used to collect words meaning "star" in various languages. When the internet became popular and made the research so easy, I lost interest. Then, being twenty or something, I came across Tolkien's Silmarillion. I remember being fascinated, among other things which put this book among my favourites today, with his linguistic skills. Playing with the word building, I created the name meaning "She-star" - that's how "Elwen" was born. The second part of the user name is a tribute to Celtic mythology, a passion that led my to the idea of PhD thesis (Celtic mythology in Polish modernism). Yet the name "Rhiannon"came from elsewhere: the song by Fleetwood Mac, where the motto of my LJ comes from.

It's been "Elwen" or "Elwen Rhiannon" for years. Names are important, changing them changes a world around us and is always significant. Which is why I don't change aliases easily.

4) What is it about the Middle Ages that interests you?

The point where the western civilisation begins. When christianity adds its part to mediteran heritage, Europe is born. I'm also interested in how little we actually know about such a key period and how much our way of thinking is influenced by stereotypes. Dark times - but also so coloured! Religion on pedestal - carnival and grotesque are blowing it out. Christianity rules officially - and "pagan" traditions are carefully protected. Everything is a sin - except love. Superstitions - are we free of them? Great minds create a base for modern philosophy, great women deny the stereotype of being sad and shy beings in boring dresses. What religion really meant for those people? What did they fear and what did they hope for? Were they thinking the same way we do? Can we measure them with our system of values? So many fascinating aspects here...

5) Oo: Les Misérables: favorite character and why.

Combeferre, as he is probably the closest to my personal beliefs. Brave, when needed, and not running away from open fight, but trying to postpone the conflict as long as possible. I like how with his erudition, he tries to respect all points of view and does not deny anything, including the existence of ghosts and miracles. I love his humanity. His point of view on system of education is so sadly actual, and what he says before the fall of the barricade about responsibility towards women makes him the man I would really like to walk with. I guess our tempers would match.

Of other Amis de l'ABC - Feuilly, because in his, and only his case I buy the idea of "loving all nations". Jean Prouvaire, the shy, yet fearless erudite, whose execution still breaks my heart (I risk saying that completly aware how naive I may sound... I'll only say it's been my favourite book for over ten years for a reason). Grantaire, because of his bitter wits and general hoplesness... and, hell, I have a hopless crush on Enjolras, too...

Of other characters, my favourite one would be probably monsieur Gillenormand, Marius' grandfather. Also Marius and Javert - the characters I'd hesitate calling my "favourite ones", but which fascinate me nevertheless. I cannot say I "like" them, but they intrigue me. I like to analyse their motives and compare them to others (Marius dangerously bends towards the way of thinking which puts people in categories - can he become next Javert? what will his relationship with Cosette be like - will he regret an early marriage, as Victor Hugo regretted his own? Javert, "the man of granite" and Enjolras, "the man of marble" - what exactly makes them different?)

I omit the obvious. Gavroche, bishop Myriel - how can you not like them? Out of question here ;)

According to BBC, the titles below are the list of 100 books everyone should read. At the moment, I am not going to discuss neither the choice itself (Dan Brown, ARGH) nor the tiny number of non-English authors. Feel free to comment and recommend what I really should read - disagreement most welcomed!

The game itself is simple - copying the list, bold the books you've read, put in italics the ones you're going to read, underline your favourite ones and cross the ones you don't want to read or you still suffer trauma after being forced to. I guess the ones left are the titles you don't give a damn about...

1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. The Harry Potter Series - JK Rowling
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6. The Bible
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12. Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19. The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34. Emma- Jane Austen
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50. Atonement - Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52. Dune - Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69. Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72. Dracula - Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses - James Joyce
76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession - AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94. Watership Down - Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

"(...) please, remember me"

Yeah.
Sorry for being the way I am.
Don't need anyone. I am a rock. Not a fictional character, though. Sorry.

Reason to stay here. Any.

AN ICON MEME

Tagged by abelarda

1. Reply to this post, and I will pick three of your icons.
2. Make a post (including the meme info) and talk about the icons I chose.
3. Other people can then comment to you and make their own posts.
4. This will create a never-ending cycle of icon squee.

Although I do my best to keep this journal monolingual, I am not in a mood to think in English tonight (sorry!). Ergo, it will be in Polish. In case anybody's interested, I may tranlate it on request, so feel free to tell me so and take part, if you want to.

Kati i Mori-chan, jak macie chwilkę czasu, zróbcie ^_^

( Here they come... )

Instead of chocolate, a little treat of different kind to improve my mood - a small tribute to *best manganime kisses*. Those who want to be challenged may try to guess the titles ^_^

As for the first one, I wouldn't be myself not to put it... oh, come on, you've all seen it coming:



One of my favourite scenes from, uhmmm, one of my guilty pleasures:



A small classic:



KISS OF THE YEAR 2007 AND MY NEW FANDOM OTP:

Some time ago, I came upon a discussion on Aarin Fantasy, concerning "best yaoi lines ever". Although some of the quotes were graphomania in its pure form (BBW = Big Booooriiing Words), I wouldn't say that some of them weren't inspiring. I re-read the discussion yesterday and realized how very few of the lines favoured by the Aarin members suit my personal taste. Hell knows if I'm that strange... I've decided to come upon with my very own list. Read it, if you want to, and if you have time, tell me what do you think about it.

The order shows my level of value...

10.
"SHOW ME YOUR BODY!!!"

Watari's famous line from Yami no Matsuei, first anime series in my adult life (manga came later). A small classic ^_^

9.
"I have no interest in going on a date with you!"
"Well, I do"

Weiss Kreuz OTP...

8.
"The only fingers that tie my shoelaces are these..."

Count Cain, of course. Of course, Cain and Riff. Of course, no subtext.

7.
"Not here!"
"Pardon?"
"...never mind..."

One of many favourites in Haru wo Daiteita. Followed by, uhmmm, the usual sweetness of Iwaki and Katou together ;)

6.
"I... also thought tenderly about you"

Quoted after the anime version of Winter Cicada. Not much said, and yet so much that it touches me much more than the rest of the dialogues.

5.
"You cannot blame me."
"What are you saying? You've been acting strange lately."
"You say this now?"
"What do you mean? If you want to say something, say it! Did I say something to piss you off? Did I do something to annoy you?"
"Are you afraid of hurting others?"
"What?"
"You don't know anything! What I'm afraid of is you! Your entire existence... You're the one who is threatening me and that's why you'll never realize it. Unless you are me..."
"That's enough! Have you lost it?"
"You're the one who breaks me. You're misunderstanding... I am not just a convenient protector! Nor am I your mentor! Right now, do you have any idea what I desire?"
"What are you... Who the hell are you?"
"I am your dog... a mad dog!"

Somebody thought I'll not quote Mirage? Aaah, Naoe does have a sense of drama... mrrrr...

4.
"You are bleeding... Even if it seems a small wound, it will hurt you later"
"What are you doing, jerk!? Don't suck the wound, it's disgusting!"
"I'm sorry. It was instinct. When I am with a girl, I do that and she melts to my feet"
"I-AM-NOT-A-GIRL!!!"

Zetsuai still has a warm place in my heart...

3.
"If you do anything perverted to Takuto, I'll... I'll make you regret it!"
"Too late..."

... so does Bronze, of course. I love minor characters - poor Yuugo ^_^

2.
"Ooohhh... you are the secretary of that celebrated Enmacho? I am happy that I was able to meet you... Tatsumi-san"
"I as well am quite delighted to be able to meet doctor Muraki of such infamy ---"
"As rumoured, you are quite... severe"
"My... severity... isn't limited to just my words!"
[hell breaks loose]

Yami again and a small piece of a jewel among the dialogues. Yaoi like hell - Tatsumi/Muraki FOREVER, each of them is SOOO perfect with the other :-D

And the Number One among the yaoi lines -

1.
x/1999 and Sakurazuka's last words to Subaru. Only one person heard them, and Subaru was crying. That's all. Damn strong. Damn good.

Mirage is heartbreakingly mine, for more reasons than I am willing to discuss. Sometimes I'd like to have someone to talk about it, but sometimes I think that maybe it's better the way it is.

Mirage of Blaze vs Angel Sanctuary - being intrigued by the motive of reincarnation, why the first title fascinates me so, while the second one merely interests and amuses? Theoreticaly, with my passion for mythologies, I should love AS. It has a plot, interesting characters and enough names and symbols to make the manga resemble a dream of a drunken mythocritic :p Oh, and a bunch of love stories and more or less perverted pairings to choose from. I am more and more convinced that as a psychologically developed literary character, Setsuna does not compare with Takaya. To put it briefly, he does not convince me, nor does Alexiel. I still have a few volumes left, but I seriously doubt something will change. Maybe that's Kaori Yuki - I've never cared much about her "main" characters.

Monster vs Death Note - why is Light the Number One on my private list of the most hated and disgusting characters, while I like Johann in some way? [is-scared-of-herself] Although I think Light is more childish, lacking Johann's style and kind of class, I think the reason lies elsewhere, somewhere in the relations between Johann and Tenma, compared with Light and L.

So many things, I'm too exhausted to let them into my mind.
Who cares, anyway.

A fragile, emotionally scarred boy gets trapped in a mirror. When he gets released, he's a leader with a power to face the darkness and fight the world, with the highest powers bending to his will. What happened in the mirror? Some things can be expressed only through symbols.

I'm addicted to this story. And, by all gods, what a soundtrack the anime has!

I honestly can watch Mirage on and on.

( Hero )

It's not a secret that for many reasons I am in a rather poor mood. Almost nothing to wait for, almost nothing to hold on to. A very few things get some kind of reaction from me - Mirage of Blaze (damned toxical fandom!), Haru wo Daiteita manga (how trivial), a German documentary film about Ludwig II that I found on the net today. A couple of songs, perhaps...

( The Wintry Queen )

The music and the performance are not the best, but I like the lyrics. Make me think of one of the few literary characters that still have the power to warm my cynical heart -
( The Face Within )

I listened to this song on-line, but it disappeared from the site and I cannot find it anywhere. Contrary to a very popular song with the same title, this one is extremly rare. I have a soft spot for songs based on books -
( Champs Élysées )

And, if anybody had any doubts what the hell am I talking about, heeeeere coooooooomes -
( The Pattern of Amber )

borrowed from theladyfeylene

Step 1: Put your iTunes or equivalent on random.
Step 2: Post the first line from the first 30 songs that play IN A BLOG ENTRY, no matter how embarrassing.
Step 3: Bold out the songs when someone guesses correctly.
Step 4: Looking them up on Google or any other search engine is CHEATING!

modifications: 15 instead of 30, with the use of my Winamp playlist, excluding for obvious reasons - my collection of instrumentals and making it minimally longer than one line in some cases; for the lack of suitable fonts I excluded some Japanese and Greek stuff

( OK, try to guess what am I listening to ^_^ )