Still my favourite Bengali song: Beautiful voice, language, song, scenery; beautiful everything.

via youtube.com

English lyrics:

The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures.

It is the same life that shoots in joy through the dust of the earth in numberless blades of grass and breaks into tumultuous waves of leaves and flowers.

It is the same life that is rocked in the ocean-cradle of birth and of death, in ebb and in flow.

I feel my limbs are made glorious by the touch of this world of life. And my pride is from the life-throb of ages dancing in my blood this moment.

Bengali lyrics:

Bhulbona ar shohojete
Shei praan e mon uthbe mete
Mrittu majhe dhaka ache
je ontohin praan

Bojre tomar baje bashi
She ki shohoj gaan
Shei shurete jagbo ami

Bojre tomar baje bashi
She ki shohoj gaan
dao more shei gaan

Shei jhor jeno shoi anonde
Chittobinar taare
Shopto-shindhu dosh digonto
Nachao je jhonkare!

Bojre tomar baje bashi
She ki shohoj gaan
Shei shurete jagbo ami

Bojre tomar baje bashi
She ki shohoj gaan

Shei shurete jagbo ami
Bojre tomar baje bashi
She ki shohoj gaan
dao more shei gaan

This has got to be my favourite Byzantine hymn evar!

via youtube.com

Greek transliteration:
Christós anésti ek nekrón,
thanáto thánaton patísas,
ké tís en tís mnímasi,
zoín charisámenos!

English translation:
Christ is risen from the dead,
By death He conquered death,
And to those in the graves
He granted life!

Orthodox priests can be titanic arseholes at times, but I've always loved their chants and vestments!

via youtube.com

Brings back happy memories, this.

via youtube.com

Still makes me happy, actually. I wouldn't mind this playing at my funeral.

It was Hermanubis who held my father's hand and sang this song to him as they raced to the undying shores.

via youtube.com

Hail the Traveller! Guide of Souls!

Kupalo! Kupalo!

No words can accurately describe the amount of euphoria I feel whenever I watch this video. Thank you, Ivan Kupala (the project) for making this possible.

Awaken, native spirit! The earth is not dead, the trees still sing, the people still want to dance with you.



If you wish to sing along, I have the lyrics which I can transliterate from Russian Cyrillic to Roman for you.

Ivan Kupala is a Russian musical group that mixes traditional Russian folk songs with electronic sounds, producing a unique blend of world music called ethnic electronica.

"Kostroma" (the title of this video and song) is another name for Kupalo (literally "to bathe"): a Slavonic god of fertility and the summer season. His festival, also called Kupalo, was originally celebrated on the summer solstice (which was 5 days ago) but is now more commonly celebrated under the *guise* of Ivan Kupala Day or "Snt John the Bather" (ring a bell?).

So bathe in the summer rains! Kupalo reigns!

(PS: Para sa mga Tagalog, huwag kayong bastos, wala iyang koneksyon sa 'kupal'.)

This Made My Day

After a very draining day, this just brought me back to hale: Susan Boyle sings for her dream.

Thank you tristantrakand for the link. Have a good night, everyone.

Oh Danny Boy, Oh Danny Boy, I love you so

This song, an unofficial but popular anthem for the Irish and their descendants in America and Canada, never (and I mean never) fails to make me cry inside (and sometimes outside) whenever I hear it. The song has been interpreted by many listeners as a message from a parent to a son going off to war or leaving as part of the Irish diaspora.



Oh Danny Boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling
From glen to glen, and down the mountainside.
The summer's gone, and all the roses falling.
'Tis you, 'tis you must go and I must bide.

But come ye back when summer's in the meadow
Or when the valley's hushed and white with snow,
'Tis I'll be here in sunshine or in shadow.
Oh Danny Boy, Oh Danny Boy, I love you so.

But if you come and all the flow'rs are dying
And I am dead, as dead I well may be,
You'll come and find the place where I am lying
And kneel and say an Ave there for me.

And I shall hear, though soft your tread above me,
And then my grave will warmer, sweeter be,
For you will bend and tell me that you love me,
And I shall sleep in peace until you come to me.

Alternative lyrics for last two lines:

And you'll not fail to tell me that you love me,
I'll simply sleep in peace until you come to me.

Michael Londra sings it beautifully here. Yet again, I cannot help but jerk a tear. Perhaps it is because, other than having a soft spot for themes of war and departing kinsmen (a recurring theme in my family's history), I may be Irish after all, yeah? Tee, hee.

The Great Dance Of Peace

This is one of my favourite dances ever (in addition to Singkil and Irish step dancing, of course). The T'aep'yeongmu (literally "great peace dance") is a Korean dance with the function of wishing a great peace for the country. It is usually danced by a queen and her ladies but sometimes a king may join in as well. It is particularly peculiar because whilst the dancers are dressed as royalty the steps and music however are very mudang or shamanistic.

Below are links to a couple of short clips. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

At a theatre
At a fashion show
At a temple
At a summit
At a palace
At a gala