1. |
Tambouras
02:45
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2. |
Hymn to Zeus
02:47
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Hymn to Zeus
Zeus was born alpha, Zeus omega, god
of the bright bolt, Zeus head, Zeus center,
by Zeus, all’s made, Zeus substratum of
earth and the heaven of stars, Zeus male,
Zeus immortal female, Zeus breath of all,
Zeus rush of unrelenting fire, Zeus root
of the ocean, Zeus sun and moon, Zeus
the god of lightning, Zeus author of birth:
one power, one daemon, the master of all,
one king’s body, inside which the universe
is turning, fire, water, earth, air, night, day,
old ancestor, wisdom, love, such pleasure,
all things in union inside colossal Zeus.
If you would see his face, beauty, look at
the shining heaven, as his long gold hair,
the radiant stars, beauty, floats in the air,
and bull’s horns, golden, on both sides,
both rising and setting, the celestial gods,
his eyes the sun and the opposite moon,
his mind the truth, the sovereign undying
air, in which he moves, and considers all,
no voice, no shout, no noise, that is not in
the ears of Zeus, son of Kronos, this god,
immortal mind, his body burning like fire,
unbounded, unbothered, unfearing, strong-
armed, and almighty, he was made like this:
wide shoulders, chest, back, the god the air,
with sway, wings grow on which all things
fly, belly holy earth, and the mothering hills,
and the high mountains, and under his belt
the swell of the sea, heavy, and howling,
and the soles of his feet roots down into
the dirt, old Tartaros, and the last borders,
at the world’s ends. After hiding all things
away, out of his holy heart, into the light,
delight, he hauls them, and does wonders.
Lyrics by Larry Beckett
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3. |
Worker at the Lyre
02:25
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Worker at the Lyre
And now, oh worker at the lyre,
sweet song, heart hammers me to say
what I never said before. . .
First, I sang old Chaos, and
hard Necessity, and Time, who in his
unbounded coil bred Air, two-sexed,
two-faced, lovely Love, and the father
of everlasting Night, the first manifest.
Lyric by Larry Beckett
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4. |
Song Like Honey
03:23
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Song Like Honey
And I lifted my tortoise-shell lyre, and I
sent song like honey out of my mouth.
First, I sang old Chaos, dark, the table
of elements, and the heavens, finite
and unbounded. I sang the creation
of the big-bosom earth, and the sea’s
deeps, Love, ancient, self-maturing,
in all its incarnations. I sang how it
generated all things, and split them.
Lyric by Larry Beckett
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5. |
Charybdis
01:28
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With a favoring wind, we loosed the ship
from the island, and through the mouth of
Tartessos, the pillars of Herakles, at night,
around the headland sacred to Bacchos,
we sailed, hungry. When morning gave
light from the east, we arrived at the sea
of Sardinia, the gulf of the Italians, and
the Ausonian islands, then Lilybaion, in
the channel around it, along three-sided
Sicily, slowed by flames of Etna. Waves
of danger, roiling out of the abyss, over
the prow, hissing, Charybdis, churning,
evil, whirlpool held the ship, not forward
or back, but forced to circle the vortex.
The Argo was all but lost in the surge,
when Thetis, daughter of Nereus, old
man of the sea, to see her husband
Peleus again, rose up out of the deep,
saving the ship from wreck, and rage.
Lyric by Larry Beckett
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6. |
Hymn to Artemis
00:55
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To Artemis, whose silver bow
brights heaven, and
whose starry arrows, pouring now
over the harbor,
out of the temporal air, are fire,
who shoots so far,
who, by the law, the longing, at
the heart of me,
I imagine naked, after
the hunt, hiding
in the blue pool, who leads the muses
and graces, in
the dance, who will be goddess in
this first of temples
when it’s only one pillar, I offer
this scroll in flux.
Lyric by Larry Beckett
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7. |
Spirit of Water
03:36
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Spirit of Water
All goes, and nothing stays,
in the river, in us:
in us, the fire dies in the birth
of air and air
in water, on earth as it is
in heaven. So
to the spirit to be water
is death, to water,
earth, but out of earth comes
water, water, the spirit.
The way up, the way down,
are one. Life is a child
playing with pebbles, in its own kingdom.
We’re lights,
at night; we’re lit, blown out.
We can’t step twice into
the same river:
it’s other and still other water.
Lyric by Larry Beckett
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8. |
Temenos
01:18
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Temenos
What space is sacred?
This grove, of pine and cypress:
it’s here, her presence.
This temple, between two rivers,
by the wild ocean,
and though downed by flood and fire,
in the reeds, holding, behind a veil,
her image
fallen out of heaven.
And, I pray, this writing,
where the Word shines.
They come from the old town
for laws: I back
into this sanctuary, where to the music
of the kithara,
I play knucklebones with the virgins.
Lyric by Larry Beckett
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9. |
Flux
03:04
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Flux is a motorcycle blowing down
straight avenue, and the mean street:
when it’s burning or dragging, we
are blessed or beat.
Out there, unrest, and rage and hurt,
strong love, old friends in grace;
I remember what all’s gone down:
it left a trace.
She and he, young, and tangled in
true love, a world without end ring:
you, if you live by passion, listen
to what I sing.
Though it’s a parable, it might
inspire you to a kiss, one night.
and sure, if love, then trial, but
it turns out right.
Lyric by Larry Beckett
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10. |
Exile and the Kingdom
04:28
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She is the window, in the weather,
and he the vigil, down below,
in heart to heart, the fugitive hour,
and time to go.
The west is thunder, the east is red,
but they see only eye to eye:
the old hotel is rocking like
the last goodbye.
Who has the language for the sun
the morning of that fare-thee-well?
Ah grace, who has the breath to give,
the tongue to tell?
This world’s my island
of exile, oh
but it’s the only
kingdom I know.
Lyric by Larry Beckett
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11. |
Wild Rose
02:38
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She asks him, Love, are you a dream,
ghost of a crash, in my blue eyes,
hallucination, or you, at last
out of disguise?
He answers, I am your long lost;
she lets go tears, but they are few,
not like the fires of other years,
like morning dew.
Oh the wild rose, in all its blush,
may sag in snow, and lose its grace:
in sun, it blooms for love, as in
her living face.
Lyric by Larry Beckett
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12. |
I Was Proposing
01:30
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I was proposing—e.g., the woman in wet,
her mystery lips, is she holy or what?—
the ocean as artifice, the sky as faith,
but you don’t care. Positive fire took us
through the blue islands, archaic rocks,
drab bushes, up the immeasurable curves
of the coast, dissolving, to a bare street
where a love song slides out of a window.
Our talk, our fables, sparks off an anvil,
a table, in the old quarter, swordfish,
pale wine: dear, all I can say, it changes,
Hephaistos fizzles, and lean cats comb
the down architecture. It’s darker, and out
at sea, mist is annulling the horizon.
Lyric by Larry Beckett
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13. |
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Long afloat on shipless oceans,
I did all my best to smile
till your singing eyes and fingers
drew me loving to your isle,
and you sang, Sail to me, sail to me,
let me enfold you:
here I am, here I am,
waiting to hold you.
Did I dream you dreamt about me?
Were you hare when I was fox?
Now my foolish boat is leaning
broken, lovelorn, on your rocks,
for you sing, Touch me not, touch me not,
come back tomorrow.
Oh my heart, oh my heart,
shies from the sorrow.
I am puzzled as the oyster,
I am troubled as the tide:
should I stand amid the breakers?
Should I lie with death my bride?
Hear me sing, Swim to me, swim to me,
let me enfold you:
here I am, here I am,
waiting to hold you.
Lyric by Larry Beckett
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14. |
In the Pitching Water
01:48
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In the pitching water, and around the point
of Skiathos, by the rock spits, though you’ve
caught cold, we row over shallows, awkward,
in deep, the cheating tide, network of fire
on the coarse bed; shells walk in turquoise,
oh and waves scroll to the outlandish shore.
I let her sag back across the cove before
coming about: you talk blue streaks, but why
be anxious? girls swim up to us, naked,
shoulders out of the water, tits just under:
sleep heals, the body is forgiving, our boat
is safe. From Sappho, over that sea—love goes
into the sun’s muscle: our days are graced
by this rollicking light, and it’s still May.
Lyric by Larry Beckett
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15. |
Oblivion
03:22
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The temple is in ruin on the promontory.
And Death has mingled, in the sallow dust,
Goddesses in marble, Heroes in bronze,
in the desolate grass, that shroud, their glory.
This oxherd walks his animals to water,
out of his conch, old tune, sighing, filling
the quiet sky, out to the sea’s horizon,
against the blue infinite, his dark figure.
The Earth, dear mother to the ancient Gods,
in the spring, with a vain eloquence, greens
that cracked capital with a living leaf;
but we, indifferent to our forebears’ dreams,
listen without a shiver, in the night’s deeps,
to the Ocean mourning, in tears, the Sirens.
Lyric by Larry Beckett
Translated from José-Maria de Heredia
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16. |
The Song
03:44
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The woman I love
is long and tall;
she moves her body. . .
Only the song.
Ah siren, sing:
she’s lost, by choice,
and I am north.
Only the song.
How my heart beat.
She’s ghost, and I
will follow her.
Only the song.
When the century
is dust, what will
be left of us?
Only the song.
Lyric by Larry Beckett
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Stuart Anthony and Larry Beckett Lancaster, UK
Stuart Anthony is a singer/songwriter working with Tim Buckley lyricist & American poet Larry Beckett.
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