“Todeserfahrung”, a poem by Rainer Maria Rilke. He describes that all the world is a stage and we are the players, unaware of the stage or the theater or the theatrics or the roles we’re coerced into performing. When someone we love dies, the sudden grief blows a hole through the facade of the theater and suddenly, and for only a moment, we are made aware of our existence and the reality of life’s purpose with a clarity henceforth unseen. We then go back to our lives, “wir spielen weiter/we play on”, but the wisdom of this moment of awakened epiphany can be recalled and permeate our consciousness to a higher purpose.
lyrics
We know not what’s over there
Maybe it’s not for us to care
There’s only shade and light,
We best enjoy the dice.
Stumble on the summers ice
Clumsy words that you stutter twice
How many roles must we have to play?
What a gift it is, to be,
We should enjoy, or not to be,
On the Grand Old Carousel the comedy we wage.
For all the world’s a stage,
And me and you go on and play
On and on until the curtain is drawn
The costumes, how they change
But how its always so strange
The way the house lights never do ever turn on.
Capey dear and Fletcher too always did improvise their every line.
And how they take mistakes with levity and gave away their heavy dimes.
Always death it plays its lonesome lullaby always in some wretched time.
But never fear the often blue melodies televised between eight and nine.
Then one day they left the stage,
We was left with our charades
The curtain call was deafening
Beyond the wall do angels sing?
And there upon the stage, they left a key to our cage
And on and on how the sunshine it shown.
The black and white, and then the blue
And how the green burned so bright,
And on and on blew the heavenly trombones.
We play on. And on and on.
Pause for applause from song to song
How many opening nights are there every day?
Its automatic. Its such a breeze,
These acrobatics up on trapeze
How many goddam trills are there anyway?
“And here from over there, oh how I laugh when you swear
For I remember when I too was blind.”
There are lines, so hard to tell.
Rehearsal times at the wishing well.
“Do I love thee still? Let me count the ways 1, 2, 3.
Suddenly she drops some melody lovelier than we could find.
For Capey dear, she always did sing to me so to see that I was blind.
Then one day, we saw the stage,
We the puppets on parade.
Free at last, we cut the strings,
To that anthem she used to sing!
And there upon the stage, living far past our age.
We played the Game of the Grand Old Carousel.
We played on, under the spell,
And how we played so goddam well,
We don’t care the audience has gone back to hell.
On and on, without pause
Until we bring back the dawn
Till finally we take a bow, to no applause.
credits
from Flowers of the Rhododendron,
released June 21, 2020
Doug Balliet - bass; Dylan Greene - percussion; Dave Nelson - trombones; Jeremy Thal - trumpet; Fiona Gillespie - vocals; Genevieve Gillespie King - fiddle, vocals; Tracy Cowart - vocals; Paul Holmes Morton - music, lyrics (after Todeserfahrung by Rainer Maria Rilke), baroque guitar, banjo, vocals
The Icelandic songwriter packs her stunning debut with sweeping melodies delivered via intimate, folky arrangements. Bandcamp New & Notable Oct 12, 2023
