william blake-lyrics

[zarathustra]

To the Muses

Whether on Ida's shady brow,
Or in the chambers of the East,
The chambers of the sun, that now
From ancient melody have ceas'd;
Whether in Heav'n ye wander fair,
Or the green corners of the earth,
Or the blue regions of the air,
Where the melodious winds have birth;
Whether on crystal rocks ye rove,
Beneath the bosom of the sea
Wand'ring in many a coral grove,
Fair Nine, forsaking Poetry!
 13How have you left the ancient love
 14 That bards of old enjoy'd in you!
 15The languid strings do scarcely move!
 16 The sound is forc'd, the notes are few!


 The Tyger

 1Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
 2In the forests of the night,
 3What immortal hand or eye
 4Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
 5In what distant deeps or skies
 6Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
 7On what wings dare he aspire?
 8What the hand dare seize the fire?
 9And what shoulder, and what art,
 10Could twist the sinews of thy heart,
 11And when thy heart began to beat,
 12What dread hand? and what dread feet?
 13What the hammer? what the chain?
 14In what furnace was thy brain?
 15What the anvil? what dread grasp
 16Dare its deadly terrors clasp?
 17When the stars threw down their spears,
 18And water'd heaven with their tears,
 19Did he smile his work to see?
 20Did he who made the Lamb make thee?
 21Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
 22In the forests of the night,
 23What immortal hand or eye,
 24Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

 Ah!Sun-Flower

 Ah, Sun-flower! weary of time,
 2Who countest the steps of the Sun,
 3Seeking after that sweet golden clime
 4Where the traveller's journey is done:
 5Where the Youth pined away with desire,
 6And the pale Virgin shrouded in snow
 7Arise from their graves, and aspire
 8Where my Sun-flower wishes to go.
 1To Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love
 The Divine Image

 2All pray in their distress;
 3And to these virtues of delight
 4Return their thankfulness.
 5For Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love
 6Is God, our father dear,
 7And Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love
 8Is Man, his child and care.
 9For Mercy has a human heart,
 10Pity a human face,
 11And Love, the human form divine,
 12And Peace, the human dress.
 13Then every man, of every clime,
 14That prays in his distress,
 15Prays to the human form divine,
 16Love, Mercy, Pity, Peace.
 17And all must love the human form,
 18In heathen, Turk, or Jew;
 19Where Mercy, Love, and Pity dwell
 20There God is dwelling too.




 Earth`s answer

 1Earth rais'd up her head
 2From the darkness dread and drear.
 3Her light fled,
 4Stony dread!
 5And her locks cover'd with grey despair.
 6"Prison'd on wat'ry shore,
 7Starry Jealousy does keep my den:
 8Cold and hoar,
 9Weeping o'er,
 10I hear the Father of the ancient men.
 11Selfish father of men!
 12Cruel, jealous, selfish fear!
 13Can delight,
 14Chain'd in night,
 15The virgins of youth and morning bear?
 16Does spring hide its joy
 17When buds and blossoms grow?
 18Does the sower
 19Sow by night,
 20Or the plowman in darkness plow?
 21Break this heavy chain
 22That does freeze my bones around.
 23Selfish! vain!
 24Eternal bane!
 25That free Love with bondage bound."
 I Heard an Angel
 1I heard an Angel singing
 2When the day was springing,
 3"Mercy, Pity, Peace
 4Is the world's release."
 5Thus he sung all day
 6Over the new mown hay,
 7Till the sun went down
 8And haycocks looked brown.
 9I heard a Devil curse
 10Over the heath and the furze,
 11"Mercy could be no more,
 12If there was nobody poor,
 13And pity no more could be,
 14If all were as happy as we."
 15At his curse the sun went down,
 16And the heavens gave a frown.
 17Down pour'd the heavy rain
 18Over the new reap'd grain ...
 19And Miseries' increase
 20Is Mercy, Pity, Peace.
 Notes

 The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
 (excerpt)
 Proverbs of Heaven and Hell
 1 In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy.
 2Drive your cart and your plow over the bones of the dead.
 3The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.
 4Prudence is a rich, ugly old maid courted by Incapacity.
 5He who desires but acts not, breeds pestilence.
 6The cut worm forgives the plow.
 7Dip him in the river who loves water.
 8A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees.
 9He whose face gives no light, shall never become a star.
 10Eternity is in love with the productions of time.
 11The busy bee has no time for sorrow.
 12The hours of folly are measur'd by the clock; but of wisdom, no clock can measure.
 13All wholesome food is caught without a net or a ****.
 14Bring out number, weight and measure in a year of dearth.
 15No bird soars too high, if he soars with his own wings.
 16A dead body revenges not injuries.
 17The most sublime act is to set another before you.
 18If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise.
 19Folly is the cloak of knavery.
 20Shame is Pride's cloke.
 21Prisons are built with stones of law, brothels with bricks of religion.
 22The pride of the peacock is the glory of God.
 23The lust of the goat is the bounty of God.
 24The wrath of the lion is the wisdom of God.
 25The nakedness of woman is the work of God.
 26Excess of sorrow laughs. Excess of joy weeps.
 27The roaring of lions, the howling of wolves, the raging of the stormy sea, and the destructive sword, are portions of eternity, too great for the eye of man.
 28The fox condemns the ****, not himself.
 29Joys impregnate. Sorrows bring forth.
 30Let man wear the fell of the lion, woman the fleece of the sheep.
 31The bird a nest, the spider a web, man friendship.
 32The selfish, smiling fool, and the sullen, frowning fool shall be both thought wise, that they may be a rod.
 33What is now proved was once only imagin'd.
 34The rat, the mouse, the fox, the rabbit watch the roots; the lion, the tyger, the horse, the elephant watch the fruits.
 35The cistern contains: the fountain overflows.
 36One thought fills immensity.
 37Always be ready to speak your mind, and a base man will avoid you.
 38Every thing possible to be believ'd is an image of truth.
 39The eagle never lost so much time as when he submitted to learn of the crow.
 40The fox provides for himself, but God provides for the lion.
 41Think in the morning. Act in the noon. Eat in the evening. Sleep in the night.
 42He who has suffer'd you to impose on him, knows you.
 43As the plow follows words, so God rewards prayers.
 44The tygers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction.
 45Expect poison from the standing water.
 46You never know what is enough unless you know what is more than enough.
 47Listen to the fool's reproach! it is a kingly title!
 48The eyes of fire, the nostrils of air, the mouth of water, the beard of earth.
 49The weak in courage is strong in cunning.
 50The apple tree never asks the beech how he shall grow; nor the lion, the horse, how he shall take his prey.
 51The thankful receiver bears a plentiful harvest.
 52If others had not been foolish, we should be so.
 53The soul of sweet delight can never be defil'd.
 54When thou seest an eagle, thou seest a portion of genius; lift up thy head!
 55As the caterpiller chooses the fairest leaves to lay her eggs on, so the priest lays his curse on the fairest joys.
 56To create a little flower is the labour of ages.
 57Damn braces. Bless relaxes.
 58The best wine is the oldest, the best water the newest.
 59Prayers plow not! Praises reap not!
 60Joys laugh not! Sorrows weep not!
 61The head Sublime, the heart Pathos, the genitals Beauty, the hands and feet Proportion.
 62As the air to a bird or the sea to a fish, so is contempt to the contemptible.
 63The crow wish'd every thing was black, the owl that every thing was white.
 64Exuberance is Beauty.
 65If the lion was advised by the fox, he would be cunning.
 66Improvement makes strait roads; but the crooked roads without improvement are roads of genius.
 67Sooner murder an infant in its cradle than nurse unacted desires.
 68Where man is not, nature is barren.
 69Truth can never be told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd.
 70Enough! or too much.

[katana]

Cruelty has a Human heart
And Jealousy a Human Face,
Terror, the Human Form Divine,
And Secrecy, the Human Dress.

The Human Dress is forgéd Iron,
The Human Form, a fiery Forge,
The Human Face, a Furnace seal'd,
The Human Heart, its hungry Gorge.

[Ullmar Qvick]

Të dashur Zarathustra dhe Katana:
Gëzohem se ju keni gjetur Uiliam Bleikin si zëdhënës i njerëzve të përvuajtur në këtë botë. Do të vazhdoj anglisht:
Well, William Blake is in my opinion even today of great interest to the Albanian reader (of course to all other nationalities too). It is interesting to note that he was not only a very talented poet, he was also very expressive in figurative art.
He lived in utter need, in hunger and suffering, seeing visions and interpreting them in pictures, poems and myths. His personal suffering and the rising industralism, the oppression of the church and the state, all this is echoing in his verses.
William Blake's wife Catherine was the very image of solidarity and sacrifice. She was his life partner in all the hardships of life, she also helped him as an assistant in his artistic work. She was his shadow, giving up all her own wishes.
Songs of Innocence and of Experience is a masterpiece. But the strange thing is that although innocence and experience are contradictions, they are still united in one. To understand Blake's poetry you have to realize this.
Blake's poetry makes me think of Migjeni. I am sure you will understand why.

THE SICK ROSE
O Rose, thou art sick
The invisible worm
That flies in the night
In the howling storm:

Has found out thy bed
Of crimson joy:
And his dark secret love
Does thy life destroy

Writing this I have a strange feeling by listening to an old Albanian folksong from Radio Ateda: "Lule që cel në saksi - ooo ah moj ledhatare, lul'e e parë në pyll beqar." It is so full of longing and hopeless love, isn't it? Yes, Blake is for the Albanians.

With greetings from Veriori