Editorial note: If you have not yet read our mission statement above, please do so in order that you can put our blogs in context. 

10 January 2013

Wo?

Wo wird einst des Wandermüden

Letzte Ruhestätte sein?

Under Palmen in dem Süden?

Unter Linden an dem Rhein?

Werd’ich wo in einer Wüste

Eingescharrt von fremder Hand?

Oder ruh’ich an der Küste

Eines Meeres in dem Sand?

Immerhin! Mich wird umgeben

Gotteshimmel, dort wie hier,

Und als Totenlampen schweben

Nachts die Sterne über mir.

Where?

Where will it be, the last resting-place of the wander-weary?

Under palm-trees in the Midi?

Under lime-trees on the Rhein?

Will the hand of a stranger bury me in some desert?

Or shall I rest in the sand on the shore by the sea?

What ever happens, God’s sky will surround me, then as now,

And above me at night, like funeral lamps, will hang the stars.

This melancholy ditty is by the German poet and essayist Heinrich Heine  (1797-1856). Heine lived in Paris from 1831. Hence the liberty we took in translating “Süden” by “Midi”.

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 You might perhaps care to view some of our earlier posts.  For instance:

1. Why? or How? That is the question (3 Jan 2012)

2. Partitocracy v. Democracy (20 July 2012)

3. The shoddiest possible goods at the highest possible prices (2 Feb 2012)

4. Capitalism in practice  (4 July 2012) 

5.Ladder  (21 June 2012)

 6. A tale of two cities (1)  (6 June 2012)

 7. A tale of two cities (2)  (7 June 2012)

 8. Where’s the beef? Ontology and tinned meat (31 Jan 2012)

Every so often we shall change this sample of previously published posts.

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