HALLELUJAH Verse 1 Now I’ve heard there was a secret chord That David played, and it pleased the Lord But you don’t really care for music, do you? It goes like this, the fourth, the fifth The minor fall, the major lift The baffled king composing Hallelujah (Ho sentito che c’era un accordo segreto che… Read More “Hallelujah” (analysis, commentary, translation into Italian)
HALLELUJAH Now I’ve heard there was a secret chord That David played, and it pleased the Lord But you don’t really care for music, do you? It goes like this, the fourth, the fifth The minor fall, the major lift The baffled king composing Hallelujah Hallelujah … Your faith was strong but you needed proof… Read More HALLELUJAH
The morns are meeker than they were (12) The morns are meeker than they were – The nuts are getting brown – The berry’s cheek is plumper – The rose is out of town. The maple wears a gayer scarf – The field a scarlet gown – Lest I sh’d be old-fashioned I’ll put… Read More Autumn Paint Brush
La scorsa notte la televisione ha ritrasmesso il film del 2007 “L’amore ai tempi del colera”, tratto dell’omonimo romanzo di Gabriel García Márquez. E’ la storia di un amore che consuma, brucia, fa ammalare. Come il colera, un’altra malattia incurabile, periodicamente presente nell’epoca in cui vivono i protagonisti del romanzo. Due malattie con gli stessi… Read More Un film: “L’amore al tempo del colera”
Yesterday I went to the theatre (Piccolo Teatro Grassi – Milan) to watch “ Le serve” (“The Maids”) a play by Jean Genet, the renowned French dramatist. The maids are two sisters, Claire and Solange, who live an obsessive relationship of love and hatred with their beautiful mistress (Madame). Every night, when the lady… Read More Le serve
On October 3, 1849 Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) was found wandering in the streets of Baltimore, outside a tavern known as Gunner’s Hall, delirious and wearing someone else’s clothes. That was the last time he was seen in public. He was taken to the local hospital, where he slipped in and out of a coma,… Read More Edgar Allan Poe
On 1 October 1853, in the ruins of the ancient library of Ashurbanipal, king of Assyria, at Nineveh, Hormuzd Rassam discovered the “Epic of Gilgamesh”, a poem from ancient Mesopotamia that is often regarded as the earliest surviving great work of literature. Like many other artefacts, it is contained in several different copies that have… Read More 1 October: The Epic of Gilgamesh
Edgar Allan Poe first met Virginia Clemm in 1829, shortly after his mother’s death, when she was 7 years old, and he was 20. Their parents, his natural father and her mother were siblings, and Edgar, who had moved into their house, probably transferred the feelings for his mother to his Aunt Maria, and later… Read More 22 September 1835 – E. A. Poe marries his 13-year-old cousin
On 18 September 1917, 23-year-old Aldous Huxley, future author of “Brave New World “ was hired as a schoolmaster at Eton. Huxley was born into a prominent family. His grandfather was a famous zoologist and his father was a writer and a respected schoolmaster. Aldous hoped to become a scientist like his… Read More Huxley & Orwell
Elizabeth Barrett met writer Robert Browning because her successful poems had attracted his admiration. They got to know each other on 20 May 1845: it was the beginning of one of the most famous courtships in literature. It was carried out in secret, because her father disliked Browning, whom he viewed as an unreliable fortune… Read More 12 September1846: Elizabeth Barrett elopes with Robert Browning.
