泡网俱乐部

听乐杂感： 在这风雨如晦的夜晚

一. 概率

地震，海啸，火灾，水灾，陨石，空难，海难，车祸，战争，犯罪，癌症，脑溢血，转基因食品，......

其实我每天早上能够睁开双眼，看见周围的环境，身边的人，还一切如昨，这本身就只是一个概率。

 

二. 《亡儿悼歌》

很久很久以前，BBS论坛还处于旧石器时代，现在的教主还寄人篱下,在某某的风月堂当二堂主，江湖连受精卵都还不是的时候，我写过一个帖子，也是有一天看到伤心的人，有感而发。

这个贴子一直存放了十几年，今天翻出来看，好像还没有发霉过时，所以想再拿出来晒晒太阳。

当时计算机里没有中文软件，所以只好用洋文。不过文章应该只在乎内容，而不在于外形。

 

======

[来源]锦瑟华年老贴
[提交人]PA-PAYA
[提交时间]上个世纪末

'Kindertotenlieder: A True and Touching Story'

Kindertotenlieder (Songs on the Death of Children) is one of the most touching works Mahler ever wrote. It is also horrifying -- so horrifying that even a glimpse at the song texts alone is enough to send shiver down my spine.

The song texts were written by Friedrich Ruekert, a German poet and professor, in 1834. Ruekert had ten children, and three of them died in their chilhood. His only daughter died of scarlet fever in December 1833, six days after her third birthday. Sixteen days later, his second youngest child, Ernst, also died of the same disease. In the next six months, heartbroken Ruekert wrote a total of 425 Kindertotenlieder to commemorate his lost children.

Mahler selected five poems from Kindertotenlieder and set music to them as his monumental song cycle. One might wonder why Mahler, in the happiest days of his life (1901-1904), would wrote such sad music. At that time he was the director of Vienna State Opera, one of the most prestigious positions (if not the most prestigous) in the world of music; he was happily married to Alma, "the most beautiful girl in Vienna"; Alma born him two lovely daughters, Maria and Anna. The sorrowful Kindertotenlieder and his darkest and most tragic Sixth Symphony (written at the same time) seem contradictoray to the joyful time he was enjoying.

Why was Mahler so obsessed with Death? - because Death was never too far away from him. His parents had a total of fourteen children, but less than half of them survived their childhood. Mahler himself witnessed the death of eight of his beloved brothers and sisters. This must had a tremondous impact on him. Death was always haunting in his mind his music throughout his lifetime.

Three years after Mahler finished this song cycle, in 1907, his favorite daughter Maria ("Putzi"), succumbed to scarlet fever and died at the tender age of 7. Sadly, Kindertotenlieder became Mahler's own mourning song for his own child.

Yesterday I found a website with Chinese translation of Kindertotenlieder. The translator, Professor Tze-wan Kwan of CUHK, also had to live through the same trauma of losing his own son Clemens, who died young in the battle against brain tumor. I found the translation tremendously moving, and would like to share it with you:

http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/~twkwan/Kindertotenlieder/ktl-fr.html
http://www.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/~twkwan/Clemens/obituary.htm (Clemens' obituary, link no longer exists)
http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/~twkwan/fam.htm (young Clemens is seen in the middle of the photo)

If Mahler's music is so death-laden, then why do I, like many others, love his music? After listening to most of Mahler's works, I feel that he is not as pessimistic as I thought before. When we hear the sorrow, the pain and the nostalgia of the unfortunate, we realize that Mahler, using his own experience, is trying to let us know how precious and beautiful life is. Our Lives and our loved ones are gifts from God. We should enjoy them, cherish them and protect them as much as we can, on each everyday.

======
The fifth song of Kindertotenlieder:

 

In diesem Wetter, in diesem Braus(In this weather, in this storm)

In this weather, in this windy storm,
I would never have sent the children out;
They were carried outside -
I could say nothing about it!

In this weather, in this roaring storm,
I would never have let the children out;
I was afraid they would fall ill,
but these thoughts are now idle.

In this weather, in this cruel storm,
I would never have let the children out;
I worried they would die the next day -
but this is now no concern.

In this weather, in this roaring, cruel storm,
they rest as they did in their mother's house -
they are frightened by no storm,
and are covered by the hand of God.

 

-----------------------------183901288221394
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="author"

 

>>>>>>>>>>

 

三. 珍惜生命中的每一天

因为明天，谁可能就不在了。

概率虽小，但大于零。

[THE END]