Thursday, November 28, 2013

In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan

Lately I have been really loving the old, less common Christmas tunes, like Good King Wenceslas and Lo 'Ere a Rose is Blooming, those types. So here is a really nice version of one of my current favorites, In the Bleak Midwinter by The Honey Trees.

The lyrics to that song are pretty neat:

In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan, 
earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone; 
snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow, 
in the bleak midwinter, long ago.

Our God, heaven cannot hold him, nor earth sustain; 
heaven and earth shall flee away when he comes to reign. 
In the bleak midwinter a stable place sufficed 
the Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ. 

Angels and archangels may have gathered there, 
cherubim and seraphim thronged the air; 
but his mother only, in her maiden bliss, 
worshiped the beloved with a kiss. 

What can I give him, poor as I am? 
If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb; 
if I were a Wise Man, I would do my part; 
yet what I can I give him: give my heart.


(Gabby, doesn't the last stanza make you think of Minch during Chloe's goodbye party when we were in Malawi? I still have that video of her somewhere, hehe!)

Though the version I posted doesn't include it, I love the second verse the best: "Our God, heaven cannot hold him, nor earth sustain...In the bleak midwinter a stable place sufficed the Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ."

It's kind of the message of Christmas in a nutshell. The Greatest of All can't be contained, and yet still entered the smallness of our tiny timelines just for us. Eternity enters time. How cool is that?

I think I wrote last time about being upset because I couldn't translate a poem. Well, I tried again and was able to come up with something! I know it's probably not even close to the original, and I did some definite paraphrasing to preserve some cool poetic spacing. The poem was actually handwritten on a piece of paper and given to Kate at the art market outside of our church in Hongdae. The girl who gave it to her said she was giving away Korean poems to help spread appreciation for them. From what Kate could understand, her vision was that by translating poems, Korean learners would have to think deeply about them and would then see their virtue. Kind of a cool idea, actually! So here is my humble little attempt at translating: 


Suppose that me loving you                                                    
Means putting myself outside                                                  
Of my own being                                                                  
The self-transpiration of the pomegranate                               
The weariness of things that breathe—                                   

Those who have discovered the redness of the wild cherry    
let us become                                                                           
wild cherries scattered over the countryside                         
complex and complicated.                                                     

--Ham Sungho      

가령, 내가 너를 사랑한다는 것은   
 나를 나의 바깥에 두고있다는                                                              
 갓이다
 석류가 저절로 벌어지는 것은
 숨을 가진 것을의 피곤함--

산수유 열매가 붉은 것을 알게
되자
바깥이 온통 산수유 천지다
복잡하고 복잡해라

 --함 성호
Community News:

* The new projector arrived! We watched Human Planet: Jungles and it was so clear and bright. Luxury viewing.

* The heat in the teacher's room might be fixed today! Soon we will be popsicles no longer.

* Papearl sells a pretty nice variety of cheap but good yarn. The Christmas Knitting Machine now doesn't have to travel to Dongdaemun for supplies. Yessss

* Sunday is December 1, so that mean SETTING UP THE LITTLE CHRISTMAS TREE GLOOOOOOOOORIA! 

Quotes from the Community:

* "Put that in the video: we don't bash kids here." --Michael's public relations advice.

* "The shoemaikarh" --Nayeon Impersonators all over the office. (The Connexus video is going to be pure gold, everyone).

* "Makgeoli isn't alcohol, it's culture."--Yongjin


Quotes from the Classroom:

Joy: "Do you have any Love or love?"
Love: "I have one me and a lot of love."

 "I love Anna <3 <3 but you love me?"--Anna's student Youngeun makes a confession.

"Snow snow please comeing faster! I want to meet you! I love you snow!"--Cindy's precious journal, incorrect spelling and all.

1 comment:

  1. It really does remind me of Minch! I'm loving those lyrics!

    ReplyDelete