House of the Rising Sun

There is a house in New Orleans
They call the Rising Sun.
And it's been the ruin of many a poor boy
And God I know I'm one.

My mother was a tailor
She sewed my new bluejeans.
My father was a gamblin' man
Down in New Orleans.

Now the only thing a gambler man ever needs
Is a suitcase and trunk
And the only time he's satisfied
Is when he's on a drunk.

Oh mother tell your children
Not to do what I have done,
Spend your lives in sin and misery
In the House of the Rising Sun.

Well, I got one foot on the platform
The other foot on the train
I'm goin' back to New Orleans
To wear that ball and chain.

Well, there is a house in New Orleans
They call the Rising Sun
And it's been the ruin of many a poor boy
And God I know I'm one.

Bocca - Umberto Saba

La bocca
che prima mise
alle mie labbra il rosa dell'aurora,
ancora
in bei pensieri ne sconto il profumo.

O bocca fanciullesca, bocca cara,
che dicevi parole ardite ed eri
così dolce a baciare.

Blowin' in the wind

How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man?
How many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand?
Yes, how many times must the cannon balls fly
Before they're forever banned?
The answer my friend is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind.

Yes, how many years can a mountain exist
Before it's washed to the sea?
Yes, how many years can some people exist
Before they're allowed to be free?
Yes, how many times can a man turn his head
And pretend that he just doesn't see?
The answer my friend is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind.

Yes, how many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
Yes, how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died?
The answer my friend is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind.

by Bob Dylan

Proverbs of Hell

• In seed time learn; in harvest teach; in winter enjoy.
• Drive your cart and your plough over the bones of the dead.
• The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.
• Prudence is a rich ugly old maid courted by Incapacity.
• He who desires but acts not, breeds pestilence.
• The cut worm forgives the plough.
• Dip him in the river who loves water.
• A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees.
• He whose face gives no light shall never become a star.
• Eternity is in love with the productions of time.
• The busy bee has no time for sorrow.
• The hours of folly are measur'd by the clock; but of wisdom no clock can measure.
• All wholesome food is caught without a net or a trap.
• Bring out number, weight and measure in a year of dearth.
• No bird soars too high, if he soars with his own wings.
• A dead body revenges not injuries.
• The most sublime act is to set another before you.
• If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise.
• Folly is the cloak of knavery.
• Shame is Pride's cloak.
• Prisons are built with stones of Law, Brothels with bricks of Religion.
• The pride of the peacock is the glory of God.
• The lust of the goat is the bounty of God.
• The wrath of the lion is the wisdom of God.
• The nakedness of woman is the work of God.
• Excess of sorrow laughs. Excess of joy weeps.
• The 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.
• The fox condemns the trap, not himself.
• Joys impregnate: Sorrows bring forth.
• Let man wear the fell of the lion, woman the fleece of the sheep.
• The bird a nest, the spider a web, man friendship.
• The selfish smiling fool and the sullen frowning fool shall be both thought wise, that they may be a rod.
• What is now proved was once only imagin'd.
• The rat, the mouse, the fox, the rabbit watch the roots; the lion, the tiger, the horse, the elephant watch the fruits.
• The cistern contains, the fountain overflows.
• One thought fills immensity.
• Always be ready to speak your mind, and a base man will avoid you.
• Everything possible to be believ'd is an image of truth.
• The eagle never lost so much time as when he submitted to learn of the crow.
• The fox provides for himself, but God provides for the lion.
• Think in the morning. Act in the noon. Eat in the evening. Sleep in the Night.
• He who has suffer'd you to impose on him knows you.
• As the plough follows words, so God rewards prayers.
• The tigers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction.
• Expect poison from the standing water.
• You never know what is enough, unless you know what is more than enough.
• Listen to the fool's reproach: it is a kingly title.
• The eyes of fire, the nostrils of air, the mouth of water, the beard of earth.
• The weak in courage is strong in cunning.
• The apple tree never asks the beech how he shall grow, nor the lion the horse how he shall take his prey.
• The thankful receiver bears a plentiful harvest.
• If others had not been foolish, we should be so.
• The soul of sweet delight can never be defil'd.
• When thou seest an Eagle, thou seest a portion of Genius: lift up thy head!
• As a caterpillar chooses the fairest leaves to lay her eggs on, so the priest lays his curse on the fairest joys.
• To create a little flower is the labour of ages.
• Damn braces. Bless relaxes.
• The best wine is the oldest, the best water the newest.
• Prayers plough not! Praises reap not!
• Joys laugh not! Sorrows weep not!
• The head Sublime, the heart Pathos, the genitals Beauty, the hands and feet Proportion.
• As the air to a bird or the sea to a fish, so is contempt to the contemptible.
• The crow wish'd everything was black, the owl that everything was white.
• Exuberance is Beauty.
• If the lion was advised by the fox, he would be cunning.
• Improvement makes straight roads, but the crooked roads without Improvement are roads of Genius.
• Sooner murder an infant in its cradle than nurse unacted desires.
• Where man is not, nature is barren.
• Truth can never be told as to be understood, and not be believ'd.

Enough or Too much.

by William Blake

The voice of the Devil

All Bibles or sacred codes have been the causes of the following Errors:

1. That Man has two real existing principles, viz. a Body and a Soul.
2. That Energy, call'd Evil, is alone from the Body; and that Reason, call'd Good, is alone from the Soul.
3. That God will torment Man in Eternity for following his Energies.

But the following Contraries to these are True:

1. Man has no Body distinct from his Soul; for that call'd Body is a portion of Soul discern'd by the five Senses, the chief inlets of Soul in this age.
2. Energy is the only life and is from the Body; and Reason is the bound outward circumference of Energy.
3. Energy is Eternal Delight.

Those who restrain desire, do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained; and the restrainer, or reason, usurps its place and governs the unwilling. And being restrain'd, it by degrees becomes passive, till it is only the shadow of desire.

by William Blake

Fanciulle - Umberto Saba

Maria ti guarda con gli occhi un poco

come Venere loschi.

Cielo par che s'infoschi

quello sguardo, il suo accento è quasi roco.

 

Non è bella, né in donna ha quei gentili

atti, cari agli umani;

belle ha solo le mani,

mani da baci, mani signorili.

 

Dove veste, sue vesti son richiami

per il maschio, un'asprezza

strana di tinte. È mezza

bambina e mezza bestia. Eppure l'ami.

 

Sai ch'è ladra e bugiarda, una nemica

dei tuoi intimi pregi;

ma quanto più la spregi

più la vorresti alle tue voglie amica.

One's-Self I Sing - Walt Whitman

One's-self I sing, a simple separate person,
Yet utter the word Democratic, the word En-Masse.

Of physiology from top to toe I sing,
Not physiognomy alone nor brain alone is worthy for the Muse, I say
the Form complete is worthier far,
The Female equally with the Male I sing.

Of Life immense in passion, pulse, and power,
Cheerful, for freest action form'd under the laws divine,
The Modern Man I sing.