Consolatio

Li Yu: How much sorrow can there be?

To the Tune of The Beauty from Yu

Spring flowers, autumn moon, when do they come to an end?
Looking at past times, I know just how much
In the little tower last night, an east wind again
I cannot bear to turn my head toward the old country under the bright moon
The carven railings, the jade-white steps must still be there
Only the fair faces have changed.
I ask you, how much sorrow can there be?
As much as the great river flowing east in spring floods.

    --Li Yu 李煜 (937-978), last king of the southern Tang dynasty, lost his kingdom and finished his life a prisoner of the new Song dynasty. Li Yu is considered one of China's major poets. 

You can hear famous Chinese singer Deng Lijun 鄧麗君 (Teresa Deng) singing this poem here. 

虞美人

春花秋月何時了，
往事知多少。
小樓昨夜又東風，
故國不堪回首月明中。
雕闌玉砌應猶在，
只是朱顏改。
問君能有幾多愁，
恰似一江春水向東流。

I am far frae my hame, an' I'm weary aftenwhiles

I am far frae my hame, an’ I’m weary aftenwhiles,
For the langed for hame bringin’, an’ my Father’s welcome smiles;
An’ I’ll ne’er be fu’ content, until mine een do see
The gowden gates o’ Heav’n an’ my ain countrie.

The earth is fleck’d wi’ flowers, mony tinted, fresh an’ gay
The birdies warble blithely, for my Faither made them sae:
But these sights an’ these soun’s will as naething be to me,
When I hear the angels singin’ in my ain countrie.

I’ve His gude word o’ promise that some gladsome day, the King
To His ain royal palace his banished hame will bring;
Wi’een an’ wi’ hert rinnin’ owre, we shall see
The King in His beauty, in oor ain countrie.

Sae little noo I ken, o’ yon blessèd, bonnie place
I only ken it’s Hame, whaur we shall see His face,
It wad surely be eneuch for ever mair to be
In the glory o’ His presence, in oor ain countrie.

He is faithfu’ that hath promised, an He’ll surely come again,
He’ll keep His tryst wi’ me, at what oor I dinna ken;
But He bids me still to wait, an’ ready aye to be,
To gang at ony moment to my ain countrie.

       --Mary Demarest wrote this poem in 1861 when she was 23, after hearing the story of John MacDuff and his wife. The music was written by Ione Hanna.

Thanks to Cyberhymnal.

Two years after Hurricane Katrina

How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people! how is she become as a widow! she that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary!

She weepeth sore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks; among all her lovers she hath none to comfort her: ...

...all her gates are desolate: ...she is in bitterness.

...all her beauty is departed...

Is it nothing to you , all ye that pass by? ...

For these things I weep; mine eye, mine eye runneth down with water... my children are desolate...

...I am in distress; ... mine heart is turned within me...abroad the sword bereaveth, at home there is as death.

    --Book of Lamentations, Jeremiah, King James Bible

Victor Hugo: Great grief is a divine and terrible radiance

Great grief is a divine and terrible radiance which transfigures the wretched.

       --Victor Hugo (1802-1885), Les Misérables (1862), Book V, ch 13; translated by Charles Wilbour

La grande douleur est un rayon divin et terrible qui transfigure les misérables.

Martin Greif: Stranger at home

I went home again,
and went to see everything,
like a stranger here and there
I had to walk through the streets.

Only in the graveyard far off and alone
I recognized many friends,
and by a gravestone
I felt a soft hand.

   --Martin Greif (1839-1911) (pseudonym of Friedrich Hermann Frey)

In der Heimat war ich wieder,
Alles hab' ich mir beseheh,
als ein Fremder auf und nieder
musst' ich in den Strassen gehn.

Nur im Friedhof fern alleine
hab' ich manchen Freund erkannt,
und bei einem Leichensteine
fühlt' ich ein leise Hand.