Viikate - "Ensimmäinen Runo (In the Beginning)"

Mieleni minun, mielein minun tekevi' Lähteä laulamaan, sanaani sanelemaan Harvoinpa yhteen yhtenemme, saamme toinen toisihimme Näillä raukoilla rajoilla, näillä poloisilla Pohjan mailla Mieleni minun tekevi', aivoni ajattelee Lähteä laulamaan, sanaani sanelemaan Näitä saatuja sanoja, virsiä virittämiä Pohjan peltojen periltä, Kalevalan kantahilta Harvoinpa yhteen yhtenemme, saamme toinen toisihimme Näillä raukoilla rajoilla, näillä poloisilla Pohjan mailla [song text]

1*] Mieleni minun tekevi, aivoni ajattelevi 2] lähteäni laulamahan, saa'ani sanelemahan 8] Harvoin yhtehen yhymme, saamme toinen toisihimme 9] näillä raukoilla rajoilla, poloisilla Pohjan mailla 1] 2] 15] noita saamia sanoja, virsiä virittämiä 18] Pohjan peltojen periltä, Kalevalan kankahilta 8] 9] [original Kalevala text, Runo 1]

1] Mastered by desire impulsive, by a mighty inward urging, 2] I am ready now for singing, ready to begin the chanting 8] Seldom do we come for singing; seldom to the one, the other, 9] O'er this cold and cruel country; o'er the poor soil of the Northland 15] Songs preserved from distant ages, legends they that once were taken 18] From the pastures of the Northland; from the meads of Kalevala. [Crawford trans. 1888 (blank verse)] 1-2] I am wanting, I am thinking, to arise and go forth singing, 3] Sing my songs and say my sayings 16-17] Seldom do we come together, rarely do we have each other 18-19] In these ragged border regions, these benighted northern marches. 29-30] Magic verses we have gathered, kindled by the inspiration 34-35] From the way-back fields of Northland, from the heaths of Kalevala. [Friberg trans. 1988 (free verse)]

"Operation: Homecoming" update

I handed in the set of completed paperwork today - my two references returned their parts independently. I know that the office has received the references because both of my referrers emailed me after they brought them directly to the office.


Figure 1: Paperwork (before completion)
I've been having a lot of trouble getting restful sleep lately; I wonder if it's the huge push I've been getting from my environment towards music stuff, the other dream that can never be:

• The 'can iz tawkin' NW' incident last week
  
• Before that, looking at some plugins for iTunes and inevitably a NW song is being used on the screenshots
  
• Playing my flute for Burdon at the show last Friday (here's the best pic I could find) and coming off as a bit prideful for turning down a free ticket to watch the rest of the show
  
• Wanted to visit the big HMV to buy a DVD, but there was a band playing in front of the store, down by the main floor entrance (thankfully I decided to enter the store directly to the movie section upstairs - but you can see down anyway)
  
• Call for performers for Residence Community Awards night in March
  
• A guy who didn't get back to me after I called him last year about his ad put up his ads again... got a response this time but he want a grungy sound for his music so he turned me down (whatev.)
  
• "if you want to frickin' get a band then seriously, WRITE SOME OF YOUR OWN SONGS and play them at open mics or something, stop whining to people about it - it's easy, if you can come up with tunes to other people's chord progressions then pick a chord progression and play it over and over and come up with a tune to it" (what parts of "I can write words for tunes [did it for some folk tunes in high school] but not tunes for words" and the imagining of a dramatic scope, not "boring rock song", and "I write either chants or rigid classical tunes" do they not understand?)
  
• My chemistry TA somehow taking an interest in my art - I can't recall how the discussion got to that part; I was just watching my solution crystallize on the Rotovap...
  
• And of course my consuming preoccupation with the writing of my art manifesto for sociology class - I'm trying to make it as definitive a document as possible, but without being too limiting or else it would be book-length. Naturally, trying to impose a semi-rigid boundary on something that was designed to be form-less is challenging.

And I wake with my eyes in pain, and without rest...falling asleep again and waking to strange dreams...