Thursday, June 10

Helium Imprisoned Posted by Hello

Eternal Eternal Sunshines Posted by Hello

Vi kan väl vänta tills imorgon - Kent

Du har lärt mig allt jag kan
om att hålla ryggen fri
Du och jag kan slåss
om en plats i solen...
Vi kan slåss om en plats
längst fram
om någonting att hålla i
Du och jag kan slåss om
den bästa stolen
vem som än har den
Vem är det som har den?
Vi kan väl vänta tills imorgon
Jag kan inte tänka klart
Vi kan väl vänta tills imorgon
och se vem som står kvar
Du har lärt mig allt jag kan
om att aldrig någonsin
lägga sig i
Du och jag kan stå
i vårt hörn och blunda
Det är ändå redan
alldeles för sent
Det finns inget kvar
att hålla fast vid
så du och jag kan stå
i vårt hörn och undra
vad var det som gick fel
Vad var det som gick fel?
Vi kan väl vänta tills imorgon
det händer någonting snart
Vi kan väl vänta tills imorgon
Nu kan jag inte längre tänka klart...
Vi kan väl vänta, vi kan väl vänta,
vi kan väl vänta tills imorgon...

(meaning) - Updated 10/6/04. Trust a stupid website to translate something beautiful? Yes, I was that stupid. Here is my translation, which I feel is a big improvement. Please excuse my cut-and-paste laziness of a couple of nights ago. And my admittedly not-great Swedish. Lisa, I didn't copy your translation! That's at my other house. So forgive how bad this probably is.

We can wait until tomorrow

You have taught me all I know
About keeping my escape route free
You and I can fight
For a place in the sun

We can fight for a place at the front
For something to hold on to
You and I can fight for
The best seat
Which of us got it?
Which of us still has it?

We can wait until tomorrow
I can’t think clear
We can wait until tomorrow
And see who it is that’s left

You have taught me all I know
About never interfering
You and I can stand
In our corner, eyes closed

It is already all too late
There is nothing firm here to hold on to
So you and I can stand
In our corner and wonder
What it was that went wrong
What was it that went wrong?

We can wait until tomorrow
Something’s drawing near
We can wait until tomorrow
Now I can no longer think clearly

We can wait, we can wait, we can wait,
We can wait until tomorrow
We can wait, we can wait, we can wait,
We can wait until tomorrow
We can wait, we can wait, we can wait,
We can wait until tomorrow
We can wait, we can wait, we can wait,
We can wait until tomorrow

Not by me, obviously (I only wish). My favourite song, there, children. Unfortunatley it loses a good deal in the translation.

4 minutes to sleep

The lids drifted into view above the TV screen. they pushed through the air... blinking down but darting back as soon as I noticed. My head lolled down and I woke with a start. Look left. Kitchen brightness. Look up. Fly asleep upon the ceiling. I'm tired. Eyes sore. Feels like sweat has dripped into them. With a heroic effort, stand up. Twich curtain. Yellow outside bouncing back off car. Turn slowly as I let the curtain fall back down again, veiling the night and the glare form my room. Flick switch on wall and keep walking. TV fizzes and dies. Darkness descends on the room.

Dressing gown off. Onto sheets, and with some struggle into sheets. Head hits pillow and I drift out into the lake.

Locked in by sunset Posted by Hello

I had forgotten what was up the steps but I did not know Posted by Hello

Left untouched Posted by Hello

We don't listen, you and me Posted by Hello

A Comfort of Home Posted by Hello

Like the writhing of life comes the certainty of death Posted by Hello

In the towns where God looks down I will ever be in shadow Posted by Hello

Out on the loch the birds have control Posted by Hello

The Best Laid Plans

She walked up to him, awaiting the long-sought kiss with an eagerness that can only come from three long years of silence. He walked past her, still chatting to his comrades. He hadn’t seen her. It wasn’t his fault, really, she reasoned. I was behind a few people and anyway, I was meant to be waiting in the civilian area, not up here near the barracks. It wasn’t his fault that she had made these arrangements with his counterparts from the other side of the camp. It wasn’t his fault that she would have to run back, out through the gates, down into the throng of the public just for that first kiss after the long endurance brought upon her by his plight. It wasn’t his fault at all.

She felt like a ten tonne weight had been dropped upon her head.

When She Turned

Then she looked north up the darker road, from where the wind blew upon her face without a sound. She should go that way. All other roads were blocked. 'Besides', she reasoned, 'all roads lead to the sea eventually, and I have all the time in the world now. I have a whole life to spend just getting home, getting out into the clear waters'. Still, she wished she could see them, however far away, sparkling inb the distance a beacon to guide her... some hope at the end of her toil.

Picking up her heavy feet, she set off into the darkness and was quickly concealed in the fogs that rose from the street to the sky.

Childhood Home

Morning breaks, through the frost of night
Tread the steps, walk up the concrete path
Touch the door, grey unvarnished wood
Look inside, no-one here, no good

White-washed walls as the sun begins to rise
White machines, stale air and dust inside
Rust falling, plaster cracked on tabletops
Glass untouched, barren hills for miles yet

Something stirs, deep within the cracks
Grey light blurs, but everything remains intact
And upstairs in bedrooms, bones yellow and fade
My family are broken and decayed.

If I had been You and You had been Me

You were a boy of about seventeen
When you first came to face to face with me
You were young but you knew more than you should
Still no one knew you and no one could

You were drifting with the tide at night
Waiting for some deadly light
When the dark wind dragged you into the sea
If I had been you and you had been me

We looked for you those who had put you there
I find it hard to know how to believe
With nothing to prove and life waiting somewhere
If I had been you and you had been me

You touched sand with your toes and you staggered to land
And somebody put a gun in your hand
You took on the ghosts who had flit through your dreams
The sky filled with blood and the air gasoline

I looked at my feet and saw you in the mud
You were face down breathing as good as you could
You would tell me about life being so empty
If I had been you and you had been me

I held you in arms still shaking and wet
And you looked up pleadingly
I would have held on forever that day
If I had been you and you had been me

I would have held on forever that day
If I had been you and you had been me.

Worn

There are walls that used to form a house
A house that was the source of life
To many boys and girls
Glee and light, love and warmth
Now open to the frost and rain
The weather wears them down

Another collection of stones
With many lain to sleep beneath
In lieu of a stony building
Filled with worried faces
Outside in the deluge of morning
The weather wears them down

Deep in the forested night
A creaking crag in the face of a cliff
Beleaguered and broken down
A million shards of splintered ice
Cracked and split to smooth pebbles
The weather wears them down

And in the windswept cities
Of a thousand people beaten by fear
Eyes to the floor and autumn in hand
Like the flocks they left behind
Herding themselves through life
The weather wears them down.

Seasonal

The trees with no leaves do not blow in the wind
They creak and they break and they fall on the roads
Rivers cloud over and stop in their tracks
We all have to bear our own heavy loads

When they winter came in you were sleeping so sound
And the peace in your soul was all that you knew
Unaware of the flames that were stroking your feet
I shut off alarms and I lay down with you

We were alone when the nights closed us in
Where the sun and the sky have conspired to tell
What the spring will be born from and summer shall grow
To be dead by the autumn under the hills

We awoke and the green we held in our hearts
Burnt into the ashen landscape by the eyes in our heads
Fed us on dust what we knew had to come
That some day soon we’d leave our bed

And then we were set in the edge of our world
And we pushed pas the others who came down like a flood
And they beat us and washed off our colour at last
Until we were grey and trod underfoot

But into the ashes and from ashes we rose
And no-one who pushed us could tell us of that
We became of one flesh and were made into light
And we shone like the sun though the barren trees crack.

Slumber

The glass suspended above your bed
Blue and green, yellow and red
Hanging from a silver thread

The goldfish swims around its bowl
It looks but sees without a soul
As if it is mine to control

The televisions rarely on
Can’t tell me new things, can’t catch on
It’s seventeen minutes past the sun

The horizon black against the sky
Through your open window lies
Burnt by the embers slow to die

Stillness and a quietude
Now inherited from you
You left me here with nothing to do

Down, Down, Down

Down, down, down
Where the leaves have fallen
Softly on the ground
Where the dust settles and
The broken glass melts soft

Down, down, down
Deeper to the depths of the place
I could walk for hours
Amidst the trees and
Into the darkest undergrowth

Down, down, down
I search for you here
Where the bubbles float upward
On my hands and knees and
The moon is my only light

Down, down, down
With the feathers
The lost causes surrounding
I find a tiny tear and
Follow it deep into the ground

Down, down, down
Through the pit of sleep
Past the winding suns of old
Through the lairs of dragons and
Onto the path of hope


Up, up on a current of air
I’ll drift into your arms somewhere.

Limbs

Like limbs we stretch up to the sky
Bending and entwined
Aching to leave the ground

Like limbs we support one another
Strong together though we part
Conjoined from the start

Like limbs we work as one
When we brush the clouds
Our ancient eyes close

Like limbs we caress one another
Soft, pure and beautiful
A place, a touch, a home.

Broken Window

The gap beneath the board on my window is open to the world
And it lets me see the cold yellows clear as day
When I’m lying on my floor I can barely make a sound

The gap beneath the board on my window is cold as everywhere
One day I’ll fill the room with my white easel marks
Splash on the paint on, some day soon they’ll tear it down

The gap beneath the board on my window lets me hear the birds
They sing all through the night, dawn chorus at two
When the world is woken by the broken melody they’ve found

The gap beneath the board on my window
The gap beneath my window where I’m contained
There’s so much to do and so little to say

The gap beneath my boarded up window
The terror that I have just to snap out of it
The violent times are the stillest

Just get out of my room
Stop coming here and taking my stuff
I bought it, I bought it for me and not for you
At least for a couple of hours at least I have it
At least the un-paid-for grey wood is living here still
Blotting out the light, hiding my shame from passers-by
Maybe I’ll lock my door tonight
Sit on the floor on the cushion I brought from home
And simply stare
Breathe
Listen
To the gap beneath the board on my window.

And out in the wider world, it rained. Posted by Hello

Where the earth struggles to survive Posted by Hello

A battle lost and a heart wrenched Posted by Hello

Wires breaching the gap between the earth and the sky Posted by Hello

No way out, there is no way out Posted by Hello

A beacon, a willing light that we reach out to touch Posted by Hello

Burning with a fire insatiable  Posted by Hello

Where the circles meet but cannot allow one another to pass Posted by Hello

Another sleepy morning dragged across the land Posted by Hello

And another day sunk, way out to sea, no survivors Posted by Hello

Freedom in a dying land Posted by Hello

Every day a new dictionary Posted by Hello

Grown over the bare earth, covering her with the wracked flesh of age Posted by Hello

Standing tall, flat along the ground Posted by Hello

Looking down upon us all from a hillside Posted by Hello