Sunday, September 1, 2013

Ground Beneath Her Feet: Issa's Sunday Service, #176


The Ground Beneath Her Feet by U2 on Grooveshark
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Today's selection on the Sunday Service is "The Ground Beneath Her Feet" by U2, after the novel by Salman Rushdie of the same title. If you are so inclined, here is a great, laudatory review from the UKs Guardian of the Rushdie book.

For those who simply wish to imagine a way to follow Orpheus (Orphee) into the underworld, sans Mr. Rushdie's opus, one of my favorite scenes from modern cinema (which I'm sure I've cited before) might do the trick:


Another cinematic re-imagining of the Orpheus and Eurydice story that captures the viewer and won't let go is Black Orpheus (&, from that movie, a Paul Desmond rendition of the song Samba de Orpheu, which I can listen to anytime, night and day):


In an older Sunday post, T-Rex referenced the same myth. There has been a seeming infinity number poems and cultural references to Orpheus over the years: a brief, neat overview may be found here.

Of course, for poets and poetry lovers, Rainer Maria Rilke's Sonnets to Orpheus holds a special place. There are many translations available online and many more for purchase in the great wide tactile universe. For the curious, here are translations by Robert Hunter, Robert Temple, Howard A. Landman, and Ed Alexander (a pdf), 

Thanks so much to John Burroughs for suggesting "Ground Beneath Her Feet" for the Sunday Service ...

-----

Stereoscope by R. L. Young



temple grounds--
a snake too sheds
his worldly robe
Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue




best,
Don

 
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Go to the LitRock web site for a list of all 176 songs

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