In preparations for Lent, I went out to look for some good music to better immerse myself in this holy season. While searching I have found this wonderful piece of music by Henryk Górecki (shame on me for not knowing it before).
His Symphony No.3 or Symphony of Sorrowful Songs is simply beautiful, dark and a very engaging piece. For almost an hour you are immersed in deep lamentations.
What struck me the most when listening to this piece is that it reflects Poland and its past so well. Poland has been enslaved in wars for over 200 years and its Catholic soul has been deeply affected by it. It is no wonder that this music comes from Górecki who is a devout Catholic and understands the soul of his country well.
The lyrics are simple and beautiful. I'm providing them here both in English and Polish versions.
English Version
I
My son, chosen and loved,
Let your mother share your wounds
And since, my dear son,
I have always kept you in my heart,
And loyally served you,
Speak to your mother,
make her happy ,
Though, my cherished hope,
you are now leaving me.
II
No, Mother, do not weep,
Most chaste Queen of Heaven
Help me always.
Hail Mary.
III
Where has he gone,
My dearest son?
Killed by the harsh enemy, perhaps,
In the rebellion.
You bad people,
In the name of the Holy God,
Tell me why you killed
My dear son.
Polish Version
I
Synku miły i wybrany,
Rozdziel z matką swoje rany,
A wszakom cię, synku miły, w swem sercu nosiła,
A takież tobie wiernie służyła.
Przemów k matce, bych się ucieszyła,
Bo już jidziesz ode mnie, moja nadziejo miła.
II
Mamo, nie płacz, nie.
Niebios Przeczysta Królowo,
Ty zawsze wspieraj mnie.
Zdrować Mario, Łaskiś Pełna.
III
Kajze mi się podział
mój synocek miły?
Pewnie go w powstaniu
złe wrogi zabiły.
Wy niedobrzy ludzie,
dla Boga świętego
cemuście zabili
synocka mojego?
It's another Saturday. What that means lately is that I will do something with my website. This new website of mine has become my little obsession. I wanted it to be my ever evolving work in progress. A place where I can combine my two greatest passions. The Christian faith and web development. (I'm not saying at all that they have the same value.) There are so many great new web development ideas floating around the web these days, the entire "Web 2.0" hype and all it entails as an example. I will use this space to experiment with all the "new" things.
What I have done so far is this. My entire favourite feeds section is made up of various news rss feeds I have collected and enjoy. It also includes feeds from few blogs (Including a Cardinal Arinze Blog and Podcast!). The images on the main page come directly from flickr via rss feed again. In fact, the entire pictures section is made up of flickr photos. I used flickr's API support to get all my pictures and display them on my website. The book section was created mostly by me but I was greately helped by another API, this time from ISBNdb. I even added some Ajax again in the book section. It is not a lot but then again I am just learning.
I hope that this site will keep on growing and getting better. In the future I will post the things I have learned while playing with these new technologies.