Cante e dance

Finally managed to find the translated lyrics for this beautiful song by Pink Martini.

Sing and dance

A fog may shroud the path
Hide the door
Walk towards the light
Mind your step
Clouds may gather
Hills may wash away
Take what’s given
We just have today

Sing and dance
Where this life will take us
Only god knows
Sing and dance
What may lie ahead
Only god knows

Shadows line the road
To your home
Come, take my hand
It’s not far
Given time it will
All seem so clear
Can you see the sun
Shining above

Sing and dance
Where this life will take us
Only god knows
Sing and dance
What may lie ahead
Only god knows

I Would Like to Describe by Zbigniew Herbert

Came across this poem while trying to google for information about my thesis topic.
It seems to describe my situation so aptly- trying desperately to find the right words to express my ideas and coming short...

I Would Like to Describe

by Zbigniew Herbert

I would like to describe the simplest emotion

joy or sadness

but not as others do

reaching for shafts of rain or sun

I would like to describe a light

which is being born in me

but I know it does not resemble

any star

for it is not so bright

not so pure

and is uncertain

I would like to describe courage

without dragging behind me a dusty lion

and also anxiety

without shaking a glass full of water

to put it another way

I would give all metaphors

in return for one word

drawn out of my breast like a rib

for one word

contained within the boundaries

of my skin

but apparently this is not possible

and just to say—I love

I run around like mad

picking up handfuls of birds

and my tenderness

which after all is not made of water

asks the water for a face

and anger

different from fire

borrows from it

a loquacious tongue

so is blurred

so is blurred

in me

what white-haired gentlemen

separated once and for all

and said

this is the subject

and this is the object

we fall asleep

with one hand under our head

and with the other in a mound of planets

our feet abandon us

and taste the earth

with their tiny roots

which next morning

we tear out painfully

Translated by Czeslaw Milosz and Peter Dale Scott

"I Would Like to Describe" by Zbigniew Herbert from Selected Poems of Zbigniew Herbert, Edited and Translated by Czeslaw Milosz and Peter Dale Scott. English translation copyright © 1968 by Czeslaw Milosz and Peter Scott. Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, www.harpercollins.com

Source: Selected Poems of Zbigniew Herbert (The Ecco Press, 1985).