False and fictitious ideas as such can teach us nothing concerning the essence of thought. Those things which are connected with others as all things that exist in nature will be understood by the mind. The more things the mind knows the better does it understand its own strength and the order of nature.*(Spinoza)
She felt that he was still looking at her, he wanted something, wanted her to tell him that she loved him. He found talking so much easier than she did and as she looked at him she began to smile Though she had not said a word he knew, he knew that she loved him. And smiling she looked out of the window thinking to herself nothing on Earth can equal this happiness for she had triumphed again.**(Woolf)
She had not said it, yet he knew she was invisible, free as air. There was no reason to make herself dizzy with speed or to fly at such a height.***(Bulgakov)
1, 2, 3, I Can speak.****(Tarkovsky)
And he saw a great sadness come over mankind. a doctrine appeared, a faith ran beside it, ‘All is Empty, All is Alike, All Hath Been!’. He said unto his disciples, “There cometh the long twilight“. At last it came to pass that he fell into a deep sleep. *****(Nietzsche)
As it’s going often at love’s breaking through window then stretched in, the silver beauty of her gentle branches. The bird began to sing the song of light and pleasure to us who fear to lift our glances from the earth who are so lofty, bitter and intense.******(Akhmatova)
When we were saved together from the distance came the heart stopping moan of a train. She overtook it.***(Bulgakov)
Nights without the beloved and nights with whom you don’t love and huge stars above a feverish forehead and arms stretching and reaching up to... I know all that was and all that shall be. I know the deaf and dumb mystery that the uneducated and inarticulate language of people calls life.*******(Tsvetaeva)
We shall meet again in Petersburg as though we had buried the sun there and then we shall pronounce for the first time the blessed word with no meaning.********(Mandelstam)
Never mind if our candles go out, it is easy to be cruel one need only not to love. I won’t mention sad lips and tiny crucifixes, they mean nothing to me. I pave a road for the wheels to glide far. I will slide right past the thick of the forest and the streaming oil from the broken ship on the Atlantic. I hope the weather will wash it away. Oh everything brings one to tears. ????(Unknown)
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*This first section comes from the famous lens grinding Dutch philosopher Baruch de Spinoza (1632-1677), known as the ‘prince’ of philosophers. The lines come from two sections of his ‘On the Improvement of Understanding’(1883). In this case a fuller quote would be useful to put the lines in better context.
“False and fictitious ideas have nothing positive about them (as we have abundantly shown), which causes them to be called false or fictitious; they are only considered as such through the defectiveness of knowledge. Therefore, false and fictitious ideas as such can teach us nothing concerning the essence of thought; this must be sought from the positive properties just enumerated; in other words, we must lay down some common basis from which these properties necessarily follow, so that when this is given, the properties are necessarily given also, and when it is removed, they too vanish with it.” and
“Again, the more things the mind knows, the better does it understand its own strength and the order of nature; by increased self-knowledge, it can direct itself more easily, and lay down rules for its own guidance; and, by increased knowledge of nature, it can more easily avoid what is useless. And this is the sum total of method, as we have already stated.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinoza--------------------------------
**This part is from the Virginia Woolf novel, To the Lighthouse(1927)The lines are not in the same order as they appear in the book. Among the book's themes are said to be loss, subjectivity, and the problem of perception. Victoria Lukas has previously cited Woolf as an influence to Mouvement magazine in 2009.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Woolf-------------------------------
***These two sections can be found in Russian writer, Mikhail Bulgakov‘s(1891-1940) novel, 'The Master and Margarita'(1966). Widely recognised as a classic it is a fantasy novel which was published posthumously. Said to begin with Satan visiting Moscow in the 1930s, joining a conversation between a critic and a poet debating the existence of Jesus Christ and the Devil. It then evolves into an all-embracing indictment of the corruption, greed, narrow-mindedness, and widespread paranoia of Soviet Russia. From what I read of it online it is a riot.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Bulgakov----------------------------------
****Obviously there has to be an Andrei Tarkovsky reference and here it is. The opening sequence of his film, Mirror(1975), includes a scene, said to autobiographical, where a boy is hypnotized in order to lose his stammer. As you must know by now, Zerkalo have used this Tarkovsky masterpiece many times as subject matter, but most obviously for their name.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrei_Tarkovsky----------------------------------
*****From Friedrich Nietzsche ‘Thus Spake Zarathustra’ (1885). Described by Nietzsche himself as "the deepest ever written", the book is a dense and esoteric treatise on philosophy and morality. One of the other MySpace projects Heinrich Mueller is or was involved with, Daughter Produkt, has already had a Nietzsche referencing track called ’Zarathustra’. The lines here are again out of order so it's worth giving the full quote for proper context.
"-And I saw a great sadness come over mankind. The best turned weary of their works. A doctrine appeared, a faith ran beside it: 'All is empty, all is alike, all hath been!' And from all hills there re-echoed: 'All is empty, all is alike, all hath been! 'To be sure we have harvested: but why have all our fruits become rotten and brown? What was it fell last night from the evil moon? In vain was all our labour, poison hath our wine become, the evil eye hath singed yellow our fields and hearts. Arid have we all become; and fire falling upon us, then do we turn dust like ashes:--yea, the fire itself have we made aweary. All our fountains have dried up, even the sea hath receded. All the ground trieth to gape, but the depth will not swallow! 'Alas! where is there still a sea in which one could be drowned?' so soundeth our plaint--across shallow swamps. Verily, even for dying have we become too weary; now do we keep awake and live on--in sepulchres." Thus did Zarathustra hear a soothsayer speak; and the foreboding touched his heart and transformed him. Sorrowfully did he go about and wearily; and he became like unto those of whom the soothsayer had spoken.--Verily, said he unto his disciples, a little while, and there cometh the long twilight. Alas, how shall I preserve my light through it! That it may not smother in this sorrowfulness! To remoter worlds shall it be a light, and also to remotest nights! Thus did Zarathustra go about grieved in his heart, and for three days he did not take any meat or drink: he had no rest, and lost his speech. At last it came to pass that he fell into a deep sleep.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Nietzsche-----------------------------------------
****** By Anna Akhmatova(1889-1966), the Russian poet, from her poem, 'And as it's Going'. Again Zerkalo has used the work of this poet before, in their track 'Warning You' they use her words as lyrics. The full poem is as follows.
And As It's Going...
And as it's going often at love's breaking,
The ghost of first days came again to us,
The silver willow through window then stretched in,
The silver beauty of her gentle branches.
The bird began to sing the song of light and pleasure
To us, who fears to lift looks from the earth,
Who are so lofty, bitter and intense,
About days when we were saved together.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Akhmatova-------------------------------------
*******From an 1918 poem by the Russian poet and writer Marina Tsvetaeva's(1892-1941). It is said her poetry arose from her own deeply convoluted personality, her eccentricity and tightly disciplined use of language. Among her themes were female sexuality, and the tension in women's private emotions. It reads in full...
Nights without the beloved - and nights
With whom you don’t love, and huge stars
Above a feverish forehead, and arms,
Stretching and reaching up to Him -
Who wasn’t here for ages - and won’t be,
Who cannot be - and must be….
And a child’s tear for a hero,
And a hero’s tear for a child,
And enormous, rocky mountains
On the chest of the one, who must - descend…
I know all that was and all that shall be,
I know the deaf and dumb mystery,
That the uneducated and inarticulate
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******** From the Russian poet and essayist, Osip Mandelstam's (1891-1938) 'We Shall Meet Again, in Petersburg'. He fell foul of Stalin and ended up in exile, he even had an affair with Anna Akhmatova, those poets! The poem in full is as follows...
We shall meet again, in Petersburg,
We shall meet again, in Petersburg,
as though we had buried the sun there,
and then we shall pronounce for the first time
the blessed word with no meaning.
In the Soviet night, in the velvet dark,
in the black velvet Void, the loved eyes
of the blessed women are still singing,
flowers are blooming that will never die.
The capital hunches like a wild cat,
a patrol is stationed on the bridge,
a single car rushes past in the dark,
snarling, hooting like a cuckoo.
For this night I need no pass.
I’m not afraid of the sentries.
I will pray in the Soviet night
for the blessed word with no meaning.
A rustling, as in a theater,
and a girl suddenly crying out,
and the arms of Cypris are weighed down
with roses that will never fall.
For something to do we warm ourselves at a bonfire,
maybe the ages will die away
and the loved hands of the blessed women
will brush the light ashes together.
Somewhere audiences of red flowers exist,
and the fat sofas of the loges,
and a clockwork officer
looking down on the world.
Never mind if our candles go out
in the velvet, in the black Void. The bowed shoulders
of the blessed women are still singing.
You’ll never notice the night’s sun.
Very interesting looking live Zerkalo show about to take place in Paris on 4th Jan 2010. Details on flyer and on their MySpace. I wish I could be there but if you can you might as well go. The Tarkovsky film Mirror will also be shown.
The Martian - 'The Long Winter of Mars’ 2X12" (Red Planet 1994)