Wednesday, 25 December 2013

Harry Potter and the deathly hallows (some activities)

1. Read the following fragment from the first chapter of the book and circle the option you consider is the right one.



The drawing room was/were full of silent people, sitting at/on/in a long and ornate table. The room's usual furniture/ usual furniture's room had been pushed carelessly up against the walls. Illumination came from a roaring fire beneath a handsome marble mantelpiece surmounted by a gilded mirror. Snape and Yaxley lingered for a moment on/at/in the threshold. As their eyes grew accustomed to the lack of light; they were drawn upward to the strangest feature of the scene: an apparently unconscious human figure hanging upside down over/on the table, revolving/revolveing slowly as if suspended by an invisible rope, and reflected in the mirror and in the bare, polished surface of the table below. None of the people seated underneath this singular sight was looking to/at it except for/by/from a pale young man siting/sitting almost directly below it. He seemed unable to prevent himself from glanceing/glancing upward every minute or so.

“Yaxley. Snape,” said a high, clear voice from the head of the table. “You are very nearly late.”

The speaker was seated directly in front of the fireplace, so that it was difficult, at first, for the new arrivals to make out more than his silhouette. As they drew nearer, however, his face shone through the gloom, hairless, snakelike, with slits for nostrils and gleaming red eyes whose pupils were/was vertical. He was so pale that he seemed to emit a pearly glow.

Severus, here,” said Voldemort, indicating the seat on/in/at/to his immediate right. “Yaxley - beside Dolohov.”

The two men took their alloted places. Most of the eyes around the table followed Snape, and it was to him that Voldemort spoke first.

“So?”

My Lord, the Order of the Phoenix intend/intends to move Harry Potter from his current place of safety on/at/in Saturday next, at nightfall.”

The interest around the table sharpened palpably: Some stiffened, others fidgeted, all gazing at Snape and Voldemort.

Saturday... in/at/on nightfall,” repeated Voldemort. His red eyes fastened upon Snape's black ones with such intensity that some of the watchers looked away, apparently fearful that they themselves would be scorched by the ferocity of the gaze. Snape, however, looked calmly back into face's Voldemort/Voldemort's face and, after a moment or two, Voldemort's lipless mouth/ lipless mouth's Voldemort curved into something like a smile.

Good. Very good. And this information comes/come -”

“ - from the source we discussed,” said Snape.

“My Lord.”

Yaxley had leaned forward to look down the long table at Voldemort and Snape. All faces turned to/at him.

“My Lord, I have heard differently.”

Yaxley waited, but Voldemort did not speak, so he went on, “Dawlish, the Auror, let slip that Potter will not be moved/will not is moved until the thirtieth, the night before the boy turns seventeen.”

Snape was smiling/was smileing.

“My source told me that there are plans to lay a false trail; this must be it. No doubt a Confundus Charm has been placed upon Dawlish. It would not be the first time; he is known to be susceptible.”

“I assure you, my Lord, Dawlish seemed quite certain,” said Yaxley.

If he has been Confunded, naturally he is certain,” said Snape. “I assure you, Yaxley, the Auror office will play/will plays no further part in the protection of Harry Potter. The Order believes/believe that we have infiltrated the Ministry.”

The Order's got/The Order've got one thing right, then, eh?” said a squat man sitting a short distance from Yaxley; he gave a wheezy giggle that was echoed here and there along the table.

Voldemort did not laugh. His gaze had wandered upward to the body revolving slowly overhead, and he seemed to be lost in thought.

“My Lord,” Yaxley went on, “Dawlish believes an entire party of Aurors will be used to transfer the boy-”

Voldemort held up a large white hand, and Yaxley subsided at once, watching resentfully as Voldemort turned back to Snape.

Where they are going/are they going to hide the boy next?”

At/In/On the home of one of the Order,” said Snape. “The place, according to the source, has been given every protection that the Order and Ministry together could provide. I think that there is little chance of taking him once he is there, my Lord, unless, of course, the Ministry has fallen before next Saturday, which might give us the opportunity to discover and undo enough of the enchantments to break through the rest.”

Well, Yaxley?” Voldemort called down the table, the firelight glinting/glintting strangely in his red eyes. Will the Ministry have fallen/ the Ministry will have fallen by next Saturday?”

Once again, all heads turned. Yaxley squared his shoulders.

“My Lord, I have good news on that score. I have – with difficulty, and after a great effort – succeeded in placing an Imperius Curse upon Pius Thicknesse.”

Many of those sitting around Yaxley looked impressed; his neighbor Dolohov, a man with a long, twisted face, clapped him on the back.

It is a start,” said Voldemort. But Thicknesse is only one man. Scrimgeor must be surrounded by/for our people before I act. One failed attempt on the Minister's life/ life's Minister will set me back a long way.”

Yes – my Lord, that is true – but you know, as Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Thicnesse have/has regular contact not only with the Minister himself, but also with the Heads of all the other Ministry departments. It will, I think, be easy now that we have such a high-ranking official under our control, to subjugate the other, and then they can all work together to bring Scrimgeour down.”

2. Put in a sequential order these paragraphs so as to continue the part of the story you have just read.

“He will not do either,” said Snape. “The Order is eschewing any form of transport that is controlled or regulated by the Ministry; they mistrust everything to do with the place.” ( )

Again, Voldemort looked up at the slowly revolving body as he went on, “I shall attend to the boy in person. There have been too many mistakes where Harry Potter is concerned. Some of them have been my own. That Potter lives is due more to my errors than to his triumphs.” ( ) 

“As long as our friend Thicknesse is not discovered before he has converted the rest,” said Voldemort. “At any rate, it remains unlikely that the Ministry will be mine before next Saturday. If we cannot touch the boy at his destination, then it must be done while he travels.” ( )

“All the better “, said Voldemort. “He will have to move in the open. Easier to take, by far.” ( )

“We are at an advantage there, my Lord,” said Yaxley, who seemed determined to receive some portion of approval. “We now have several people planted within the Department of Magical Transport. If Potter Apparates or uses the Floo Network, we shall know immediately.” ( )

3.
Discuss in class the following questions based on the story.

A. Describe on your own words the drawing room where Voldemort and the Death Eaters

are gathered.

B. What news does Snape bring to Voldemort?

C. Whast does Yaxley's version differ from Snape's?

D. Why does Voldemort need the Ministry to have fallen before next Saturday?

E. What are Yaxley's plans to take over the Ministry?

F. What is Yaxley and Snape's attitude towards Voldemort?

G. What is Voldemort thinking to do to attack Harry?

H. Who are Dawlish and Pius Thicknesse? What is their relevance in the story?



4. Read the following definitions corresponding to some vocabulary found in the previous reading, and complete with the terms they go with.

It is a sort of shelf which goes over the fireplace   M _ _ T _ L _ _ _ C _

It is the way we called the whole of beds, tables, cupboards and chairs we have at home

   _ _ R_ _ T_ _ E

To stop for a while to observe or do something    L _ _ G _ R

We call an object that way when its surface is brilliant and smooth    P _ _ _ S_ E _

When we we do not let another person do something    _ _ _ V _ N _ F _ _ M

To understand or try to make sense of something   M _ K _ O_ _

Darkness   G _ _ O _

Living room in British English   _ _ A _ _ _ G R _ _ M

To have the intention to do something. To mean something    _ _ T _ N _

To stare at something or someone    G _ _ E

To continue or to keep doing something   G _ O_

To tell something you were supposed not to or you must not   _ E_ S _ _ P

Very. Completely   Q _ _ T _

To give something to someone. To supply someone with something    P _ _ V _ _ E

To strike the palms of the hands together. To strike slightly someone with the palm of the hand  C _ _ P

To make something or someone fall or disappear    _ R _ _ G D _ W _

To impede someone's plans or actions    S _ _ B _ C _

There is a low degree of probability for something to happen     U _ _ I _ E _ _

Valid at present. In progress    _ _ R _ _ NT






Times change, Christmas as well

You're going to see a video which tells how the Nativity would have been if there had been new tecnologies in the ancient times. Can you imagine it? Check if you are right.


Activities:
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Tuesday, 24 December 2013

Ana Botella and her English dialect

Madrid Mayor Ana Botella’s Olympic Speech

by David Roman 

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhJt3Tzjy8I

Try typing the name of Madrid’s mayor Ana Botella in Youtube, and see what the auto-fill option suggests: ¨relaxing cup of café con leche” shows first, with “ridicule” and “Madrid 2020,” a reference to the city’s failed Olympic bid, further below.

What you find by clicking in most of the videos shown is Ms. Botella speaking in Buenos Aires to representatives of the International Olympic Committee ahead of its vote Sept. 7 to make Tokyo, rather than Madrid or Istanbul, the host city for the 2020 games.

It’s not a great performance, and is one that quickly went viral in Spain and, together with Madrid’s defeat itself, is threatening to demolish the mayor’s political career, sowing the seeds for yet another political crisis in the recession-hit country.

Like many Spanish politicians, Ms. Botella has only a rudimentary command of English, but she still went ahead and gave the language a try (unlike Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who spoke in Spanish). The result was an uninspired, heavily accented speech including some sentences in the patois commonly known as Spanglish—the local equivalent of Chinglish or Franglish.

The live version of the performance is a tough sell. Luckily, social network aficionados are using it to experiment. There is, for example, an electronic music version that includes a doctored photo with the mayor posing in rap-style garb, and puts much emphasis on one of her key messages to the world: “Madrid is fun.”

Fun was also had by Facebook users. School of Fish, a language school in Madrid, put up and ad reminding customers that they have intensive English courses “so that the sentence ‘relaxing cup of café con leche…’ never happens again.”

Users of Whatsapp and other instant messaging systems circulated a variety of spoofs based on the sentence: a relaxing soccer cup won by a rival team in Madrid’s Bernabeu stadium, fake pictures of coffee machines offering “relaxing white coffee,” yet another doctored picture of Ms. Botella, not looking at her best, searching for a “relaxing double whisky.”

To be fair, Ms. Botella—whose English is better than that of many of her critics—has taken this all rather well. Just Thursday, she joked about the issue and praised the Spaniards’ capacity to laugh at themselves. She said that Madrid, which also had made failed bids to be the host city in 2012 and 2016, won’t be a candidate for the 2024 Olympics.

One important point is that Ms. Botella’s Olympic missteps, and the popular reactions to them, go beyond the anecdote: they compound a series of earlier miscalculations that have some political observers predicting that she may be dropped as mayoral candidate by her political party, the Conservative Popular Party, for the 2015 city elections—an important political contest that the party wants to win at all costs.

But this may be easier said than done. Ms. Botella is the wife of Spain’s former Prime Minister—and current Newscorp board member—José María Aznar. He remains the most influential figure within the party, and not one that Prime Minister Rajoy wants to pick a fight with.

Curiously, Mr. Aznar is perhaps the best English-language speaker among Spanish heads of government. He also features in one of the best-produced doctored images that circulated in social networks, coyly asking Ms. Botella over breakfast whether she’ll have any coffee today.

“Go to hell,” she responds.
Tapescript:
Activities:
1- Try to write the speech in correct English.
2- How would you describe Madrid in order to promote the city as the next olympic games placement? If you have never been in Madrid before, describe your own city or town.

Cher Lloyd sings Want U Back

Cher Lloyd (born 28 July 1993) is an English singer-songwriter, rapper and model. Lloyd rose to fame when she finished fourth in the seventh series of The X Factor.

She has several hit songs, including "Want U Back". Lloyd's first song "Swagger Jagger" was released in 2011. Although it got negative reviews, the single entered at number one on the UK Singles Chart and number two in the Republic of Ireland. Her second single "With Ur Love" was released on 31 October 2011, featuring Mike, and peaked at number four on the UK Singles Chart, and number five in Ireland. She released her third single "Want U Back" on 22nd May 2012 in the United States, in this case featuring Astro.


LYRICS:
Hey, boy you never had much game
Thought I needed to upgrade
So I went and walked away way way

Now, I see you've been hanging out
With that other girl in town
Looking like a pair of clowns clowns clowns

Remember all the things that you and I did first?
And now you're doing them with her
Remember all the things that you and I did first?
You got me, got me like this

And now you're taking her to every restaurant
And everywhere we went, come on!
And now you're taking her to every restaurant
You got me, got me like this

Chorus:
Boy you can say anything you wanna
I don't give a shh, no one else can have ya
I want you back
I want you back
Wa-want you, want you back

I broke it off thinking you'd be cryin'
Now I feel like shh looking at you flyin'
I want you back
I want you back
Wa-want you, want you back


Please, this ain't even jealousy (jealousy)
She ain't got a thing on me (a thing on me)
Tryin' to rock them ugly jeans jeans jeans

You clearly didn't think this through
If what I've been told is true (is it true?)
You'll be crawling back like boo hoo hoo


Remember all the things that you and I did first?
And now you're doing them with her
Remember all the things that you and I did first?
You got me, got me like this

And now you're taking her to every restaurant
And everywhere we went, come on!
And now you're taking her to every restaurant
You got me, got me like this

Chorus

Ooh, I thought you'd still be mine
When I kissed you goodbye uh oh uh oh
Ooh, and you might be with her
But I still had you first uh oh uh oh

[Astro - rap verse]

Let's go! Astro!
We used to be, but now there's a separation between you and me
Baby I'm moving on to another girl that understands me more
Dated her in front your place so you can see it all
I remember the times, when we used to bond
But I never realized that you wanted to be mine
So I gave her the ring, instead of you, nickname too
I can tell that you're upset, because it ain't you
Met a new girl, and I gave her my heart
Not noticing that you wanted me from the very start
You want me back?
We can just be friends, don't try this thing all over again
Come on 


Chorus

Ohhh, I want you back
I want you back
Wa-want you, want you back
(bis)



Sunday, 22 December 2013

How do you land a plane on water?

The ditching of an airliner into the Hudson River in New York, in which all 155 passengers and crew escaped alive, has been hailed as a textbook example of landing on water.
Passengers stand on the wing of the crash-landed plane

The plane, an Airbus A320, appears to have have hit a flock of birds shortly after taking off from the city's LaGuardia airport, before making an emergency landing in the river.

Captain Chesley Sullenberger III has been praised for his "masterful" landing, but how does a pilot safely attempt such a manoeuvre?
Although the likelihood of a waterborne landing is remote, all commercial pilots must undergo training for such an eventuality before qualifying. They are taught to follow a procedure - which, in its initial stages is similar to an emergency landing on solid ground. However, there may not be time in an emergency to follow it rigorously.
Having made a mayday call and alerted the cabin crew, those in the cockpit must ensure the undercarriage - the wheels - is retracted to aid a smoother landing and prevent warning sirens sounding as the plane nears the ground. The air conditioning would also be turned off to allow cabin pressure to match that outside.
There is an overriding need to slow down the craft. If there is still power to the engines and a wind of more than 25 knots, a pilot would be expected to fly into the wind to assist slowing. Wing flaps would also be fully extended. If there is time a pilot would be expected to burn as much fuel as possible, reducing the weight of the plane and so increasing buoyancy when it hits the water. On this occasion, however, the engines appear to have already cut out.

NY mayor hails 'hero' crash pilot.

As the aircraft nears the water, the pilot must try to continue slowing while, crucially, ensuring the aircraft does not "stall". In aviation the word has a different meaning to that in motoring, for example. Stall is an aerodynamic term which describes when wings lose their lift.
It's a difficult balancing act.
"You don't want to hit the water too quickly or the plane will break into pieces", says first officer Tom Hanks of DHL, who flies Boeing 757s for the courier company.
At this point, a lot depends on the weather. In the seconds before impact, a pilot must try to ensure the wings are level - a feat clearly achieved by Captain Sullenberger, says David Learmount, operations and safety editor of Flight International magazine.
"[He] landed at precisely the right speed, completely under control, wings totally level. If one wing dips and catches the water, the aeroplane cartwheels, breaks up and some people would definitely have died."
The calmness of the Hudson river was a blessing in this case, compared with a choppy sea, says Mr Hanks.
"He could land anywhere as it wasn't rough water."
While keeping both wings horizontal the pilot must then lower the tail end. The nose would be at 12 degrees, which is higher than in a normal runway landing, and at the last minute the pilot would slowly lower the plane into the water.
Ideally, the aircraft would plane for a while before stopping, after which it would start to sink.
As Eric Moody, a former British Airways pilot, told the BBC, "you have to skim the surface like a pebble. If you go any other way; putting the tail or nose down too quickly, you're either going to break the plane in half or porpoise the thing, into the water and out."

Skill is a significant part of the process, observes Mr Hanks, but it's not the only requirement. "In terms of the actual impact on this occasion, [Capt Sullenberger] did a very good job, and he was also very lucky."


Sunday, 15 September 2013

Funeral Blues [Four Weddings and a Funeral] by W. H. Auden


Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead,
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.
For nothing now can ever come to any good.


By Wystan Hugh Auden

For more information about the poet go to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._H._Auden

An almost made up poem By Charles Bukowski

I see you drinking at a fountain with tiny
blue hands, no, your hands are not tiny
they are small, and the fountain is in France
where you wrote me that last letter and
I answered and never heard from you again.

You used to write insane poems about
ANGELS AND GOD, all in upper case, and you
knew famous artists and most of them
were your lovers, and I wrote back, it’ all right,
go ahead, enter their lives, I’ not jealous
because we’ never met. we got close once in
New Orleans, one half block, but never met, never
touched. so you went with the famous and wrote
about the famous, and, of course, what you found out
is that the famous are worried about
their fame –– not the beautiful young girl in bed
with them, who gives them that, and then awakens
in the morning to write upper case poems about
ANGELS AND GOD. we know God is dead, they’ told
us, but listening to you I wasn’ sure. maybe
it was the upper case. you were one of the
best female poets and I told the publishers,
editors, “ her, print her, she’ mad but she’
magic. there’ no lie in her fire.” I loved you
like a man loves a woman he never touches, only
writes to, keeps little photographs of. I would have
loved you more if I had sat in a small room rolling a
cigarette and listened to you piss in the bathroom,
but that didn’t happen. your letters got sadder.
your lovers betrayed you. kid, I wrote back, all
lovers betray. it didn’ help. you said
you had a crying bench and it was by a bridge and
the bridge was over a river and you sat on the crying
bench every night and wept for the lovers who had
hurt and forgotten you. I wrote back but never
heard again. a friend wrote me of your suicide
3 or 4 months after it happened. if I had met you
I would probably have been unfair to you or you
to me. it was best like this.

By Charles Bukowski

I'm not yours By Sara Teasdale

I am not yours, not lost in you,
Not lost, although I long to be
Lost as a candle lit at noon,
Lost as a snowflake in the sea.

You love me, and I find you still
A spirit beautiful and bright,
Yet I am I, who long to be
Lost as a light is lost in light.

Oh plunge me deep in love -- put out
My senses, leave me deaf and blind,
Swept by the tempest of your love,
A taper in a rushing wind.

By Sara Teasdale

Wells-Next-The-Sea by Sophie Hannah

http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetryarchive/singlePoem.do?poemId=14051

“I came this little seaside town
And went a pub they call the Crown
Where straight away I happened see
A man who seemed quite partial me
I proved susceptible his charms
And fell right in his open arms
From time time, every now and then,
I hope meet up with him again.”

"Messy Room" by Shel Silverstain



























Whosever room this is should be ashamed!
His underwear is hanging on the lamp.
His raincoat is there in the overstuffed chair,
And the chair is becoming quite mucky and damp.
His workbook is wedged in the window,
His sweater's been thrown on the floor.
His scarf and one ski are beneath the TV,
And his pants have been carelessly hung on the door.
His books are all jammed in the closet,
His vest has been left in the hall.
A lizard named Ed is asleep in his bed,
And his smelly old sock has been stuck to the wall.
Whosever room this is should be ashamed!
Donald or Robert or Willie or--
Huh? You say it's mine? Oh, dear,
I knew it looked familiar!

Look up By Gary Turk

Lately, the mankind has developed a lot of media ressorces which help us in our daily routine. We invented domething called Social Netwoks. We use them and sometimes we can't make up a life without them. In the old times (I mean, a few years ago), it was difficult to keep connected every time. Nowadays everything has changed. We've got laptops, tablets, smartphones... We think these electronic devices are helping us yet we can't see how addicted we are to them. Do you agree? Can you imagine a life without using them? Would you call it life? Well, it seems Gary Turk thinks we must see we're living an artificial life, not a real one. All over the world we're missing some chances and we get lost on this technological world were everything is not as real as the world. If we're blind and we can't see it, Mr. Turk  has written this poem in order to make us realise about it.



I have 422 friends yet I am lonely
I speak to all of them everyday yet none of them really know me
The problem I have sits in the space in-between
Looking into their eyes or at a name on a screen

I took a step back and opened my eyes
I looked round and realised
This media we call social is anything but
when we open our computers and it’s our doors we shut

All this technology we have it’s just an illusion
Community, companionship, a sense of inclusion
When you step away from this device of delusion
You awaken to see a world of confusion

A world where we’re slaves to the technology we mastered
Where information gets sold by some rich, greedy bastard
A world of self-interest, self-image, self-promotion
Where we all share our best bits but leave out the emotion

We’re at our most happy with an experience we share
But is it the same if no one is there?
Be there for your friends and they’ll be there too
But no one will be if a group message will do

We edit and exaggerate, crave adulation
We pretend not to notice the social isolation
We put our words into order till our lives are glistening
We don’t even know if anyone is listening

Being alone isn’t the problem let me just emphasise
If you read a book, paint a picture, or do some exercise
You’re being productive and present not reserved and reclused
You’re being awake and attentive and putting your time to good use

So when you’re in public and you start to feel alone
Put your hands behind your head, step away from the phone
You don’t need to stare at your menu or at your contact list
Just talk to one another, learn to co-exist

I can’t stand to hear the silence of a busy commuter train
When no one wants to talk for the fear of looking insane
We’re becoming unsocial, it no longer satisfies
To engage with one another and look into someone’s eyes.

We’re surrounded by children who since they were born
Have watched us living like robots and think it’s the norm
It’s not very likely you’ll make world’s greatest Dad
If you can’t entertain a child without using an iPad

When I was a child I’d never be home
I’d be out with my friends, on our bikes we’d roam
I’d wear holes in my trainers and graze up my knees
Or build our own clubhouse high up in the trees

Now the park is so quiet it gives me a chill
See no children outside and the swings hanging still
There’s no skipping, no hopscotch, no church and no steeple
We’re a generation of idiots, smart phones and dumb people

So look up from your phone, shut down the display
Take in your surroundings, make the most of today
Just one real connection is all it can take
To show you the difference that being there can make

Be there in the moment as she gives you the look
That you remember forever as when love overtook
The time she first held your hand or first kissed your lips
The time you first disagreed but still loved her to bits

The time you don’t have to tell hundreds of what you’ve just done
Because you want to share this moment with just this one.
The time you sell your computer so you can buy a ring
For the girl of your dreams who is now the real thing

The time you want to start a family and the moment when
You first hold your little girl and get to fall in love again
The time she keeps you up at nights and all you want is rest
And the time you wipe away the tears as your baby flees the nest

The time your baby girl returns with a boy for you to hold
And the time he calls you Grandad and makes you feel real old
The time you take in all you’ve made when you’re giving life attention
And how you’re real glad you didn’t waste it by looking down at some invention

The time you hold your wife’s hand, sit down beside her bed.
You tell her that you love her, lay a kiss upon her head.
She then whispers to you quietly as her heart gives a final beat
That she’s lucky she got stopped by that lost boy in the street

But none of these times ever happened. You never had any of this
When you’re too busy looking down, you don’t see the chances you miss

So look up from your phones, shut down those displays
We have a finite existence, a set number of days
Don’t waste your life getting caught in the net
because when the end comes, nothing’s worse than regret

I am guilty too of being part of this machine
this digital world we are heard but not seen
where we type as we talk and read as we chat
where we spend hours together without making eye-contact

So don’t give in to a life where you follow the hype
Give people your love, don’t give them your “like”
Disconnect from the need to be heard and defined
Go out into the world, leave distractions behind

Look up from your phone, shut down the display
Stop watching this video, live life the real way.

The dark night of the Soul - Loreena MacKennit

These are the lyrics of a song by Loreena Mac Kennit. She is one very especial anglosaxon singer and composer. Their songs are very special and she always looks for some mystery and mysticism on them. In this case, Loreena sing a song, The dark night of the soul,which comes from the XVIth century!!! The lyrics belong to a poem which was writen by a very famous Castillan poet. He was a very representative monk of a literature period called mysticism. All poets which wrote their poems on the mistic style, follo some sort of rules. On of the most important rules about the topic they talk about is, not surprisingly, Love. Anyway, what makes mystic love different from romantic love, for example?
The key to understand it is GOD. Although the mystic poetry cam show some "erotism" we must always keep in mind it is describing a love towards God. That is because the objective of the mystic poets was to have a union with God in order to clean all their sin.

A good way to play with this poem is trying to find out which is the spiritual way the girl is using to connect with god and where is the lord in these lines. Can you guess who is the original author?


Upon a darkened night
The flame of love was burning in my breast
And by a lantern bright
I fled my house while all in quiet rest

Shrouded by the night
And by the secret stair I quickly fled
The veil concealed my eyes
While all within lay quiet as the dead

[Chorus:]
Oh night that was my guide
Of night more loving than the rising sun
Oh night that joined the lover
To the beloved one
Transforming each of them into the other

Upon that misty night
In secrecy, beyond such mortal sight
Without a guide or light
Than that which burned so deeply in my heart
That fire t'was led me on
And shone more bright than of the midday sun
To where he waited still
It was a place where no one else could come

[Chorus]

Within my pounding heart
Which kept itself entirely for him
He fell into his sleep
Beneath the cedars all my love I gave
From o'er the fortress walls
The wind would his hair against his brow
And with its smoothest hand
Caressed my every sense it would allow

[Chorus]

I lost myself to him
And laid my face upon my lover's breast
And care and grief grew dim
As in the morning's mist became the light
There they dimmed amongst the lilies fair
There they dimmed amongst the lilies fair
There they dimmed amongst the lilies fair