Sunday, August 27, 2023

τζάμπα μαγκιά - all hat and no cattle

 

Rozalia Luksenburg in Berlin, 1907

Επειδή η τζάμπα μαγκιά της ανέξοδης και χωρίς συνέπειες κριτικής των πάντων από τον ασφαλή καναπέ αρκετές φορές ξεφεύγει (άραγε σε προσπάθεια εντυπωσιασμού και επίδειξης; άγνωστο, καθότι άβυσσος η ψυχή του ανθρώπου), παραθέτω μερικές σταράτες κουβέντες ενός ανθρώπου που κάθε άλλο παρά από τον καναπέ σχολίαζε.

Because the inexpensive and inconsequential criticism of everything from the safety of our couch often goes astray (perhaps in an effort to impress and show off? - unknown, since the human soul is an abyss), I quote some straight words of a person who had never commented from the couch.


Schließlich muß man sich sagen, daß es keinen Sinn hat, alles zu kritisieren, über alles zu brummen, ohne es selbst besser zu machen.

Rosa Luxemburg in einem Brief an ihren Gefährten Leo Jogiches vom 22. Januar 1899


Τέλος, πρέπει να πει κανείς στον εαυτό του ότι δεν έχει νόημα να επικρίνει τα πάντα, να γκρινιάζει για τα πάντα, χωρίς να κάνει κάτι καλύτερο ο ίδιος.

Η Ρόζα Λούξεμπουργκ σε μια επιστολή στον σύντροφό της Leo Jogiches στις 22 Ιανουαρίου 1899


Finally, you have to tell yourself that there is no point in criticising everything, grumbling about everything, without doing it better yourself.

Rosa Luxemburg in a letter to her companion Leo Jogiches of 22 January 1899





Saturday, August 12, 2023

Anniversary of the Wall inception

 


The mural "My God, Help Me to Survive This Deadly Love" by Dmitri Vrubel, 
on the Berlin Wall today 


On August 12, 1961, 62 years ago, Walter Ulbricht, First Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party and State Council chairman of socialist East Germany, signed the order to close the border of East Berlin with West Berlin and erect a wall. At midnight, the police and units of the East German army began to close the border and, by Sunday morning, 13 August, the border with West Berlin was closed.
Only two months earlier, Ulbricht had stated that "Niemand hat die Absicht, eine Mauer zu errichten!" (No one has the intention of erecting a wall!).
Before the Wall's erection, 3.5 million East Germans circumvented Eastern Bloc emigration restrictions and defected from the GDR, many by crossing over the border from East Berlin into West Berlin.

Nowadays, the longest surviving section of the once 155-km long Wall, is only 1,3 km long and forms the East Side Gallery - a permanent open-air gallery that consists of a series of murals painted directly on the Berlin Wall.

Sunday, August 6, 2023

Nothing really ends



I'm tired of weakness
Tired of my feet of clay
I'm tired of days to come
I'm tired of yesterday
And all the worn out things that I ever said
Now it's much too late
The words stay in my head
So the day will begin again
Take comfort from me
It's up to you now
You're still here and you'll dig in again
That's comfort to you
It's up to you now
So pariah you'll begin again
Take comfort from me
And I will take comfort from you
I'm tired of Facebook
Tired of my failing health
I'm tired of everyone
And that includes myself
Well being alone now
It doesn't bother me
But not knowing if you are
That's been hell you see
So the day will begin again
Take comfort from me
It's up to you now
You're still here
And you'll dig in again
That's comfort to you
It's up to you now
So pariah you'll begin again
Take comfort from me
It will take time

Don't you worry
Don't worry about a thing
'Cause nothing really dies
Nothing really ends

Steve Wilson [Pariah, 2017]



Wednesday, August 2, 2023

To truly arrive, you have to leave

 

Berlin State Library at Potsdamer Platz

one of the filming locations


To truly arrive, you have to leave.

Peter Handke, Richard Reitinger, Wim Wenders


from the film of Wim Wenders "Der Himmel über Berlin" (Wings of desire)