Words and music
Do you remember the words to songs out of your past?
I do. I sometimes say I remember the words to every song ever written in the 20th century. I attribute this to the fact that I used to listen to the radio in secret every night when I was supposed to be asleep. That's probably why I have insomnia too.
I'm pretty good at remembering snatches of poetry as well. Every once in a while the words of a poem drift through my mind. Sometimes they don't drift, but stay in the forefront of my memory until I think I will go nuts.
Does anyone else have this problem?
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8 comments:
I do! But I'm not that great at remembering poetry probably because I read it and not heard it or something.
You must possess a singular talent, because English-language poetry is so... unpoetic.
I wouldn't be able to memorise a single line of Yeats, f.ex., it's all unpronounceable. And no music, least of all in Pound's Cantos.
And yet, I know many Russian-speakers praising it. Unfathomable.
I remember songs all the time. I hate it - the first time I hummed along to something in the supermarket, I nearly committed Hari Kari.
And what really irritates me is that it seems that truly important things fall out of my brain in 2 seconds flat. But, good golly, I can remember all the words to Tiffany's "I Think We're Alone Now" !
That has got to be a sign of the Apocalypse.
tatyana: It is difficult to appreciate poetry in a foreign language. I can't appreciate French poetry, for instance.
afw: What could be more important than a song by Tiffany?
Well, I appreciate proze in foreign language, very much so. And I can appreciate poetry in Polish and Ukrainian, although I can't converse in either.
I'm sure I would be able to appreciate French poetry - if I knew a word of French - judging by translations to Russian and general melodism (is that a word?) of French.
afw: you know what's worse? Remembering punchlines of TV commercials 5 yrs past, like my son does - but not knowing a single poem by heart.
I remember part of a French poem I learned it high school, it went:
Il pleu, Il pleu
Il fait du soleil.
And so on and so forth. It stuck for some reason.
tatyana: Prose is different. PS. Don't you appreciate Shakespeare's poetry?
In translation to Russian, and only specifically by one translator, S.Marshak.
Can't feel a thing when read it in English from a page.
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