Let The Earth Bear Witness - The Waterboys / WB Yeats

Un dels inconvenients de treballar des de l’ordenador de casa es diu el Senyor Google. Qui pot concentrar-se en la feina i no obrir l’internet per a mirar les noticies, comprovar si tens un mail, llegir algun bloc, mirar allò que t’intriga ... i així fins que t’adonis que no has avançat res en la feina que tenies que fer!
Per sort, la gran avantatge que té la feina és que, si no ho fas avui, no marxa a cap lloc i demà estarà allí esperant-te com un gos lleial!

En fi, després de penjar el Whole of the Moon, no he pogut estar sense mirar que estan fent els Waterboys ara, i així he passat més temps del que tinc llegint webs i mirant YouTubes. Anyway, resulta que ara s’han dedicat a preparar una actuació amb 20 poemes de WB Yeats musicalitzades – acaben d’estrenar el show An Evening With Mr Yeats a Dublin, i s’espera que a la tardor tornaran a presentar-ho. Ha de ser impressionant, trobo jo!

Bé, navegant una mica més, resulta que han barrejat dos poemes de Yeats per a formar una peça anomenada Let The Earth Bear Witness – que la terra sigui el testimoni. I profunditzant una mica més, resulta que durant les protestes a Iran per les ultimes “eleccions”, van preparar aquest vídeo per acompanyar la peça. I aquí callo, ja que sobren les paraules ..... (gràcies Senyor Google).

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Working on the computer at home has one Big Problem – Mr . Google. Who can actually sit there concentrating on work and resist the temptation to see the news, check your mails, browse a few blogs, look up that thing that has always baffled you ... and so on, till you realise you’re getting nowhere fast with what you are supposed to be doing!
Fortunately, work is like a faithful dog, and it will still be there waiting for you tomorrow if you don’t get it done today!

So, after posting the Whole of the Moon last week, instead of working, I’ve been surfing to see what the Waterboys are up to now. Turns out they’ve prepared a show/recital/concert with 20 WB Yeats’ poems set to music. They have just performed this in public for the first time and will be playing it again in the autumn. I’d love to be there ...

Anyway, still surfing, they’ve mixed excerpts from two poems to come up with this piece, Let The Earth Bear Witness. Surfing a little further, I’ve come across this clip. The Waterboys prepared this video clip with the poem during the protests against the Iranian “election process” last year. And watching this, there’s not much more to say .... (except thanks to Mr Google!)

A song from the play Cathleen ni Houlihan (1902), sung by the Poor Old Woman:

They shall be remembered for ever, They shall be alive for ever,

They shall be speaking for ever, The people shall hear them for ever.

From "The Blood Bond," a song from the play Diarmuid and Grania (1901), by Yeats and Moore:

Let the sea bear witness, Let the wind bear witness,

Let the earth bear witness, Let the fire bear witness,

Let the dew bear witness, Let the stars bear witness!