Desiderata

I was in a poetic mood today, and was googling for the original of a translated poem I recalled from a Sidney Sheldon novel when I came across this "advice" poem (reminiscent of Kipling's "If"), and was quite touched by it.

Haven't I always, always come back to this crossing every now and then...

---

Desiderata
Max Ehrmann, 1952


Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.

Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs;
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.

You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.

心上的人兒

Oldies.. but believe me this is already the more (most?) contemporary rendition among them all. xD The version I first heard and liked is probably this exact one or similar. (Lesson learnt: internet links do not live for ever.)

It's a personal example of mental association that contradicts the actual meaning of the words, as I have, inexplicably, always thought of the phrase "心上的人兒" (lit. the person in my heart) in a plural sense, and associated this supposed-romantic-love-song with my family.

Probably it's how their faces in my memory are always smiling; how they are the ones I can count on to give me the sun in the dark of night; how I automatically think, whenever reminded of them, "do not be sad; I wish for your smile to stay that way forever" --- as I suddenly do right now.

Reminiscing is a Sign of Aging, and I'm Dragging You Down with Me

(...with a truckload of links!)

We had an all-Indonesian lunch today. At one point we started talking about the science syllabus in Indonesia (getting more advanced nowadays than what we experienced in our high school days) and proceeded to reminisce about the early days we came into contact with computers (the 90s).

Oooh, nostalgic. =DDD

To think that back then we were happily using those flimsy 5.25-inch IBM floppy disks whose capacity I couldn't recall because file sizes weren't big enough to be a concern at that time. Nowadays we can hardly find a new PC with a 3.5in floppy drive, let alone those "A drive and B drive"...

Then there was Digger, the popular PC game of that time. (Even thinking about it now I can relive the panic at being chased around by those mice. (Oh yes I suck at action games even now.))

There was BASIC, our first programming language; mIRC, our first chatting experience (
*pops* asl pls
*types* m
*disappears*
). Before Winword and Excel there were WordStar and Lotus 123...

(Incidentally today too I just found this HCI comic about Lotus Notes from the same company.)

But even with these vivid recollections, our lives had (naturally) been so much more detached from computers that they are now, so we went on to appreciate Bobo, the hugely successful children magazine of our childhood. Probably because the memory was shaped during our most absorbent age, we could still recite the names of most recurring characters in that magazine. I have a very good impression about it in terms of being educational both intellectually and morally. I just had this similar reminiscence with my childhood hometown friend, and she said she would probably subscribe to it for her son after he'd grown a bit more. I hope it still maintains the same quality.

Randomly I was also reminded of Sanggar Cerita, the Indonesian version of audio stories that came in cassette tapes. I only owned one that was "Cinderella" by young Ira Maya Sopha (singing "Hari ini, hari ini, Ira ingin ceritera..."). To jog my memory I tried to sing the whole storyline in the shower (they had a summary song and a conclusion song and one at each main event), but I had blanks here and there. xD

There, there, enough reminiscing for now. ^^ I would call them "the good old days" but without undermining "the good nowadays" with all my present indulgences enabled by the technology leap, even if it means I'm constantly on watch for disk consumption while owning a total of nearly 750GB harddisk space...

However

突然感じて...



HOWEVER


In this place, where gentle wind blows,
right now, the two of us slowly walk on.


Thousands of meetings and partings are born on this planet;
but some people walk right past without understanding.
When I lost my way in the unreachable dreams of an unfamiliar town,
the one who gave me the courage to run through the darkness
was you.

If a love that pours incessantly can be called 'forever',
no word can ever express what I need to say
to convey the meaning of 'loving'.

I want to make you happy;
I will live on while weaving
a future pictured in your heart
that won't be drenched in tears of sadness.


There was confusion in my heart as love began
in that summer afternoon when I turned my back.
There were, in retrospect,
those sins in the unreliable, shaky days of youth.
Even so, no matter how far we are apart,
I feel you.
If we can return to it this time, let's live together;
indeed, it'd be great to be together, always...

Shouldering loneliness, I stand still among the crowd,
searching for a place to draw closer to my heart.

There've been nights of crying, "We met too late."
The detour the two of us took,
that alone has taken up the stretch of a lifetime.
To you, whom I've hurt, I'll say this right now:
that I love you more than anyone.


If a love that pours incessantly can be called 'forever',
no word can ever express what I need to say
to convey the meaning of 'tenderness'.

The restlessness of those days in love,
the casual weekends,
that voice lingering from our youth,
the spirited gaze--
I will embrace everything that paints you
as we slowly walk on...

...in this place,
where gentle wind blows.


---

Summer Wars

Watched Summer Wars with DIsk over the weekend. It's nice and entertaining, but I guess the technical sophistication is somewhat below our expectation. =P; With a geek as main character and the "virtual world" as central theme, the "wars" feel only slightly above game level to me. I suppose they do need to simplify things to keep it mainstream? All in all it's still pretty exciting to watch. ^^

Some reviews promised a twist, but I didn't really see any unexpected turn that isn't already in the synopsis. Because of such anticipation of my own, when Kazuma (sidekick character) first showed up, I thought he might be a girl (well yeah, we only got to see his back the first time) and that maybe the main guy would fall for 'her' instead. =D; That of course is nothing novel either because many a manga have employed that plot, lol.

The unexpected thing, however, is to find that the ending theme was by Yamashita Tatsurou, whom I knew through KinKi Kids because he wrote their debut song (he sounded like an influential musician from the way they talked about him).




Probably chosen because of the "summer" in the title ("Our Summer Dream")? =) That compelled me to list out all J-pop (or related) songs with "summer" in the title that I know.. =DD


* Kobukuro, "Summer Rain"
Kobukuro + Cross Game is double awesomeness, even though this one is not my favourite out of all Kobukuro songs nor of all Cross Game soundtracks. =)P

* "Summer Snow" drama theme songs:
- Sissel, "Summer Snow"
- KinKi Kids, "Natsu no Ousama" (King of Summer)
Quite a contrasting pair, but I do like both in their own ways.

* Southern All Stars, "Merry Xmas in Summer"
Very much an oldie. I've always been enchanted by the vocalist's deep voice.

* Tackey & Tsubasa, "Ho! Summer"
I wonder if this group goes for the 'silly' image or if it's an unintended effect, lol.

* YUI, "SUMMER SONG"
To be honest I don't know her music well, but she's got a quiet lovely feel.


(Since those already included the Japanese word for "summer" by chance, let me also slyly take the opportunity to recommend some more.. =3)

* DEEN, "Kimi ga Inai Natsu" (A Summer without You)
A 'regular' in my playlist when I'm feeling selective. I think DEEN-san sounds slightly less nasal in the PV than live. xP

* Mr.Children, "Kimi ga Ita Natsu" (The Summer When You Were Here)
Used to confuse this quite often with DEEN's.. =D;

* Inoue Yousui, "Natsu no Owari no Harmony" (Harmony at the End of Summer)
I like the 'unusual' feel of this song.

* KinKi Kids, "Natsu Moyou" (Summer Pattern)
And this, I like the folksy (Okinawa) sound.

* Yuzu, "Natsu Matsuri" (Summer Festival)
Cheerful-sounding guys. I'm easily baited by the harmony-style duet and harmonica accompaniment. ^^

* ZARD, "Natsu wo Matsu SAIL no You ni" (Like a Sail Waiting for Summer)
Not my favourite ZARD song, but it's nostalgic to hear her voice, and the video is nice. From one of the Detective Conan movies.

* Suga Shikao, "Manatsu no Yoru no Yume" (A Midsummer Night's Dream)
From Death Note the movie, suitably haunting.

* Southern All Stars, "Manatsu no Kajitsu" (A Midsummer Fruit)
The original of the melody used by Jacky Cheung in "Mei Tian Ai Ni Duo Yi Xie".


And lastly, why not the lovely Natsukawa Rimi too.. =33