Ironworks Gaming Forum - View Single Post - Favourite/best quotes/proverbs/wordz of wisdom

Melusine · 11-12-2003, 06:36 PM

O, I remembered another one! It's from the Carmina Burana, a selection of songs/writings by 13th century students, vagabonds and other assorted riff raff

, famously put to music by Carl Orff.

O Fortuna, velut luna
Statu variabilis
Semper crescis
Aut decrescis
Vita detestabilis
Nunc obdurat
Et tunc curat
Ludo mentis aciem
Ege statem
Potestatem
Dissolvit ut glaciem

(O Fortune, like the moon, you are changeable, ever waxing and waning; hateful life first oppresses and then soothes as fancy takes it; poverty and power it melts like ice.)

Edit: just have to add some quotes of one of my all-time favourite poets John Donne... maybe my favourite poet period.
This is a poem I have been working on for a course which aims to find out which of the tons of manuscripts of his poems that we have comes closest to the lost original holographs (i.e. the poems how he intended them, in his own handwriting, the manuscripts of which have all been lost save one.)
I love the way he tries to twist an argument in so many knots. Brilliant.

The Triple Fool
I am two fools, I know,
For loving, and for saying so
In whining poetry ;
But where's that wise man, that would not be I,
If she would not deny ?
Then as th' earth's inward narrow crooked lanes
Do purge sea water's fretful salt away,
I thought, if I could draw my pains
Through rhyme's vexation, I should them allay.
Grief brought to numbers cannot be so fierce,
For he tames it, that fetters it in verse.
But when I have done so,
Some man, his art and voice to show,
Doth set and sing my pain ;
And, by delighting many, frees again
Grief, which verse did restrain.
To love and grief tribute of verse belongs,
But not of such as pleases when 'tis read.
Both are increasèd by such songs,
For both their triumphs so are published,
And I, which was two fools, do so grow three.
Who are a little wise, the best fools be.

And an excerpt from A Valediction: Forbidden Mourning

Dull sublunary lovers' love
(Whose soul is sense) cannot admit
Absence, because it doth remove
Those things which elemented it.

But we, by a love so much refined
That our selves know not what it is,
Inter-assured of the mind,
Care less, eyes, lips, and hands to miss.

Our two souls therefore, which are one,
Though I must go, endure not yet
A breach, but an expansion,
Like gold to airy thinness beat.

[ 11-12-2003, 06:51 PM: Message edited by: Melusine ]

11-12-2003, 06:36 PM	#17
Melusine Dracolisk Join Date: January 8, 2001 Location: Amsterdam, The Netherlands Age: 45 Posts: 6,541	O, I remembered another one! It's from the Carmina Burana, a selection of songs/writings by 13th century students, vagabonds and other assorted riff raff , famously put to music by Carl Orff. O Fortuna, velut luna Statu variabilis Semper crescis Aut decrescis Vita detestabilis Nunc obdurat Et tunc curat Ludo mentis aciem Ege statem Potestatem Dissolvit ut glaciem (O Fortune, like the moon, you are changeable, ever waxing and waning; hateful life first oppresses and then soothes as fancy takes it; poverty and power it melts like ice.) Edit: just have to add some quotes of one of my all-time favourite poets John Donne... maybe my favourite poet period. This is a poem I have been working on for a course which aims to find out which of the tons of manuscripts of his poems that we have comes closest to the lost original holographs (i.e. the poems how he intended them, in his own handwriting, the manuscripts of which have all been lost save one.) I love the way he tries to twist an argument in so many knots. Brilliant. The Triple Fool I am two fools, I know, For loving, and for saying so In whining poetry ; But where's that wise man, that would not be I, If she would not deny ? Then as th' earth's inward narrow crooked lanes Do purge sea water's fretful salt away, I thought, if I could draw my pains Through rhyme's vexation, I should them allay. Grief brought to numbers cannot be so fierce, For he tames it, that fetters it in verse. But when I have done so, Some man, his art and voice to show, Doth set and sing my pain ; And, by delighting many, frees again Grief, which verse did restrain. To love and grief tribute of verse belongs, But not of such as pleases when 'tis read. Both are increasèd by such songs, For both their triumphs so are published, And I, which was two fools, do so grow three. Who are a little wise, the best fools be. And an excerpt from A Valediction: Forbidden Mourning Dull sublunary lovers' love (Whose soul is sense) cannot admit Absence, because it doth remove Those things which elemented it. But we, by a love so much refined That our selves know not what it is, Inter-assured of the mind, Care less, eyes, lips, and hands to miss. Our two souls therefore, which are one, Though I must go, endure not yet A breach, but an expansion, Like gold to airy thinness beat. [ 11-12-2003, 06:51 PM: Message edited by: Melusine ]