The Mystery of Meaning
Contrary to the expectation I expressed yesterday when posting an obscure article about the chord changes in Duke Jordan’s Jordu, I got the following alert from WordPress:
Usually I get a bit nervous when there’s a spike in my stats. I tend to imagine I’ve posted something controversial and the people checking it out are all lawyers. As it turns out the destination of most of the traffic was not the piece I had just posted but an old post about a poem, Meaning by Czeslaw Milosz. Here is the poem:
When I die, I will see the lining of the world.
The other side, beyond bird, mountain, sunset.
The true meaning, ready to be decoded.
What never added up will add Up,
What was incomprehensible will be comprehended.
– And if there is no lining to the world?
If a thrush on a branch is not a sign,
But just a thrush on the branch? If night and day
Make no sense following each other?
And on this earth there is nothing except this earth?
– Even if that is so, there will remain
A word wakened by lips that perish,
A tireless messenger who runs and runs
Through interstellar fields, through the revolving galaxies,
And calls out, protests, screams.
I have no idea why there was a sudden surge in interest yesterday – most of it from the USA – in this particular poem. I’d guess that it may have featured in a TV broadcast, as that sort of thing has in the past caused sudden increases in traffic to posts about music.
If anyone can solve the mystery of Meaning I’d be very grateful to hear through the comments box.
Update: Mystery solved. The poem was read by the Reverend James Lawson at the funeral of civil rights campaigner John Lewis. Many thanks to the commenter below for this information.
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In the Dark 
July 31, 2020 at 11:09 am
Peter, I really don’t understand why you thought your readership doesn’t like your posts on Jazz. I can say that me and both your other two readers (Sid and Doris) look forward to some Jazz content on here. I spent a happy hour at my (electric imitation) piano messing about with II/V/I progressions yesterday as a result of your post (instead of preparing a resit paper on Exoplanets for next month).
July 31, 2020 at 12:13 pm
I was just going on the evidence – whenever I post about jazz the traffic goes down.
Yesterday was an exception, obviously…
July 31, 2020 at 5:09 pm
I’m vain enough to think that Peter might have had some of my early critical comments on this blog about postwar jazz in mind, but after I’d said them 2 or 3 times it seemed merely rude to repeat them whenever he posted stuff I didn’t like much. It’s his blog! So I pass over these posts and am glad that others enjoy this music.
August 1, 2020 at 12:00 pm
I’m afraid on this occasion your vanity is misplaced. 😉
I was just going by the stats…
August 1, 2020 at 12:31 pm
I shall have to try harder to be vain.
August 1, 2020 at 1:42 pm
Let’s hope your efforts are not in vain.
August 2, 2020 at 11:13 am
I underwent a blood test recently and the nurse had trouble finding the right place. I asked her if she was searching in vein, and then apologised that she must have heard that one many times before. She said she hadn’t. That is disappointing.
August 2, 2020 at 11:17 am
The last time I had to give a sample for a blood test I left with an enormous bruise.
July 31, 2020 at 3:58 pm
Some new additional mysteries to look at…
July 31, 2020 at 4:01 pm
This tune is great by the way.
July 31, 2020 at 4:34 pm
I meant yesterday’s song, not the Beatles song, I prefer Yesterday too, though I prefer today over yesterday.
July 31, 2020 at 5:15 pm
Milosz is big in the USA, which most probably explains it. I have his searing book “The Captive Mind” about dissident intellectuals in Eastern Europe behind the Iron Curtain. The outstanding chapter is one of four character portraits that Milosz throws in, this one of Tadeusz Borowski (pseudonymised as “Beta”). Borowski was an Auschwitz survivor who became a communist as the one certain way to make sure that it could never, ever happen again. Then he learnt of the gulag. Then he gassed himself.
August 1, 2020 at 1:31 am
It was because the Rev Dr. James Lawson read it as part of his eulogy for his friend and fellow civil rights leader, Rep. John Lewis on Thurs., July 30th. , at Ebeneezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia. I searched for it myself but only found it today, here, and happily so. Thank you. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjhr7L93_jqAhWRVs0KHQNuA0QQyCkwAHoECAoQBA&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DYOxpSPT5PnI&usg=AOvVaw0reB0fkmgmhoyAenz7XPvg
August 1, 2020 at 9:48 am
Thank you. I thought it might be something that was broadcast in the USA because of the origin of most of the traffic.