LOVE

“Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.” - Aristotle

Today, quite aptly for Valentine’s Day, Poets and Storytellers United has as its theme “Love, Glorious Love”. Here is my offering, which is a blank verse translation of a Greek poem I’ve written, that has been set to music.

Body with Body

This body which you touch,
This perfume that you smell,
Are now yours and only yours,
I’ve given them to you as gifts.

These lips which you kiss,
My eyes that you gaze into,
Are yours and only yours now,
Forever yours for all time.

This heart beating in my breast,
While my soul keeps silent,
Is full of love for you,
Walking on a secret, hidden path.

Body with body mingling
Is a harbour to shelter in;
Kiss upon kiss given
Is like drinking sweet wine.
Caress upon caress offered
Is like a tree in spring blossoming.

The words that you speak softly
Are sweet, joyous secrets
That caress the ears gently,
While I’m in your warm embrace.

All of my being is here with you,
I celebrate, I smile, I sing;
And time flies, and passes,
Gifting us only joys.

This heart fluttering, thrilling,
Looks at us with closed eyes;
Because love is all-seeing
Love is all-changing and renewing.

Body with body mingling
Is a harbour to shelter in;
Kiss upon kiss given
Is like drinking sweet wine.
Caress upon caress offered
Is like a spring tree blossoming.

The Greek poem is set to music, and you can find all my music referened in my “Otidorchestre” channel or listen to it on YouTube, Spotify,  Amazon, Deezer, Flo, Pandora, and other music sharing sites.

MUSIC SATURDAY FOR VALENTINE'S DAY

“Love is the joy of the good, the wonder of the wise, the amazement of the Gods.” – Plato

For Valentine’s Day today, here is some lush and love-ly instrumental music composed by Richard Wagner (1813-1883). Apart from the operas, Wagner composed a small number of other pieces; this stems from his reluctance to conceive music which didn't belong to the total art of the drama, fundamental expression of his thought.

The “Siegfried Idyll” is a symphonic poem for chamber orchestra, composed by Wagner as a birthday present to his second wife, Cosima, after the birth of their son Siegfried in 1869. It was first performed on Christmas morning, 25 December 1870, by a small ensemble on the stairs of their villa at Tribschen.

Wagner’s opera “Siegfried”, which was premiered in 1876, incorporates music from the Idyll. It was once thought that the Idyll borrowed musical ideas intended for the opera, but it is now known that the opposite is the case: Wagner adapted melodic material from an unfinished chamber piece in the Idyll and later incorporated it into the love scene between Siegfried and Brunhilde in the opera.

Here is the Wiener Philharmoniker conducted by Herbert von Karajan performing the “Siegfried Idyll” in Vienna in 1988.

FOOD FRIDAY - CREAMY HEARTS

“Love is not finding someone to live with; it’s finding someone you can’t live without.” - Raphael Montañez Ortiz
 

Happy Valentine’s Day! Just for the occasion, a sweet idea for lovers to share. A classic French dessert, made with cream cheese and strawberries.
 

Coeurs à la Crème

Ingredients
350 g cream cheese, at room temperature
1 and 1/4 cup icing sugar
2 and 1/2 cups very cold, heavy cream
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon grated lemon zest
Seeds scraped from 1 vanilla bean
Strawberry and Grand Marnier Sauce (see below)
Sweet biscuits, crumbed
A little butter, molten
Strawberries for decoration
 

Method
Beat the softened cream cheese and icing sugar with a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment on high speed for 2 minutes. Scrape down the beater and bowl with a rubber spatula and change the beater for the whisk attachment.
 

Pour a little cream into the cream cheese mixture and stir to mix well. With the mixer on low speed, add the remaining heavy cream, vanilla, lemon zest, and vanilla bean seeds and beat on high speed until the mixture is very thick, like whipped cream.
 

Strawberry and Grand Marnier Sauce

Ingredients
1/2 punnet strawberries
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup strawberry jam
2 tablespoons Grand Marnier
 

Method
Place strawberries, sugar, and 1/4 cup water in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, lower the heat, and simmer for 4 minutes. Pour the cooked strawberries, the jam, and orange liqueur into the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade and process until smooth. Chill.
 

To serve
Line a 20 cm sieve with cheesecloth or paper towels so the ends drape over the sides and suspend it over a bowl, making sure that there is space between the bottom of the sieve and the bottom of the bowl for the liquid to drain. Pour the cream mixture into the cheesecloth, fold the ends over the top, and refrigerate overnight.
To serve, discard the liquid, place the cream mixture into two 10 cm heart-shaped moulds, press down and then upend onto a plate, on which you have put a base of buttered, biscuit crumbs. Decorate with sliced strawberries that you have made into hearts. Serve with the sauce on the side.

This post is part of the Food Friday meme,

and also part of the Food Trip Friday meme.

VALENTINE'S EVE 2014

"I'll love you, dear, I'll love you till China and Africa meet and the river jumps over the mountain and the salmon sing in the street." - W. H. Auden
 

On Valentine’s Eve, lots were drawn for Valentines in Northern England and Southern Scotland.  Equal numbers of maids and bachelors assembled together and each wrote their name on a slip of paper. The girls names were put into one bag, the boys in another. Each boy then draws from the girls’ bag and each girl from the boys’ bag. At the end of this, there is a choice between two Valentines; generally one prefers the name one draws to the one that has drawn them.  However, if the same names are drawn by a couple, then surely they will marry.
 

Alternative means of prognosticating a potential mate is to write each candidate’s name on a slip of paper and roll each slip of paper in a little ball of clay.  Put the clay balls in a basin and pour water on them.  The first to rise to the surface will contain the name of your Valentine.
 

The ancient Romans began to celebrate the week-long Parentalia Festival on this day. This was a commemoration of one’s dead ancestors, especially one’s parents. Temples were closed, marriages were forbidden and people spent the day visiting tombs of ancestors. They hoped to placate restless ghost and spirits hovering around the graves by leaving offerings of milk, wine and flowers. Unless these remembrances were adhered to the ghosts of the dead would haunt the living.

VALENTINE'S EVE

“Ah me! Love can not be cured by herbs.” – Ovid

On Valentine’s Eve, lots were drawn for Valentines in Northern England and Southern Scotland. Equal numbers of maids and bachelors assembled together and each wrote their name on a slip of paper. The girls names were put into one bag, the boys in another. Each boy then draws from the girls’ bag and each girl from the boys’ bag. At the end of this, there is a choice between two Valentines; generally one prefers the name one draws to the one that has drawn them. However, if the same names are drawn by a couple, then surely they will marry.

Alternative means of prognosticating a potential mate is to write each candidate’s name on a slip of paper and roll each slip of paper in a little ball of clay. Put the clay balls in a basin and pour water on them. The first to rise to the surface will contain the name of your Valentine.

And what to drink on such a night of fun while the wild weather rages outside?

MULLED WINE

Ingredients
4 cupfuls dry claret
2 sticks of cinammon
12 cloves
3 heaped tablespoonfuls caster sugar
1 cupful of brandy
pared peel of one lemon; freshly ground nutmeg

Method
Heat the claret slowly and stir in the cinammon, cloves, sugar, brandy and lemon peel. Stir until almost boiling (do not boil!). Pour into warmed pewter mugs and dust with nutmeg.

Enjoy your weekend!