“Joy, beautiful spark of the gods,

Daughter from Elysium,

We enter, drunk with fire,

Heavenly One, thy sanctuary!”

 

Can you get more pretentious?

And you name it

“Ode to Joy.”

 

Might work better in German:

Freude, schöner Götterfunken,

Tochter aus Elysium,

Wir betreten feuertrunken,

Himmlische, den Heiligtum.

 

Were it not for Beethoven

Schiller’s “ode”

Would likely be forgotten.

 

Together they

Touch a deep chord

People cry in the

Concert hall

And at a street performance

Caught  on Youtube.

 

I’m embarrassed to say I’m

One of them.

Embarrassed by the emotions

Unleashed.

 

The dream,

After so many failures.

That we can come together,

Lay down our swords and shields.

That what has been lost

Might still be found.

 

April, 2018