reaching jerusalem


quotes:

• Et cum illi pueri dicerent "Sibulla, ti theleis?", respondebat illa: "apothanein thelo". This was part of the epigram from T S Eliot's The Waste Land. roughly, it translates as: "and when the boys said to her: 'Sibyl, what do you want?' she replied 'i want to die'." Eliot himself took it from The Satyricon. the sibyl was an oracle condemned to live forever.
• En arche en ho logos. These are the first words of the gospel of st john in the new testament, and translate as 'in the beginning was the word'.
• it turns out that because black holes involved in space-tearing conifold transitions are extremal, they do not Hawking radiate, no matter how light they become. this comes from a book on astrophysics entitled the elegant universe by brian greene.
• wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin, for i acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. this is the first part of psalm 51, which runs across the bottom of the lyric sheets as explained earlier.

references etc.:
this song is clearly run through with a lot of old testament stuff - solomon, philistines and the like. my throat is sore from crying and my bed is wet with tears is from psalm 6. there's faint allusions to the tower of babel at the end as well, and something about how light years are inconceivable to the human mind. that's about it for this one.
the photo in the background is some (hard to actually see) footprints across a beach in sheringham, norfolk.

lyrics:
frank: let's look to the hands of the weak for the scars of more genuine living. i'm stuck in this intellectual rut trying to find an explanation in the wrong language. weak at the knees but strong at the top of my spine. feeling sick with frustration... i'm doubting like a philistine. frustrated at not having precise answers in a world built on safe equations. so tell me why are you waiting for me to give you textbook answers before you start to move? i can't secure your fading wealth because it sickens me. so let us part the clouds and start your mind in a fresh day, and put aside the things you learned. let's stretch out our fingers and we might just get to that promised land before we suck it's life away. and so we're reaching, trying to shift the focus from the world to myself and those around me who i love. and yes we're reaching, trying to imagine the size of lightyears and trying to save the world that sustains us. and so we're reaching, one building block at a time until the rooves of our houses disrupt jerusalem. so nearly reaching, so close and yet so far. just one last tear-stained exertion to get to that elusive contact.
ben: behold thy walls jerusalem... we're reaching.

[back]