Summertime Blues

Gonna take two weeks, gonna have a fun vacation
Gonna take my problem to the United Nations.
Well I called my congressman and he said (quote):
"I'd like to help you son but you're too young to vote"
Sometimes I wonder what I'm a-gonna do
Lord, there ain't no cure for the summertime blues.

(Eddie Cochran, Summertime Blues, 1958)

what remains behind

What though the radiance which was once so bright
Be now for ever taken from my sight,
Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower;
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind;

(William Wordsworth, Ode: Intimations of Immortality…, 1807)

ne vus sanz mei, ne mei sanz vus

Kar ne pot nent vivre sanz li;
D'euls deus fu il tut autresi
Cume del chevrefoil esteit
Ki a la codre se perneit:
Quant il s'i est laciez e pris
E tut entur le fust s'est mis,
Ensemble poënt bien durer;
Mes ki puis les volt desevrer,
Li codres muert hastivement
E li chevrefoil ensement.
«Bele amie, si est de nus:
ne vus sanz mei, ne mei sanz vus!»

[Ya que no puede vivir sin ella;
los dos unidos
como la madreselva
que se abraza al avellano:
cuando es atrapada y enlazada
alrededor de sus ramas
juntos permanecerán;
pero si los intentaran separar,
pronto el avellano moriría
y la madreselva poco después.
«Bele amie, si est de nus:
ne vus sanz mei, ne mei sanz vus!»]

(Marie de France, Le Lai du Chevrefoil, 1160)

…the frightened heart of me

… … …

And still the ripe fruit and the branch

Observe the sky begin to blanch
Without a cry, without a prayer,
With no betrayal of despair.

O Courage! Could you not as well
Select a second place to dwell
Not only in that golden tree
But in the frightened heart of me?

(Tennessee Williams, Night Of The Iguana, Nonno's Last Poem, 1961)

…et caput inter nubila condit

Extemplo Libyae magnas it Fama per urbes,
Fama, malum qua non aliud velocius ullum:
Mobilitate viget virisque adquirit eundo,
Parva metu primo, mox sese attollit in auras
Ingrediturque solo et caput inter nubila condit.

[En seguida el Rumor recorre las grandes ciudades de Libia,
Rumor, un mal veloz como ninguno: 
La velocidad le da fuerzas, que aumentan según avanza,
Pequeño y medroso al principio, pronto se remonta a los aires
y con los pies en el suelo, esconde su cabeza entre las nubes.]

(Virgilio, Eneida, IV, 173-177, citado por Thijs van Leer de Focus, Round Goes the Gossip, Focus 3, 1972)

I hear you singing in the wire

I am a lineman for the county
And I drive the main road,
Searching in the sun for another overload.
I hear you singing in the wire,
I can hear you thru the whine,
And the Wichita Lineman
is still on the line.

(Jimmy Webb, Wichita Lineman, 1968)

If your memory serves you well

If your memory serves you well
We were going to meet again and wait
So I'm going to unpack all my things
And sit before it gets too late

No man alive will come to you
With another tale to tell
And you know that we shall meet again
If your memory serves you well

This wheel's on fire
Rolling down the road
Best notify my next of kin
This wheel shall explode

(Rick Danko - Bob Dylan, This wheel's on fire, 1967)