The specter of the Phoenix

[PeterVl]

In Köhln, a town of monks and bones,
And pavements fang'd with murderous stones
And rags, and hags, and hideous wenches;
I counted two and seventy stenches,
All well defined, and several stinks!
Ye Nymphs that reign o'er sewers and sinks,
The river Rhine, it is well known,
Doth wash your city of Cologne;
But tell me, Nymphs, what power divine
Shall henceforth wash the river Rhine?

Samuel Taylor Coleridge​

I disgust this land. Once so great and now a mere trash can, full of puppets, a geopolitical playground with no self-respect. And their operatives, what a horrible job managing them; I feel like the scum of the company, who the fuck do I have to fuck to get the fuck out of here?

My subordinate shares the news: the whore has already gone crazy.

"Ah, the anticipation! Let's go slowly on her, shall we boss? See, her cross is ready, who came up with this crazy idea? The hole for it is also ready; she has been placed over it... if only she knew what awaits her..."

Rotten soul, this man beside me. He pours venom where he once obediently obeyed. I see it all the time in this damned country, the hatred and contempt for the fallen, for the weak, for the most vulnerable. He feared and respected this woman, until a few hours ago. And now... How pathetic she is too, just a pawn in a game she doesn't even understand, destined for the same oblivion as her entire pathetic "ruling class".

The anticipation...



...to be continued...

(the animation loops, you need to right-click on the screen and mark the respective box)

 

[Loinclothslave]

Is that poem available in German as well? I suspect it would sound even more sinister auf Deutsch!

 

[PeterVl]

Is that poem available in German as well? I suspect it would sound even more sinister auf Deutsch!

No idea, I wish I had.

 

[Loinclothslave]

Samuel Taylor Coleridge - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

He was an English poet, so probably not

Whew, in before @Eulalia spanks me for displaying such rank poetic ignorance.

 

[PeterVl]

He was an English poet,

I know (that he was English, about @Eulalia spanking you I also have no idea )

 

[Eulalia]

Says Wiki:
From 16 September 1798, Coleridge and the Wordsworths left for a stay in Germany; Coleridge soon went his own way and spent much of his time in university towns. In February 1799 he enrolled at the University of Göttingen, where he attended lectures by Johann Friedrich Blumenbach and Johann Gottfried Eichhorn.[26] During this period, he became interested in German philosophy, especially the transcendental idealism and critical philosophy of Immanuel Kant, and in the literary criticism of the 18th-century dramatist Gotthold Lessing. Coleridge studied German and, after his return to England, translated the dramatic trilogy Wallenstein by the German Classical poet Friedrich Schiller into English. He continued to pioneer these ideas through his own critical writings for the rest of his life (sometimes without attribution), although they were unfamiliar and difficult for a culture dominated by empiricism.

But I don't think he published any writing of his own in German.

 

[evilmonk]

any heavy metal fan has heard of that poet

 

[Eulalia]

any heavy metal fan has heard of that poet

Iron Maiden?

 

[PeterVl]

Says Wiki:
From 16 September 1798, Coleridge and the Wordsworths left for a stay in Germany; Coleridge soon went his own way and spent much of his time in university towns. In February 1799 he enrolled at the University of Göttingen, where he attended lectures by Johann Friedrich Blumenbach and Johann Gottfried Eichhorn.[26] During this period, he became interested in German philosophy, especially the transcendental idealism and critical philosophy of Immanuel Kant, and in the literary criticism of the 18th-century dramatist Gotthold Lessing. Coleridge studied German and, after his return to England, translated the dramatic trilogy Wallenstein by the German Classical poet Friedrich Schiller into English. He continued to pioneer these ideas through his own critical writings for the rest of his life (sometimes without attribution), although they were unfamiliar and difficult for a culture dominated by empiricism.

But I don't think he published any writing of his own in German.

This particular poem was written in 1828. At that time mainland Europe was struggling to recover from the chaos of the Napoleonic Wars.

The German Confederation consisted of a multitude of states, around 40 I think, divided and autonomous in their geopolitical pursuits (at the same time it was rapidly industrializing).

England on the other hand, had already gained the lead in industry (and pollution), and was at the beginning of its "Imperial Century".

And here's a romantic poet, theologian, philosopher and nature lover who curses a German city for its pollution - I'm sure he's not just referring to industrial pollution.

I think that a bitter poem is appropriate as an epigraph to a story where the narrator is a bitter character.

(Note that in geopolitical theory, the British Isles and Japan functioned (and probably continue to function) as two poles, preventing the unification of continental Europe under a single hegemony.)

 

[Eulalia]

Yes, when Coleridge wrote that verse, although only in his mid-50s, he was in poor health, opium had undermined him physically and mentally. i can't imagine that tour with Wm and Dora Wordsworth was huge fun, and Samuel seems to have been depressed by the contrast between the Romantic idealism (in several senses) of the German philosophy and poetry he so admired, and the squalor of life in the impoverished cities.