They said it on the news today. It’s, officially, the first day of summer. Can you believe it? The beginning of another summer. When the last one never ended.

Yesterday, our friends at the University of Limerick organised a wonderful concert with Cruinniú in the University’s Student Union Courtyard. My heartfelt thanks goes out to Cruinniú and everybody that organised the event, participated in it, and donated to Pádraig’s fund.

Sometimes, I’m looking for the right word. Sometimes I can find it. And then I forget. The world is so complex that I wonder sometimes whether there is any merit in trying to understand it. Because the moment I think I can unravel its meaning from one end and get a hold on it, it’s gone again, slipping out of my hands, my mind.

I make plans, try to stay on top, and underneath the earth seems to swivel like a spinning top.

There were no plans today, but it was pure bliss, just wonderful. You’ll remember the lovely singing and guitar from the other day. Today, we almost brought the house down! One of Ireland’s most talented uilleann pipes players gave a private concert for Pádraig and us, and – I’d say – the rest of Haus 2. It was just brilliant and such a privilege. There is sometimes a bit of a delayed reaction with Pádraig, but I am 100% certain that the power of these pipes and the beauty of the music will have a profound effect on him and his state of mind! We’ll see tomorrow and over the coming days – this powerful music will resonate with him for a long time! And the staff were over the moon: the first uilleann pipes concert in Eilbek, ever!

Some time ago, I mentioned one of my favourite songs from one of my favourite bands: Verdamp lang her by BAP. I included a link to the translation into English of that song. Well – the blog to which the link pointed disappeared and with it the translation. So, here it is. You can check the original version in ‘Kölsch’ (dialect of Cologne) and it’s ‘translation’ into standard ‘Hochdeutsch’ here. There are several versions of the song on youtube, this is the one closest to the original from 1981/1982, this is Verdamp lang her, Live in Rockpalast (2001/2006) with BAP and the really energetic Thomas D.

Enjoy.

A Damn, Long Time Ago

(1)
A damn, long time that I took almost everything so seriously
A damn, long time that I still believed in something
And then the shock, when it all turned out so differently
Strange how the rabbit runs at times
Not at all resigned, but pretty much disillusioned
A little something I’ve understood

(2)
How people follow you, when things go well
They pat your back, how they all court you
They call themselves your friend without even blushing
And the next day they just ignore you
It’s been a while that stuff like that left me clueless
And that disappointment dragged me down

(3)
I still remember when I just dreamed about things
Of things I did not even know how to look for
And missed finding them because I was too busy searching
And what it was anyway that I wanted to find where
My head full of nothing, just the instinctive few tricks
It takes a while to understand yourself

(4)
It was a time I didn’t even have bad luck
Not even that, a time I was not even fed up
There was John Steinbeck and there stood Joseph Conrad,
Between them me – but relatively checkmate.
It’s been a few years, but the memory is right here
It feels like only yesterday

Chorus:
A damn long time…

(5)
You ask me when I painted the last picture
If a song is all to make me feel satisfied these days
If I had arrived where I wanted to go yet
If my colors would not dry out this way?
I think I know, whether you paint it loud or paint it soft
What matters is that you paint at all

(Chorus)

A damn, long time that I visited your graveside
A damn, long time that we last talked
And that stuff got through from one to the other
So long that I almost can’t remember when
You firmly believed someone waited for you in heaven
You deserve it well that is what I said.

(Chorus)