"How Fortunate the Man With None" by Berthold Brecht (poetry reading)

[ramenuet]

I love it. Here's another stanza from the CD Robyn Archer Sings Brecht, reissued as Songs For Bad Times 1 Trans: John Willett. Music: Kurt Weill, Hanns Eisler, Paul Dessau, Dominic Muldowney.

You saw the lovely Cleopatra;

You know what she became;

Two emperors slaved to serve her lust,

She whored herself to dirt and fame,

Then rotted down and turned to dust.

How beautiful was Babylon!

But think about her case, alas!

It's beauty that brought her to this pass:

How fortunate the girl with none.

[SpokenVerse]

I wish I'd known about that stanza - it makes the circle complete

[peoplematter1]

I think Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon hang together as literary work. They are all written in a brooding, weary, love-sick voice. They are internally consistent. Who else could have made the claims contained in Ecclesiastes? Perhaps there was another Jewish ruler richer than Croesus. Forgive me if I don't accept the modern scholar's assertion that Ecclesiastes was written in 250 BC. Thanks.

[SpokenVerse]

The authorship is controversial and I don't have any reason or authority to argue for one side or the other, so I modified the information box to be impartial. Thank you.