What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
Like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore--
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over--
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
Does it dry up
Like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore--
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over--
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
Contributed by Juha Rämö - 2019/3/9 - 13:10
Language: Italian
Traduzione italiana (probabilmente di Alessandro Portelli)
Language: Finnish
Traduzione finlandese / Finnish translation / Traduction finnoise / Suomennos: Juha Rämö
SIIRRETTY UNELMA
Mitä tapahtuu siirretylle unelmalle?
Kuivuuko se kokoon
kuin rusina auringossa?
Vai märkiikö se kuin haava
ja alkaa sitten valua visvaa?
Haiseeko se kuin mätä liha?
Tai kuin sokerilla kuorrutettu
imelä makeinen?
Ehkä se vai roikkuu
kuin raskas taakka.
Vai räjähtääkö se?
Mitä tapahtuu siirretylle unelmalle?
Kuivuuko se kokoon
kuin rusina auringossa?
Vai märkiikö se kuin haava
ja alkaa sitten valua visvaa?
Haiseeko se kuin mätä liha?
Tai kuin sokerilla kuorrutettu
imelä makeinen?
Ehkä se vai roikkuu
kuin raskas taakka.
Vai räjähtääkö se?
Contributed by Juha Rämö - 2019/3/9 - 13:12
Dear Juha, I really love the poetry of Langston Hughes and this poem in particular, but we should find out if these poems have ever been set to music to be considered as songs.
Lorenzo - 2019/3/9 - 19:38
Dear Lorenzo,
I understand your concern about songs that are not songs. When I first popped into them here, my question was exactly the same as yours: Where's the music, where's the composition? Then I kept on popping into them and I was confused. Finally, I thought maybe there's a niche for them here, but now I don't know.
So maybe you should consider deleting them altogether.
I understand your concern about songs that are not songs. When I first popped into them here, my question was exactly the same as yours: Where's the music, where's the composition? Then I kept on popping into them and I was confused. Finally, I thought maybe there's a niche for them here, but now I don't know.
So maybe you should consider deleting them altogether.
Juha Rämö - 2019/3/10 - 09:16
Dear Juha, I don't like to delete pages from the website, any poem can be set to music and especially the ones of L.H., that are always considered Jazz poetry in the sense that it "demonstrates jazz-like rhythm or the feel of improvisation"
Lorenzo - 2019/3/10 - 12:51
I found a version of this poem set to music and sung. You can find it in the videos.
Dq82 - 2019/3/10 - 14:38
Sans vouloir entrer plus loin dans le débat, je signale que les dénommés Chrétien de Troyes, François Villon, Paul Verlaine, Arthur Rimbaud, Victor Hugo, Charles Baudelaire, Jacques Prévert, Guillaume Apollinaire, Charles Cros, Pierre Seghers, Pierre de Ronsard, Louis Aragon, Paul Éluard, Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz et mille autres - et je m'en tiens à la langue française - trois exemples allemands : Erich Mühsam, Erich Kästner, Kurt Tucholsky... tous ont écrit des textes - poèmes, ballades sans musique qui ont été musiquées et chantées des années et même quelquefois des siècles après leur écriture.
Ce sont les musiciens et les chanteurs qui sont en retard.
Ainsi Parlaient Marco Valdo M.I. et Lucien Lane
Ce sont les musiciens et les chanteurs qui sont en retard.
Ainsi Parlaient Marco Valdo M.I. et Lucien Lane
Marco Valdo M.I. - 2019/3/10 - 18:06
Thank you very much to Dq82 for providing the above music link.
What wonders - or rather annoys - me is that the YouTube link comes with a complete list of people involved in the recording (see above), except the name of the woman who does a marvelous job singing the song.
Here's today's Finnish lesson: the word sviitti (Finnish version of English / French suite) is only used to refer to a hotel suite. Therefore, it should read Runoteoksesta instead of Runo-sviitistä above.
What wonders - or rather annoys - me is that the YouTube link comes with a complete list of people involved in the recording (see above), except the name of the woman who does a marvelous job singing the song.
Here's today's Finnish lesson: the word sviitti (Finnish version of English / French suite) is only used to refer to a hotel suite. Therefore, it should read Runoteoksesta instead of Runo-sviitistä above.
Juha Rämö - 2019/3/11 - 12:29
And, of course, I thank you for today's Finnish lesson, Juha! Just one question: would "runokokoelma" be correct, too? As for YouTube videos, I find what is most annoying now is that videos have become just advertising tools. You may listen to whatever you want, but you have to buy stupid things before...
Riccardo Venturi - 2019/3/11 - 12:39
Runokokoelma is usually a posthumous collection of (unrelated) works by a poet, so it doesn't quite cover the meaning of the English concept poem suite. Nor does the word runoteos for that matter, but it's a neutral word that doesn't have a bearing on the two aspects of runokokoelma, posthumous and unrelated. I hope this was more of help than harm.
Juha Rämö - 2019/3/11 - 13:08
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Note for non-Italian users: Sorry, though the interface of this website is translated into English, most commentaries and biographies are in Italian and/or in other languages like French, German, Spanish, Russian etc.
A poem by / Poesia di / Poème de : Langston Hughes/in runo
From the poem suite / Dalla suite poetica / Tiré de la suite poétique / Runoteoksesta Montage of a Dream Deferred
Music / Musica / Musique / Sävel:
a) Harlem Song Original Apollo Theater Cast Recording
℗ 2002 Sony Music Entertainment Inc.
Conductor, Keyboards, Composer, Producer: Zane Mark
Producer: Steve Berkowitz
Guitar: Rodney Jones
Lyricist: Langston Hughes
Producer: Daryl Waters
Percussion: Carlos Valdez
Producer: George C. Wolfe
Drums: Brian O. Grice
Executive Producer: Mark Krantz
Keyboards: John Tennyson
Keyboards: Lafayette Harris
Bass: Benjamin Franklin Brown
Brass: Stanton Davis
Brass: Jason Jackson
Trumpet: Derick Gardner
b) Chuck Cooper: Jazz Poetry
The Blues of Langston Hughes
Directed by Lance Roberts
Band: James Sampliner (music director/piano)
Danny Weller (Bass)
Joe Nero (Drums)