R: [SEELANGS] R: [SEELANGS] Mr. Mayakovsky too died in the gulag,

[Daniel Rancour-Laferriere]

Dear Luciano Di Cocco,

Nice work!  Revelation 1:8 (mentioned in the note you quote) reads  
(NRSV): "'I am the Alpha and the Omega,' says the Lord God, who is and  
who was and who is to come, the Almighty."  Note the three time  
frames, and that this, too, is one of the "I am" sayings, only in this  
case revealed to John of Patmos rather than passed on in a gospel.   
And again, there is a certain eternal quality, as I mentioned  
earlier.  This quality is often represented on Byzantine, Rusian,  
Russian, and other Orthodox icons with three Greek letters inscribed  
on the cruciferous halo about the head of Jesus: ho, ō, n (ο, ω, Η  
- or variants of these).  Translated roughly, this is: "the one who  
be."  These are precisely the words from Revelation just quoted ("ho  
theos, HO ŌN, kai. . . ").  In other words, the Septuagint  
approximation of YHWH ("Egō eimi HO ŌN" - Exodus 3:14).

With regards to the list -
Daniel Rancour-Laferriere

On Mar 2, 2010, at 4:59 AM, Luciano Di Cocco wrote:

> Not the bible, but with the subject God, from the Hebrew daily
> prayerbook,
> perhaps familiar to Rosa L. from childhood.
> Jules Levin
> Los Angeles

I've done a bit of homework.

According to Luciano Amodio (Rosa Luxemburg - Scritti scelti, Einaudi  
1975)
Rosa L. is citing a poem.

The note says (page 682):

"I was, I am, I will be"
Citation from the poem, dated 1851, Die Revolution by F. Freiligrath. On
dec. 27 1851 Marx asked by letter to Freligrath a "neujahrgedicht" for  
"Die
Revolution", the new revue by Joseph Weydemeyer (Marx Engels - Werke vol
VIII p. 673). The verse follows Revelation I.8.

I don't know the poem, but I found a transaltion here:

http://www.archive.org/stream/poemsfromgerman00freigoog/poemsfromgerman00fre
igoog_djvu.txt

In some points it reminds me of the poem by Mayakovsky, but it's only a
rough first impression.

I have no idea of the quality of the translation:



REVOLUTION.
(1850.)



And tho' ye caught your noble prey within your hangman's sordid

thrall,
And tho' your captive was led forth beneath your city's rampart

wall;
And tho* the grass lies o'er her green, where at the morning's early

red
The peasant girl brings funeral wreaths - I tell you still, she is not

dead!



And tho' from off the lofly brow ye cut the ringlets flowing long,
And tho' ye mated her amid the thieves and murderers' hideous

throng,
And tho' ye gave her felon fare - ^bade felon garb her livery be.
And tho' ye set the oakum-task - I tell you all, she still is free!



And tho' compelled to banishment, ye hunt her down thro' endless

lands;
And tho' she seeks a foreign hearth, and silent 'mid its ashes

stands;



And tho* she bathes her wounded feet, where foreign streams seek

foreign seas,
Yet - ^yet - she never more will hang her harp on BabePs willow

trees!



Ah no! she strikes its every string, and bids their loud defiance

swell,
And as she mocked your scaffold erst, she mocks your banishment

as well.
She sings a song that starts you up astounded from your slumbrous

seats,
Until your heart - ^your craven heart - ^your traitor heart - ^with

terror beats!



No song of plaint, no song of sighs for those who perished unsub-
dued.
Nor yet a song of irony at wrong's fantastic interlude -
The beggar's opera that ye try to drag out thro' its lingering scenes,
Tho' moth-eaten the purple be that decks your tinsel kings and

queens.



Oh, no ! the song those waters hear is not of sorrow, nor dismay -
'Tis triumph-song - ^victorious song - ^the paean of the future's

day -
The future - distant now no more - ^her prophet voice is sounding

free.
As well as once your Godhead spake. - I was, I am, and I will be!




Will be - and lead the nations on the last of all your hosts to meet,
And on your necks, your heads, your crowns, 1*11 plant my strong,

resistless feet!
Avenger, Liberator, Judge, - ^red battles on my pathway hurled,
I stretch forth my almighty arm, till it revivifies the world.



Ye see me only in your cells; ye see me only in the grave;

Ye see me only wandering lone, beside the exile's sullen wave: -

Ye fools! Do I not also live where you have tried to pierce in

vain?
Rests not a nook for me to dwell in every heart and every brain ?^



In every brow that boldly thinks, erect with manhood's honest

pride-
Does not each bosom shelter me that beats with honour's generous

tide?
Not every workshop, brooding woe? not every hut that harbours

grief?
Ha! Am I not the Breath of Life, that pants and struggles for

relief?



Tis therefore I will be - and lead the peoples yet your hosts to

meet,
And on your necks - ^your heads- your crowns- will plant my

strong, resistless feet!
It is no boast - ^it is no threat - thus History's iron law decrees -
The day grows hot - oh Babylon! 'Tis cool beneath thy willow trees!

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