Friday, May 19, 2006

An unexpected sense of loss

Today's word is 'weltschmerz'...

Pronunciation: 'velt-"shmerts
Function: noun
Usage: often capitalized
Etymology: German, from Welt world + Schmerz pain
1 : mental depression or apathy caused by comparison of the actual state of the world with an ideal state
2 : a mood of sentimental sadness

I've not had a great day. I'm tired, I'm frustrated and, worst of all, I've only just realised it. There's a decided feeling of fin de siecle in the air and I've no desire to deny it anymore. I've been so busy trying to fulfil my obligations that I failed to realise that I wasn't enjoying them, and the very fact that I consider them to have been obligations is, in itself, somehow disconcerting.

So, what to do? Well, I could just write the longest resignation letter in history, and it would have to be to take in all the roles I've taken on over the past eighteen months. Alternatively, I could disappear in search of my sense of joy. Perhaps I might remember where I left it... So, let's see what happens if I use Frederich von Schiller as my inspiration...

Freude, schöner Götterfunken,
Tochter aus Elysium,
wir betreten feuertrunken,
Himmlische, dein Heiligtum!
Deine Zauber binden wieder,
was die Mode streng geteilt:
alle Menschen werden Brüder,
wo dein snafter Flügel weilt.

And with that, Mark was gone, who knew where, in search of who knew what.

1 comment:

  1. Hello Mark

    I just wanted to say 'Hi', as people put it nowadays

    tapping the zeitgeist and looking at life through liberal, caring eyes will definitely leave one with a feeling of weltschmerz

    perhaps weltschmerz is a lot better than the schadenfreude that many people seem to have

    tschuss!

    (apologies for any errors, but German was not my best subject at school)

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