Dear Reflections visitors – Leon Malinofsky is 71 and slowing
down, but not so much that he will let Plexipages fall by the
wayside It's been a long time, but if you knew me in the Good
Old Days, please get in touch!
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In the life of a man, his time is but a moment.... his sense, a dim rushlight. All that is body is as coursing waters.... all that is of the soul, as dreams, and vapors. -- Marcus Aurelius
Many grains of frankincense on the same altar; one falls before, another after-- it makes no difference. -- Marcus Aurelius
Zum Sehen geboren / Zum Schauen bestellt, / Dem Turme geschworen / Gefällt mir die Welt. -- Goethe
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-- denotes an
available picture or image
-- denotes a text
selection
-- denotes a
selection in verse
-- denotes a
selection of music or voice
-- denotes a sound
file in TrueSpeech format
-- denotes a
QuickTime video clip
-- denotes an MPEG layer 3 compressed music file (.mp3).
The
world according to Marcus Aurelius (.wav - 291,150 bytes)
TrueSpeech version!
Dylan
Thomas reads "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" (.wav - 1,060,864
bytes)Approximately a 7-minute download time at 28.8 Kbps.
TrueSpeech version (.tsp - 102,714 bytes!)
Dylan
Thomas reads "And Death Shall Have No Dominion" (.wav - 1,236,992 bytes)Approximately
a 9-minute download time at 28.8 Kbps.
TrueSpeech version (.tsp - 160,000 bytes!)
The
Lee Shore -- a meditation on thought and independence, by Herman
Melville
An
exaltation from the Four Last Songs of Richard Strauss (.wav -
712,704 bytes) A five-minute download time at 28.8 Kbps and well
worth it.
TrueSpeech version.
mp3 version!
The CD of this stunning, legendary performance, by Elisabeth Schwarzkopf,
is only $12. at Amazon!!
The
Two Trees, by William Butler Yeats 
Image
of Yeats
The Two Trees, sung by Loreena Mckennitt
Reading the lyrics by W.
B. Yeats while hearing this music can be a transcendent, unforgettable
experience. Here is an image of Loreena Mckennitt!
The selection is from McKennitt's album entitled "The Mask and Mirror".
Amazon
has the entire CD for about $15, and it is great!
The
Shepherd's Lament (Goethe), translation by Leon Malinofsky
Non
Sum Qualis Eram Bonae Sub Regno Cynarae, by Ernest Dowson
-- ("I am not quite as I was under the rule of the
beautiful Cynara")
The Theologian's Tale, by H. W. Longfellow
-- A tale of faith and courtship told in plain
dactyls, with a powerful subtext. From "Tales of a Wayside Inn".
A Pilgrimage to Kevlaar (Heine), translation by Leon
Malinofsky
--"Die Wallfahrt Nach Kevlaar" is an
unusually powerful work of passion, prayer and
deliverance.
Ars
Gratia Artis, by C. P. Cavafy
To
the One of Fictive Music, by Wallace Stevens
Sometimes
The Sky's Too Bright, by Dylan Thomas (with
interpretation)
A
Letter To My Aunt Discussing The Correct Approach to
Modern Poetry, by Dylan Thomas
-- "A Letter To My Aunt" is a satire, in verse,
of an aunt's poetic pretensions
The
Singer (Goethe), English translation by Leon Malinofsky
The
Force That Through The Green Fuse Drives The Flower, by Dylan Thomas
(with interpretation)
A
Forsaken Garden, by Algernon Charles Swinburne
The
Law of the Yukon, by Robert W. Service -- a
rather different view of nature from Swinburne's.
White
Orchids -- photography by Leon Malinofsky.
High-resolution copy of image used as background for
"The Force That Through The Green Fuse Drives The
Flower", above. Approximately 1.7 MB. The
image may be used freely.
Goblin
Market, by Christina Rossetti
19K
.gif of Christina Rossetti
Farewell
to Eros, by Clark Ashton Smith
Bette
Davis Eyes -- song lyrics by Donna Weiss/Jackie
DeShannon
The God and the Bayadere (Goethe) -- One of the very finest ballads by Goethe, here in English translation by Leon Malinofsky.
The Comedian Harmonists: Wochenend und Sonnenschein (Approx. 3 meg
filesize-- ca. 18 mins. to download at 28.8 Kbps)
The Comedian Harmonists, a group of six young men, sang in Cabaret-era Berlin (early 1930s). Their renditions radiate pure joy.
Go 
Ich
und Du (You and I), by Christian Friedrich Hebbel
Es
Färbte Sich Die Wiese Grün (With Color Blooms the
Meadow Green), by Novalis
Das
Veilchen (The Violet), - Goethe In 21 brief, elegant lines
Goethe captures the epitome of romantic devotion.
gee
i like to think of dead, by e e cummings
Thanatopsis,
by William Cullen Bryant
in
a middle of a room, by e e cummings
The
Garden of Proserpine, by Algernon Charles Swinburne
The
Reaper and the Flowers, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
--written by the poet after the tragic loss of his wife
and children in a fire.
what if a much of a which of a wind, by e e cummings
Fern
Hill, by Dylan Thomas
Fern
Hill, read aloud by Dylan Thomas (True
Speech audio file... see note above!)
The
Emperor of Ice Cream, by Wallace Stevens
Of
Mere Being, by Wallace Stevens
The
Ballad of the Long-Legged Bait, by Dylan Thomas
The
Ballad of the Long-Legged Bait, read aloud by
Dylan Thomas. (TrueSpeech audio file--
see note above!)
The
Elixir
The
Dark Side of the Moon (.jpg- 206,259 bytes)
Orbit
of Venus (.gif- 236,597 bytes)
A
Landing on the Surface of Mars (.jpg- 296,449
bytes)
The
Rime of the Ancient Mariner, by Samuel Taylor
Coleridge
Perhaps the strangest voyage of all.
The
Common Cult, by George Sterling
The
Second Coming, by William Butler Yeats
All Along The Watchtower, by Bob Dylan
-- Click on any branch of imagemap or any
element of outline for interpretation
A Contribution to Statistics, by Wislawa Szymborska
the
boys i mean are not refined, by e e cummings
Mozart
(.wav - 1,384,448 bytes) From the C-sharp minor sonata, performed
by Vladimir Horowitz.TrueSpeech
version.mp3
version!
Beethoven
(.wav - 1,308,672 bytes) From the
Hammerklavier sonata in B-flat, Op. 106,
performed by Rudolf Serkin.
TrueSpeech version.
mp3 version!
Midi file version (entire movement)
Franz
Schubert-- Der Doppelgänger.
Performed in Russian by the legendary Feodor
Chaliapin. For an
English translation of the lyrics, look
Der
Blumen Schmerz (a song by Franz Schubert) --
sheet music only in .pdf format. One of
the rare, undiscovered gems of the Schubert
songs. With an interlined English
translation by Leon Malinofsky.
Edited
text of the English translation.
The
Place of the Solitaires, by Wallace Stevens
The
Conjuring in the Iron Tower, by E. R. Eddison-- Possibly the
finest fictional account of an alchemic conjuration in the literature.
Judas
Returning the Thirty Pieces of Silver, by Rembrandt van Rijn
A
Visit to the Musee D'Orsay
Eleven superb (mostly impressionist)
paintings.
Monsters from the Id-- Two short stories by Clark Ashton Smith
that demonstrate the link between poetry and horror.
Nyctalops,
by Clark Ashton Smith
The
Lord of the Smoking Mirror--
Tezcatlipoca, most potent and implacable of the
Aztec deities. Speaks in Delphic portents
through the mirror, his gateway. Look into the
smoking glass-- what is he saying?
University of Toronto Library -- poems and literature in English
The poetry of Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Project Bartleby - Works of Melville, Shelley, Wordsworth, Wilde, Whitman
Dead Poets Society -- formerly known as
Richard's Poetry Library.
A wonderful
collection of favorite poems.
The Thinking Man's Minefield
Some intriguing, some outrageous
intellectualisms compiled by Kevin Solway
Booklovers: Fine Books and Literature Page
-- maintained by Piet Wesselman
Poetry Lover's Guide to the World Wide Web -maintained by Lucius Furius. Poems by Lucius Furius
The Wondering Minstrels -- A rich poetry archive created by Abraham Thomas and Martin DeMello at Rice University-- browse alphabetically through an extensive list of significant poets. You can also join a poem-a-day email list. Great for discovering new poems!
Leon Malinofsky, lmalinofsky -at- gmail -dot- com
For the terminally bored or morbidly
curious, some biographical information on Leon
is
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