Y: 'and the fire and the rose are one.'

'words move, music moves...'

- the opening line of section V. of burnt norton, no.1 of the four quartets, t.s.eliot.

last night horsemouth spent some time writing the post for the final day of fahey week 2023 - for basho day (but obviously he can't use this for today's post). 

so now he was to come up with and write (type) an unprepared fahey week 2023 post.

fortunately he became interested in the naming of the songs on john fahey's fare forward voyagers (soldier's choice) which are  allegedly lifted from t.s. eliot's the four quartets. this resulted in him speed reading the four quartets last night and doing a little reading around the topic. 

the first track on the record is called 'when the fire and the rose are one.'  . this is the payoff line of the whole poem (from the final quartet - little gidding). well, modified from and the fire and the rose are one. 

the final track on the album (taking up all of the second side) is fare forward voyagers - itself the payoff line from the third of the quartets the dry salvages.

this repeated and varied  phrase drives this section of the poem itself forward,

'fare forward, travellers!...

fare forward, you who thin you are voyaging;..

fare forward,

       O voyagers, O seamen...

to the payoff line

fare forward, voyagers.' 

the second track on side one thus krishna on the battlefield is a paraphrase of a line in the poem (and the subtitle soldier's choice is a paraphrase of the situation). it is from the  bhagavad gita. it is the night before the battle and krisha and arjuna are discussing ethical and religious matters - arjuna has a choice to make, he is wondering if he should renounce war.  

eliot was pulled between the demands of the war he was in (the blitz, the second world war) and his spiritual and religious feelings (as symbolised by the religious community at little gidding). his is arjuna's dilemma. 

fahey originally dedicated the album to swami satchidananda,but then said he did it  because he was in love with the swami's secretary shanthi norris. it's fahey at his most extended, at his most basho-like, in his cosmic sentimentalist  phase. 

horsemouth is delighted to have discovered the four quartets and found out more about little gidding. the story from the b hagavad gita he would have known from when he was a filthy hippie living in kentish town. 

last night horsemouth cooked root vegetables (potato, sweet potato, parsnip), quorn and sweetcorn, so he suspects that is what he will be eating today. he needs to pluck up the courage to get to the dentists and book an appointment to get his fallen out filling sorted.