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The Warsaw Chronicles 9

Choir, monument, crowd at Sacred Cross

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The people of Warsaw commemorate Chopin’s death date (October 17, 1849) every five years to coincide with the international piano competition. Locals and tourists crowded into the Church of the Sacred Cross, where Chopin’s heart was interred. The ceremony began with the Mass. Bouquets of flowers were put in front of his monument. Then the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus performed Mozart’s Requiem in D Minor. There was much love for the native son, whose music transcended the human struggles into poetry. At this moment, somewhere out in the cold streets of Germany, a Syrian pianist becomes the symbol of hope…

Bearer of the Sacred Cross

Emigration as a community was in a way born of defeat and not in order to forget. —Kamilla Pijanowska

Kyrie elesion
in desperation
Christe elesion
a people move
Kyrie elesion
in desperation

In the multitude
some are workers
some are scholars
some are artists
one plays the piano.

Kyrie elesion
in desperation
Christe elesion
a people move
Kyrie elesion
in desperation

He played in the streets
on his out of tuned piano
amid guns and grenades
he sang his songs.

Kyrie elesion
in desperation
Christe elesion
a people move
Kyrie elesion
in desperation

People gathered around and raised their voices
although everything was destroyed.
Their lives might be untimely shorten
but their song would always remain.

Kyrie elesion
in desperation
Christe elesion
a people move
Kyrie elesion
in desperation

They burned his piano
They silenced his band
The Pianist of Yarmouk
began his journey

Kyrie elesion
in desperation
Christe elesion
a people move
Kyrie elesion
in desperation

from Syria to Turkey
from Greece to Macedonia
he dreams of playing the piano
in the streets of Berlin.

Kyrie elesion
in desperation
Christe elesion
a people move
Kyrie elesion
in desperation

In a dark night
Ludwika Chopin smuggled her brother’s heart
preserved in a jar filled with cognac
back to Poland and placed it at the Sacred Cross.

Where your treasure is, 
there will your heart be also. (Matthew 6:21)

*

Notes: 

Mozart’s Requiem in D Minor is performed every five years on October 17, Chopin’s death date, at the Church of the Sacred Cross, where his heart was interred. 
Kyrie elesion, Christe elesion (Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy)—text of the Requiem, after Introitus.
The Pianist of Yarmouk is a Syrian refugee. His story can be found on major media sites.

the pianist of Yarmouk

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo of the Church of the Sacred Cross by Millie Siu.
Photo of the Pianist of Yarmouk is from a youtube screen shot.

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The Warsaw Chronicles 6

Dmitry Shiskin 390

 

 

 

 

 

 

After Dmitry Shiskin’s Performance of Chopin’s E Minor Concerto

Within the interlacing elements
Strong are the columns
your love—my death
rise from the bowels of sound
Chopin in protest
upholding angels
playing his Death March
letting in ethereal light
at a university’s workers demonstration
revealing heaven
a pot of fire next to the amplifiers
in all its wonderment.
burning contracts that were signed in blood
and the smearing cold rain of Warsaw.

“I think that I’m going off to die,” Chopin predicted
before leaving Poland, “and how awful it must be
to die somewhere else than where one has lived.”

Remnants of Syrian migrants passing through,
The train station has been swept clean.
Police walk through each compartment, looking
for a certain color—

“A gloomy harmony” with a legato
smooth as the erasure of history.

*

Note: “A gloomy harmony”—Fryderyk Chopin.

Photo from PhotoTelegram on Twitter

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