* Notes *
Why the caged bird sings: I translated (did an attempt) one of Van Gogh’s letters assuming that I was translating a Dutch letter. However the original was in French! So what you read was a translation from a translation. Except for the lay-out I tried to stay as close to the – umm not so original text but original translation – and translated most of the letter literally. What I did change completely was the lay-out. I thought that it would be more easy to read the letter in this form, as it is a very compact text.
(Mr. Van Gogh went a little wild on the comma’s…)
Finally… my knowledge of the English language (especially grammar) is very limited so I might have made a few mistakes here and there. I’m not quite sure if I used the word “Idle” right. The word I wanted to translate was: “een nietsdoener”. If you translate that literally it says “a nothing doer” that is an idler right?
Where I got this letter from? It’s from a bundle of Van Gogh-letters under the title of La Tristesse Durera Toujours (Sadness Shall Last Forever) and, in my opinion, most definitely worth a read!
My first Duet: The animation is from a movie called L’opera imaginaire. The song/duet they used in this part of the movie is called “The Flower Duet” and is from the opera “Lakme” by Leo Delibles. The translation of the song.
