about
Song written by sonatina3
Website:
www.youtube.com/channel/UCm8j3_XoEG_S6IaRLHfw_ag
Theme Interpretation: You can find a translation of the original Latin poem here:
sententiaeantiquae.com/2016/01/27/far-better-people-than-you-have-died-lucretius-and-homer/
The theme is basically, "Look at all these famous people who were a lot better than you and performed great deeds and they died, so." Entropy as a proof of time being asymmetrical and only flowing one direction towards death and decay and all that - and taking only the most negative view of the situation!
First of all "Entropy" sounded like a fun edgy rock song, and I really wanted to write something like that. I really did not want to write lyrics. There are a lot of old poems and hymns out of copyright, but old fashioned English didn't really seem appropriate today so, after a little internet research into What Is Entropy, I started looking up Latin poems. As I recalled from school, there are quite a few on The Inevitability of Death, which is not exactly what entropy is, but they had a certain overlap. Most of the text is by Lucretius, from De Rerum Natura. "I promise nothing" is AE Housman: "I promise nothing: friends will part; / All things may end, for all began; / And truth and singleness of heart / Are mortal even as is man."
I wanted to not worry about the awkwardness of singing in English, so we've got intentionally unintelligible lyrics (I apologise to any actual Classicists), with the the odd ALL CAPS RANDOM ENGLISH WORD. I give you… Roman rock? Latin rock … L-rock?
Full disclosure, I did end up going slightly over time recording this - but definitely stopped a long way from being done and polished. It turns out I can write a *first draft* demo of a rock song in around 2 hours anyway.
lyrics
Hoc etiam tibi tute interdum dicere possis.
‘lumina sis oculis etiam bonus Ancus reliquit,
qui melior multis quam tu fuit, improbe, rebus.
inde alii multi reges rerumque potentes
occiderunt, magnis qui gentibus imperitarunt
THINGS FALL APART
ille quoque ipse, viam qui quondam per mare magnum
stravit iterque dedit legionibus ire per altum
et contempsit equis insultans murmura ponti,
lumine adempto animam moribundo corpore fudit, ENTROPY
Scipiadas, belli fulmen, Carthaginis horror,
ossa dedit terrae proinde ac famul infimus esset.
adde repertores doctrinarum atque leporum,
adde Heliconiadum comites; quorum unus Homerus
sceptra potitus eadem aliis sopitus quietest.
RUST NEVER SLEEPS
ille quoque ipse, viam qui quondam per mare magnum
stravit iterque dedit legionibus ire per altum
et contempsit equis insultans murmura ponti,
lumine adempto animam moribundo corpore fudit, ENTROPY
I PROMISE NOTHING
I PROMISE NOTHING
I PROMISE NOTHING
nec reperire potes tibi quid sit saepe mali
ille quoque ipse, viam qui quondam per mare magnum
stravit iterque dedit legionibus ire per altum
et contempsit equis insultans murmura ponti,
lumine adempto animam moribundo corpore fudit, ENTROPY
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