ПолуживыеPoluzhivyeПолуживыеPoluzhivyefrom ГамлетGamletГамлетGamlet

Why Let the Stricken Deer Go Weep

For some must watch, while some must sleep.

English3:11

.md.mp3.mp3.flac.flacsource

“Let the stricken deer go weep, the hart ungallèd play”

For as long as I can remember, Dad and I wanted to write a rock opera on Hamlet. The rock opera never happened, but some of the pieces were worth the attempt.

This one always stood out from Dad’s usual line — too lively, too musically daring, too… caustic, perhaps?

As if already when he was writing it — and he wrote it maybe fifteen or twenty years ago — he knew there would be a reason to rage at “Hecate’s ban.”

I wanted to meet the first anniversary of Dad’s death with exactly this kind of song, fatalistic and defiant at once.

For some must watch, while some must sleep:
So runs the world away.

Lyrics

Thoughts black, hands apt, drugs fit, and time agreeing;
Confederate season, else no creature seeing;
Thou mixture rank, of midnight weeds collected,
With Hecate’s ban thrice blasted, thrice infected,
Thy natural magic and dire property,
On wholesome life usurp immediately.
Why, let the stricken deer go weep,
The hart ungalled play;
For some must watch, while some must sleep:
So runs the world away.
x2
Try what repentance can: what can it not?
Yet what can it when one can not repent?
My words fly up, my thoughts remain below:
Words without thoughts never to heaven go.
Why, let the stricken deer go weep,
The hart ungalled play;
For some must watch, while some must sleep:
So runs the world away.
To be or not to be (or not to be)
To be or not to be (or not to be)
To be or not to be (or not to be)
To be or not to be?!
Why, let the stricken deer go weep,
The hart ungalled play;
For some must watch, while some must sleep:
So runs the world away.

Music: Vova Zakharov

Lyrics: William Shakespeare