It's simple, it's not

I scan my most recent posts and wring my hands in despair (uh-uh, cliché). The themes - and the way they are expressed - are more complex than I would wish. Why isn't simplicity more accessible? In fact simplicity is far harder than using lots of words. And there are musical parallels to support this.

Brahms’ Wiegenlied (Cradle Song) seemed like a good simple warm-up song when I started lessons. I sing it in German but you'll know the tune. Here's Richard Stokes translation:

Good evening, good night,
Canopied with roses,
Bedecked with carnations,
Slip beneath the coverlet.
Tomorrow morning, if God wills,
You shall be woken again.

But think of the way we speak to babies. The words "Tomorrow morning" take a highish note but we must not disturb our listener. Keep it quiet, keep it simple.

This morning a neighbour is due for surgery. We've known him and his partner for several years; their generosity and friendliness during The Plague have brought us all closer. I wish him well but surely that's a given. I don't see it as necessary to say it, although I said something vaguely similar when he went into hospital (See the previous post, Such stuff). This time I'd rather make him smile reminiscently; entertain him with something new. "Best wishes" won't cut it.

I know he's up for it because he's done it himself in an email to me. In response I mentioned Bernard Hepton's brilliant performance as Toby Esterhazy in Smiley's People. My neighbour took up the thread in his reply.

Something like that. That reaches out to him as a thinking person but doesn’t have me showing off. Original but simple. It’s quite hard, you know.