About Me

Oct 24, 2010

Szomoru Vasarnap(Gloomy Sunday) by Rezső Seress


It is autumn and the leaves are falling
All love has died on earth
The wind is weeping with sorrowful tears
My heart will never hope for a new spring again
My tears and my sorrows are all in vain
People are heartless, greedy and wicked...

Love has died!

The world has come to its end, hope has ceased to have a meaning
Cities are being wiped out, shrapnel is making music
Meadows are coloured red with human blood
There are dead people on the streets everywhere
I will say another quiet prayer:
People are sinners, Lord, they make mistakes...

The world has ended!


I got to know this song from the a post in Suhaimy Ramli's blog. A Hungarian, this Seress guy was supposed to have written this song during the 30's as an attribution to his once failed relationship with his lover. He managed to get together with his girl for a short while after he had written the song. However, the girl went to commit a suicide; she jumped out from the apartment's window. A few years later, the guy killed himself much in the same manner as his lover's suicide. Urban legend has it that there's quite a few of those who listened to this song had also killed themselves. Creepy, huh?


Well, apart from the urban legend and the scary story that are associated with the song, I personally view that the way the lyrics was written has a kind of quality that shows the particular social environment during that time. It is known that Europe during that time was between the two great wars. The atmosphere was heavy, moody and somewhat gloomy; as the song's title itself indicates. However, it is of an utmost importance for us to carefully articulate our mind in interpreting this song's meaning and not be influenced by it negatively. Instead, we should view it as a form of a human's variability in emotion and mental disorderliness(or even genius). If we can control our emotions, it is of a definite possibility that we will manage to order out thoughts and think from new, different, and more reliable perspectives when analyzing certain situations and conundrums.



The lyrics above had been changed into a more decent and somewhat less distressful tone by Billie Holiday. The new version of the song has been sang by many artists. The one below is by Sarah McLachlan. It's quite nice actually. I've personally enjoyed it. :)


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