Thanks for the Dance - Double Tanbun & Collage

Review Ruediger Jung

the fool
he throws the cards
on the table (GH)

In the beginning the courage of despair. It is always a special tightrope walk to encounter the topics of death, inheritance, legacy. The homage paid by the two authors to Leonard Cohen applies in particular to his last album, which he still conceived but left to his son to complete. It is all the more remarkable when the person in question is not portrayed, even in the metaphysical realm, as someone who would be condemned to passivity:

purgatory
the soul demands
Accountability (BtB)

A role reversal : Isn't the common notion that God is the one who demands accountability, the soul's role is to cast it off? Three short lines suffice to place Leonard Cohen in the immediate vicinity of Job or Jeremiah. But is it really God who is held accountable? At least another reading is conceivable: the soul could break out of its "prison" - and depending on whether the image of man is characterized by dichotomy or trichotomy, it could be up to the body, or body and spirit, to answer questions. An inner “purgatory” as it were!

How do Brigitte ten Brink and Gabriele Hartmann take Cohen's musical legacy – his “testament”, if you will? In a very unique and poetic perspective, which once again applies: four eyes see more than two:

IT'S TORN

The house by the sea - abandoned. Sometimes, on bright days, it's as if their laughter still rings through the rooms. (BtB)

seven skins
the summer wind is playing
with the covers (GH)

LISTENING TO THE HUMMINGBIRD

the meadow paths
paved from childhood
where to turn? (BtB)

Sunset – slowly, very slowly, the last curtain falls. (GH)