Being a Storyteller IV

Jessye Norman wonderfully tells the story of the Erlkong, a German myth about an evil spirit the haunts and threatens humans, especially children. Schubert does marvelously at setting Goethe's poem to music.

The translation below is by Hyde Flippo, but Norman does such a fine job that without knowing the translation the voices can be detected and meaning applied. There are four voices: the narrator, the Erlkonig, the father, and son.

Schubert makes Goethe's text clear with color, tempi and dynamics.



"Erlkonig"

Who rides so late through the night and wind?
It's the father with his child;
He has the boy safe in his arm,
He holds him secure, he holds him warm.

"My son, what makes you hide your face in fear?"
Father, don't you see the Erlking?
The Erlking with crown and flowing robe?
"My son, it's a wisp of fog."

"You dear child, come along with me!
Such lovely games I'll play with you;
Many colorful flowers are at the shore,
My mother has many a golden garment."

"My father, my father, and do you not hear
What the Erlking promises me so softly?
"Be quiet, stay quiet, my child;
In the dry leaves the wind is rustling."

"Won't you come along with me, my fine boy?
My daughters shall attend to you so nicely.
My daughters do their nightly dance,
And they'll rock you and dance you and sing you to sleep."

"My father, my father, and do you not see over there
Erlking's daughters in that dark place? "
"My son, my son, I see it most definitely:
It's the willow trees looking so grey."

"I love you; I'm charmed by your beautiful form;
And if you're not willing, then I'll use force."
"My father, my father, now he's grabbing hold of me!
Erlking has done me harm!"

The father shudders, he rides swiftly,
He holds in (his) arms the moaning child.
He reaches the farmhouse with effort and urgency.
In his arms the child was dead.

This is a dramatic piece and rendition, but how invested are we in telling stories? How eager are we to make things clear at home or work? To what extend will we go to be understood, to tell our stories? We must become brilliant storytellers which require speaking, listening, pausing, inflection, knowledge, humility and confidence.

Our lives consist of telling stories.

Being a Storyteller III

"He who tells the best story wins," said Anthony Hopkins as John Quincey Adams in the movie, "Amistad" when seeking to get to the heart of the case of the captured slaves caught at sea aboard the Amistad. "What's their story? We know what they are but we do not know who they are." From this moment, the case takes a turn.

Storytelling is essential to listening and receiving, to creating and selling. Storytelling is how we best communicate, personally and professionally.

But the winning aspect spoken of above could be a double-edge sword in that eloquence of speech could supersede or suppress truth. While storytelling is essential, there also needs to be honesty and sincerity. Can truth speak out in the midst of eloquence? Can truth come through?

Being a Sonnet or Haiku

Once I had a brilliant British professor who required us to deduce pages and pages of the most intense philosophical work into a 250 word precise. Initially, upon hearing the weekly assignment, I thought it would be the most difficult thing to do. Loving an intellectual challenge, I began to immediately think of the many possibilities of the task before me, but nothing compared to the process itself, one that required a stepping outside of self in order to understand what another is saying precisely.

How would I deduce such oeuvres into such brevity and keep their essence? The professor and I quibbled often. He was especially hard on me so much so that I thought he hated me. He did not. As I worked on the precis, I came to love them as they helped align my understanding of the text with the author's. (This assignment also helped later to deduce any writing whether business or scientific.) The precis' benefit was in the process of thought formulation that eliminated the unnecessary, keeping the barest of sentiment, yet the fullness of intent.

While I so value the precis, there is something to be said for longevity too and its ability to foretell yet other sides of understanding and sides of you, sides that perhaps aren't revealed in fewer lines. There is something to be said for storytelling that creates many pictures. More lines may give layer upon layer of further insight into the writer himself or even send you, the reader, down another path of greater understanding of you.

I love both the sonnet and the haiku.

Being a Storyteller II

Every profession no matter how technical or scientific has a story out of which hypotheses are made and actualities formed.

Execution springs from stories.

Storytellers are creators.

Tell your story.

Being a Storyteller

Tell a story. The best stories, coming from me, appeal widely.

Stories personally unfold but are universally told.

Stories are kinetic and connective; they are distinictive and collective.

Tell your story.