Monday's mp3: Funeral for a Friend

I buried a friend yesterday. He was a great guy that I've known for some years, someone who was always helpful, cheerful, honest, fun. His passing has taken up a great deal of my thought recently, so I wanted to honor him with a song today.

My first thought was something to match my own mood, a mixture of sorrow at the loss, joy at the beauty of his life, closeness with others who knew him, and a general hollow feeling. So my first inclination was to post something from Unni Lovlid's album Vita, a sublime collection of thirteen religious Norwegian folk songs recorded sung a capella in the resonant Emanuel Vigeland mausoleum.

I listened to that album yesterday, and it is as gorgeous as I remember. But that music was for me. What I really wanted was something that would more reflect my friend. Curiously, I don't really know his musical tastes. Our musical sharing was largely me telling him about my new global music discoveries.

Here's something I think he would like, from South African poet/musician Mzwakhe Mbuli. I don't know much about him, except that like Vusi Mahlasela, he is considered a people's poet. Find out more on Mzwakhe's website or on the Poetry Africa site. This song/poem refers specifically to South Africa's struggle for freedom, and contains some universal ideas.

Perhaps you wonder about me....
Since you are mortal you cannot see me.
Since you are mortal, you cannot feel me nor touch me...
I am the soul in perpetuity.

[mp3] Mzwakhe: "The Soul"
From the album Now Is The Time

L: I love you, and I'll miss you. Farewell.