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Despondency

from Westerlies by Mikayel Abazyan

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  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Comes in gatefold card cover that holds an inner cover with printed spoken words and a 28-page booklet with lyrics, artworks by Artashes Stamboltsyan, and more. All is put in a Japanese mini-LP sleeve polypropylene bag - ideal for such a packaging!
    18-page digital booklet in PDF format contains the original poems with their publishing year, artworks, the book matters, etc., provides easy navigation (see the picture) and is supported with clickable URLs to the related external web-resources. Best viewed in Full Screen mode.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Westerlies via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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about

Despondency, an Ode, was written by Robert Burns (1759–1796) and published in 1786. This song was plucked out from the books of poetry solely for its title, matching the mood of the protagonist and reflecting his state of mind.

Robert Burns portrait used by Alexander Nasmyth.

lyrics

Oppress’d with grief, oppress’d with care,
A burden more than I can bear,
I set me down and sigh;
O life! thou art a galling load,
Along a rough, a weary road,
To wretches such as I!
Dim-backward as I cast my view,
What sick’ning scenes appear!
What sorrows yet may pierce me thro’,
Too justly I may fear!
Still caring, despairing,
Must be my bitter doom;
My woes here shall close ne’er,
But with the closing tomb!

Happy, ye sons of busy life,
Who, equal to the bustling strife,
No other view regard!
Ev’n when the wished end’s denied,
Yet, while the busy means are plied,
They bring their own reward:
Whilst I, a hope-abandon’d wight,
Unfitted with an aim,
Meet ev’ry sad returning night,
And joyless morn the same;
You, bustling, and justling,
Forget each grief and pain;
I, listless, yet restless,
Find every prospect vain.

How blest the Solitary’s lot,
Who, all-forgetting, all-forgot,
Within his humble cell,
The cavern wild with tangling roots,
Sits o’er his newly-gather’d fruits
Beside his crystal well?
Or, haply, to his ev’ning thought,
By unfrequented stream,
The ways of men are distant brought,
A faint collected dream:
While praising, and raising
His thoughts to Heav’n on high,
As wand’ring, meand’ring,
He views the solemn sky.

Than I, no lonely hermit plac’d
Where never human footstep trac’d,
Less fit to play the part;
The lucky moment to improve,
And just to stop and just to move,
With self-respecting art:
But ah! those pleasures, loves, and joys,
Which I too keenly taste,
The Solitary can despise,
Can want, and yet be blest!
He needs not, he heeds not,
Or human love or hate,
Whilst I here must cry here
At perfidy ingrate!

Oh! enviable, early days,
When dancing thoughtless pleasure’s maze,
To care, to guilt unknown!
How ill exchang’d for riper times,
To feel the follies, or the crimes,
Of others, or my own!
Ye tiny elves that guiltless sport,
Like linnets in the bush,
Ye little know the ills ye court,
When manhood is your wish!
The losses, the crosses,
That active man engage!
The fears all, the tears all,
Of dim-declining age.

credits

from Westerlies, track released October 28, 2019
Levon Hakhverdyan - drums
Mikayel Abazyan - vocals, piano, electric guitars, bass guitar, MIDI-keyboards

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about

Mikayel Abazyan image

Mikayel Abazyan Yerevan, Armenia

Born on July 9, 1971.
Self-trained playing piano, guitar and later - bass, which allowed me playing and making a few recordings with various bands in Yerevan.
In 2014, joined a special project dedicated to the music of Peter Hammill and Van der Graaf Generator, which brought me back to studio work. Having released yet another successful solo tribute, started producing my own music.
And I like it! ... more

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