What to do when Fortune, Empress of the World, is giving you a hard time?

         Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi 

O Fortune, like the moon

you are changeable,

ever waxing

and waning;

hateful life

first oppresses

and then soothes

as fancy takes it;

poverty

and power

it melts them like ice.

Fate - monstrous

and empty,

you whirling wheel,

you are malevolent,

well-being is in vain

and always fades to nothing,

shadowed

and veiled

you plague me too;

now through the game

I bring my bare back

to your villainy.

Fate is against me

in health

and virtue,

driven on

always enslaved.

So at this hour

without delay

pluck the vibrating strings;

since Fate

strikes down the strong man,

everybody weep with me! *

I can think of no better lyrics to convey the mayhem of the present time in Europe and the United States than the Reprise to Carmina Burana, as interpreted by Carl Orff's masterpiece.

So, what to do when you see madness and weeping all round?  Pretend, of course, that you're perfectly capable of wresting meaning from nothingness. Dance and play a tambourine along with Fate as if She's a really nice person. Open your mouth and sing from the bottom of your heart to Whatever must surely rule over an empty whirling wheel.

The go-for-broke version of Orff's Reprise is conducted by Seiji Ozawa with the Berlin Philharmonic, Shin-Yu Kai Chorus, and Boys Choir of the Staats-und Domchor Berlin; Kathleen Battle, Sir Thomas Allen, and Frank Lopardo soloists. 1990 Philips DVD video. 

* "These lyrics are copyrighted and are published at Classical Net

with the permission of Schott Music International."

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