Listening Pleasure
Video:
Loreena McKennitt Dante's Prayer with lyrics. YouTube, uploaded by HaveFaithNH. Accessed July 1, 2021. This is a very popular song entitled "Dante's Prayer" written by Canadian born Loreena McKennitt.
On Reflection... What the song means.
I'm featuring this song as it personally speaks to me, enriches. Music or a song has a personal meaning for everyone. I found a wonderful insight from my collected notes. I can't properly credit his/her name as it was only signed as 'roblel'. Thank you Roblel.
Roblel, as I will address him (or her), was fortunate to see Loreena McKennitt in concert at Massey Hall
in Toronto in the late 90's; that prior singing her songs, she would
often relate to the listening audience what inspired her to write it.
As best as I can recall, this, according to Roblel, was how Loreena's "Dante's Prayer" song came about.
Loreena travels the world extensively to find inspiration for her music whereby she exposes herself to different cultures. On the occasion of her inspiration for "Dante's Prayer", she was riding on a trans - Siberian train and indeed reading Dante Alighieri's famous The Divine Comedy. She recounted that since there was no dining car on the train, it would stop at various towns along the way and the riders were given exactly 20 minutes to leave the train and buy food from the locals who lived in the town and would come to the train to greet and sell to the passengers.
This would have
happened perhaps once or twice throughout the day.
There was an attendant on the train, a woman, who would come around and seem grumpy and rather miserable. At first, Loreena dismissed her demeanor as one of culture.
One time, after Loreena had re-boarded the train having bought food from the locals, the same attendant came by. Loreena stopped her and gave her some of the food she had bought, as a simple act of kindness. The woman remarked with a surprised smile and a countenance that reminded Loreena about the story that she was reading in the Dante's Divine Comedy.
In that moment, Loreena found her muse for the song, thought she would never forget the look of gratitude on the attendant's face, almost certain no one else had taken the time to consider the woman as she travelled back and forth, day after day, and year after year, through the dark harshness of Siberia.
From that one kind gesture, Loreena McKennitt's song was born: "Dante's Prayer".
And all the paths were overgrown
When the priests of pride say there is no other way
I tilled the sorrows of stone
Though you came to me in the night
When the dawn seemed forever lost
You showed me your love in the light of the stars
Cast your soul to the sea
When the dark night seems endless
Please remember me
By the deep well of desire
From the fountain of forgiveness
Beyond the ice and the fire
Cast your soul to the sea
When the dark night seems endless
Please remember me
How fragile is the heart
Oh give these clay feet wings to fly
To touch the face of the stars
Lift this mortal veil of fear
Take these crumbled hopes, etched with tears
We'll rise above these earthly cares
Cast your soul to the sea
When the dark night seems endless
Please remember me.
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