But We Had Music
The Universe In Verse, feat. Nick Cave
2024
How, knowing that even the universe is dying, do we bear our lives? The finitude and yet vastness of both our deeds and the cosmos through a fleeting moment of contemplation.
"But We Had Music" is a poem written by Maria Popova, performed here by Nick Cave and transformed into animation by Daniel Bruson, using charcoal drawings, light caustics and optical distortions with glass.
The film was made as part of the seventh annual Universe in Verse — a many-hearted labor of love, celebrating the wonder of reality through science and poetry, that took place on April 7th, 2024, on the eve of a total solar eclipse.
Here's a breakdown of the animation process:
But We Had Music
by Maria Popova
by Maria Popova
Right this minute
across time zones and opinions
people are
making plans
making meals
making promises and poems
across time zones and opinions
people are
making plans
making meals
making promises and poems
while
at the center of our galaxy
a black hole with the mass of
four billion suns
screams its open-mouth kiss
of oblivion.
a black hole with the mass of
four billion suns
screams its open-mouth kiss
of oblivion.
Someday it will swallow
Euclid’s postulates and the Goldberg Variations,
swallow calculus and Leaves of Grass.
Euclid’s postulates and the Goldberg Variations,
swallow calculus and Leaves of Grass.
I know this.
And still
when the constellation of starlings
flickers across the evening sky,
it is enough
when the constellation of starlings
flickers across the evening sky,
it is enough
to stand here
for an irrevocable minute
agape with wonder.
for an irrevocable minute
agape with wonder.
It is eternity.
Credits:
Poem
Maria Popova
Reading
Nick Cave
Animation and Direction
Daniel Bruson
Music
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Voice edit
Pêu Ribeiro
Year
2024
The Universe In Verse is a project by Maria Popova (themarginalian.org)
