I don't know about you but I was forced to learn things by rote in Secondary school on pain of serious bodily harm.
Latin master to an 11 year old me.
"Alright Thompson; present tense of to love in Latin"
I try.
"Wrong, lift one leg, stand on just one. Try again. Same verb, same tense."
I try again.
"Wrong, lift the other leg too!"
Should you be concerned I can still trot out amō, amās, amat, amāmus, amātis, amant even when I'm dead drunk. I can also do "I wandered lonely as a cloud, that floats on high etc.," and "So shaken as we are, so wan with care, find we a time for frighted peace to pant, etc. That seems to be it though. There must have been more but they've gone.
The Spanish used to say, la letra con sangre entra, literally, the letter enters with blood but which equates to our, spare the rod and spoil the child. Both come from a time when adults were very happy to use severe violence against youngsters and when rote learning was one of the mainstays of any educational system.
We do learn by constant repetition though, otherwise I wouldn't know tens, if not hundreds, of songs from the ones sung by adults in my childhood like Don't Dilly Dally on the Way or Daisy, Daisy through to all those pop songs of the 60s, 70s and 80s. I do remember making a bit of an effort to learn the words to Jerusalem too when I was at University having been unable to hide my ignorance as a group of about twenty of us did our best to be patriotic, or socialist, or part of the Women's Institute, from the top of a table in the Union bar.
There's a Spanish song, Mediterráneo by Joan Manuel Serrat, that has been voted as the best song in the history of popular music in Spain. You hear it from time to time but it's rolled out far fewer times than songs like Eres tú by Mocedades or Bailando by Alaska or Rafael's Mi Gran Noche. But the song that I've noticed is the one I'm trying to learn, Un beso y una flor by Nino Bravo.
I'm not much for sport but, during the Euros, I could hear that the England football fans were singing Sweet Caroline. I remember too that my mum complained that, in the place she lived until very recently, the residents often burst into a version of that same song. Somehow the song had moved from mere song to anthem. In exactly the same was I found myself swaying gently from side to side as the drunken crowd, out to cheer on the Wine Horses in Caravaca de la Cruz last year, burst into a spirited rendition of Un beso y una flor. I recognised the song and I mouthed a few of the lines that I remembered but the situation reminded me of that table top Jerusalem recital - lots of da, da, da. Some time later, in Pinoso, the town band played the song as part of a concert and, Rod Stewart like, the band's director handed over to the crowd to sing along - ligero equipaje tum, tum, tan largo viaje, tum tiddly.
That means that on two separate occasions, twice, the song has cropped up as a sing along. It's not happened with any other song, except the Spanish Happy Birthday, so, every day, for just five minutes, as my resolution, I read through the lyrics. So far and we're now into the second month of the year, not a thing, I can't string two lines together. Absolutely useless. My addled brain seems quite unable to cope. But even back in the 60s with those Latin verbs and ancient poems my method was easy - persistence. Just keep going till Elliot or Chesterton or the future tense (amābō, amābis, amābit, amābimus, amābitis, amābunt) ceded before sheer obstinance.
Un beso y una flor, Canción de Nino Bravo
Dejaré mi tierra por ti
Dejaré mis campos y me iré
Lejos de aquí
Cruzaré llorando el jardín
Y con tus recuerdos partiré
Lejos de aquí
De día viviré
Pensando en tus sonrisas
De noche las estrellas me acompañarán
Serás como una luz
Que alumbre mi camino
Me voy pero te juro que mañana volveré
Al partir un beso y una flor
Un "te quiero", una caricia y un adiós
Es ligero equipaje
Para un tan largo viaje
Las penas pesan en el corazón
Más allá del mar habrá un lugar
Donde el sol cada mañana brille más
Forjarán mi destino
Las piedras del camino
Lo que nos es querido siempre queda atrás
Buscaré un hogar para ti
Donde el cielo se une con el mar
Lejos de aquí
Con mis manos y con tu amor
Lograré encontrar otra ilusión
Lejos de aquí
De día viviré
Pensando en tus sonrisas
De noche las estrellas me acompañarán
Serás como una luz
Que alumbre mi camino
Me voy pero te juro que mañana volveré
Al partir un beso y una flor
Un "te quiero", una caricia y un adiós
Es ligero equipaje
Para un tan largo viaje
Las penas pesan en el corazón
Más allá del mar habrá un lugar
Donde el sol cada mañana brille más
Forjarán mi destino
Las piedras del camino
Lo que nos es querido siempre queda atrás
Al partir un beso y una flor
Un "te quiero", una caricia y un adiós
Es ligero equipaje
Para un tan largo viaje
Las penas pesan en el corazón
Más allá del mar habrá un lugar
Donde el sol cada mañana brille más
Forjarán mi destino
Las piedras del camino
Lo que nos es querido siempre queda atrás
