Lucky is the troubabour whose songs win the heart of the woman he loves as he goes off to battle in the age of chivalry as a knight in combat. Troubador in Love Manesse Codex Troubador Leaving Manesse Codex Knight in Armor Manesse Codex Troubadours were the nobility of Provence and then later other parts of France and Europe. In Germany they're known at the Minnesingers, the singers of love. Minne is the medieval German word for love. The period for the troubadours is the 12th century. The troubadours are the first ones in the West who really thought of love the way we do now— as a person-to-person relationship. Operas have been written about Minnesang tradition: Richard Wagner's Tannhäuser(1845) & Richard Strauss' Guntram (1894). Photo Sources: Troubador in Love (wikimedia.org); Troubador Leaving (wikimedia.org); Knight in Armor (flickr.com)

"You are very brave" Marlene Dietrich tells Gary Cooper when he pulls her to his lap as she sells him an apple that he has no money to purchase. Marlene Dietrich in Morocco (1930) Marlene Dietrich in Morocco (1930) Marlene & Gary Cooper in Morocco (1930) In Josef von Sternberg's 1930 film Morocco, Marlene Dietrich played a nightclub singer Amy Jolly, while Gary Cooper was Tom Brown, a Legionnaire private. After her songs, she carries a basket of apples, selling them at the tables. Gary Cooper applauds her singing and she throws him a flower. He doesn't have enough money to buy her apples, and she gives him one anyway. Then he pulls her down to his lap, and Marlene says "You are very brave" and puts her house key in his hands. Photo Sources: Marlene Dietrich in Morocco (youtube.com); Marlene Dietrich in Morocco (youtube.com); Marlene Dietrich & Gary Cooper (picclick.com) You are brave courting your beloved abandoning all fears of rejection. You are lucky if winds blow your way when she says "Yes" to your proposal. Courtship in Jane Austen Man on his knees with flowers While movie lore and myth legends inspired this poem, this stanza is down the earth. Whe searching for an image of the fortune cookie "Love is for the lucky and the brave", came across a web page with the query “I got a fortune cookie, "Love is for the lucky and the brave". What does this mean?” Here are some of the submitted answers— (1) I think it means you have to be brave to try to find love and lucky to actually get it. (2) Love is for the lucky because it requires luck to find someone with which you can share a deep connection. Love is for the brave because it requires overcoming one's fears. (3) You have to be lucky enough to find someone that shares the same basic ethical and material values as you. You have to be brave enough to forgive the other person for whatever they might do and more importantly you have to forgive yourself when need be. You have to be brave enough to face the world together. Photo Sources: Courtship in Jane Austen (randombitsoffascination.com); Courtship (chastecourtship.com) Brave is Sir Gawain when he accepts Green Knight's challenge to be beheaded. Lucky is he who receives three kisses and the wife's garter for protection. Sir Gawain & the Green Knight by the Pearl Poet (14th Century) Lady Bertilak Seducing Sir Gawain with Three Kisses & Her Garter Lady Kissing Sir Gawain by Fortescue-Brickdale Joseph Campbell's tale of "Sir Gawain & the Green Knight" in Power of Myth (pp. 152-153) is one of the most riveting stories of medieval romance. The Green Knight comes to King Arthur's Court & challenges the knights to cut off his head, and in a year come to the Green Chapel and be beheaded. Sir Gawain was the only knight accepting this challenge. After a year, Gawain rides off to the forest & finds a hunter's cabin. Hunter tells him to be his guest for three days before heading to the Green Chapel that's just a few hundred yards away. He says to Gawain "I'll bring back everything I got during the day, & you give to me what you have got during the day." After the hunter left, his gorgeous wife comes to Gawain's bed and invites him to love. As an Arthurian knight, he can't betray his host, and resists this woman. So she gives him one big kiss. When the hunter returns with a great haul of game, throws it on the floor, and Gawain gives him a kiss, and they laugh. Second day, a similar event, the wife comes in and Gawain gets two kisses. The hunter comes back with about half as much game and he gets two kisses, and they laugh. The third day, the wife gives him three kisses and her garter. She says, "This will protect you against any danger." The hunter comes home with just one smelly fox, throws it on the ground, and he gets three kisses but no garter. When Gawain goes to the Green Chapel, the Green Knight tells him to put his head on the block to be chopped off. And then the ax comes down, and whew just cuts his neck a little bit. And the Green Knight says, "That's for the garter." The Green Knight was the hunter in disguise. Because Sir Gawain resisted his wife's temptation, he spared Gawain's life. A courageous tale of chivalry recounted in Marie Borroff's 2010 translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (2010). Verse 1100: Hunstman tells Gawain he's out for the day (p. 30) to Verse 2395: wife's girdle as gift to Gawain (p. 61). Photo Sources: Sir Gawain & The Green Knight (amazon.com); Lady Seducing Sir Gawain (inpress.lib.uiowa.edu); Lady Kissing Sir Gawain (poetryintranslation.com) Joseph Campbell quotes Schopenhauer— "How can one sacrifice one's life for another?" and relates the story at Pali, Hawaii where two policeman saw a man ready Joseph Campbell & Bill Moyers on PBS "Power of Myth" (1988) Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) While reading Joseph Campbell's story about the courage of Sir Gawain, came across another one of his tale on bravery. He quotes Schopenhauer "How can one sacrifice one's life for another?" and tells about a policeman rescuing a man jumping off the cliff at Pali Lookout in Hawaii (pp. 110-111). Photo Sources: Joseph Campbell (cosolargy.org); Arthur Schopenhauer (wikipedia.org) to jump off a cliff— the policeman grabbed him as he jumped & the other policeman rescued them both. The police said "If I let him go, I couldn't live for another day." Nu'uanu Pali Lookout Oahu, Hawaii Pali Lookout Cliff Oahu, Hawaii Nu'uanu Pali is a section of the windward cliff of the Ko'olau mountain located at the head of Nu'uanu Valley on the island of Oahu. It has a panoramic view of the windward (northeast) coast of Oahu. The Pali Highway (Hawaii State Highway 61) connecting Kailua/Kane'ohe with downtown Honolulu runs through Nu'uanu Pali Tunnels bored into the cliffside. Nu'uanu Pali was the site of Battle of Nu'uanu (May 1795), one of the bloodiest battles in Hawaiian history, in which Kamehameha I conquered the island of Oahu, bringing it under his rule. Joseph Campbell: "A police car was on its way up a little road to Pali Lookout, and they saw just beyond the railing that keeps cars from rolling over, a young man actually clearly about to jump. The police car stopped. The policeman on the right jumps out to grab the boy, and grabs him just as he jumped and was himself being pulled over, and would have gone over if the second cop hadn't gotten around, grabbed him and pull the two of them back. And the policeman was asked, "Why didn't you let go?" His duty to his family, to his job, to his own career, all of his wishes and hopes for life, just disappeared. And his answer was, "I couldn't let go. If I'd let that young man go, I could not have lived another day of my life." Photo Sources: Nu'uanu Pali Lookout (hawaii.com); Pali Lookout Cliff (portaloha.com) Schopenhauer's answer is that crisis marks a breakthrough in realization— that you and all the others are one— Lucky & brave are those who have found this Love. The World as Will and Representation (1818) Sage's Vision in Isa Upanishads Freeman Dyson Enlighenment at 15 Joseph Campbell's quote of Schopenhauer is from his The World as Will and Representation (1818). Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy summaries Schopenauer's views on ethics (2bii): "The compassion of the good person tries to alleviate the suffering of others. At its highest point, someone may recognize the suffering of others with such clarity that he is willing to sacrifice his own well-being for the sake of others, if by doing so the suffering he will alleviate outweighs the suffering he must endure. This, says Schopenhauer, is the highest point in ethical conduct." We find this teaching in Christ: "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:13). Verse 6 of Isa Upanishad proclaims the sage's vision— "Who sees all beings in his own Self, and his own Self in all beings, loses all fears." Freeman Dyson (born 1923) had such an enlightenment experience at 15. When he found out in March 1939 that his name was not on the football game list. "And in a blinding flash of inner light I saw the answer to both my problems, the problem of war and the problem of injustice. The answer was amazingly simple. I call it Cosmic Unity. Cosmic Unity said: There is only one of us. We are all the same person. I am you and I am everybody." Dyson's "Dream of God". Met him at Stanford (3-14-2001) on Pi Day, when Dyson told me the names of his two younger daughters who accompanied him to see God. Photo Sources: The World as Will and Representation (amazon.com); Isa Upanishad Quote (i.pinimg.com); Freeman Dyson (wisdomportal.com); — Peter Y. Chou     Mountain View, 2-20-2019 | Top | Love is for the lucky and the brave | Poems 2019 | Poems 2018 | Poems 2017 | Poems 2016 | Poems 2015 | | Poems 2014 | Poems 2013 | Poems 2012 | Poems 2011 | Haikus 2019 | Haikus 2018 | Haikus 2017 | Haikus 2016 | | Haikus 2015 | Haikus 2014 | Haikus 2013 | Haikus 2012 | News | CPITS | Books | A-Z Portals | Home | © Peter Y. Chou, Wisdom Portal P.O. Box 390707, Mountain View, CA 94039 email: (2-20-2019)