The Man In The Clouds

[Gargovic Malkav]

These are the translated lyrics from a song that can give me goosebumps and tears. Not sure if it has the same impact in English without the music, but I wanted to give it a try anyway...

Credit goes to Koos Meinderts, Harrie Jekkers, all others involved, and of course to the Lord Almighty for giving people the inspiration to create such pieces of art.

Here's a link for those who want to know what the original song sounds like.

What the Man In The Clouds' real name was, and where he came from, was unknown.
In the village no one really cared to know,
"The Man In The Clouds", that's what everyone called him.
And the Man In The Clouds never came down.
He was lonely, but perfectly happy.
And it had a very special reason;
On the wall in his house hung a Beautiful Painting.
And the Man In The Clouds could watch it for hours.
In beauty, his days passed by.
He couldn't achieve a higher state of bliss,
Than watching and watching that Beautiful Painting.

And often you saw people ascending to The Man In The Clouds, with the Beautiful Painting.
The door in his home was open for everybody.
"Please, come in!" he always said hospitably.
And everyone gave him, as per custom, some bread or wine, as an entry of sorts.
It became a habit over the years; You always bring something with you for The Man In The Clouds.
And while seated on a chair next to him, everything suddenly became as clear as glass.
And the Beautiful Painting made you forget how sad and ugly life sometimes can be.


It was a landscape so gorgeous, so beautifully empty.
That's how it must have been when the world began.
You could see how everything was gaining shape and color,
In the light of an endlessly rising sun.


One day, The Man In The Clouds had a visitor, a foreigner who shook his hand and said: "I've heard that you're in possession of a canvas, which is known as a Beautiful Painting down below?"
And the Man In The Clouds said: "Please, come in!"
And the foreigner stood in front of the Landscape
Then the man completely lost it:
"This is incredible! How did you get this!?
A masterpiece, and look at it, complete with a frame and signature.
Sir, you'll be rich for the rest of your life! This here on the wall is worth a fortune!"

And The Man In The Clouds wanted to forget
What the foreigner had told him that day.
But something had changed, just by knowing that beauty can be expressed in money.
More and more he said: "Hey, don't touch it!"
or "Don't get too close!"
He slowly turned into a guard;
A cautious man, with a Beautiful Painting.
And then came the fear, in the form of nightmares;
Thieves that shouted: "Give me that painting!"
That's how a lock came on his door
And The Man In The Clouds received less and less visitors.


It was a landscape so gorgeous, so beautifully empty.
That's how it must have been when the world began.
You could see how everything was gaining shape and color,
In the light of an endlessly rising sun.


And sometimes the Man In The Clouds thought back about the time in which the Beautiful Painting gave warmth and comfort to everybody.
But he wasn't allowed to think that way, that time was over...
He had to protect it, with his life if necessary.
He owed that much to the Beauty of the Landscape.
He would never forgive himself if it got stolen,
So he locked up everything as tight as possible.
But he only got more afraid...
No night passed without hearing the thieves who would likely find it.
Because they knew what was hanging on the wall at his place. So he locked it up inside a closet.
But the spot where the Painting used to be got emptier and emptier,
And after a while The Man In The Clouds got mad with desire
And he Hung the Landscape back on the wall.
That night he watched it for hours and hours, he watched the colors, the shapes, the rising sun...
But it had lost its shine, its beauty had departed, as though he couldn't see clearly anymore...
And suddenly everything became as clear as glass.
On the wall, in a frame, he saw his own fear!
That night in the clouds he finally understood, and threw the Beautiful Painting into the fire.
And The Man In The Clouds beheld how the Landscape discolored and how the rising sun went up in flames.
Then he got up, removed the lock from his door, and then The Man In The Clouds stood there surprised;


He saw a landscape so gorgeous, so beautifully empty.
That's how it must have been when the world began.
He saw how everything regained its shape and color,
In the light of a beautiful rising sun.

 

[Valjean]

Is there a link to the original on YouTube or somewhere?

 

[Gargovic Malkav]

Is there a link to the original on YouTube or somewhere?

The link should be in the word "link". But I'll post the link itself just in case.

 

[Valjean]

Found it. My bad.
Cool performance.

 

[DagonVarunaMitraApolloZan]

I read all that, and that was pretty cool and interesting. The money mind guy was a "foreigner" so maybe he didn't know the tradition too well or have the same thoughts or ideas as the numerous local visitors or something. I was just trying to figure out why he was a foreigner as compared to everyone else, instead of just some other guy. I wondered also if this song was about shutting out people with borders and restrictions or something, maybe like the cold war wall thing or something. At first, with the title "man in the clouds" I wondered if this was some thing about God, and then it sort of seemed to be that, even at the end where it mentions creation.

 

[Gargovic Malkav]

I read all that, and that was pretty cool and interesting. The money mind guy was a "foreigner" so maybe he didn't know the tradition too well or have the same thoughts or ideas as the numerous local visitors or something. I was just trying to figure out why he was a foreigner as compared to everyone else, instead of just some other guy. I wondered also if this song was about shutting out people with borders and restrictions or something, maybe like the cold war wall thing or something. At first, with the title "man in the clouds" I wondered if this was some thing about God, and then it sort of seemed to be that, even at the end where it mentions creation.

It's a surrealist fairytale of sorts. The Dutch word "vreemdeling" can mean foreigner but can also mean stranger. I translated it as foreigner because I thought it would make more sense symbolically exactly because of the reason you described; The man in the clouds and the villagers form this harmonious community. But then one day an outsider with a completely different mindset visits him and "pollutes" the mind of the cloud man with his ideas. And who this man in the clouds is, well, to me he is definitely not God because this man is very human-like. But I guess it depends on the listener's/reader's interpretation to decide who or what this man is and what the point of the story is.

Thanks for reading it and for sharing your thoughts.