#the devil's sorrow

[tenshiharmonia]

I was recently reminded of this exquisite song, and I must say, I think it'd resonate pretty well with Hazbin Hotel's depiction of Lucifer. I also thought it might make for a fun exercise to try and write an English translation of the original French text, so as to share its ethereal splendour with the anglophone sphere. I primarily focused on the lyrics' meaning rather than their musicality, so don't be surprised if it doesn't flow as well as the original. XD Still, I hope you'll find this little endeavour somewhat enjoyable… Without further ado, let's translate. (As I proceed, I'll put the original text in brackets after each line, in case you want to check it out. :p )

I am the light who beckons the shade [Je suis la lumière qui fait venir l'ombre] The son of Dawn after the somber nights [Le fils de l'Aurore derrière les nuits sombres] Guardian of mysteries, star of the morn [Gardien des mystères, étoile du matin] King of the cherubim, I am Lucifer [Roi des chérubins, je suis Lucifer]

Who can think - who can think [Qui peut penser - qui peut penser] Of the Devil's sorrow - of the Devil's sorrow ? [À la tristesse du Diable - à la tristesse du Diable ?] No, I am not - no, I am not [Non, je ne suis pas - non, je ne suis pas] The one they want you to believe - the one they want you to believe… [Celui qu'on vous fait croire - celui qu'on vous fait croire…]

I am Art and Knowledge [Je suis l'Art et le Savoir] I am Day and Darkness [Je suis le Jour et le Noir] Protector and tempter [Protecteur et tentateur] The one who makes your heart beat [Celui qui fait battre votre coeur]

I told you about Love, all you heard was "Seduction" [Je vous ai parlé d'Amour, vous n'entendiez que "Séduction"] I showed you Beauty, it is now your sole obsession [Je vous ai montré le Beau, il fait votre unique obsession] I simply wanted to give your lives meaning [Je voulais simplement donner un sens à vos vies] In spite of their premonitions, for you I disobeyed [Malgré leurs prémonitions, pour vous j'ai désobéi]

In retribution [En châtiment] They now call me [On me nomme] Satan Satan

Who can think (who can think) [Qui peut penser (qui peut penser)] Of the Devil's sorrow (of the Devil's sorrow ?) [À la tristesse du Diable (à la tristesse du Diable ?)] No, I am not (no, I am not) [Non, je ne suis pas (non, je ne suis pas)] The one they want you to believe (the one they want you to believe…) [Celui qu'on vous fait croire (celui qu'on vous fait croire…)]

Who can think - who can think [Qui peut penser - qui peut penser] Of the Devil's sorrow - of the Devil's sorrow ? [À la tristesse du Diable - à la tristesse du Diable ?] No, I am not - no, I am not [Non, je ne suis pas - non, je ne suis pas] The one they want you to believe - the one they want you to believe… [Celui qu'on vous fait croire - celui qu'on vous fait croire…]

And this is how it ends. Granted, I could probably have skipped the last two verses, since they are mostly repetitions of the chorus, but it didn't sit right with my perfectionist brain. XD Anyway, my translation is worth what it's worth, but at least I hope you liked the song. Between the singer's delicate voice, and its crystalline, haunting melody, it is such a beautiful composition. And as I said, I feel like it resonates dazzlingly with Lucifer's characterization in the show. Of course, HH and HB follow Binsfeld's classification, where Lucifer and Satan are two different figures, but that's just a detail (and even then, I'd argue it'd still fit the song's tone for Lucifer to deplore being conflated with the lord of Wrath)...

[sirenofthegreenbanks]

The Devil's Backbone (2021) | 《山河令》 Word of Honor (2021) | Dogfish, Mary Oliver | Between the rivers of happiness and sorrow my life flows, Viet Ha Tran

[armandssilkshirt]

Chapter one of Such sweet sorrow is up.

The plane ticket arrives in a sleek, cream envelope, inscribed with his name and nothing else, written out in neat, precise block capitals.

Isn’t it better the Devil you know?

Feat. mortal, old man Daniel, Paris, Armand’s attempts at courting, reflections on memory and immortality

[weirdlookindog]

"Under the fringe of palms a low wailing rose, swelled, and mingled wildly with the crash of the surf - the thin, blood-curding ululations of a primitive woman mourning for a lost loved one" - Elinore Cowan Stone

Virgil Finlay - The Devil-Fish

(A. Merritt's Fantasy Magazine - October 1950)

[devilmaycrybrainworm]

has anyone considered that the lady in red may have broken vergil's heart and how that led him to leave fortuna behind ....

furthering his resentment for humanity and resolution for power ?

[lotrmusical]

My high school did a yearly poetry recitation contest (Poetry Out Loud), so Oh Boy do I know some poems. My favorites are Ozymandias and "the world is about to end and my grandparents are in love," by Kara Jackson. Also in 8th grade we had a Poe unit and had a class contest to make the best music video of the Raven, so I still know a good chunk of that.

i hadn't heard of the kara jackson one! just read through it and enjoyed it, particularly these lines > 'grandma returns to her love like a hymn, marks it with a color. // when the world ends will it suck the earth of all its love? /will i go taking somebody’s hand, / my skin becoming their skin?'

[newhughesydevils]

nj devils. may 12, 2023

[prettyboykatsuki]

i have many many many critiques about wylls story, most of them being about the fact it's just so lackluster in game when compared to other companions which is a shame. because wyll to me is and has the potential to be an even more emotionally compelling companion. and he was early access!! he was so gritty in ea please bring him back larian i beg of thee. the way he was rewritten has stripped him of so much nuance and depth. wyll to me is such a wonderful character to me because of what he represents, which is heroism so down to his core he never gives up on it even when he ought to

his goodwill and nobility are ceaseless. at the center of his story is betrayal trauma, his agency over himself vanished into thin air. mizora turns him into a monster and there is no turning back. he has become the thing he's despised, the things he's hunted for his entire life. and we know so little about that canonically because of the way his story is set up but its hinted time and time again that he struggles with his reality deeply and even that cannot make him turn away from the city he loves so much.

if larian would go back to clean up and fix his story (which im truly praying to god they do) i want them to touch on what wyll must be going through as he continues to try to ground himself and deal with his newfound reality. i want them to touch on the abandonment he experiences because of his father and the inevitable burden his title as blade and hero has on him. because these things obviously compel him, they're hinted at all the time but they were completely stripped of him in final release and its fucking disheartening... larian please im begging you. thats the love of my life. please.

but for now i will do it with fanfiction and gather enough wyll fans to make a fuss about it . peace and love

[amechyofsorts]

You know you are in a bad place mentally when you fill out one of these fucking things.

[cometrose]

fantasy cdramas are so interesting cause the first 20 episodes will be a breeze it’s all fun and games but everything after episode 30 is a living breathing nightmare

[magicalyaku]

My March was filled with books about gay magical boys and enbys and it's the best state of existence to be in. Absolute bliss. Why are books so much fun?! Also despite everything I said in January, I ended up spending way too much time on reading. But. This month was so good. So good! If I had to go back in time and start from the beginning I wouldn't mind at all. xD

The Devil's Luck (L.S. Baird): Found this thanks to a recommendation list of aromantic books. And what a blast! The first arc was such a delight! Etienne is great! <3 It shifts in tone afterwards but it's still engaging with charming characters and adventure and intrigue. I love everything about this book. I wish there was a paper edition so that I could hug it close, put it in my bookshelf and stare at it for 20 minutes every other day. yAy (I actually made a fanart.)

Of Feathers and Thorns (Kit Vincent): I see a pretty cover with a decent blurb and a review complaining that it's not romancy enough I know I found my book. xD I loved this. Such a good time. See, these are some sensible boys. First, they save the world, then they make out. As it should be. Thank you. Also Oi. He has a very cute voice inside my head. And once I remembered about the pie-eating homunculi of Atelier Shallie now I can't unsee the image. Speaking of pies. Isn't Kieren the most charming boy to settle into a new house by cooking for its residents?

In Memoriam (Alice Winn): Picked this one up on a whim because it sounded tragic. And goddamn. I couldn't read another book for 5 days afterwards because my heart was still in pieces. I don't have the words to properly express everything I loved about this book (which is everything). It's just really, really good. It hurts and it’s beautiful at the same time. There’s sweetness and tenderness next to gruesome deaths, desperation and “why would they do that?!”. You can see how the characters fall apart and rebuild themselves. If you can stomach war cruelties and suffering boys, I cannot recommend this enough.

The Wicked Bargain (Gabe Cole Novoa): I enjoyed this one. Pirates! Magic! Demons! This is one of those books I feel even more positive about now that some time has passed (the opposite can happen as well). My only small gripe with the story is how Mar in the first third doesn't do anything to push the plot forward. They want to save their father but hardly do anything to get there. If not for the other characters pushing and nagging nothing would have happenend at all. :'D But! I like Mar and I very much appreciate them not being stupid. Like the classic "Oh someone told me not to do something? So I of course I'm doing it!" Not Mar. Their papà made a mistake so they are intend to not make the same. Good kid. It's just that that doesn't help to move things forward. xD

Any Way the Wind Blows (Simon Snow 3) (Rainbow Rowell): Haah. I think, I liked the series better with each volume. I wonder if that is because it actually got better or because I finally got to know the characters and could enjoy them more. See, I've said it before, the first volume feels like a season ending without having seen the series until then. Now, after volume 3 I feel I could start with vol1 again and maybe appreciate everything a little more, because now I know everyone. Needless to say, I had fun! And it was so nice to see Simon grow and finally find his place.

The Heart of The Lost Star (Tales of the High Court 3) (Megan Derr): I like the worldbuilding of this series and the recurring characters. Now this particular volume is not something I would have picked up as a stand-alone or series starter, because children and pregnancy really aren't a thing I would choose to read about. That being said I did enjoy reading this because of everything else around (volume 1 is still my favourite. Having Allen in here made me want to go back there and read his story again.) Kamir is a pleasant character and there's stuff like a court procedure over child custody which is among the last things I would have expected in my fantasy book, but a nice change!

Heart, Haunt, Havoc (Freydís Moon): What? Another book I bought just because of the pretty cover? How dare you say that! uAu" Not true!! After the many slow-burns this month this one is so fast with its romance that I'm once again left wondering "is this really how it works?" xD It's ok though, I don't mind it in this case. I liked the story and the setting and the character backgrounds. The book is also really short at about 150 pages, so there's hardly reason not to read it.

The Left Hand of Darkness/Die Linke Hand der Dunkelheit (Ursula K. Le Guin): Ha! No pretty cover here. And surely I'm not just deciding do read a book because I saw one single pretty fanart of it. No no, not me, ever. (Definitely me.) It certainly felt different from what I usually read. Maybe because of the time it was written, maybe because of the genre which I rarely read or maybe just the author's style, probably all of it. I don't think I understood everything. Books like these usually have layers, right? Things told between the lines. I have a strong feeling, I missed some of that but that's alright. I did enjoy reading it. In the end, it was strangely moving. So I'll just fondly reread it in a year or two. :) (I read the all newly translated German edition and it made me wonder at certain points how it was translated originally and how it was written originally. The new translator Karen Nölle will be attending a convention in my city in May, where I’ll be having an artist alley table. I wonder if I can make it to her panel ...)

Prince of the Sorrows (Rowan Blood 1) (Kellen Graves): I picked this up last summer already and then put it down again after reading a few pages. It has a lot of descriptions and a lot of words, which are admittedly very pretty, but also very many. 8D (I get tired of descriptions easily.) Once I got past the opening pages, it quickly gripped me though. The story turned out to be much more than I expected. Like the scope of what's going on and how the love story is much sweeter than it seems at first. It's interesting! It also ends right in the middle of everything, which is something I didn't have in a long time (usually, my series have one adventure per volume)! Glad, the sequel is already out.

The Last Fallen Star (Graci Kim): I decided to read this after Aru Shah ended last year and I needed to fill my Middle Grade shaped hole. (Since I started Keeper of the Lost Cities as well, I guess, that hole will stayed filled for quite a while. :'D) The premise is interesting, the execution ... hm. It's far from the fun that Aru is. But I also listened to the audiobook and as I'm still bad with those that might be reason it didn't resonate with me as much. The thing that annoyed me the most was Riley lying for so long to her friend and even worse to the face of a goddess?! Like ... wow. 8D You summon a goddess who asks the truth of you so she can save your sister und you dare to lie to her?? I'm not okay with this. "8D It got better from there on though and I am actually very interested in the sequel (I will read this instead of listening. I learned my lesson.)

Falling for You (Katharina  B. Gross): I got this book for free in exchange for review on that German Goodreads ripoff site. But when I'm asked beforehand to write a real review with sensible thoughts I get real picky while reading. Like with bad books where you start to notice every little nasty detail? I do that. It's not really fun. "8D So half the stuff that irked me I probably wouldn't have had a second thought about when reading normally. So the book was fine. Nothing great but easy enough to read. (Also after reading a really bad book later, I found that this one really has some good points.)

With everything I read the month felt really long. But it was also interesting, because in every book there's something that connects it to the next (want to know some? Two Bas/zes, shitty ex-husbands, magical tattoos, slaying demons and devils, too much magic for one person, graverobbing ...). And thanks to that, for the first time maybe, I could see clearly books that did certain things well against others who did the same things not so well. My first April book was a total letdown (in points of worldbuilding and romance among others) and having it in comparison to all the good March books is so intruiging.

[armandssilkshirt]

Chapter three of Such sweet sorrow is up

There are fresh flowers in the kitchen. Daniel stares at them over his coffee. He doesn’t know where they came from, but they weren’t there yesterday. Daniel can’t name any of them—not his area of expertise—cream and orange petals and green foliage, arranged delicately in a painted vase, unfurling in the shaft of afternoon light filing in through the kitchen shutters. There’s fresh bread, a fragrant almond croissant, and a tiny jar of jam, complete with a checkered cloth trim, sitting in a basket alongside. Honestly, the whole setup looks like some romanticized Still Life, all the colors vibrant instead of deep and dark and washed out. It’s Armand’s doing. Obviously. Daniel jumps when he appears in the doorway, dressed in loose silk trousers and an expensive-looking sweater.

post season 2, old man mortal Daniel, set in Paris

[danceofchaos]

decided to draw some blorbos as a meme template for fun

the base:

[radijs-dalfo]

[theuncrucified]

Excavating my old sketchbook turned up these first sketches and a group shot of our circle of Solars from our Sorrow Resplendent game from 2014. I never did finish up any of these, sadly!

This many years later, they're all overdue for a redesign if only so I can polish up this cool group shot of us.

[beneaththebrim]

Yuletide nominations close in a little over 12 hours!

Yuletide is a massive "Secret Santa" fic exchange targeted at smaller (<1000 fics) fandoms. They use a matching algorithm to map overlapping requests to offers, so the more people in particular fandoms who join, the more likely we'll get stuff written for those fandoms.

Nominations do not require a commitment, they simply widen the pool of fandoms people can use for offers and requests. They do require an AO3 account.

I nominated Liehuo, Shangxian, Sha Po Lang, and Cang Lan Jue.

Nominations link | About Yuletide link