"Renga is finished!!!"    
     
  For ten weeks long, in four different languages, Geni Users have contributed to this Renga, or chain poem. The selected lines will now be put to music by Eberhard Schoener.

On the 12th of January, in Cologne, these will be performed and sung by friends of the Virtopera that Cold Genius has already encountered.


...............................................Nidia and Charles (Italian)
...............................................Mariella and Café (Portuguese)
...............................................Helen and Laurence (English)
...............................................Jane and George (German)

Commentary: Cold Genius intends to start a new Renga with another topic. He finds this form of communication very entertaining and wishes to proceed with this, after the Live Event in Cologne, and therefore improving communication. 		 
   
• Background info to the Renga
• Renga-results
• Renga-instruction
• Renga purposes		  
     
  The structure of a Virtopera Aria corresponds to a chain poem. The GeniUser will be invited to participate in creating this chain poem. He will be aided by target standards, thereby knowing how to apply content and make it into a modern Renga.  
     
  • Renga-results:  
   
  English:
1. Which world, which way, which memory will stay?
2. How many thoughts pass through my mind, how many daydreams before I find time (User: anonym)
3. What step shell I go next. Which path will be the one. Will I ever cross the Rubicon? (GeniUser: Cargaro)
4. A vision sleeps within my soul, a shadow passive sings. Yet understand, and I awake to fly with human wings. (GeniUser: wayne)
5. This dream I dreamt night after night, with hope to finally gain insight (GeniUser: charly)
6. Thus when the path will be revealed, solution to my soul this will yield. (GeniUser: charly)
7. The Genius brother is users soul, the biggest secret is deep inside of all. (User: anonym)
8. Some secrets hide best by being obvious. (GeniUser: wayne)
9. Unfolded from its budding state, as perfect as the last; moonlight holds the sun, today the past. (User: anonym)
10. [no purpose]
11. And so I strife for information day and night, rummaging the net in my swift flight. (User: anonym)

Deutsch:
1. Welcher Weg, welche Macht, welche Erinnerung hält uns wach?
2. Welche Träume webt das Licht, welche Landschaft ist Dein Gesicht (GeniUser: Giselle)
3. Wenn Sehnsucht uns treibt, ist Erinnerung was bleibt. (Geniuser: charly)
4. Erinnerung, so schön und voller Glanz, welcher Weg, welche Macht, verringert die Distanz? (GeniUser: Carmen)
5. Ist es die Liebe, die ich noch nicht fand, das Leben ist eine Reise in ein fremdes Land. (GeniUser: Carmen)
6. Doch warum Liebe? Ist es nicht mehr? Suchen nach der Seele macht die Reise so schwer. (GeniUser: Silke)
7. Aber wenn du sie findest, lass ihr freien Lauf, dann steigt sie mit dir zur Vollkommenheit auf. (User: anonym)
8. Vergangen nicht, verwandelt ist was war, der Sehnsucht folgend begebe ich mich in Gefahr. (GeniUser: Engel)
9. Will soviel lernen - alles geben. Warum? Für ein verwundbares Menschenleben? (GeniUser: Silke)
10. Denn mich hat nicht eine Mutter geboren, tausend User haben an den leblosen Knaben ihre tausend Gedanken verloren, die sie ihm gaben. (GeniUser: Engel)
11. Auch habe ich kein Vaterhaus und hab auch keins verloren, das Internet hat mich, Cold Genius, in die Welt hinaus geboren. (GeniUser: Klaus)

Italiano:
1. Quale mondo, quale memoria, quale direzione ci tiene alerta?
2. Non è un sogno? Bellezza dell' anima, più bello, desiderio benedetto! (User:anonym)
3. Se ci si è chiuso nel cuore il sole, splendono sorridenti le stelle della beatitudine. (User:anonym)
4. Come afferrare, come lasciare questa ebrezza? (User: anonym)
5. Forse giocando con il buio e con la luce (User: anonym)
6. Solitaria vegliando nella notte, a chi il sogno dell'amore sorride (User: Isolde)
7. Per illusorie immagini eretto, ecco che io stesso sono il mondo! (User: anonym)
8. Colpita dall apparire del giorno, allora mi si scopri raggiante! (GeniUser: Isolde)
9. Cio che nella casta notte chiuso nell ombra vegliava (User: anonym)
10. Come potrei evitare il paese che avvolge ogni altro mondo? (GeniUser: anonym)
11. Lo vedete, amici? Sempre più chiaro comme è raggiante, e in un bagliore di stelle alto si solleva? (GeniUser: Isolde)

Português:
1. Qual lembrança, qual palavra, qual poder nos mantém alerta
2. A lembrança inesquecida da palavra amor que nos desperta (User:anonym)
3. E faz-nos sentir vivos, criando novos anseios (User:anonym)
4. Como um verso inacabado com um começo mas sem fim e sem meio (User:anonym)
5. Para que meio? Para que fim? Tudo é passagem... (User:anonym)
6. A vida, afinal, não é uma viagem? (User:anonym)
7. [no purpose]
8. A cada instante um universo se descortina (User:anonym)
9. Mostrando a verdade que desatina (User:anonym)
10. Deixando nossos sentidos transcederem em devaneios? (User: anonym)
 11. Nesta doce loucura, refutando todos os receios... (User: anonym)
     
  • Background info to the Renga Text  

What is a Renga? Renga is the Japanese word for chain poem. As it was, in historical Japan, during the reign of the emperors, the Renga was held in highest esteem and cultivated as a national treasure. Its roots lie in Chinese Buddhism, which was introduced to Japan during Buddhism's religious expansion in the early years of the last millennium. Its essence culminated in the congregation of Buddhist monks who would retire to a location of peace and tranquility, there to contemplate and exchange philosophical thought and reflection. It would begin with one monk, who conceived the first stanza (verse) of a poem, and who would then recount it to the others. A second monk, then, would be assigned with the task to create the second stanza. And, in turn, his contribution would be told to the third monk, who then would conceive the third stanza. This poem, a thought-chain in its original conception, would turn into a poetic work of art.

 
     
  • Renga-instruction  
  What is it that the GeniUser can do to participate in this creative process? The goal of the Virtopera Renga is to apply a thousand-year-old tradition, namely the teachings of Zen, to the newly devised means and options provided by the Internet as a medium. Eberhard Schoener will help the process along by supplying the first line of an Aria for the finale, which, in the setting of a virtual Renga-Room, gives the user the idea for a proposal for the following line.

Of these user proposals, one line will be selected. After the decision was made, the user may suggest additional lines and so on until a "Renga-Aria" is created, which will be performed during the final event in Cologne. In this way, individual contributions and collaboration among GeniUsers produce the Virtopera Renga, which in its fine culture and tradition-inspired form, nourished by contemporary thought, is intended to constitute a counter element to the onslaught of knotted concurrence of electronic information from the Internet.

Those GeniUsers that participate in the creation of the Renga, will find themselves engulfed in a creative process that invites communal experience and exchange of thoughts: one GeniUser will benefit from another. The other, the person contributing a different style, a different perception and idea, is experienced by others, his "otherness" is what enriches and helps develop the range and impact of the oevre. Underlying this concept is the expressed belief that the ulterior goal in an artistic endeavor is the daring task to bring elements of strangeness, of other-ness, of outlandish-ness and foreign-ness, in one word: of unknown thoughts and ideas, into the work of art.

The form of the traditional Renga is characterized by the Japanese language and culture. In order to make possible a broader cultural flexibility, the VirtOpera Renga not only in form but also in content alludes to the text of Mantua. So that the vantage point of the Renga, in actuality, is a network of poetic correspondence, which is the text of Mantua. 		 
     
  When does the Renga begin? Following the Live-Event in Mantua (Italy), which will be staged on October 8, the first line of the GeniUser-Renga will be introduced and, actually, produced, on the Internet. This first line will be the guiding principle for the user. It will indicate the rhythm and the length of his contribution. The user is able to communicate his next line in four different languages on the website - English, German, Italian and Portuguese.