Hymn to Breaking Strain - Julia Ecklar & Leslie Fish

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  • เผยแพร่เมื่อ 17 ม.ค. 2025

ความคิดเห็น • 104

  • @008TheDen
    @008TheDen 4 ปีที่แล้ว +294

    As an engineering student who has had struggles with stress and failure a lot during my studies this song speaks to me on several levels.

    • @dreadengineer
      @dreadengineer 4 ปีที่แล้ว +24

      Hang in there my friend -- operating at yield stress is how your mind gets shaped.
      (Which was seriously true for my engineering education. You feel dumb during the process, and then you look back at all the concepts you now understand that you didn't before.)

    • @Gordon519
      @Gordon519 3 ปีที่แล้ว +8

      i know im late....but now i understand....college is a bitch

    • @bernadettedurbin1396
      @bernadettedurbin1396 2 ปีที่แล้ว +8

      I once mentioned to a friend of mine that there is a song for literally any topic. He said, "Engineering," so I started singing this to him.

    • @arcadiaberger9204
      @arcadiaberger9204 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      As a former nursing student who failed...twice...and ultimately had to give up the dream...resulting in my wife and myself losing our home and her having to spend the last year of her life in a dreary little apartment...it speaks to me quite powerfully.
      I spent the time we had making her happy as best I could. It was what I could do, since I could not make her prosperous.

    • @eggisfun4217
      @eggisfun4217 11 หลายเดือนก่อน

      @@bernadettedurbin1396 lmao thats amazing

  • @afriendofafriend5766
    @afriendofafriend5766 2 ปีที่แล้ว +95

    No song has ever made me want to do math homework more than this.

  • @Mutos4
    @Mutos4 ปีที่แล้ว +15

    As an engineer, I'm deeply touched by this poem and this song version is just awesome !

  • @doctorpsycho1960
    @doctorpsycho1960 15 ปีที่แล้ว +97

    "There are five things we cannot change: 1) everything changes and ends, 2) things do not always go according to plan, 3) justice is not guaranteed, 4) pain is a part of life, and 5) people are not loving or loyal all the time." -- David Richo
    This is why there are no written lists of tolerances for the human machine, why we are destined to suffer and break and fail -- and why, if we accept this reality, we are able to survive and find peace anyway.

    • @H9092-2
      @H9092-2 4 ปีที่แล้ว +11

      You forgot number six "Humanity will raise hell and burn heaven to ensure the above are false."

    • @Theflyingnecron
      @Theflyingnecron 3 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      lets hope we can acept that then and perhaps survive

    • @gabrielstrong2186
      @gabrielstrong2186 3 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      The assumption that there are no specs for humans is disingenuous. We just have not seen them. How often do you show a table of stresses to a girder? Or throw a textbook into a concrete mixer?

    • @DisplayLine6.13.9
      @DisplayLine6.13.9 3 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      @@gabrielstrong2186 Even if no exact specifications existed. If we really wanted to we could simply make the tolerances and clearances have the most leeway possible. Assume the greatest amount of error, give the most amount of slack.
      But humanity seems not smart enough for that.

    • @gabrielstrong2186
      @gabrielstrong2186 3 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      @@DisplayLine6.13.9 when dealing with humanity I always assume the greatest amount of error. It seems safest, and most likely

  • @dawsonsieling8395
    @dawsonsieling8395 4 ปีที่แล้ว +47

    RIP Arecibo... You will be missed

    • @arcadiaberger9204
      @arcadiaberger9204 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      Missed terribly, until the Really Big Dish grows in orbit, or in a crater on the Farside.

  • @drtoonie
    @drtoonie 8 ปีที่แล้ว +123

    I've been trying to find another poet who can capture engineering the way Kipling does.

    • @jermainerace4156
      @jermainerace4156 7 ปีที่แล้ว +11

      You probably can't. McAndrew's Hymn is another gem, though.

    • @gabrielstrong2186
      @gabrielstrong2186 5 ปีที่แล้ว +24

      Teacher: Do you like Kipling?
      Me: I don't know I have never Kippled.
      Teacher: ...
      Me: ...
      Teacher: Get out!!!

    • @firefox5926
      @firefox5926 4 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      @@gabrielstrong2186 that made my day lol

    • @alexs5814
      @alexs5814 2 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      @@gabrielstrong2186 Look, Officer, if you'd have heard what he said, you'd have done it yourself.

    • @arcadiaberger9204
      @arcadiaberger9204 ปีที่แล้ว

      Are you familiar with the Ritual of the Calling of an Engineer, which Kipling was asked to create?
      en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ritual_of_the_Calling_of_an_Engineer
      I have never witnessed it in person (never having earned the privilege by, perhaps, being the parent of an engineer), but the description makes it sound quite powerful.

  • @reshiramer608
    @reshiramer608 2 ปีที่แล้ว +110

    The careful text-books measure - Let all who build beware!
    The load, the shock, the pressure material can bear
    So, when the buckled girder lets down the grinding span
    The blame of loss, or murder, is laid upon the man
    Not on the Steel - the Man!
    But, in our daily dealing with stone and steel, we find
    The Gods have no such feeling of justice toward mankind
    To no set gauge they make us, for no laid course prepare -
    In time they overtake us with loads we cannot bear:
    Too merciless to bear
    The prudent text-books give it in tables at the end -
    The stress that shears a rivet, or makes a tie-bar bend -
    What traffic wrecks macadam - what concrete should endure -
    But we, poor Sons of Adam, have no such literature
    To warn us or make sure!
    We hold all Earth to plunder - all Time and Space as well -
    Too wonder-stale to wonder at each new miracle;
    Till in the mid-illusion of Godhood 'neath our hand
    Falls multiple confusion on all we did or planned -
    The mighty works we planned
    We only in Creation - how much luckier the bridge and rail! -
    Abide the twin-damnation, to fail and know we fail
    Yet we - by which sole token we know we once were Gods -
    Take shame in being broken, however great the odds -
    The Burden or the Odds
    Oh, veiled and secret Power, whose paths we seek in vain
    Be with us in our hour of overthrow and pain
    That we - by which sure token we know Thy ways are true -
    In spite of being broken, or because of being broken
    Rise up and build anew
    Stand up and build anew!

    • @arcadiaberger9204
      @arcadiaberger9204 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Thank you.

    • @kimhealy1446
      @kimhealy1446 27 วันที่ผ่านมา

      Great Architect, Son of the Carpenter, and Sapient Spirit, have mercy on us.

  • @SimioCaos101Monkey
    @SimioCaos101Monkey 11 ปีที่แล้ว +100

    I've never felt so much shivers as when I found out the lyrics of this song...
    Seriously, this might be like the only poem of Kipling I've ever stumbled across that actually made me reconsider to read Vedic literature again. I mean, it may not be obvious for some, but in here I can find references and interpretations to multiple texts, like the Mahabarata or the Bhagavad Gita, that actually had never passed through my mind before.
    If you want a mind blown too, I suggest you read them. In the end you won't be disappointed, I guarantee.
    Saubhāgya everyone, and take care...
    Sincerely: SIMIO

  • @janstrickland8813
    @janstrickland8813 9 ปีที่แล้ว +26

    was listening to this and had to remember the fall of the Hyatt Regency walkways back in the 80s. It fits that so much!

    • @arcadiaberger9204
      @arcadiaberger9204 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      What a tragedy that was. A stark warning of the cost in pain and lives if an engineer fails to do one more seemingly simple check of sums.

  • @alexkibre4970
    @alexkibre4970 7 ปีที่แล้ว +104

    Listened today to remember the crews of Apollo 1, STS-51L, and STS-107. Hymn of Breaking Strain stands the test of time.
    "Oh, veiled and secret Power
    Whose paths we seek in vain,
    Be with us in our hour
    Of overthrow and pain;
    That we - by which sure token
    We know Thy ways are true-
    In spite of being broken,
    Because of being broken
    May rise and build anew
    Stand up and build anew."
    Ad astra per aspera.

    • @kimhealy1446
      @kimhealy1446 ปีที่แล้ว

      Blessed St. Leibowitz, keep them dreaming down here.

    • @arcadiaberger9204
      @arcadiaberger9204 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@kimhealy1446 It is the destiny of Earthlife to take root among the stars - but not every seed will blossom.

    • @kimhealy1446
      @kimhealy1446 27 วันที่ผ่านมา

      @@arcadiaberger9204 Amen.

    • @arcadiaberger9204
      @arcadiaberger9204 26 วันที่ผ่านมา

      @@kimhealy1446 That was the doctrine of Earthseed, a church founded by a character in *_The Parable of the Sower_* by Octavia Butler.
      Earthseed is now a real religion.

  • @dinisribeiro8728
    @dinisribeiro8728 11 ปีที่แล้ว +22

    Favourite fragments of the lyrics: The prudent textbooks giveth on tables on the end ... what concrete should endure... The mighty works we plan... the twin damnation... however great the odds! Rise up and build anew, stand up and build anew!

  • @Fishbeings
    @Fishbeings ปีที่แล้ว +2

    keep coming
    back to this song

  • @Aquaman1054
    @Aquaman1054 13 ปีที่แล้ว +10

    @RichMatarese Song of the Red War Boat may be my favourite Leslie Fish song, but right now Hymn to Breaking Strain is still strong in my mind. It was nice to hear this. Thank you for posting.

  • @jos_meid
    @jos_meid 7 ปีที่แล้ว +12

    Great song. Great artists.

  • @johnharold8682
    @johnharold8682 4 ปีที่แล้ว +17

    Working with high voltage, and making sure that it did not kill me, this is what I lived with.

    • @arcadiaberger9204
      @arcadiaberger9204 ปีที่แล้ว

      Think of how they do it in China, dangling from a helicopter, working on live high-tension wires.

  • @SanabiturAnimaMea
    @SanabiturAnimaMea 10 ปีที่แล้ว +12

    This is so beautiful

  • @Finsirith
    @Finsirith 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    I love the harmony.

  • @TheEndKing
    @TheEndKing 14 ปีที่แล้ว +4

    This was a great song.
    Because of Julia.

  • @justforever96
    @justforever96 6 ปีที่แล้ว +38

    LOL, I was like "Wow, those are some really, really good lyrics for some semi-professional, semi-comedic musicians who mostly write sci-fi parodies and things", but then I realized it's actually one of Kipling's poems. That explains a lot! Still, kudos for excellent execution. Although I suspect Leslie Fish was thinking of "the breaking point of man" in more of a hopeful anarchist way, while Kipling was thinking more of an "ultimate moral strength" kind of way. I think she just liked the sound of those words. I assumed that's what the song was about at first, "how far can man be pushed before he snaps and The Revolution comes, etc".

    • @atari947
      @atari947 2 ปีที่แล้ว +8

      Kipling was an interesting artist. We can appreciate his songs of soldiering misery without agreeing with his more imperialist themes.

  • @Bowfin567
    @Bowfin567 15 ปีที่แล้ว +7

    Thanks for posting this. That's some righteous guitar.

  • @doctorpsycho1960
    @doctorpsycho1960 15 ปีที่แล้ว +9

    And it does hurt so much to break, and to bend. It hurts so Godawful much.

  • @chaospfote6263
    @chaospfote6263 14 ปีที่แล้ว +7

    Total toll!!! Megaklasse. Wundertolle Stimmen und überhaupt genial :D
    Fantastic!
    Greetings from Germany

    • @gewuerzwanze5627
      @gewuerzwanze5627 4 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Ja schade dass man nicht mehr an die tapes kommt.
      Vorallem nicht in europa

    • @arcadiaberger9204
      @arcadiaberger9204 ปีที่แล้ว

      Approximate translation of @dinisreibeiro8728: Mega class. Wonderful voices and genius in general.
      Approximate translation of @@gewuerzwanze5627: It's a pity you can't get the tapes anymore.
      Especially not in Europe.

  • @JeanAq
    @JeanAq 14 ปีที่แล้ว +5

    I have this tape!!

  • @disproman
    @disproman 15 ปีที่แล้ว +15

    Build anew - rise up and build anew.
    This could be Haiti's new national slogan.
    They sure as heck suffered and died under those buckled girders

    • @johnburt7935
      @johnburt7935 4 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      When Germany unified, they should have adopted East Germany's anthem:
      _Rising from the ashes, overcoming the shame of the past,_
      _For the sake of our children, we shall build again, higher, brighter, better, more beautiful...._
      That should be the anthem of Germany...of Europe...of the human race.

    • @cpte3729
      @cpte3729 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      ​@@johnburt7935 yeeeaaaah but east germany wasnt that great on that promise on their own so maybe they just wanted to put it all behind them

    • @johnburt7935
      @johnburt7935 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@cpte3729 Could be. I think we could all do with some of that spirit, though.

  • @RichMatarese
    @RichMatarese 13 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    @RedwoodTheElf - Another vote for the Song of the Red War Boat."
    "Shove off from the wharf-edge, steady! / Watch for a smooth, give way / If she feels the rough already / She'll stand on her head in the bay! / But we hold with all disaster / Of shipwreck, storm or sword / A man must stand with his master / When once he has pledged his word."
    Or so I remember from years of singing that damned song.

  • @doctorpsycho1960
    @doctorpsycho1960 15 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    @puffin02 And damn good lyrics they are. Brother Kipling knew a thing or two.

  • @RedwoodTheElf
    @RedwoodTheElf 14 ปีที่แล้ว +7

    Moar Kipplefish please! (Song of the Red War boat maybe?)

  • @kimhealy1446
    @kimhealy1446 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    Listening tonight in memory of those who perished on the Titan.

  • @Calbeck
    @Calbeck 14 ปีที่แล้ว +26

    I like my Fish Kippled. -:)

    • @TheKhopesh
      @TheKhopesh 4 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Smoke me a Kipple, I'll be home for breakfast!

    • @gabrielstrong2186
      @gabrielstrong2186 3 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@TheKhopesh thanks Ace

  • @LadyRavenEyes
    @LadyRavenEyes 12 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    lol i just figured out that this song come out 8 before i was born, i was so born

  • @GrigoriZhukov
    @GrigoriZhukov 14 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    @doctorpsycho1960 Not really...realize my great great uncle finnegan often said "that beedin' murphy, always the optomist.

    • @arcadiaberger9204
      @arcadiaberger9204 ปีที่แล้ว

      Murphy said that if there is any way for the system to fail, it will fail exactly that way - so eliminate that path to failure.

  • @GrigoriZhukov
    @GrigoriZhukov 14 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    @doctorpsycho1960 rhico was a bleeding heart optomist. On every point...for instance. The ending is just the begining viewed the wrong way. The only thing you can count on is that there are no guarantees and that all incoming has the right of way.

  • @MegaMementoMori
    @MegaMementoMori 6 ปีที่แล้ว +8

    For some reason I thought the title was "Hymn to breaking Stalin" XD

    • @InventorZahran
      @InventorZahran 3 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Post-cold war America be like:

  • @avery7001
    @avery7001 11 ปีที่แล้ว +8

    (o; hello Filkers ;o)

  • @discaimer
    @discaimer 15 ปีที่แล้ว +10

    Rise up and build a gnu?

    • @InventorZahran
      @InventorZahran 3 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      Yes, because GNU-based operating systems are the only way to fight the tyranny of big tech corporations!

  • @spacecorpse3212
    @spacecorpse3212 4 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    PRAETER SPATIUM

  • @doctorpsycho1960
    @doctorpsycho1960 15 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    But you just have to get back up and build anew.

  • @Lukiel666
    @Lukiel666 11 ปีที่แล้ว +11

    Or as RAH said: "Never underestimate the power of human stupidity."

    • @SeanMurphyParadox
      @SeanMurphyParadox 7 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      One of the corollaries to Murphy's Law:
      "Murphy was an optimist."

  • @Tialakit
    @Tialakit 11 ปีที่แล้ว +7

    Don't forget #6 everything that lives must eventually die. For without death life has little meaning.

    • @SeanMurphyParadox
      @SeanMurphyParadox 7 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Most things end. A few things are not that lucky...

    • @Kenoscope
      @Kenoscope 6 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      But... I'm INVINCIBLE (sound of liquid nitrogen tanks splitting..)

    • @gnaskar
      @gnaskar 4 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      There's a short story called "the fable of the dragon-tyrant" that anyone who feels death gives life meaning aught to take a look at.

    • @dydlus
      @dydlus 3 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      "Without death life has no meaning" is such nihilistic bullshit.
      If you suddenly found out you're immortal, would you just lie down and wait for the universe to end?
      Unless you're an idiot, the answer should be "no".
      As long as the idea of "death gives life meaning" is perpetuated, all that awaits us is stagnation.

    • @ChestersonJack
      @ChestersonJack 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@dydlus While I wouldn’t say it in quite the same way (I always strive for tact, admittedly even when it’s inefficient), I quite agree with you.

  • @doctorpsycho1960
    @doctorpsycho1960 14 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    @GrigoriZhukov Funny, your aphorisms just sound like correlaries to Richo's, though you seem to think they contradict his.

  • @doctorpsycho1960
    @doctorpsycho1960 15 ปีที่แล้ว +5

    Better to build a gnu, with hooves and horns and a sharp little bovine brain, than to remain a soft and feeble milk cow.

  • @michealfeeney8920
    @michealfeeney8920 5 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    *sighs* since (and yes, I know I am like... more than a decade out of date, so the rest of you just (deleted) DEAL!!!!!) it seems like, even though I got in contact with Ms Fish even before I knew about Ms Ecklar (mostly because of the number of songs she wrote in conjunction with Ms L.Fish.) AHEM!!! (and a sigh, to be honest) Right. It does not matter if you ascribe to the 'original' version (which, in my opinion is after the 'movies' but before the 'Encounter at Farpoint')
    Right. I feel the timing others care about is secondary to preserving both ms L. Fish's visions as well as Ms. Ecklar's vision over and above Ms Lackey's visions. However, SINCE I believe... Oh wait. Anything I believe is wrong. Stepping out of the conversation for the next 48 hours folk. The GL people can find me, the rest can.. ahem... pound extraterrastrial sand?

  • @afriendofafriend5766
    @afriendofafriend5766 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    It's rough because he wrote this and then went and wrote White Man's Burden.

    • @atari947
      @atari947 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      Ah, and his work was included in jingoistic starship troopers, and yet some of his inspires so much, as this work does. People are filled with contradiction, Hes long past now.

    • @afriendofafriend5766
      @afriendofafriend5766 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@atari947 I just watched Starship Troopers. What of his was in there?

    • @atari947
      @atari947 2 ปีที่แล้ว +5

      @@afriendofafriend5766 in the book they sing danny deever while at march.

    • @afriendofafriend5766
      @afriendofafriend5766 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@atari947 Ah.

    • @ikillstupidcomments
      @ikillstupidcomments 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@atari947 You rather missed the mark on Heinlein if you think that Starship Troopers was straight-faced endorsement of jingoism or fascism. The entire segment of the novel dealing with the Federation's war of aggression against the Skinnies is full of callous, casual violence which rather undermines any attempt to glorify the system he portrays.
      Besides, Sixth Column is a much better target for that sort of assertion, with the additional layer of really horrendous racism.