Photographs
Here you can view a collection of photographs from Professor Sir James Mirrlees' life.
The College Flag flies at half-mast on the day of Jim's Funeral, 31 August 2018
Music
Click here to download the album of music that was performed at Jim's 80th Birthday Celebration held at Trinity College, Cambridge on 15 July 2016. Track 6 is Alexander Goehr’s setting of the villanelle The Waking by Theodore Roethke, which was specially commissioned for the occasion.
1 Prelude in C major, BWV 1009 (J S Bach)
2 The Mathematician (James Scott Skinner)
3 Ye Banks and Braes O’ Bonnie Doon (Burns)
5 The Gallowa’ Hills (McGuire)
6 The Waking (Alexander Goehr/Roethke)
Performers
Eddie McGuire (Flute)
Tamás Madarász (Cello)
Fergus Mutch (Pipes)
Peter Tregear (Piano & Voice)
Simon Wallfisch (Voice)
The Waking (Theodore Roethke)
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.
I learn by going where I have to go.
We think by feeling. What is there to know?
I hear my being dance from ear to ear.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
Of those so close beside me, which are you?
God bless the Ground! I shall walk softly there,
And learn by going where I have to go
Light takes the Tree; but who can tell us how?
The lowly worm climbs up a winding stair.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
Great Nature has another thing to do
To you and me, so take the lively air,
And, lovely, learn by going where to go.
This shaking keeps me steady. I should know.
What falls away is always. And is near.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I learn by going where I have to go.
The Waking, by Theodore Roethke
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.
I learn by going where I have to go.
We think by feeling. What is there to know?
I hear my being dance from ear to ear.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
Of those so close beside me, which are you?
God bless the Ground! I shall walk softly there,
And learn by going where I have to go
Light takes the Tree; but who can tell us how?
The lowly worm climbs up a winding stair.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
Great Nature has another thing to do
To you and me, so take the lively air,
And, lovely, learn by going where to go.
This shaking keeps me steady. I should know.
What falls away is always. And is near.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I learn by going where I have to go.