Se triti glossa!

"Mancher wird niemals Mensch, bleibt Frosch, bleibt Eidechse, bleibt Ameise. Mancher ist oben Mensch und unten Fisch. Aber jeder ist ein Wurf der Natur nach dem Menschen hin. Und allen sind die Herkuenfte gemeinsam, die Muetter, wir alle kommen aus demselben Schlunde; aber jeder strebt, ein Versuch und Wurf aus den Tiefen, seinem eigenen Ziel zu. Wir koennen einander verstehen; aber deuten kann jeder nur sich selbst."

(Hermann Hesse, Demian)

Se alli glossa!...

"...Mme de Guermantes s'avan?a d?cid?ment vers la voiture et redit un dernier adieu ? Swann.

«Vous savez, nous reparlerons de cela, je ne crois pas un mot de ce que vous dites, mais il faut en parler ensemble. On vous aura b?tement effray?, venez d?jeuner, le jour que vous voudrez (pour Mme de Guermantes tout se r?solvait toujours en d?jeuners), vous me direz votre jour et votre heure», et relevant sa jupe rouge elle posa son pied sur le marchepied.

Elle allait entrer en voiture, quand, voyant ce pied, le duc s'?cria d'une voix terrible : «Oriane, qu'est-ce que vous alliez faire, malheureuse. Vous avez gard? vos souliers noirs ! Avec une toilette rouge ! Remontez vite mettre vos souliers rouges? »« Hein, nous M. de Guermantes, les pauvres maris, on se moque bien d'eux, mais ils ont du bon tout de m?me. Sans moi, Oriane allait d?ner en souliers noirs»

(M. Proust, A la recherche du temps perdu)

Marriage

"(...)
You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore.
You shall be together when white wings of death scatter your days.
Aye, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God.
But let there be spaces in your togetherness,
And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.
Love one another but make not a bond of love:
Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf.
Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone,
Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.
Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping.
For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.
And stand together, yet not too near together:
For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow."

Khalil Gibran (The Prophet)

Two Cheers for Democracy

"... I believe in aristocracy though - if that is the right word, and if a democrat may use it. Not an aristocracy of power, based upon rank and influence, but an aristocracy of the sensitive, the considerate, and the plucky. Its members are to be found in all nations and classes, and all through the ages. And there is a secret understanding between them when they meet. They represent the true human tradition, the one permanent victory of our queer race over cruelty and chaos. Thousands of them perish in obscurity; a few are great names. They are sensitive for others as well as for themselves, they are considerate without being fussy, their pluck is not swankiness but the power to endure, and they can take a joke."

E. M. Forster's "Two Cheers for Democracy"

Για την εγκυμοσύνη (ΙΙ)

Θυμάστε που στις ταινίες συνήθως όταν θέλουν να δείξουν ότι κάποια είναι έγκυος, τη βάζουν και λιποθυμάει; Έ, λοιπόν, δεν το περίμενα, αλλά είναι ... βγαλμένο από τη ζωή. Ως έγκυος, ειδικά όταν πρέπει να σταθώ όρθια για πολλή ώρα, λ.χ. στο μετρό, δεν αντέχω, νιώθω ότι θα πέσω κάτω. Και δεν το είχα καταλάβει, παλιά όταν έβλεπα εγκύους θεωρούσα ότι τους δίναμε τη θέση μας στο μετρό ή στο λεωφορείο λόγω ... βάρους, για να μην κουράζονται. Όχι, λοιπόν, δεν είναι το βάρος, εγώ δεν έχω ακόμα καμμιά μεγάλη κοιλιά. Το πρόβλημα είναι η ζαλάδα της ορθοστασίας, κάτι σαν υπόταση, που σου κόβονται τα γόνατα ...

On children

Kahlil Gibran

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let our bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.

To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow...

"To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death.
Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow; a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing."

Shakespeare, Macbeth (V, v, 19)

(Διευκρίνιση: Μερικοί φίλοι μου έστειλαν μηνύματα πανικόβλητοι "είσαι καλά??" Απλά μου αρέσει πολύ αυτός ο μονόλογος, και θεωρώ ότι έχει διαχρονικό και πανανθρώπινο νόημα. Κατά τα λοιπά είμαι πολύ καλά κι εγώ και το μωρό! Φαίνεται οτι ο Σέξπηρ δεν προσφέρεται για εγκύους!... Προσεχώς ... Ξανθή Περάκη!)