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The story of Emil Sinclair's youth by Hermann Hesse

"...it was not a boy's face but a man's; I also felt or saw that it was not entirely the face of a man either, but something feminine about it too. Yet the face struck me at that moment as neither masculine nor childlike, neither old nor young, but somehow a thousand years old, somehow timeless, bearing the scars of an entirely different history than we knew; animals could look like that, or trees, or planets -non of this did I know consciously, I did not feel precisely what I say about it as an adult, only something of the kind. Perhaps he was handsome, perhaps I liked him, perhaps I also found him repulsive, I could not be sure of that either. All I saw was that he was different from us, he was like an animal or like a spirit or like a picture, he was different, unimaginably different from the rest of us."

After Link Poem

No matter what might get in our way,
Try to stop us,
Fuck our day.
No matter what bad critic,
Acid, citric,
Lemon juice for a face.

Keep on going,
Bus or jogging;
Fuck the mocking,
Shock them, rockin’;
Breathe,
Stop talking;
Keep on walking,
Have some faith.

For when Nobody’s Home,
And hope is all gone;
Dreams seem lost,
And efforts done;
This same song,
Tic tac, Ding, dong,
Will come along,
To screw your moan;
Ease your storm,
And let you know;

Bby…You’re not alone…

MC2008

Jorge Luis Borges

Two English Poems

I

The useless dawn finds me in a deserted street-
corner; I have outlived the night.
Nights are proud waves; darkblue topheavy waves
laden with all the hues of deep spoil, laden with
things unlikely and desirable.
Nights have a habit of mysterious gifts and refusals,
of things half given away, half withheld,
of joys with a dark hemisphere. Nights act
that way, I tell you.
The surge, that night, left me the customary shreds
and odd ends: some hated friends to chat
with, music for dreams, and the smoking of
bitter ashes. The things my hungry heart
has no use for.
The big wave brought you.
Words, any words, your laughter; and you so lazily
and incessantly beautiful. We talked and you
have forgotten the words.
The shattering dawn finds me in a deserted street
of my city.
Your profile turned away, the sounds that go to
make your name, the lilt of your laughter:
these are the illustrious toys you have left me.
I turn them over in the dawn, I lose them, I find
them; I tell them to the few stray dogs and
to the few stray stars of the dawn.
Your dark rich life ...
I must get at you, somehow; I put away those
illustrious toys you have left me, I want your
hidden look, your real smile -- that lonely,
mocking smile your cool mirror knows.

II

What can I hold you with?
I offer you lean streets, desperate sunsets, the
moon of the jagged suburbs.
I offer you the bitterness of a man who has looked
long and long at the lonely moon.
I offer you my ancestors, my dead men, the ghosts
that living men have honoured in bronze:
my father's father killed in the frontier of
Buenos Aires, two bullets through his lungs,
bearded and dead, wrapped by his soldiers in
the hide of a cow; my mother's grandfather
--just twentyfour-- heading a charge of
three hundred men in Peru, now ghosts on
vanished horses.
I offer you whatever insight my books may hold,
whatever manliness or humour my life.
I offer you the loyalty of a man who has never
been loyal.
I offer you that kernel of myself that I have saved,
somehow --the central heart that deals not
in words, traffics not with dreams, and is
untouched by time, by joy, by adversities.
I offer you the memory of a yellow rose seen at
sunset, years before you were born.
I offer you explanations of yourself, theories about
yourself, authentic and surprising news of
yourself.
I can give you my loneliness, my darkness, the
hunger of my heart; I am trying to bribe you
with uncertainty, with danger, with defeat.


- Jorge Luis Borges (1934)

¡Esto es amor! quien lo probó lo sabe.

Desmayarse

Desmayarse, atreverse, estar furioso,
áspero, tierno, liberal, esquivo,
alentado, mortal, difunto, vivo,
leal, traidor, cobarde y animoso:

no hallar fuera del bien centro y reposo,
mostrarse alegre, triste, humilde, altivo,
enojado, valiente, fugitivo,
satisfecho, ofendido, receloso:

huir el rostro al claro desengaño,
beber veneno por licor suave,
olvidar el provecho, amar el daño:

creer que el cielo en un infierno cabe;
dar la vida y el alma a un desengaño,
¡esto es amor! quien lo probó lo sabe.

Lope de Vega
1600

Lo que sucede conviene...

Van Gogh selfportrait

The Hours

Dear Leonard,

To look life in the face,
always, to look life in the face,
and to know it for what it is.

At last, to know it,
to love it for what it is,
and then to put it away.

Leonard, always the years between us
Always the years
Always, the love
Always, the Hours


Virginia Woolf.

Sometimes I Realize

Time moves slower in there,
flowing back to the start.
Tell me when, take me there.
Tell me how we should part.

How has it come to this?
Met with a wall of sense.
Feels like I've lost my grip.
We let it go too far.

Sometimes I realize, it’s not me.
One thing I've yet to find, has found me.
Sometimes I realize, it’s not me.
One thing I’ve yet to find, has found me.

Time moves slower in there.
Help me back from the start.
Are you going nowhere?
Now’s a good time to part.

Wide off the mark we missed,
when we remain defiant.
Wide off the mark we missed,
when we remain defiant.

And now it’s come to this.
And now it’s come to this.
And now it’s come to this.
How have we come so far?

Sometimes I realise,
one thing I've yet to find, has found me.
Sometimes I realise, it’s not me.
One thing I’ve yet to find, has found me.

Engineers - Sometimes I Realize - Invol2ver

never always

Nothing lasts forever so live it up, drink it down, and laugh it off.
Avoid the bullshit, take chances and never regret because at one point it was exactly what you wanted.
Take the good with the bad and smile with the sad.
Love what you've got and remember what you've had.
Always forgive but never forget, learn from your mistakes but never regret.
People change and things go wrong just remember that:
Life Goes On…

overwhelmed

Walk Between the Raindrops

A shadow crossed the blue Miami sky
As we hit the causeway by the big hotel
We fought
Now I can't remember why
After all the words were said and tears were gone
We vowed we'd never say goodbye

When we kissed we could hear the sound of thunder
As we watched the regulars rush the big hotel
We kissed again as the showers swept the Florida shore
You opened your umbrella
But we walked between the raindrops back to your door

In my dreams I can hear the sound of thunder
I can see the causeway by the big hotels
That happy day we'll find each other on that Florida shore
You'll open your umbrella
And we'll walk between the raindrops back to your door...

Steely Dan