De Britse schrijver en cameraman Jasper Fforde werd geboren op 11 januari 1961 in Londen. Zie ook mijn blog van 11 januari 2008 en ook mijn blog van 11 januari 2009 en ook mijn blog van 11 januari 2010.xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Uit: Shades of Grey

„It began with my father not wanting to see the Last Rabbit and ended up with my being eaten by a carnivorous plant. It wasn’t really what I’d planned for myself— I’d hoped to marry into the Oxbloods and join their dynastic string empire. But that was four days ago, before I met Jane, retrieved the Caravaggio and explored High Saffron. So instead of enjoying aspirations of Chromatic advancement, I was wholly immersed within the digestive soup of a yateveo tree. It was all frightfully inconvenient.
But it wasn’t all bad, for the following reasons: First, I was lucky to have landed upside down. I would drown in under a minute, which was far, far preferable to being dissolved alive over the space of a few weeks. Second, and more important, I wasn’t going to die ignorant. I had discovered something that no amount of merits can buy you: the truth. Not the whole truth, but a pretty big part of it. And that was why this was all frightfully inconvenient. I wouldn’t get to do anything with it. And this truth was too big and too terrible to ignore. Still, at least I’d held it in my hands for a full hour and understood what it meant.
I didn’t set out to discover a truth. I was actually sent to the Outer Fringes to conduct a chair census and learn some humility. But the truth inevitably found me, as important truths often do, like a lost thought in need of a mind. I found Jane, too, or perhaps she found me. It doesn’t really matter. We found each other. And although she was Grey and I was Red, we shared a common thirst for justice that transcended Chromatic politics. I loved her, and what’s more, I was beginning to think that she loved me. After all, she did apologize before she pushed me into the leafless expanse below the spread of the yateveo, and she wouldn’t have done that if she’d felt nothing.“

Jasper Fforde (Londen, 11 januari 1961)

De Duitse dichteres en schrijfster Katharina Hacker werd geboren op 11 januari 1967 in Frankfurt am Main. Zie ook mijn blog van 11 januari 2007 en ook mijn blog van 11 januari 2008 en ook mijn blog van 11 januari 2009 en ook mijn blog van 11 januari 2010.

Uit: Die Erdbeeren von Antons Mutter

“Der kleine Garten, ein Acker eigentlich, der früher, in Antons Kindheit, ringsum an Felder gegrenzt hatte, jetzt an weitere Vorgärten stieß, nur an seiner Rückseite ins Freie überging, war umgegraben, die Erde sah frisch aus, vereinzelt stakten Gräser hervor, an einer Stelle war ein großer Löwenzahn

gewachsen und nahe am Zaun drängten sich die weichen Blätter von Beinwell.

Muß raus, brummte Helmer, der Bauer, der inzwischen eine kleine Gärtnerei betrieb. Das wächst, da haben Sie keine Vorstellung von! Er bückte sich, grub mit den Fingern, riß drei der langen Wurzeln aus. Immer das gleiche, wird man nie wieder los.

Anton stand neben ihm und blinzelte in das diffuse Licht.

Wie alt sind Sie jetzt eigentlich? fragte Helmer. Dreiundvierzig, antwortete Anton.

Na auch schon. Und keine Kinder, und die Schwester immer noch in Amerika?

Immer noch, sagte Anton.

Da haben Sie für Ihre Eltern ja Zeit.

Ich bin Arzt, wandte Anton ein.

Paßt doch. Helmer schaute zu ihm, in seinen Augen mischten sich Kummer und ein freundlicher Spott. Erst die Erdbeeren, sagte Anton.

An den Sträuchern, die in kleinen, schwarzen Töpfchen darauf warteten, wieder eingesetzt zu werden in die Erde, hingen schon grüne Früchte. Helmer schüttelte den Kopf.

Anton wollte in zwei Wochen wiederkommen, und dann wieder zur Ernte.

Wässern kann ich sie Ihnen, heute und morgen, daß ein paar angehen. Stroh können Sie hintun nächstes Mal, sagte Helmer. Ist gut gegen die Fäule. Und gegen Schnecken. Viel werden wird das aber trotzdem nicht.”

Katharina Hacker (Frankfurt am Main, 11 januari 1967)

De Amerikaanse schrijver en columnist Marc Acito werd geboren op 11 januari 1966 in Bayonne, New Jersey. Zie ook mijn blog van 11 januari 2009 en ook mijn blog van 11 januari 2010.

Uit: How I Paid for College

„I lay my head down on the raft. "You're right, Sis," I say.

She's not really my sister, but she might as well be. Apart from the difference in our complexions, we could be twins: Paula is the pure white twin; I'm the evil dark one. Otherwise, we're both all long curly hair, thick eyelashes, and high body-fat ratio.

I also call her Sis because she uses her nun costume from our production of The Sound of Music to buy us beer, on the entirely correct theory that no one would ask a nun for her ID.

Paula snaps her parasol shut and rows over to me using the handle end. "The problem," she says, "is that I've got a nineteenth-century figure. If I'd been born a hundred years earlier, I would have been considered desirable."

We've had this conversation before. Some of us are born to run, others are born to be wild--Paula was born to wear a hoopskirt.

I feel the tap of a parasol on my shoulder. "Look at these," she says, mashing her boobs together like she's fluffing pillows. "And this." She turns sideways to grab a hunk of her fleshy butt.

"In the case of an emergency water landing, your seat cushion may be used as a flotation device," I say.

Paula tips my mattress over with one of her thick nineteenth-century legs.

I bob up to the surface and try to capsize her by grabbing her tiny feet. "No, no, no, please, Edward," she says, "the hair, the hair, I've got to be at work in an hour."

"Fine," I say, backstroking to the shallow end, "but as far as the nineteenth century goes, I've got two words for you."

"Oh, yeah?"

"Yeah: No anesthesia."

I can hear her deep, chocolaty laugh as I look up at the high-tension wires crisscrossing the baby blue sky. I love making Paula laugh.“

Marc Acito (Bayonne, 11 januari 1966)

De Griekse dichter, schrijver en zeeman Nikos Kavvadias werd geboren op 11 januari 1910 in Nikolski Ousouriski. Zie ook mijn blog van 11 januari 2009 en ook mijn blog van 11 januari 2010.

Southern Cross

(Stavros Tou Notou)

In the nor-wester the waves boiled;

we were both bent over the map.

You turned and told me how in March

you'd be in other latitudes.

A Chinese tatoo drawn on your chest;

however you burn it, it won't come off.

They said that you had loved her once

in a sudden fit of blackest fever.

Keeping watch by a barren cape

and the Southern Cross behind the braces.

You're holding coral worry-beads

and chewing bitter coffee beans.

I took a line on Alpha Centaurus

with the azimuth compass one night at sea.

You told me in a deathly voice:

"Beware of the stars of Southern skies".

Another time from that same sky

you took lessosn for three whole months

with the captain's mulatto girl

in how to navigate at night.

In some shopin Nosy Be

you bought the knife - two shillings it cost -

right on the equator, exactly at noon;

it glittered like a lighthouse beam.

Down on the shores of Africa

for some years now you've been asleep.

You don't remember the lighthouse now

or the delicious Sunday sweet.

Vertaald door Tefkros Symeonides

Nikos Kavvadias (11 januari 1910 – 10 februari 1975)

Beeld bij de haven van Argostoli

De Braziliaanse schrijver Oswald de Andrade werd geboren op 11 januari 1890 in São Paulo. Zie ook mijn blog van 11 januari 2007 en ook mijn blog van 11 januari 2009 en ook mijn blog van 11 januari 2010.

NATIONAL LIBRARY

The Abandoned Child

Doctor Coppelius

Leí Us Go With Him

Miss Spring

Brazilian Code of Civil Law

How to Win the Lottery

Public Speaking for Everyone

The Pole in Flames

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Says the dainty actress

Margaret Piano Leg

Pretty tint — what a splendid lotion

I consider prettytint the complement

of woman's feminine toilette

for its agreeable odor

and as a tonic for the boyish bob

All women — deal with Mr. Fagundes

sole distributor

in the United States of Brazil

FUNERAL PROCESSION

The Veronica extends her arms

and sings

The baldachin has stopped

All listen

to the voice in the night

full of lighted hills

Vertaald door Jean R. Longland

Oswald de Andrade (11 januari 1890 – 22 oktober 1954)

De Oostenrijkse schrijver Helmut Zenker werd geboren op 11 januari 1949 in St. Valentin. Zie ook mijn blog van 11 januari 2009 en ook mijn blog van 11 januari 2010.

Uit: Tohuwabohu

„Ich möchte ein Sonett für dich dichten. Aber warum soll ich ein Sonett für dich dichten, wenn ich ohnehin mit dir im Bett bin? Ich würde mit dir tanzen, obwohl ich nicht tanzen kann. Aber warum soll ich mit dir tanzen, wenn ich schon in dir stecke? Die Kleider sollte ich dir vom Leib reißen. Aber warum soll ich tun, was ich schon längst gemacht habe? Ich möchte dich nackt sehen. Aber warum bist du nackt, wenn ich dich nur ausziehen will? Wohin flüchtet die Zeit? Warum soll mich das interessieren, wenn ich die beste Zeit habe?“