De Amerikaanse schrijver Henry James werd geboren in New York op 15 april 1843. Zie ook mijn blog van 15 april 2007 en ook mijn blog van 15 april 2008 en ook mijn blog van 15 april 2009 en ook mijn blog van 15 april 2010.xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Uit: The Turn of the Screw

„I remember the whole beginning as a succession of flights and drops, a little see-saw of the right throbs and the wrong. After rising, in town, to meet his appeal I had at all events a couple of very bad days-—found all my doubts bristle again, felt indeed sure I had made a mistake. In this state of mind I spent the long hours of bumping swinging coach that carried me to the stopping-place at which I was to be met by a vehicle from the house. This convenience, I was told, had been ordered, and I found, toward the close of the June afternoon, a commodious fly in waiting for me. Driving at that hour, on a lovely day, through a country the summer sweetness of

which served as a friendly welcome, my fortitude revived and, as we turned into the avenue, took a flight that was probably but a proof of the point to which it had sunk. I suppose I had expected, or had dreaded, something so dreary that what greeted me was a good surprise. I remember as a thoroughly pleasant impression the broad clear front, its open windows and fresh curtains and the pair of maids looking out; I remember the lawn and the bright flowers and the crunch of my wheels on the gravel and the clustered tree-tops over which the rooks circled and cawed in the golden sky. The scene had a greatness that made it a different affair from my own scant home, and there immediately appeared at the door, with a little girl in her hand, a civil person who dropped me as decent a curtsey as if I had been the mistress or a distinguished visitor. I had received in Harley Street a narrower notion of the place, and that, as I recalled it, made me think the proprietor still more of a gentleman, suggested that what I was to enjoy might be a matter beyond his promise.“

Henry James (15 april 1843 - 28 februari 1916)

Een jonge Henry James

De Duitse schrijfster Beate Morgenstern werd geboren op 15 april 1946 in Cuxhaven. Zie ook mijn blog van 15 april 2009 en ook mijn blog van 15 april 2010.

Uit: Nachrichten aus dem Garten Eden

“Wie seids ihr in meine Gedanken geraten? Habts ihr womöglich schon auf mich geglupscht, wie mir aus all dem Kram von Zeitungen und Werbung der Brief auf den Boden fiel, daß ich ihn aufheben mußte und mir gleich komisch war wegen dem hellblauen Umschlag, sehr leicht und feines Papier, was gar nicht in meine Hände paßt, rote verarbeitete Hände, die noch eine ganze Weile zupacken werden, hoffe ich. Bin ja kein ganz oller Mann. Jahrgang 45. Dies Jahr 55 geworden. Zum Ankucken für eine Frau bin ich wohl nicht mehr. Ist mir auch ziemlich schnurzpiepe. Höchstens, wenns Marjittchen sich auf mich besinnen täte, da wäre es mir nicht egal. Und was das andere Wiepchen ist, für das ich ein Interesse hätte, da ist sowieso keine Aussicht, obwohl die auch alleine lebt, aber in Berlin.

Was so ein Luftpostbrief bei mir will, habe ich mich gefragt. Die Adresse mits Maschine geschrieben. Germany. englische Sprache breitet sich aus, seitdem wir im Westen leben, ohne daß wir unsen Hintern eine Handbreit von der von unsen Vorvätern ererbten ostdeutschen Scholle hinwegbewegt haben. Aber bei einem solchen Brief muß wohl diese Bezeichnung sein. Germany. Einfach Germany ohne West oder East oder so dardarzu. Daran hat man sich erst mal gewöhnen müssen. Die Postleitzahl woll nachträglich von einer Angestellten hinzugeschrieben. Ich schüttelte, ob aus Zeitungen und Werbung noch etwas herausfiele. wirklich wichtigen Briefschaften ja leicht zu übersehen, und dann sind sie weggeworfen. Ich lese kein Gedrucktes, was ich nicht bestellt habe, auch sämtliche Versprechen auf große Gewinne nicht, an mich persönlich adressiert. Wahrscheinlich habe ich so schon Millionen verschleudert. Aber es war nur der eine hellblaue, leichte Brief. Den trug ich wie eine Kostbarkeit, las die ungefähre Anschrift wieder und wieder. Ich fühlte, die meinte mich mehr als die fertig ausgedruckten Briefe, die mits Lieber Herr Luther beginnen, als wäre ich wer weiß wie bekannt mits den Herrschaften, die wo schreiben.”

Beate Morgenstern (Cuxhaven, 15 april 1946)

Cuxhaven

De Zweedse dichter en schrijver Tomas Tranströmer werd geboren in Stockholm op 15 april 1931. Zie ook mijn blog van 15 april 2009 en ook mijn blog van 15 april 2010.

After a Death

Once there was a shock

that left behind a long, shimmering comet tail.

It keeps us inside. It makes the TV pictures snowy.

It settles in cold drops on the telephone wires.

One can still go slowly on skis in the winter sun

through brush where a few leaves hang on.

They resemble pages torn from old telephone directories.

Names swallowed by the cold.

It is still beautiful to hear the heart beat

but often the shadow seems more real than the body.

The samurai looks insignificant

beside his armor of black dragon scales.

Outskirts

Men in overalls the same color as earth rise from a ditch.

It's a transitional place, in stalemate, neither country nor city.

Construction cranes on the horizon want to take the big leap,

but the clocks are against it.

Concrete piping scattered around laps at the light with cold tongues.

Auto-body shops occupy old barns.

Stones throw shadows as sharp as objects on the moon surface.

And these sites keep on getting bigger

like the land bought with Judas' silver: "a potter's field for

burying strangers."

Vertaald door Robert Bly

Tomas Tranströmer (Stockholm, 15 april 1931)

De Britse schrijver Jeffrey (Howard) Archer, Baron Archer of Weston-super-Mare, werd geboren op 15 april 1940 in Londen. Zie ook mijn blog van 15 april 2008 en ook mijn blog van 15 april 2009 en ook mijn blog van 15 april 2010.

Uit: Kane and Abel

“She only stopped screaming when she died. It was then that he started to scream.

The young boy who was hunting rabbits in the forest was not sure whether it was the woman's last cry or the child's first that alerted his youthful ears. He turned suddenly, sensing the possible danger, his eyes searching for an animal that was so obviously in pain. He had never known any animal to scream in quite that way before. He edged toward the noise cautiously; the scream had now turned to a whine, but it still did not sound like any animal he knew. He hoped it would be small enough to kill; at least that would make a change from rabbit for dinner.

The young hunter moved stealthily toward the river, where the strange noise came from, running from tree to tree, feeling the protection of the bark against his shoulder blades, something to touch. Never stay in the open, his father had taught him. When he reached the edge of the forest, he had a clear line of vision all the way down the valley to the river, and even then it took him some time to realize that the strange cry emanated from no ordinary animal. He continued to creep toward the whining, but he was out in the open on his own now. Then suddenly he saw the woman, with her dress above her waist, her bare legs splayed wide apart. He had never seen a woman like that before. He ran quickly to her side and stared down at her belly, quite frightened to touch. There, lying between the woman's legs, was the body of a small, damp, pink animal, attached only by something that looked like rope. The young hunter dropped his freshly skinned rabbits and collapsed on his knees beside the little creature.“

Jeffrey Archer (Londen, 15 april 1940)

De Canadese dichter Bliss Carman werd geboren in Fredericton, in de provicincie New Brunswick op 15 april 1861. Zie ook mijn blog van 15 april 2007 en ook mijn blog van 15 april 2008 en ook mijn blog van 15 april 2009 en ook mijn blog van 15 april 2010.

Veni Creator

I

LORD of the grass and hill,

Lord of the rain,

White Overlord of will,

Master of pain,

I who am dust and air

Blown through the halls of death,

Like a pale ghost of prayer,—

I am thy breath.

Lord of the blade and leaf,

Lord of the bloom,

Sheer Overlord of grief,

Master of doom,

Lonely as wind or snow,

Through the vague world and dim,

Vagrant and glad I go;

I am thy whim.

Lord of the storm and lull,

Lord of the sea,

I am thy broken gull,

Blown far alee.

Lord of the harvest dew,

Lord of the dawn,
Star of the paling blue

Darkling and gone,

Lost on the mountain height

Where the first winds are stirred,

Out of the wells of night

I am thy word.

Lord of the haunted hush,

Where raptures throng,

I am thy hermit thrush,

Ending no song.

Lord of the frost and cold,

Lord of the North,

When the red sun grows old

And day goes forth,

I shall put off this girth,—

Go glad and free,

Earth to my mother earth,

Spirit to thee.

Bliss Carman (15 april 1861 – 8 juni 1929)


Zie voor nog meer schrijvers van de 15e april ook mijn