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Tõnu Õnnepalu (Tallin, 13 september 1962)
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De Estische dichter, schrijver en vertaler Tõnu Õnnepalu werd geboren op 13 september 1962 in Tallin. Tot 1985 studeerde hij botanica en ecologie aan de universiteit van Tartu. Daarna doceerde hij scheikunde en biologie. Sinds 1988 is hij werkzaam als zelfstandig schrijver en vertaler en tevens als redacteur bij het culturele tijdschrift Vikerkaar. In 1993 kwam hij internationaal in de belangstelling met zijn roman Piiririik (Engels: "Border State") die verscheen onder zijn pseudoniem Emil Tode. Het boek werd in veertien talen vertaald en werd het meest vertaalde boek uit Estland gedurende de jaren negentig.
Uit: Practicing
I don't want any changes. In my life, that is. Nothing about it must change.
Let it all stay the way it always has been. Everything around me can change, that's fascinating; it's thrilling to observe the reforms, catastrophes, revolutions and wars. But only from a distance. My greatest mistake has been to imagine I want changes in my life.
Why should life change? It's disturbing enough without any changes. It's hard enough to make sense of it already.
Routine is the greatest blessing, but in my ingratitude I have regarded it as
the source of my despair. And yet by instinct I have never sought anything but
stability. A means to make my life so routinely repetitive that it would fade away completely, allowing me an unobstructed view. //to observe unobstructed//
Today, like every other working day, at about two o'clock I took a train to the Notre-Dame des Champs metro station. There's one change to make
on the way, but it's still quick. I know all the stops by heart. I know which end of
the train is more convenient and what comes after what: Rue du Bac, Sevres-Babylone, Rennes, Notre-Dame des Champs.
There's a small sandwich bar there that I discovered last summer, when
this exhibition was on in the jardin de Luxemburg. It's cheap, only 35 francs a meal. For that I get a toasted panini -- either chicken curry or turkey emmental -- an iced tea (there are't any hot drinks on the menu) and a flan -- a dull-looking, actually rather repulsive cake that I like because it reminds me of the custard cake or pie of my childhood. I always pretend to make my selection carefully, then with calculated pauses I inform the girl, the woman or the man -- whoever happens to be standing behind the counter at the time -- of my choice. This is my daily act of social intercourse, my gesture of communication with this city. I have no
desire for any more intimate relationship with the people at the counter. I feel annoyed by the very fact that they recognize me and are accustomed to my daily appearance. If it were up to me I'd make them forget me every day, so I could just keep on dropping in for the first time, in passing.
But what's more important than that is that the sandwich bar holds no surprises for me. The panini and the cake always taste the same. The flavour of the iced tea depends on whether I bother to specify citron, other wise they always give me peche, the peach. That makes no great difference. But today for some reason I decided to vary my menu and took apple tarte instead of the flan. This change bothered me right through the meal. I had to think about the apple tarte, I couldn't be sure it would prove satisfactory. And in fact, it was a bit too sweet.
Voor onderstaande schrijvers zie ook mijn blog van 13 september 2006.
De Nederlandse dichter, predikant en hoogleraarr Nicolaas Beets werd geboren op 13 september 1814 in Haarlem.
De Britse schrijver Roald Dahl werd geboren op 13 september 1916 in Llandalf, Zuid-Wales.
De Nederlandse wetenschapper en publicist, vrijdenker en anarchist Anton Constandse werd geboren in Brouwershaven op 13 september 1899.
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