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Bij 500 jaar Reformatie
Luther spijkert de 95 stellingen aan de slotkerk in Wittenberg door Julius Hübner, 1865
Auf Luther’s Bild
Guter schwarzer Mönch, mit starkem Arme begannst Du
Auszufegen den Staub, der die Altäre verbarg;
Aber schnell entrissen Dir Andre das säubernde Werkzeug,
Lasen vom Staube das Gold, hingen den Besen sich auf.
Und nun steht der entgüldete Altar in ärgerem Staube
Ohne Säuberung; Gold können sie fegen nicht mehr.
Johann Gottfried von Herder (25 augustus 1744 – 18 december 1803)
Het Johann Gottfried Herder Museum in Mohrungen (Nu Morąg, Polen)
De Canadese schrijver Joseph Boyden werd geboren op 31 oktober 1966 in Willowdale, Ontario. Zie ook mijn blog van 31 oktober 2010 en eveneens alle tags voor Joseph Boyden op dit blog.
Uit: Three Day Road
“There was a time before he left that he would have stared back, he and Elijah both, not intimidated by them.
What of Elijah? If they made a mistake about Nephew's death, maybe they made one about Elijah. I want to ask, but will wait until he is ready to speak.
We try to cross the road but an automobile honks like a goose and swerves around. I watch carefully and must wait a long time until I can judge that we can cross safely.
I lead Nephew down to the riverbank. I have left the canoe a good walk down the rocky shore. I tell him that it is best for him to wait while I go ahead and get it. He doesn't respond, just sits heavily on the bank. Quickly as I can, I make my way. I am silly to worry about leaving him alone for a few minutes. In the last years he has experienced more danger than anyone should experience in a hundred lives. But I worry anyway.
As I approach him in my canoe, I can see that he has his jacket off and is holding his thin arm in one hand. I get closer and see that he has stuck something into his arm, something he pulls out just as he looks up and sees me. His body has gone relaxed and his eyes look guilty for a moment, but as I get to where he is they are like the dark river in the sun.
I feel better once he is in the canoe and we are paddling away from the town. It smells the same as Moose Factory, the scent of burning wood not quite masking another decaying smell below it. He paddles for a while, but he is listless.
I tell Xavier to lie back on his pack and rest, that we are heading north and I have the current with me for once and it is easy going. He does not seem to hear me. I touch my paddle tip to his shoulder. He turns. I say it again and he watches my mouth intently. He lies back without speaking, and I paddle us back into the bush, looking every once in a while at his thin face in the sunlight, this face that has grown old too quickly. He sleeps, but his sleep is not restful. He twitches and his hands shake. He calls out and this wakes him up. He sits and dips his hand in the river, runs it across his face. His shirt is soaked through with sweat. He is very sick. Some fever is burning him up from the inside. I push down the river in silence.
I take my time, find it pleasant not to have to work constantly, not to fight the current. Only a couple of days ago I battled with every stroke until my arms were dead things and my lower back felt broken. Now paddling home I have the luxury of the current that runs north with me to the Great Salt Bay, to the place the ones who took my nephew call Hudson Bay. It cost me a week of hard work to make my way up the river, but with the wind and weather in my favour, the river is a three-day paddle home.”
Joseph Boyden (Willowdale, 31 oktober 1966)
De Engelse dichter John Keats werd geboren op 31 oktober 1795 in Finsbury Pavement in Londen. Zie ook mijn blog van 31 oktober 2010 en eveneens alle tags voor John Keats op dit blog.
If by dull rhymes our English must be chain'd
If by dull rhymes our English must be chain'd,
And, like Andromeda, the Sonnet sweet
Fetter'd, in spite of pained loveliness;
Let us find out, if we must be constrain'd,
Sandals more interwoven and complete
To fit the naked foot of poesy;
Let us inspect the lyre, and weigh the stress
Of every chord, and see what may be gain'd
By ear industrious, and attention meet:
Misers of sound and syllable, no less
Than Midas of his coinage, let us be
Jealous of dead leaves in the bay wreath crown;
So, if we may not let the Muse be free,
She will be bound with garlands of her own.
On Visiting The Tomb Of Burns
The town, the churchyard, and the setting sun,
The clouds, the trees, the rounded hills all seem,
Though beautiful, cold- strange- as in a dream
I dreamed long ago, now new begun.
The short-liv'd, paly summer is but won
From winter's ague for one hour's gleam;
Through sapphire warm their stars do never beam:
All is cold Beauty; pain is never done.
For who has mind to relish, Minos-wise,
The real of Beauty, free from that dead hue
Sickly imagination and sick pride
Cast wan upon it? Burns! with honour due
I oft have honour'd thee. Great shadow, hide
Thy face; I sin against thy native skies.
The day is gone, and all its sweets are gone!
The day is gone, and all its sweets are gone!
Sweet voice, sweet lips, soft hand, and softer breast,
Warm breath, light whisper, tender semi-tone,
Bright eyes, accomplish’d shape, and lang’rous waist!
Faded the flower and all its budded charms,
Faded the sight of beauty from my eyes,
Faded the shape of beauty from my arms,
Faded the voice, warmth, whiteness, paradise –
Vanish’d unseasonably at shut of eve,
When the dusk holiday – or holinight
Of fragrant-curtain’d love begins to weave
The woof of darkness thick, for hid delight,
But, as I’ve read love’s missal through to-day,
He’ll let me sleep, seeing I fast and pray.
John Keats (31 oktober 1795 – 23 februari 1821)
Borstbeeld in het Keats House,Hampstead, Noord Londen
De Amerikaanse schrijver Don Winslow werd geboren in New York op 31 oktober 1953. Zie ook alle tags voor Don Winslow op dit blog.
Uit: Germany (Vertaald door Conny Lösch)
„Kim ist verschwunden.« Charlie Sprague klang ein bisschen betrunken. Ich war den ganzen Tag mit Charlie zusammen draußen an der Biscayne Bay angeln gewesen und danach früh zu Bett gegangen. Sein Anruf riss mich aus einem Tiefschlaf, wie er einem nur nach einem Tag an der frischen Luft vergönnt ist — mit Bewegung und ein paar gut gekühlten Bieren zu viel. Ich war in mein Hotelzimmer zurückgekehrt, hatte kalt geduscht und war ins Bett gefallen. Sogar das Essen hatte ich mir gespart. Dann klingelte mein Telefon. Laut der Leuchtanzeige meiner Uhr war es 22:37. Ich war im Marriott in der Lejeune Road in Coral Gables, Florida, abgestiegen, einem stinkvornehmen Vorort von Miami. Charlie hatte mich eingeladen, bei ihm zu Hause zu übernachten, aber dabei wäre ich mir aufdringlich vorge-kommen, besonders so kurz vor den Feiertagen. Als ich sei-nen Vorschlag ablehnte, bot er mir an, mich in einer Suite im Sheraton unterzubringen. Geld war für Charlie kein Problem — er war ein milliar-denschwerer Bauunternehmer und verheiratet mit einer Schönheitskönigin, er besaß eine Jacht und eine Villa am Wasser, und manche Menschen behaupteten, für Charlie Sprague sei überhaupt nichts ein Problem. Auch das Angebot mit der Suite lehnte ich ab.
Ich begleiche meine Rechnungen gerne selbst und brau-che eigentlich nicht mehr als ein Bett und eine Dusche. Zu dem Treffen der Marines aus unserer alten Einheit war ich eigens aus Nebraska angereist. Charlie hatte die Idee gehabt, uns alle zusammenzutrom-meln, ein bisschen gemeinsam zu angeln, bei ein paar Bier Erinnerungen auszutauschen — jedenfalls die schönen. Er hatte erklärt, dass er bis zum Hals in Arbeit stecke, das größte Bauprojekt seines Lebens — es ging ums Ganze —, und jetzt brauche er einfach mal eine Pause zwischendurch. Ich war nicht sicher, was »das Ganze« in Charlies Fall um-fasste, und eigentlich bin ich auch kein Freund von Wieder-sehenstreffen oder sentimentalen Erinnerungen, aber was soll's? Semper Fi. Also packte ich meine Sachen in die 74er Corvette, die mein alter Herr liebevoll wieder hergerichtet und »Blue« getauft hatte.“
Don Winslow (New York, 31 oktober 1953)
De Amerikaanse dichter, schrijver en literatuurcriticus Bruce Bawer werd geboren op 31 oktober 1956 in New York. Zie ook mijn blog van 31 oktober 2010 en eveneens alle tags voor Bruce Bawer op dit blog.
Uit: Gays in the Era of Trump (Artikel in Frontpage Magazine, februari 2017)
“Why are gays no longer the darlings of the left? Part of the reason is the mainstreaming of the academic concept known as intersection: if you're a gay white male, yes, you're gay, all right, but you're also the two worst things you can be in the eyes of the left: white and male. Which means that on balance, according to the leftist calculus, you're more privileged than you are oppressed. That's especially true, of course, now that same-sex marriage is the law of the land. Indeed, although the left celebrated the Supreme Court ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges well into the night, when the sun rose the next day gay people suddenly looked very unsexy. Is it mere coincidence that at almost the exact same moment when the gay-rights movement won its big victory, the transsexual movement appeared as if from out of nowhere to take its place on the progressive agenda? Suddenly we're being asked to memorize dozens of new pronouns to cover gender categories nobody had ever heard of a year or two ago. Only yesterday, gay marriage felt exotic; now being gay – just plain gay – feels downright square.
Some gays still think the left has their back. When Obama left office, gays flooded You Tube and Twitter with messages thanking him for gay marriage – which he'd had absolutely nothing to do with (and which he, like Hillary, had in fact opposed for most of his administration). On November 8, gay Americans, buying into the entirely baseless premise that Hillary gives a damn about them, voted overwhelmingly for her – a woman whose family foundation has banked millions from Oman, Yemen, and the United Arab Emirates, all of which imprison gays, and Saudi Arabia, which executes them. Meanwhile the same gay voters jeered at Trump, who in 2005 publicly congratulated Elton John and David Furnish on their marriage; who, according to one local, “changed...Palm Beach” by admitting gay couples as members of Mar-a-Lago; who actually waved a rainbow flag at one of his campaign rallies; who's been praised eloquently by one of the smartest gays in the country, billionaire entrepreneur Peter Thiel; who reacted with an un-Obama-like rage and candor to the jihadist massacre at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando; and who, upon accepting the Republican nomination, promised to “do everything in my power” to protect gay Americans “from the violence and oppression of a hateful foreign ideology.”
Bruce Bawer (New York, 31 oktober 1956)
Zie voor nog meer schrijvers van de 31e oktober ook mijn vorige blog van vandaag.
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