De Vlaamse dichter en schrijver Jotie T'Hooft werd geboren in Oudenaarde op 9 mei 1956. Zie ook mijn blog van 9 mei 2009.

 

In het Gedicht

 

De wanden zijn wit en de psychiaters
verdacht vriendelijk. Er is hoop
op genezing, maar ik heb nog niemand
zien weggaan, of hij kwam weer terug.

Dagen dat ik op weg naar mijn eigen kamer
verdwaal wisselen zich met dagen
waarop ik de wereld doorschouw als een kristal.

Soms word ik krijsend wakker.
Soms word ik afgevoerd en verdoofd,
soms vastgebonden.

Er zijn momenten waarop ik eeuwenlang
mijmerend volmaakt gelukkig ben:
wanneer ik mijn handen op de aarde leg
zijn het kleine handen.

 

 

 

O, al de balzalen

 

O, al de balzalen van mijn jeugd
zijn nu bestoft en verlaten.
De vrienden die er bleven zijn mij vreemd,
maken geluid door de barst in hun gelaten.

Onder de slingers en het licht van weleer
zetten zij de polka verder van de dromen,
de quick-step van het verjaarde zeer
cirkels dansend om nooit aan te komen.

Dancings waarin spreken spasme wordt
vriendschap sjacheren met moederkoren
en waar mijn hart toen is verdord
want de zachtheid ging erin verloren

aan mijn dorst naar geilheid en glamour.
Ik ben vrucht en kan slechts vallen;
gij roept mij toe: ‘l’amour, toujours l’amour’
maar ik zie u: likkebaarden, lallen.

 

 

 

 

Jotie T'Hooft (9 mei 1956 – 6 oktober 1977)

 

 

 

 

De Amerikaanse dichter Charles Simic werd geboren in Belgrado op 9 mei 1938. Zie ook mijn blog van 9 mei 2009.

 

 

 

Against Winter 

 

The truth is dark under your eyelids.

What are you going to do about it?

The birds are silent; there's no one to ask.

All day long you'll squint at the gray sky.

When the wind blows you'll shiver like straw.

 

A meek little lamb you grew your wool

Till they came after you with huge shears.

Flies hovered over open mouth,

Then they, too, flew off like the leaves,

The bare branches reached after them in vain.

 

Winter coming. Like the last heroic soldier

Of a defeated army, you'll stay at your post,

Head bared to the first snow flake.

Till a neighbor comes to yell at you,

You're crazier than the weather, Charlie.

 

 

 

 

Private Eye 

 

To find clues where there are none,

That's my job now, I said to the

Dictionary on my desk. The world beyond

My window has grown illegible,

And so has the clock on the wall.

I may strike a match to orient myself

 

In the meantime, there's the heart

Stopping hush as the building

Empties, the elevators stop running,

The grains of dust stay put.

Hours of quiescent sleuthing

Before the Madonna with the mop

 

Shuffles down the long corridor

Trying doorknobs, turning mine.

That's just little old me sweating

In the customer's chair, I'll say.

Keep your nose out of it.

I'm not closing up till he breaks. 

 

 

 

 

Charles Simic (Belgrado, 9 mei 1938)

 

 

 

 

De Nederlandse dichter en schrijver Pieter Boskma werd geboren in Leeuwarden op 9 mei 1956. Zie ook mijn blog van 9 mei 2009.

 

 

In de stralend gouden avondgloed

 

In de stralend gouden avondgloed van Aelbert Cuyp
dromen de koeien als antieke goden. De spiegel
van het bergmeer opent het binnenste zien.
De hemel en de aarde rusten in elkander uit.

Men zou wel willen lopen over het gele water
en zo de wolken raken en nooit meer ontwaken.
Zeilen ruisen uit de verte als een meisjesstem,
of zijn het nevelen, en is de stem van Hem?

Waar na dit landschap nog naar toe te gaan?
en rode boom ontbrandt tegen weidskobalt.

Oranje sterren regenen door de spasmes van
zijn takken. Er is geen rust in het heelal.

slechts in tere deining van blauw en grijs en roze,
verzoent Piet Mondriaan de geest met de natuur.

 

 

 

Oude Hamlet

 

De klepgrage cabaretier en de konkelzieke columnist
houzee houzee zij vieren feest in de clicheerfabriek
het feest van wie het dunste woord weet te chiqueren
de neutraalste druppels in chimerische vermommingen

Waren wij een platvis wij zwommen in royale scholen
op naar de burelen van de fopneus en de klapsigaar
maar helaas wij zijn de vierdimensionale ruggengraat
die zich gratis dwars liet zetten tussen as en zode

Er is reeds een hard gelach aan witte rots ontsprongen
voor men raakt gehecht aan een zin die waarlijk bloedt
Slechts het pikachtig bindmiddel sijpelt uit de van mest
en turf geperste briketten der lekkerbekkende letters:

'Een papenkop maakt de grond niet heilig of gewijd'
maar levert een zachte verzilting aan het goedgelovig oog
Laat dromen de diepere tonen laat triomferen de cortex
vannacht zullen keren de kansen morgen de wijzers op hun loop

 

 

 

 

Pieter Boskma (Leeuwarden, 9 mei 1956)

Hier rechts met kunstenaar Harald Vlugt (l) en schrijver Joost Zwagerman (m)

 

 

 

 

De Duitse schrijver Jan Drees werd geboren op 9 mei 1979 in Haan. Zie ook mijn blog van 9 mei 2007 en ook mijn blog van 9 mei 2008 en ook mijn blog van 9 mei 2009.

 

Uit: Staring At The Sun

 

„Es gibt nur wenige Institutionen in Deutschland, die Menschen wie mir das Gefühl geben, nicht komplett irre und desorientiert zu sein, weil sie, nun ja, wesentlich schwerwiegendere „Problemcluster" (so heißt das heute) sind: natürlich die Deutsche Bahn, die Telekom und, glaubt man den Medienseiten großer Tageszeitungen: auch Thomas Gottschalk.
Momentan funktioniert mein Modem nicht, es hat Aussetzer und meine WLAN-Karte findet das Netz immer seltener, heute beispielsweise: überhaupt nicht. Irgendwo habe ich zwar ein altes Ersatzmodem versteckt, aber ich weiß beim besten Willen nicht, wo es liegen könnte. Anyway.
Wer in einem Telekom-Callcenter anruft, verliert nach wenigen Minuten alle Ängste, man erkennt, wie überschätzt das Thema „Telekommunikation" ist, man taucht in Zen-Wahrheiten ein und deshalb wähle ich oft die 0800-3301000, wo ich im T-Online-Kundendienst lande und alsbald in einen atemraubenden Strudel gerissen werde, der Poseidons mythologischen Wellenwirbeln Hohn spricht.
Zuerst werde ich durch eine affige Ansage geleitet. Immer läuft in diesem Saftladen etwas anderes schief. Momentan ist „wegen Produktionsengpässen das T-Online-Gerät Speedport 200 nicht verfügbar. Wir rechnen mit einer Auslieferung in der 48. Kalenderwoche". Ich denke an die DDR, aber nur wenige Sekunden, denn es folgt ein weiterer Text vom Band: „Herzlich Willkommen im Kundencenter von T-Online. Zur Zeit befinden sich alle Berater in einem Gespräch. Wir bitten sie, zu warten. Um die Wartezeit zu verkürzen, bitten wir Sie, ihre Telefonnummer nach dem Signalton aufs Band zu sprechen." Das verstehe ich ja nie - selbst mein billiges Aldiphone zeigt die Nummer jedes x-beliebigen Gesprächspartners an. Aber egal! Ich tippe, drücke die Raute-Taste, gedulde mich weiter.
Ich habe nun Zeit, um den ersten Schwung meines lästigen Tagesabwaschs zu erledigen (manchmal mit Abtrocknen). Denn erst nach 12 bis 15 Minuten meldet sich eine ungelernte Kraft mit Dresdner Akzent: „Gu-ten Tag, mein Name ist ... Was darf ich für sie tun?"
Wer das bis dahin nicht vergessen hat, kann irgendeinen Fehlercode seines Rechners weitergeben und um Hilfe bitten. Immer, wirklich immer heißt es: „Warten Sie bitte, ich verbinde Sie da mal mit unserer Technikabteilung."

 

 

Jan Drees (Haan, 9 mei 1979)

 

 

 

 

De Russische schrijver, dichter en zanger Bulat Shalvovich Okudzhava werd geboren in Moskou op 9 mei 1924. Zie ook mijn blog van 9 mei 2007 en ook mijn blog van 9 mei 2008 en Zie ook mijn blog van 9 mei 2009.

 

 

You're not drunkards, you're not vagrants

 

You're not drunkards, you're not vagrants,

round the table of seven seas,

sing the praises, sing the praises

to my woman, if you please!

 

Look at her as if she were

your salvation in sea storms,

you compare her, you compare her

with a shore that's very close.

 

We are earthly, don't you tell us

Tales of gods, they're are not for us!

We just carry on wings of ours

what you carry in your arms.

 

You just ought to put your trust in

the blue lighthouse on the rock,

then the shore, all over sudden,

will emerge out of the fog.

 

 

 

 

Here we stand, in desperation

 

Here we stand, in desperation,

folding our arms in pride,

on the brink of separation,

at the threshold of a plight

 

where clocks with measured paces

stick precisely to their course,

and we keep our smiling faces

under lock and key, like doors.

 

Days of reckoning are close, and

time has driven us to bay...

We are nailed to our crossroads

in a careless, slipshod way.

 

 

 

Bulat Okudzhava (9 mei 1924 – 12 juni 1997)

 

 

 

 

De Oostenrijkse dichter, schrijver en diplomaat Leopold Andrian werd op 9 mei 1875 in Berlijn geboren. Zie ook mijn blog van 9 mei 2007 en ook mijn blog van 9 mei 2008 en Zie ook mijn blog van 9 mei 2009.

 

 

 

Den Brüdern

An Leopold Andrian

 

Als unsre schnelle jugend noch nicht wählte

Im edlen preisen und verwerfen gleich

War unsre liebe für das viel geschmälte

Für unser: euer sieches Oesterreich.

 

Wir – wie ihr – zeigten glücklichen barbaren

Dass höchster stolz ein schönes sterben sei..

Bis wir bemerkt wie sehr wir lebend waren

Da schlossen wir uns stärkern trieben bei.

 

Vernahmen vor uns reiche fülle kreisen

Und frische wünsche traten uns zunächst..

Da wollten wir euch freundlich an uns reissen

Mit dem was auch in euch noch keimt und wächst.

 

Denn dazu lieben wir zu sehr euch brüder

Um zu geniessen nur als spiel und klang

An euch die schwanke schönheit grabes-müder

An euch den farbenvollen untergang.

 

 

 

Stephan George

 

 

 

Leopold Andrian (9 mei 1875 – 19 november 1951)

 

Zie voor nog meer schrijvers van de 9^e mei ook mijn vorige blog van vandaag.

De Britse schrijver en acteur Alan Bennett werd geboren op 9 mei 1934 in Armley in Leeds, Yorkshire. Zie ook mijn blog van 9 mei 2007 en ook mijn blog van 9 mei 2008 en ook mijn blog van 9 mei 2009.

 

Uit: Kafka’s Dick

 

“KAFKA:  (In a small, awe-stricken voice)  Shit.
SYDNEY:  He's taking it very badly.
BROD:  Don't worry.  He'll be all over me in a minute.  But who else would treat fame like this, eh?  Chekov?  He'd be round at the estate agents, looking at a little place in the country with paddock and mature fruit trees attatched.  Zola would be installing a jacuzzi.  Even T.S. Eliot'd have people round for drinks.  But what does Kafka do?
SYDNEY:  Finds the whole thing a trial.
BROD:  Exactly.  The humility of the man.  I tell you, if I were Jesus Christ I'd be looking over my shoulder.
KAFKA:  Judas!
SYDNEY:  He's made you one of the biggest names in twentieth-century literature.
LINDA:  Even I've heard of you.
KAFKA:  (With exaggerated patience)  I didn't want a big name.  I wanted a small name.  I shrank my name.  I pared it down to nothing.  I'd have been happy with no name at all.
SYDNEY:  But that's the secret of your success.  You've got a name for anonymity.  The Trial: a nameless man's search for justice in a faceless bureaucracy.  When Eastern Europe went communist this was the book that told you about it before it happened.  In so many words...
KAFKA:  That's it.  That's it.  So many words.  I've added so many words to the world I've made it heavier.”

 

 

 

Alan Bennett (Armley, 9 mei 1934)

 

 

 

 

De Roemeense dichter, schrijver en filosoof Lucian Blaga werd geboren op 9 mei 1895 in Lancrăm, bij Alba Iulia. Zie ook mijn blog van 9 mei 2007 en ook mijn blog van 9 mei 2008 en ook mijn blog van 9 mei 2009.

 

 

 

The light of yesterday

 

I’m searching, I don’t know what it is that I search. I’m searching

for a sky from the past, for a twilight that passed. How lower

is the forehead meant for the heights of yore!

 

I’m searching, I don’t know what it is that I search. I’m searching

for auroras that have been, gushing, lighted

fountains - today with waters tied and defeated.

 

I’m searching, I don’t know what it is that I search. I’m searching

for a big hour that’s remained in me without life

like marks of a mouth on a long dead carafe.

 

I’m searching, I don’t know what it is that I search. Under yesterday’s stars

under the passed, I’m searching

for the extinguished light that I’ve always been preaching.

 

 

 

Vertaald door Lori Tiron-Pandit

 

 

 

 

 

Lucian Blaga (9 mei 1895 – 6 mei 1961)

Buste in Sebes, Roemenië

 

 

 

 

De Amerikaanse dichteres Mona Van Duyn werd geboren op 9 mei 1921 in Waterloo, Iowa. Zie ook mijn blog van 9 mei 2007 en ook mijn blog van 9 mei 2008 en ook mijn blog van 9 mei 2009.

 

 

A Kind of Music

When consciousness begins to add diversity to its intensity,
its value is no longer absolute and inexpressible. The felt variations
in its tone are attached to the observed movement of
its objects; in these objects its values are embedded. A world
loaded with dramatic values may thus arise in imagination;
terrible and delightful presences may chase one another
across the void; life will be a kind of music made by all the
senses together. Many animals probably have this kind of
experience.
--Santayana


Irrelevance characterizes the behavior of our puppy.
In the middle of the night he decides that he wants to play,
runs off when he's called, when petted is liable to pee,
cowers at a twig and barks at his shadow or a tree,
grins at intruders and bites us in the leg suddenly.

No justification we humans have been able to see
applies to his actions. While we go by the time of day,
or the rules, or the notion of purpose or consistency,
he follows from moment to moment a sensuous medley
that keeps him both totally subject and totally free.

I'll have to admit, though, we've never been tempted to say
that he jumps up to greet us or puts his head on our knee
or licks us or lies at our feet irrelevantly.
When it comes to loving, we find ourselves forced to agree
all responses are reasons and no reason is necessary.

 

 

 

 

Mona Van Duyn (Waterloo, 9 mei 1921)

 

 

 

 

 

De Egyptische schrijver Gamal al-Ghitani werd geboren op 9 mei 1945 in Guhaina, maar groeide op in Caïro. Zie ook mijn blog van 9 mei 2009.

 

Uit: Das Buch der Schicksale (Vertaald door Doris Kilias)

 

"Er und in einem Hotel arbeiten? Hätte man ihm diese Frage als Student gestellt, wäre ein verächtlicher Blick die Antwort gewesen. Er war Jahrgang 1956, und als während der Sueskrise die Dreieraggression auf die Stadt Port Said stattfand, die in jener, nunmehr in Vergessenheit geratenen Zeit die 'Ewige' oder 'Standhafte' genannt wurde, da ruhte er, unser junger Mann, noch drei Wochen im Mutterleib, bevor er ins Leben eintreten durfte. Seine Mutter konnte sich noch gut an diese Zeit erinnern. Ihr Mann verbrachte aufgrund des Ausnahmezustands die Nächte im Büro, und so war sie allein mit dem Glück, das Kind zu spüren. Es drehte und streckte sich, gerade so, als strebte es danach, vorzeitig das Licht der Welt zu erblicken. In jenen Nächten, in denen Ausgangssperre verhängt worden war, saß sie aufrecht im Bett, den Rücken an ein Kissen gelehnt, und fragte sich, was es wohl werden würde: ein Junge oder ein Mädchen?" ...

 

 

 

 

Gamal al-Ghitani (Guhaina, 9 mei 1945)

 

 

 

De Engelse schrijver Richard Adams werd geboren in Newbury op 9 mei 1920. Zie ook mijn blog van 9 mei 2007 en Zie ook mijn blog van 9 mei 2009.

 

Uit  Watership Down

 

„At the top of the bank, close to the wild cherry where the blackbird sang, was a little group of holes almost hidden by brambles. In the green half-light, at the mouth of one of these holes, two rabbits were sitting together side by side. At length, the larger of the two came out, slipped along the bank under cover of the brambles and so down into the ditch and up into the field. A few moments later the other followed.

The first rabbit stopped in a sunny patch and scratched his ear with rapid movements of his hind leg. Although he was a yearling and still below fall weight, he had not the harassed look of most "outskirters"' -- that is, the rank and file of ordinary rabbits in their first year who, lacking either aristocratic parentage or unusual size and strength, get sat on by their elders and live as best they can -- often in the open -- on the edge of their warren. He looked as though he knew how to take care of himself. There was a shrewd, buoyant air about him as he sat up, looked around and rubbed both front paws over his nose. As soon as he was satisfied that all was well, he laid back his ears and set to work on the grass.

His companion seemed less at ease. He was small, with wide, staring eyes and a way of raising and turning his head which suggested not so much caution as a kind of ceaseless, nervous tension. His nose moved continually, and when a bumblebee flew humming to a thistle bloom behind him, he jumped and spun round with a start that sent two nearby rabbits scurrying for holes before the nearest, a buck with black-tipped ears, recognized him and returned to feeding.

"Oh, it's only Fiver," said the black-tipped rabbit, "jumping at bluebottles again. Come on, Buckthorn, what were you telling me?"

"Fiver?" said the other rabbit. "Why's he called that?"

 

 

 

Richard Adams (Newbury, 9 mei 1920)

 

 

 

 

De Schotse schrijver James Barrie werd op 9 mei 1860 in Kirriemuir nabij Dundee geboren. Zie ook mijn blog van 9 mei 2007 en ook mijn blog van 9 mei 2009.

 

Uit: Peter Pan

 

„Mrs. Darling quivered and went to the window. It was securely fastened. She looked out, and the night was peppered with stars. They were crowding round the house, as if curious to see what was to take place there, but she did not notice this, nor that one or two of the smaller ones winked at her. Yet a nameless fear clutched at her heart and made her cry, "Oh, how I wish that I wasn't going to a party to-night!"
Even Michael, already half asleep, knew that she was perturbed, and he asked, "Can anything harm us, mother, after the night- lights are lit?"
"Nothing, precious," she said; "they are the eyes a mother leaves behind her to guard her children."
She went from bed to bed singing enchantments over them, and little Michael flung his arms round her. "Mother," he cried, "I'm glad of you." They were the last words she was to hear from him for a long time.
No. 27 was only a few yards distant, but there had been a slight fall of snow, and Father and Mother Darling picked their way over it deftly not to soil their shoes. They were already the only persons in the street, and all the stars were watching them. Stars are beautiful, but they may not take an active part in anything, they must just look on for ever. It is a punishment put on them for something they did so long ago that no star now knows what it was. So the older ones have become glassy-eyed and seldom speak (winking is the star language), but the little ones still wonder. They are not really friendly to Peter, who had a mischievous way of stealing up behind them and trying to blow them out; but they are so fond of fun that they were on his side to-night, and anxious to get the grown-ups out of the way. So as soon as the door of 27 closed on Mr. and Mrs. Darling there was a commotion in the firmament, and the smallest of all the stars in the Milky Way screamed out:
"Now, Peter!"

 

 

 

James Barrie (9 mei 1860 – 19 juni 1937)

 

 

 

 

Zie voor onderstaande schrijver ook mijn blog van 9 mei 2009.

De Italiaanse schrijver Pitigrilli (pseudoniem voor Dino Serge) werd geboren te Turijn op 9 mei 1893. Zie ook mijn blog van 9 mei 2007

De Amerikaanse schrijver Thomas Pynchon werd op 8 mei 1937 geboren in Glen Cove, Long Island, New York.

 

Uit: V

 

“Christmas Eve, 1955, Benny Profane, wearing black levis, suede jacket, sneakers and big cowboy hat, happened to pass through Norfolk, Virginia. Given to sentimental impulses, he thought he'd look in on the Sailor's Grave, his old tin can's tavern on East Main Street. He got there by way of the Arcade, at the East Main end of which sat an old street singer with a guitar and an empty Sterno can for donations. Out in the street a chief yeoman was trying to urinate in the gas tank of a '54 Packard Patrician and five or six seamen apprentice were standing around giving encouragement. The old man was singing, in a fine, firm baritone:

 

Every night is Christmas Eve on old East Main,
Sailors and their sweethearts all agree.
Neon signs of red and green
Shine upon the friendly scene,
Welcoming you in from off the sea.
Santa's bag is filled with all your dreams come true:
Nickel beers that sparkle like champagne,
Barmaids who all love to screw,
All of them reminding you
It's Christmas Eve on old East Main.

 

"Yay chief," yelled a seaman deuce. Profane rounded the corner. With its usual lack of warning, East Main was on him.

Since his discharge from the Navy Profane had been roadlaboring and when there wasn't work just traveling, up and down the east coast like a yo-yo; and this had been going on for maybe a year and a half. After that long of more named pavements than he'd care to count, Profane had grown a little leery of streets, especially streets likethis. They had in fact all fused into a single abstracted Street, which come the full moon he would have nightmares about. East Main, a ghetto for Drunken Sailors nobody knew what to Do With, sprang on your nerves with all the abruptness of a normal night's dream turning to nightmare. “

 

 

 

Thomas Pynchon (Glen Cove, 8 mei 1937)

Boekomslag "V"

 

 

 

 

De Ierse schrijver Roddy Doyle werd geboren in Dublin op 8 mei 1958.

 

Uit: A Star Called Henry

 

“My mother looked up at the stars. There were plenty of them up there. She lifted her hand. It swayed as she chose one. Her finger pointed.
-- There''s my little Henry up there. Look it.
I looked, her other little Henry sitting beside her on the step. I looked up and hated him. She held me but she looked up at her twinkling boy. Poor me beside her, pale and red-eyed, held together by rashes and sores. A stomach crying to be filled, bare feet aching like an old, old man''s. Me, a shocking substitute for the little Henry who''d been too good for this world, the Henry God had wanted for himself. Poor me.
And poor Mother. She sat on that step and other crumbling steps and watched her other babies joining Henry. Little Gracie, Lil, Victor, another little Victor. The ones I remember. There were others, and early others sent to Limbo; they came and went before they could be named. God took them all. He needed them all up there to light the night. He left her plenty, though. The ugly ones, the noisy ones, the ones He didn''t want -- the ones that would never stay fed.
Poor Mother. She wasn''t much more than twenty when she gazed up at little twinkling Henry but she was already old, already decomposing, ruined beyond repair, good for some more babies, then finished.
Poor Mammy. Her own mother was a leathery old witch, but was probably less than forty. She poked me, as if to prove that I was there.
-- You''re big, she said.
She was accusing me, weighing me, planning to take some of me back. Always wrapped in her black shawl, she always smelt of rotten meat and herrings -- it was a sweat on her. Always with a book under the shawl, the complete works of Shakespeare or something by Tolstoy. Nash was her name but I don''t know what she called herself before she married her dead husband.“

 

 

 

Roddy Doyle (Dublin, 8 mei 1958)

 

 

 

 

De Amerikaanse dichter Gary Snyder werd geboren op 8 mei 1930 in San Francisco.

 

 

 

How Poetry Comes to Me

 

It comes blundering over the
Boulders at night, it stays
Frightened outside the
Range of my campfire
I go to meet it at the
Edge of the light

 

 

 

For All

Ah to be alive
on a mid-September morn
fording a stream
barefoot, pants rolled up,
holding boots, pack on,
sunshine, ice in the shallows,
northern rockies.

Rustle and shimmer of icy creek waters
stones turn underfoot, small and hard as toes
cold nose dripping
singing inside
creek music, heart music,
smell of sun on gravel.

I pledge allegiance

I pledge allegiance to the soil
of Turtle Island,
and to the beings who thereon dwell
one ecosystem
in diversity
under the sun
With joyful interpenetration for all.

 

 

 

 

Gary Snyder (San Francisco, 8 mei 1930)

 

 

 

De Oostenrijkse schrijfster Gertrud Fussenegger werd geboren op 8 mei 1912 in Pilsen. Gertrud Fussenegger overleed op 19 maart van dit jaar op 96-jarige leeftijd.

 

Uit: Die Brüder von Lasawa

 

„Mit Zdenko sprach er, obwohl sie fast den ganzen Tag miteinander verbrachten, sehr wenig. Er hatte es in jener ersten Stunde, da er ihn beim Ballspiel getroffen, nicht über sich gebracht, dem Endlich-Gefundenen zu gestehen, wie lange er ihn gesucht, wie viele Wege er um seinetwillen gemacht hatte, ja, daß er nur seinetwegen, um den Bruder zu gewinnen, den Perwög-Namen ausgeschlagen, das Muttererbe fortgeworfen, die Heimat verlassen habe. Er gab auf Zdenkos Frage, wieso er hieher nach Wien gekommen sei, eine beiläufige Antwort, als hätte ihn Abenteuerei und Laune und vielleicht noch ein Auftrutzen gegen die großväterliche Herrschaft zu dieser Wanderung verführt. Auch hatte er nicht gesagt, daß er in Lasawa gewesen, und schließlich auch die Fahrt mit dem wahnsinnigen Mädchen verschwiegen. Zdenko drang auch nicht mit Fragen in ihn. Nur sein Blick ruhte oft, verstohlen forschend, auf dem jüngeren Bruder. Hie und da erkundigte er sich nach dem Handel, nach den Bräuchen der Landleute und Bürger in Tirol. Er war auf einer Fahrt einmal durch das Inntal gekommen, hatte sogar in Hall gerastet und daran gedacht, daß sein Vater hier eine zweite Frau genommen habe. "Und du bist nicht zu uns gekommen?" fragte Christof.“

 

 

 

Gertrud Fussenegger (8 mei 1912 – 19 maart 2009)



Zie voor alle bovenstaande schrijvers ook mijn blog van 8 mei 2007 en ook mijn blog van 8 mei 2008 en ook mijn blog van 8 mei 2009.

Zie voor nog meer schrijvers van de 8e mei ook mijn twee vorige blogs van vandaag.

De Engelse schrijfster Pat Barker werd geboren in Thornaby-on-Tees op 8 mei 1943.

 

Uit: Another World

 

„Cars queue bumper to bumper, edge forward, stop, edge forward again. Resting his bare arm along the open window, Nick drums his fingers. The Bigg Market on a Friday night. Litter of chip cartons, crushed lager cans, a gang of lads with stubble heads and tattooed arms looking for trouble — and this is early, it hasn't got going yet. Two girls stroll past, one wearing a thin, almost transparent white cotton dress. At every stride her nipples show, dark circles beneath the cloth, fish rising. One of the lads calls her name: `Julie!' She turns, and the two of them fall into each other's arms.

    Nick watches, pretending not to.

 

What is love's highest aim?
Four buttocks on a stem.

 

Can't remember who said that — some poor sod made cynical by thwarted lust. Nothing wrong with the aim, as far as Nick can see — just doesn't seem much hope of achieving it any more. And neither will these two, or not yet. The boy's mates crowd round, grab him by the belt, haul him off her. `Jackie-no-balls,' the other girl jeers. The boy thrusts his pelvis forward, makes wanking movements with his fist.

    Lights still red. Oh, come on. He's going to be late, and he doesn't want to leave Miranda waiting at the station. This is the first visit to the new house. Fran wanted to put it off, but then Barbara went into hospital and that settled it. Miranda had to come, and probably for the whole summer. Well, he was pleased, anyway.

 

 

 

Pat Barker (Thornaby-on-Tees, op 8 mei 1943)

 

 

 

 

De Franse schrijver, vertaler regisseur en diplomaat Romain Gary werd geboren op 8 mei 1914 in Vilnius, Litouwen.

 

Uit: Romain Gary, le caméléon (Biografie door Myriam Anissimov)

 

„Une partie de la famille Owczynski était établie dans la capitale polonaise et y vivait plutôt bourgeoisement. Mina avait à Varsovie son frère, Abraham Borukh, celui qui s'appelait Boleslaw, et exerçait la profession d'avocat malgré le numerus clausus. Il avait fait ses études à la faculté de Varsovie, où les étudiants juifs se faisaient rosser par leurs condisciples chrétiens et étaient parqués sur des bancs réservés. C'est lui que Gary désigne sous le prénom de Boris, au dos de la photo datée de 1949 prise quelques mois avant sa mort.

Borukh-Abraham avait épousé à vingt-deux ans sa cousine Myriam (Maria) Owczynska, la fille de solomon Owczynski, agée de dix-sept ans, originaire de Sweciany. Les jeunes gens s'étaient unis sous la khoupa le 22 avril 1912 à Wilno devant le rabbin Rubinstein qui avait déjà marié Mina et Arieh-Leïb.

(...)

 

L'avocat de Jean Seberg avait réussi à la convaincre qu'un procès aux Etats-Unis n'avait aucune chance d'aboutir car, selon le droit anglo-saxon, elle devait apporter la preuve au juge que la mort de sa fille avait été causée par deux lignes mensongères de l'article paru dans . Au contraire, en France, Me Cournot et le bâtonnier Paul Arrighi, les conseils de Gary et Seberg, pouvaient l'emporter en invoquant l'atteinte à la vie privée. Le 25 octobre, la XVIIe chambre correctionnelle, présidée par M. Bracquemond, rejeta leur demande d'affirmer que la mort de Nina était imputable à l'article de Newsweek, mais leur donna raison sur le second motif, 'le viol de la vie privée'. Le magazine américain avait accusé Romain Gary de diffamation pour son article publié dans France-Soir. Il fut acquitté eu égard aux circonstances.“

 

 

 

Romain Gary (9 mei 1914 – 2 december 1980)

 

 

 

 

De Amerikaanse schrijver en criticus Edmund Wilson werd geboren op 8 mei 1895 in Red Bank, New Jersey.

 

Uit: Edmund Wilson: A Life in Literature (Biografie door Lewis M. Dabney)

 

„On a brisk afternoon in September 1922, a conservatively dressed young man with red hair sat on the upper deck of a Fifth Avenue bus in Manhattan, engrossed in a manuscript. A friend at the literary magazine The Dial had put a long poem into his hands. The Dial was interested in publishing it, and the editors hoped that the young man—Edmund Wilson—would write an essay to elucidate the poem. By the time he reached Greenwich Village, Wilson had completed a first reading of T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land. Decades later he would recall being “bowled over,” and his essay called the poem “simply one triumph after another.” This recognition of Eliot followed Wilson’s account, in The New Republic, of Joyce’s Ulysses as a masterpiece fusing naturalism and symbolism, re-creating the mind “straining always to perpetuate and perfect itself” and the body “always laboring and throbbing to throw up some beauty from its darkness.” He believed the general reader could absorb these works that challenged existing literary forms and commandeered in new ways the powers of language. Both Eliot and Joyce, he thought, occasionally tried one’s patience, but he was committed to making them more accessible.
Edmund Wilson was twenty-seven. He was fortunate to come on the scene as a critic when he did, but he had trained for this moment. At fifteen he had been sure of hisliterary vocation, and he absorbed all that liberal education had to offer both at the Hill School and at Princeton, where extraordinary teachers encouraged his curiosity and enthusiasm for books and about ideas. He emerged from his parents’ uncongenial marriage with emotional scars, but his confidence in his abilities was strong, and he was seasoned by a year as a hospital orderly in France during World War I. Though he hated the suffering he saw, he liked being on a footing of relative equality with Americans of diverse backgrounds, and returned to his country skeptical of institutions and of rank and social privilege. He joined Vanity Fair as an editorial assistant, immediately became its managing editor, and began publishing criticism there as well as in other magazines.“

 

 

 

Edmund Wilson (8 mei 1895 – 14 juni 1972)

 

 

 

 

Zie voor alle bovenstaande schrijvers ook mijn blog van 8 mei 2007 en ook mijn blog van 8 mei 2008 en ook mijn blog van 8 mei 2009.

 

 

 

 

De Amerikaanse schrijver Peter Benchley werd geboren in New York City op 8 mei 1940.  Benchley studeerde in 1961 af aan de Harvard-universiteit, met als hoofdvak Engels. Hij is met name bekend geworden door zijn roman Jaws over een zeer gevaarlijke witte haai waar ook een eveneens bekende, gelijknamige speelfilm over is gemaakt. Later in zijn leven betreurde Benchley het dat hij witte haaien in zijn boeken als moorddadige beesten had afgeschilderd en zette hij zich in voor natuurbehoud.

 

Uit: Jaws

 

‘The boat was sinking. The stern was completely submerged, and the bow was rising.
The fish rolled off the stern and slid beneath the waves. The rope, attached to the dart Quint had stuck into the fish, followed.
Suddenly, Quint lost his footing and fell backward into the water. “The knife!” he cried, lifting his left leg above the surface, and Brody saw the rope coiled around Quint’s foot.
(….)
The fish came closer. It was only a few feet away, and Brody could see the conical snout. He screamed, an ejaculation of hopelessness, and closed his eyes, waiting for an agony he could not imagine.
Nothing happened. He opened his eyes. The fish was nearly touching him, only a foot or two away, but it had stopped. And then, as Brody watched, the steelgray body began to recede downward into the gloom. It seemed to fall away, an apparition evanescing into darkness.
Brody put his face into the water and opened his eyes. Through the stinging saltwater mist he saw the fish sink in a slow and peaceful spiral, trailing behind it the body of Quint – arms out to the sides, head thrown back, mouth open in a mute protest’

 

 

 

Peter Benchley (8 mei 1940  - 11 februari 2006)

De Amerikaanse schrijver Sloan Wilson werd geboren op 8 mei 1920 in Norwalk, Connecticut. Zie ook mijn blog van 8 mei 2007 en ook mijn blog van 8 mei 2009.

 

Uit: A Summer Place

 

“The most junior officer was usually given the graveyard watch, as it was called, lasting from midnight to four in the morning. In March of 1943, on only the third night that he had stood his own watch, a heavy gale was blowing. The convoy consisted of a dozen naval tankers taking gasoline to bases in Britain. Heavy-laden, they were smothered in foam by the Arctic combers, and the convoy speed had to be reduced to four knots. There were no moon and stars that night, and Bart’s ship had not yet been given radar. Depending on eyesight and echo sounding devices alone, Bart’s destroyer and three others tried to keep close to the unlighted vessels without running into them. It was bitter cold, with the spray freezing on deck and on the portholes of the pilothouse…It was eighteen minutes after two in the morning when a star shell suddenly burst over the convoy, turning the raging sea white. A wolf pack of five black submarines, almost invisible in the night, came charging arrogantly in on the surface with their deck guns stabbing the fat-bellied tankers. It hadn’t been necessary for the submarines to send up another star shell, for in the few seconds that the first one hung blazing in the sky, a gas tanker exploded, sending a column of fire a thousand feet into the air.”

 

 

 

 

Sloan Wilson (8 mei 1920 – 25 mei 2003)

 

 

 

 

De Engelse dichter en schrijver John Meade Falkner werd geboren op 8 mei 1858 in Manningford Bruce, Wiltshire. Zie ook mijn blog van 8 mei 2009.

 

Uit: The Nebuly Coat

 

„The Hand of God stood on the highest point in all the borough, and Mr. Westray's apartments were in the third story. From the window of his sitting-room he could look out over the houses on to Cullerne Flat, the great tract of salt-meadows that separated the town from the sea. In the foreground was a broad expanse of red-tiled roofs; in the middle distance St. Sepulchre's Church, with its tower and soaring ridges, stood out so enormous that it seemed as if every house in the place could have been packed within its walls ; in the background was the blue sea. In summer the purple haze hangs over the mouth of the estuary, and through the shimmer of the heat off the marsh, can be seen the silver windings of the Cull as it makes its way out to sea, and snow-white flocks of geese, and here and there the gleaming sail of a pleasure-boat. But in autumn, as Westray saw it for the first time, the rank grass is of a deeper green, and the face of the salt-meadows is seamed with irregular clay-brown channels, which at high- tide show out like crows'-feet on an ancient countenance, but at the ebb dwindle to little gullies with greasy-looking banks and a dribble of iridescent water in the bottom. It is in the autumn that the moles heap up meanders of miniature barrows, built of the softest brown loam ; and in the turbaries the turf-cutters pile larger and darker stacks of peat. Once upon a time there was another feature in the view, for there could have been seen the masts and yards of many stately ships, of timber vessels in the Baltic trade, of tea- clippers, and Indiamen, and emigrant ships, and now and then the raking spars of a privateer owned by Cullerae adventurers.“

 

 

 

J. Meade Falkner (8 mei 1858 – 22 juli 1932)

Falkner in 1883

 

 

 

 

De Franse schrijver Alain-René Lesage werd geboren op 8 mei 1668 in Sarzeau. Zie ook mijn blog van 8 mei 2009.

 

Uit: Le diable boiteux

 

„Le dramaturge prétentieux : « Tous mes ouvrages, a-t-il continué sans façon, sont marqués au bon coin : aussi, quand je les lis, il faut voir comme on les applaudit ; je marrête à chaque vers pour recevoir des louanges. »
Le barbaresque esclavagiste : « Aby Ali me dit en langue castillane : Modérez votre affliction : consolez-vous dêtre tombée dans lesclavage ; ce malheur était inévitable pour vous ; mais que dis-je, ce malheur ? cest un avantage dont vous devez vous applaudir. Vous êtes trop belle pour vous borner aux hommages des chrétiens. Le ciel ne vous a point fait naître pour ces misérables mortels ; vous méritez les tous premiers hommes du monde : les seuls musulmans sont dignes de vous posséder. »

(...)

 

« Les femmes ne saiment point. Jen suppose deux parfaitement unies ; je veux même quelles ne disent pas le moindre mal lune de lautre en leur absence, tant elles sont amies ; vous les voyez toutes deux ; vous penchez dun côté, la rage se met de lautre ; ce nest pas que lenragée vous aime ; mais elle voulait la préférence. Tel est le caractère des femmes : elles sont trop jalouses les unes des autres pour être capables damitié. »

 

 

 

Alain-René Lesage (8 mei 1668 – 17 november 1747)

 

 

 

 

De Duitse dichter Johann von Besser werd geboren op 8 mei 1654 in Frauenburg (tegenwoordig Saldus in Letland). Zie en ook mijn blog van 8 mei 2009.

 

 

An die auff Doris brust verwelckte rose.

Wie hastu rose / voller pracht /
Auff Doris brust zu sterben wissen?
Hat dich ihr schnee beschämt gemacht /
Daß du davor erbleichen müssen?
Ja freylich blumen-königin /
Dein purpur weichet dem jeßmin /
Den dieser schöne kreiß läst spüren.
Doch sorge nicht ob dem verlust /
Du stirbst auff meiner Doris brust /
Du solst dadurch gar nichts verlieren,
Ich werde nun dein welckes blat /
In meynung Doris brust zu küssen /
An meinen mund zu drücken wissen /
Und wünschen / daß an deiner statt
Ich für dich hätte sterben müssen.

 

 

 

 

Johann von Besser (8 mei 1654 – 10 februari 1729)

 

 

 

 

De Deense schrijver Sophus Schandorph werd geboren op 8 mei 1836 in Ringstedt. Zie ook mijn blog van 8 mei 2007 en ook mijn blog van 8 mei 2009.

 

Uit: Stina Becomes a Farmer's Wife  (vertaald door Sally Ryan)

 

„She never stopped or quickened her steps, but kept an even pace with unchanging calmness, walking along with her feet apart, like a sturdy, broadgaged wagon, while the thick, heavy soles of her leather shoes made goodly tracks on the ground. Drops of perspiration trickled from her white forehead down her ruddy, freckled nose, but this was the only movement in her big, sun-burned face. She did not even blink in the sun. Her mouth was slightly open, displaying a remarkably strong and beautiful row of upper teeth. From time~ to time she ran the tip of her tongue over her lips, without, however, changing their position.

Stina had need to arm herself with patience; she had already walked two miles from the town where she was in service, and had fully four miles more to go before reaching the village of her destination. Her mistress, the widow of the late dean, had given her a whole day's leave. This occurred twice a year, once at Shrovetide, and once after the summer holidays, when the two sons of the house had returned to their studies at the University in Copenhagen.

Stina always took advantage of these two free days to visit her eight-year-old daughter. With some help from the parish, this child–unfortunately born out of wedlock–had been placed in the care of a cottager and his wife in Stina's native village. The father had worked on the same farm with Stina when she was twenty-two years old, but, upon learning that she was "in trouble," he had hastily left for America.

Stina's progress along the dusty road was very slow, just barely noticeable. One or two vehicles passed her. The first was a light cabriolet, on the back seat of which a fat country gentleman was sprawling, pulling at his cigar. On the front seat the coachman cracked his whip as the carriage whizzed by. Stina came near being struck by the tip of the lash. She even blinked a little at the threatening possibility. The dust stirred up by the wheels whirled around her like the steam from an engine and made her sneeze. Although there was plenty of room in the carriage, it would never occur to a "gentleman farmer" to give a peasant girl a lift, nor would she ever ask him to do so.“

 

 

 

Sophus Schandorph (8 mei 1836 - 1 januari 1901)

 

 

 

Zie voor onderstaande schrijver ook mijn blog van 8 mei 2009.

 

De Duitse schrijver Otto Zierer werd geboren op 8 mei 1909 in Bamberg.