Notable quotes, excerpts, and profound lines.

[kennyc]

I've been reading poetry today and came across a couple for lines that particularly struck me and thought it might be interesting to start a thread of lines (opening lines, selected lines, or quotes) from any reading you might be doing along with references of course so that anyone interested can look them up and read for themselves.

If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.
- Emily Dickinson


I'll share the two that struck me today:

From A Village Life by Louise Gluck - "Slip of Paper"

....
To get born, your body makes a pact with death,
and from that moment, all it tries to do is cheat--
...


And
From Unincorporated Persons in the Late Honda Dynasty by Tony Hoagland -- "Powers"

....
What are we but monkeys who learned to drive cars,
who have the freedom to read or not to read
Proust?
.....

[Hamlet53]

So here are some examples to suggest why I love Junchiro Tanizakis' works so much:

"Today when the summer thrush
Came to sing at Heron's Nest
I crossed the Bridge of Dreams."
- from The Bridge of Dreams

"The cold winter rains and the snow
Only fall now and then—
But because of you, my tears
Are falling constantly."
- from A Blind Man's Tale

"Blown by the wind
The smoke from Fuji disappears,
Who knows where?
So to my thoughts."
-from Childhood Years

"Every worm to his taste;
Some prefer to eat nettles."
-from Some Prefer Nettles

These are all translations from the Japanese. I feel Howard Hibbet must have gotten it right.

And here is one that has stuck with me for at least 30 years since I read this the first time:


"The children of these disillusioned colored pioneers inherited the total lot of their parents--the disappointments, the anger. To add to their misery, they had little hope of deliverance. For where does one run to when he's already in the promised land?"
- from Manchild in the Promised Land by Claude Brown

[kennyc]

Thanks for those Hamlet53

[poohbear_nc]

Lonely vs. alone - as seen by Emily Dickinson ...

You need not fear to leave me
lest I should be alone,
for I often part with things
I fancy I have loved, --
sometimes to the grave, and
sometimes to an oblivion
rather bitterer than death.

[WT Sharpe]

I love this line of scripture from the Rig Veda. The late, great Carl Sagan quoted it in the Cosmos TV series. Picture him delivering this line in his own inimitable style, complete with a dramatic pause right after the word "perhaps":

Whence this creation has come into being;
whether it was made or not;
he in the highest heaven is its surveyor.
Surely he knows,
or perhaps
he knows not.

— Rig Veda Creation Hymn (to Agni, god of fire).

[kennyc]

Nice one Poohbear.

I always love her death/eternity.

Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.

Sends chills up my spine every time....

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

I love this line of scripture from the Rig Veda. The late, great Carl Sagan quoted it in the Cosmos TV series. Picture him delivering this line in his own inimitable style, complete with a dramatic pause right after the word "perhaps":

Whence this creation has come into being; whether it was made or not; he in the highest heaven is its surveyor. Surely he knows, or perhaps he knows not.
(To Agni [god of fire])
Rig Veda Creation Hymn.

I must read that....

Is it available as an ebook?

[poohbear_nc]

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_no...g+veda&x=0&y=0

Is this it?

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by poohbear_nc

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_no...g+veda&x=0&y=0

Is this it?

I think that's it....was hoping it might be Public Domain, but $3 ain't bad.

[poohbear_nc]

Originally Posted by kennyc

I think that's it....was hoping it might be Public Domain, but $3 ain't bad.

Might check Gutenberg too.

[jgaiser]

Check Wikipedia.. Couple of links at the end of the article.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rigveda

[kennyc]

Well. I looked at Rig Veda a couple of places like:

http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/index.htm

and decided to pass....at least for now.

didn't do much for me. Too many books, too little time.

[WT Sharpe]

I don't think one person could ever read all of the Hindu sacred texts in one lifetime.

Fortunately; for Hindus that's not a problem.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

I don't think one person could ever read all of the Hindu sacred texts in one lifetime.

Fortunately; for Hindus that's not a problem.

Good point.

[AlexBell]

This certainly isn't poetry, but ...

In a rational world the locution "laws of war" would make as much sense as "etiquette of cannibals."

Norman Finkelstein

Regards, Alex