Home Blog Page 15

The Dream 2

By
Saksagan
-
0

Howbeit the ways were unknown to me: and thereupon I took up my packet, unlocked and unbarred the doors, but those good and faithful doors, which in the night did open of their own accord, could then scantly be opened with their keys. And when I was out I cried, “O sirrah hostler, where art thou? Open the stable-door, for I will ride away by and by.” The hostler lying behind the stable-door upon a pallet and half asleep, “What (quoth he), do you not know that the ways be very dangerous? what mean you to rise at this time of night? If you, perhaps guilty of some heinous crime, be weary of your life, yet think you not that we are such sots that we will die for you.” Then said I, “It is wellnigh day, and moreover, what can thieves take from him that hath nothing? Dost thou not know, fool as thou art, if thou be naked, if ten giants should assail thee, they could not spoil`or rob thee?” Whereunto the drowsy hostler, half asleep and turning on the other side, answered, “What know I whether you have murdered your companion whom you brought in yesternight or no, and now seek the means to escape away?” O Lord, at that time, I remember, the earth seemed to open, and methought I saw at hell gate the dog.

Cerberus ready to devour me; and then I verily believed that Meroe did not spare my throat moved with pity, but rather cruelly pardoned me to bring me to the gallows. Wherefore I returned to my chamber, and there devised with myself in what sort I should finish my life. And therewithal I pulled out a piece of rope wherewith the bed was corded, and tied one end thereof about a rafter by the window, and with the other end I made a sliding knot, and stood upon my bed, and so put my neck into it, and when I leaped from the bed thinking verily to strangle myself and so die, behold the rope, being old and rotten, burst in the middle, and I fell down tumbling upon Socrates that lay under: and even at that same very time the hostler came in crying with a loud voice and said,

“Where are you that made such haste at midnight, and now lies wallowing abed?” Whereupon (I know not whether it was by my fall, or by the great cry of the hostler) Socrates as waking out of a sleep, did rise up first and said, “It is not without cause that strangers do speak evil of all such hostlers, for this caitiff in his coming in, and with his crying out, I think under a color to steal away something, has waked me out of a sound sleep.` Then I rose up, joyful with a merry countenance, saying, “Behold, good hostler, my friend, my companion and my brother whom thou didst falsely affirm to be slain by me this night.” And therewithal I embraced my friend Socrates and kissed him, and took him by the hand and said, “Why tarry we? Why lose we the pleasure of this fair morning? let us go”: and so I took up my packet, and paid the charges of the house and departed.

And we had not gone a mile out of the town but it was broad day, and then I diligently looked upon Socrates` throat to see if I could espy the place where Meroe thrust in her sword; but when I could not perceive any such thing, I thought with myself, What a madman am I, that being overcome with wine yesternight have dreamed such terrible things! behold, I see Socrates is sound, safe and in health. Where is his wound? where is the sponge? where is his great and new cut? And then I spake to him and said, “Verily it is not without occasion that physicians of experience do affirm, that such as fill their gorges abundantly with meat and drink shall dream of dire and horrible sights: for I myself, not tempering my appetite yesternight from pots of wine, did seem to see this night strange and cruel visions, that even yet I think myself sprinkled and wet with human blood. Whereunto Socrates laughing made answer, “Nay, verily, I myself dreamed this night that my throat was cut, and that I felt the pain of the wound, and that my heart was pulled out of my belly, and the remembrance thereof makes me now to fear, for my knees do so tremble that I can scarce go any further; and therefore I would fain eat somewhat to strengthen and revive my spirits.”

Then said I, “Behold here thy breakfast ; and therewithal I opened my scrip that hanged upon my shoulder, and gave him bread and cheese, and we sat down under a great plane tree, and I ate part with him. And while I beheld him eating greedily, I perceived that he waxed meager and pale, and that his lively color faded away, insomuch that being in great fear, and remembering those terrible furies of whom I lately dreamed, the first morsel of bread that I put in my mouth (which was but very small) did so stick in my jaws, that I could neither swallow it down, nor yet yield it up, and moreover the small time of our being together increased my fear: and what is he that seeing his companion die in the highway before his face, would not greatly lament and be sorry?

But when that Socrates had eaten sufficiently, he waxed very thirsty, for indeed he had well- nigh devoured all a whole cheese: and behold evil fortune! there was behind the plane tree a pleasant running water as clear as crystal, and I said unto him, “Come hither, Socrates, to this water and drink thy fill.” And then he rose and came to the river, and kneeled down upon the side of the bank to drink; but he had scarce touched the water with his lips, whenas behold the wound of his throat opened wide, and the sponge suddenly fell into the water, and after issued out a little remnant of blood, and his body being then without life, had fallen into the river, had I not caught him by the leg and so pulled him up. And after that I had lamented a good space the death of my wretched companion, I buried him in the sands there by the river.

The whole text can be seen on link The Dream.

Read More about The Mummy`s Foot part 6

The Book of Ruth 2

By
Saksagan
-
0

Then Naomi her mother-in-law said unto her:—-“My daughter, shall I not seek rest for thee, that it may be well with thee? And now is not Boaz of our kindred, with whose maidens thou wast? Behold, he winnoweth barley to-night in the threshing-floor. Wash thyself therefore, and anoint thee, and put thy raiment upon thee, and get thee down to the floor: but make not thyself known unto the man, until he shall have done eating and drinking. And it shall be, when he lieth down, that thou shalt mark the place where he shall lie, and thou shalt go in, and uncover his feet, and lay thee down; and he will tell thee what thou shalt do.” And she said unto her:—“All that thou sayest unto me I will do.”

And she went down unto the floor, and did according to all that her mother-in-law bade her. And when Boaz had eaten and drunk, and his heart was merry, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of corn: and she came softly, and uncovered his feet, and laid her down. And it came to pass at midnight, that the man was afraid, and turned himself: and, behold, a woman lay at his feet. And he said:—“Who art thou?” And she answered:—“I am Ruth thine handmaid: spread therefore thy skirt over thine handmaid; for thou art a near kinsman.”

Poor or Rich

And he said:—“Blessed be thou of the Lord, my daughter: for thou hast shewed more kindness in the latter end than at the beginning, inasmuch as thou followedst not young men, whether poor or rich. And now, my daughter, fear not; I will do to thee all that thou requir- est: for all the city of my people doth know that thou art a virtuous woman. And now it is true that I am thy near kinsman: howbeit there is a kinsman nearer than I. Tarry this night, and it shall be in the morning, that if he will perform unto thee the part of a kinsman, well; let him do the kinsman`s part: but if he will not do the part of a kinsman to thee, then will I do the part of a kinsman to thee, as the Lord liveth: lie down until the morning.”

And she lay at his feet until the morning: and she rose up before one could know another. And he said:—“Let it not be known that a woman came into the floor.” Also he said:—“Bring the vail that thou hast upon thee, and hold it.” And when she held it, he measured six measures of barley, and laid it on her: and she went into the city. And when she came to her mother-in-law, she said:—“Who art thou, my daughter?” And she told her all that the man had done to her. And she said:—“These six measures of barley gave he me; for he said to me, Go not empty unto thy mother-in-law.” Then said she:—“Sit still, my daughter, until thou know how the matter will fall: for the man will not be in rest, until he have finished the thing this day.”

Then went Boaz up to the gate, and sat him down there: and, behold, the kinsman of whom Boaz spake came by; unto whotn he said: —“Ho, such a one! turn aside, sit down here.” And he turned aside, and sat down. And he took ten men of the elders of the city, and said: —“Sit ye down here.” And they sat down. And he said unto the kinsman:— “Naomi, that is come again out of the country of Moab, selleth a parcel of land, which was our brother Elimelech`s: and I thought to advertise thee, saying, Buy it before the inhabitants, and before the elders of my people. If thou wilt redeem it, redeem it: but if thou wilt not redeem it, then tell me, that I may know: for there is none to redeem it beside thee; and I am after thee.”

Ruth the Moabitess

And he said: “I will redeem it.” Then said Boaz:—“What day thou buyest the field of the hand of Naomi, thou must buy it also of Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of the dead, to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance.” And the kinsman said:—“ I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I mar mine own inheritance: redeem thou my right to thyself; for I cannot redeem it.” Now this was the manner in former time in Israel concerning redeeming and concerning changing, for to confirm all things; a man plucked off his shoe, and gave it to his neighbor: and this was a testimony in Israel. Therefore the kinsman said unto Boaz: —“Buy it for thee.” So he drew off his shoe.

And Boaz said unto the elders, and unto all the people:—“Ye are witnesses this day, that I have bought all that was Ehmelech`s, and all that was Chili on`s and Mahlon`s of the hand of Naomi. Moreover, Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of Mahlon, have I purchased to be my wife, to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance, that the name of the dead be not cut off from among his brethren, and from the gate of his place: ye are witnesses this day.” And all the people that were in the gate, and the elders, said:—“We are witnesses. The Lord make the woman that is come into thine house like Rachel and like Leah, which two did build the house of Israel: and do thou worthily in Ephratah, and be famous in Beth-lehem: and let thy house be like the house of Pharez, whom Tamar bare unto Judah, of the seed which the Lord shall give thee of this young woman.”

So Boaz took Ruth, and she was his wife: and when he went in unto her, the Lord gave her conception, and she bare a son. And the women said unto Naomi:—“Blessed be the Lord, which hath not left thee this day without a kinsman, that his name may be famous in Israel. And he shall be unto thee a restorer of thy life, and a nourisher of thine old age: for thy daughter-in-law, which loveth thee, which is better to thee than seven sons, hath born him.” And Naomi took the child, and laid it in her bosom, and became nurse unto it. And the women her neighbors gave it a name, saying:—“There is a son born to Naomi”; and they called his name Obed: he is the father of Jesse, the father of David.

The above text has been copied from www.marietaminkova.com; For the rest of the story you can visit link The Book of Ruth.

Read More about Mrs Bullfrog Part 3

Rabbi Akiva 1

By
Saksagan
-
0

The Talmud is a great collection of law, ritual, precept, and example, which was composed during the period extending from the First Century B.C. to the Fourth Century A.D. The work was the result of a vast amount of compilation begun, so far as the actual writing is concerned, in the year 219 A.D. by Rabbi Jehudah Hanassi. About the year 500 A.D. it was complete, having been combined with a good deal of material brought together since the first parts were written down. The colossal work is interspersed throughout with parables, like Rabbi Akiva and The Jewish Mother, all of which were used for purposes of illustration.
The texts of these stories are based, by the editors, upon two early translations. There are no titles to the stories in the original.

Rabbi Akiva

The Rabbis tell us that once the Roman Government made a decree forbidding Israel to study the law. Thereupon Pappus, son of Yehudah, one day found Rabbi Akiva teaching it openly to many whom he had gathered round him to hear it. “Akiva,” he said, “dost not thou fear the Government?” “Listen, was the reply, and I will tell thee how it is through a parable. It is the same with me as with the fishes which a fox, walking by a river s bank, saw darting distractedly to and fro in the stream; and, speaking to them, inquired, `From what, pray, are ye fleeing?` `From the nets,` they answered, `which the sons of men have set to snare us. Why, then, rejoined the fox, `not try the dry land with me, where we can live together, as our fathers managed to live before us?`

`Surely,` they exclaimed, thou art not he of whom we have heard as the most cunning of animals; for in this thing thou art not wise, but foolish. For if we have cause to fear where it is natural for us to live, how much more reason have we to do so where we must die!` Exactly so,” continued Akiva, “is it with us who study the law, in which it is written, `He is thy life and the length of thy days; for if we suffer while studying the law, how much more shah we suffer if we neglect it?”

The story has been taken from www.ensartourguide.com. Whole story can be read on link Rabbi Akiva.

Read More about Journalism in Tennessee part 4

Horatius at the Bridge 1

By
Saksagan
-
0

Ancient Rome

It is a commonplace of literary history that Roman art was largely imitated or derived from the Greek, and in particular that Roman literature contributed little to the world`s store of masterpieces. Yet among the Romans the short story was esteemed more highly and was often more skillfully developed than it was among the Greeks.

The first of the stories chosen is from the historian Livy. Before his day there is very little material from which to select, although if the earlier writers of epic and history were better known to us, we might have found stories in the works of Livius Andronicus, Ennius, and the historians, most of whose writings have been lost. In the Letters of Cicero are numerous incidents falling within our category, but none of them of sufficient intrinsic interest to warrant their inclusion in this volume. Livy`s History abounds in episodes, many of them related with a certain matter-of-factness that characterizes a great deal of Latin prose writing. Still, Horatius at the Bridge is a stirring tale rendered doubly effective by its simplicity.

Ovid was a born teller of stories, and though he borrowed largely from the Greeks and was a fastidious poet intent upon achieving a refined and elegant style, the numerous myths which he treats at length in his Metamorphoses include half a dozen of the loveliest stories ever written.
Other poets and historians and miscellaneous writers—Valerius Maximus, Varro, Statius, Tacitus and Suetonius—tried their hand at story-telling, and even Vergil in his JEneid recounted episodes that are genuine stories, but none of them could rival the technical skill with which the minor poet Phaedrus turned the ffssopian fables and everyday incidents of life and history into graceful and appealing tales. Like the earlier fabulists, Phaedrus preached litde sermons. The most interesting parts of his work are the little anecdotes, like the one included in this volume; these are miniature stories. The other famous Roman fabulist was Avianus who, rediscovered in the Middle Ages, exerted a profound and lasting influence in France and Germany. But his work is neither so finished nor so attractive as that of Phaedrus.

Many genuine stories are found in the personal correspondence of the time, chiefly among the published collections of Cicero and Pliny the Younger. Pliny wrote several short stories which he elaborated with conscious skill, for he wrote with a view to publication. Throughout all modern literature we find stories, indeed lengthy stories (see Richardson), related through the medium of letters. This is a deliberate device employed to lend to the narrative an air of actuality. It would be enlightening to know whether Pliny wrote his Haunted House as a literary experiment, or whether he really believed the story. But supposing he related it as a fact—supposing even that all the facts were to be proved scientifically correct, would it be any the less a good story?
Matron of Ephesus

Petronius belonged to a different world in which Latin prose had lost a good deal of its rigid dignity, and like the literature of the late Hellenistic period in Greece, was characterized by a facile cynicism on the part of the writers, and an over-luxuriance of style. The writers were very numerous, poets, historians, satirists, and even scientists interspersing their writings with tales of haunted houses, ghosts, and all the supernatural apparitions that are the stock-in-trade of the story- writer. Petronius and Apuleius, however, stood head and shoulders above the rest of their contemporaries and followers. The Matron of Ephesus, hackneyed though its theme may be, is a masterpiece of satirical fiction, while The Dream is one of a dozen tales of mystery and imagination which constitute the chief glory of The Golden Ass. That rambling romance, it will be remembered, also contains the enchanting Cupid and Psyche, which is far too long for inclusion in a collection of this sort.

Just at what point Roman literature ended is a matter to be determined by the historians, but after the Fifth Century A.D. it becomes increasingly difficult to designate any tale as unmistakably Roman.

Then foreigners began to change the face of the Empire, Christianity damped the ardour of the artist and stifled the imagination of the storyteller. It is not until the dawn of modern times, some six or seven centuries afterward, when the fragments of Roman stories were again taken up and imbedded in the curious mediaeval mosaics of the Gesta Romanorum and the Hundred Ancient Tales, that we realize that the art of tale-telling had never been forgotten.

Throughout the break-up of Rome and the barbarian invasions, through the darkest years of the Tenth Century, the Latin traditions were preserved in the manuscripts of the monasteries, and on the lips of singers, minstrels, acrobats, and actors.

With Apuleius and Petronius the short story, as a literary-form, achieved a decided technical advance over the efforts of the Greeks. With these later writers the story was told largely for its own sake, and not to illustrate a moral truth or glorify the deeds of the Roman people.

Livy (59 B.C.-I7 A.D.)

Titus Livius, known to us under the English title of Livy, though born in the provinces at Padua, spent most of his life at the capital, where he was a teacher and writer of history. His History of Rome was a monumental work, of which only a part has come down to us. Like practically all the historians of antiquity (and most of the modems, for that matter) he introduces stories and anecdotes on hearsay evidence, using them in order to glorify his country or to drive home a lesson. Horatius at the Bridge is a case in question, and though it may be founded on fact, it is probably apocryphal in detail.

The present translation (including Chapters IX and X of Book II) is a revision of that made by D. Spillan, published in the Bohn edition in 1872. There is no title in the original.

The above text has been copied from docappadocia.com; For the rest of the story you can visit link Horatius at the Bridge.

Read More about The Mummy`s Foot part 1

The Country Mouse and the Town Mouse 1

By
Saksagan
-
0

Jesop (6th Century, B.C.?)

Jesop was “not a poet,” says Gilbert Murray, “but the legendary author of a particular type of story.” This type is known as the Beast Fable, a brief incident related in order to point a simple moral. According to tradition Jesop was a foreign slave of the Sixth Century B.C. Whether the fables of ancient India, such as those in the Hitopadesa, influenced the ancient Greeks and Romans is a question still debated by scholars. At any rate there is a striking similarity, both in treatment and subject-matter, between the Fables of Jesop, Phaedrus and Avianus, and those which delighted the Indians.

The present translation was made by James and published first in 1848.

The Country Mouse and the Town Mouse

Once upon a time a Country Mouse who had a friend in town invited him, for old acquaintance` sake, to pay him a visit in the country. The invitation being accepted in due form, the Country Mouse, though plain and rough and somewhat frugal in his nature opened his heart and store, in honor of hospitality and an old friend.

There was not a carefully stored-up morsel that he did not bring forth out of his larder, peas and barley, cheese-parings and nuts, hoping by quantity to make up what he feared was wanting in quality, to suit the palate of his dainty guest. The Town Mouse, condescending to pick a bit here and a bit there, while the host sat nibbling a blade of barley- straw, at length exclaimed, “How is it, my good friend, that you can endure the dullness of this unpolished life? You are living like a toad in a hole. You can`t really prefer these solitary rocks and woods to streets teeming with carriages and men. On my honor, you are wasting your time miserably here. We must make the most of life while it lasts.

The whole text can be seen on link The Country Mouse and the Town Mouse

Read More about Ski holidays Bulgaria Bansko

Eumieus` Tale 2

By
Saksagan
-
0

The story below has been copied from docappadocia.com. You can read the rest of the story on  Eumieus Tale.

Homer (About 1000 B.C.)

The first mention of Homer dates from the Seventh Century B.C., but when he lived, or indeed whether he ever lived at all, are questions that have never been solved. The Iliad and The Odyssey were probably composed about a thousand years before the Christian era. The short story, as we know it, was not of course a recognized literary form, but Eumtsus ` Tale, in The Odyssey, happens to be an excellent example. It is told to Odysseus by the old swine-herd.

The present version, purposely reduced by the editors to more or less colloquial prose, is based upon three translations. There is no title in the original.

Eumieus` Tale

There is an island over beyond Ortygia—perchance thou hast -L heard tell of it—where the sun turns. It is a goodly island, though not very vast, with rich herds and flocks, and much grain and wine. There is no dearth, and no illness visits poor mortals. When men grow old there, Apollo of the Silverow, in company with Artemis, comes to them and kills them gendy with his shafts. On the island are two cities, which divide all the land between them. My father was king over all, Ctesius son of Ormenus, a godlike man.

“To this land came the Phoenicians, famous sailors greedy for mer-chandise, bringing many things in their dark ship. There was in my father`s palace a Phoenician woman, tall and lovely, and skilful in making beautiful things with her hands; her the Phoenicians deceived by their guile. As she was washing clothes near the hollow ship, one of them conquered her; love beguiles many women, even the noblest. The Phoenician asked her who she was and from what land, and she straight-way showed him the high palace of my father, and said, `I come from Sidon, rich in bronze, and am the daughter of the wealthy Arybas. The Taphians, who are pirates, seized me as I was coming from the fields, brought me to this land, and sold me for a great price to my present master.` Then he who had conquered her said in answer, `Wouldst thou return once more to thy home with us, to see again the high palace of thy father, and see thy mother? They are yet alive, and are reputed to be wealthy.`

“Then the woman made answer to him and said, `This may be, if you sailors will swear to bring me home safely.` Thus she answered, and the sailors swore as she bade them, and after they had sworn, the woman spake to them: `Say naught now; let none of you speak to me when you see me in the street, or even by the well, lest it be known and told to the old man here, and he suspect me and tie me fast and bring death to you all. But keep in mind the plan, and hasten to bring your freight for the homeward voyage. When your ship is full laden, send a messenger quickly to the palace for me, and I will bring gold, all I can lay hand upon. And there is more, besides, that I would bring with me: I am nursing a child for my master, a darling boy who runs about with me; I would bring him with me on the ship. He should bring a high price, if you sell him among men of other lands and other speech.`

“Then she departed to the fair halls. But the sailors remained among us a whole year, and gathered great wealth for their hollow ship, and when it was laden and ready to sail, a messenger was sent to tell the woman. A crafty man with a golden and amber chain came to the halls of my father. My mother and the maidens in the palace were looking upon the chain and holding it, offering the man a price for it, while he made signs in silence to the woman. Then he betook himself to the hollow ship. The woman then took me by the hand and led me out of the house. At the doorway she found the cups and tables of the guests who had feasted and waited upon my father: they had gone out to the meeting-place where councils were held.

And the woman concealed three cups in her bosom, and carried them away, while I followed her innocently. The sun sank and darkness came. Going quickly, we reached the harbor and the swift ship of the Phoenicians; the sailors went aboard, taking us with them, and sailed over the ocean, Zeus giving us favoring winds. We sailed continuously day and night for six days, but when Zeus, son of Cronos, brought the seventh, Artemis the huntress struck down the woman and she fell like a swallow to the bottom of the ship. The sailors threw her overboard, to the seals and the fishes, and I sorrowed. With the help of wind and wave they came to Ithaca, where Laertes bought me. It was thus that I first beheld this place.”

Read More about The Mummy`s Foot part 3

Zheravna Festival

By
Saksagan
-
0

Private tours Bulgaria. Bulgaria is no different from any other country in the world. It has its own history, heroes, legends. It surely had its falls and pinnacle. Bulgaria is inviting you on private tours Bulgaria to learn more about the country.

The country had difficult moments but it has always had its folklore. That folklore full of never ending energy which helped Bulgarians to survive through the centuries of wars. It also helped them to stay as a nation. What does folklore mean? It is the beliefs, traditions, stories of a community which are passed through the generations by word of mouth. Bulgarian folk songs, Bulgarian traditional costumes have these in them. The costume is one of the most typical elements of the Bulgarian folk culture.

It reflects the specificity, traditional culture and life of the Bulgarian people. According to ethnography, the origin of the costume is mainly Slavonic. However, it bears features of the clothes that Thracians and ancient Bulgarians used to wear. Also, features of other peoples’ can be noticed in the national costume. These are the nations that Bulgarians were in contact with – Turkish people, Greeks, Albanians, Vlachs. (private tour Istanbul)

A magic world of colours and patterns

The magic of private tours Bulgaria is endless. It reveals a magic world of different colours and motifs. These colours and motifs tell us stories of times long gone. Although Bulgaria is a Christian country, still paganism is alive. Pagan beliefs and legends are significant elements in the traditional costume.

In the past people used to have their traditional everyday clothing and such on festive occasions. Each region of Bulgaria has its own costume, which has typical motifs that make it unique. Diversity comes as a result of different factors: geographical, historical, socio-economic, cultural, religious, outside influence and of course, the personal taste.

Firstly, we need to say that costumes are male and female. Due to the many colours and motifs, the female clothing is more interesting than the men’s. However, male clothing can be attractive as well. Usually women’s clothes were the soukman, the one-apron, the two-apron costumes and the saya. Of course, they differed in the items included in the clothing. More or less, the main item in all of them was the chemise.

And secondly, what distinguishes both costumes is the outer clothes. For men`s costumes the shape and colour are the ones that matter, while for female it is the cut and wearing style.

This article is copied from www.enmarbg.com. For more information, you can click on private tours Bulgaria.

Read More about Bulgaria trips

One Autumn Night part 8

By
Saksagan
-
0

But, ugh! it was impossible for me to think that, for cold drops of rain were dripping down upon me, the woman was pressing close to me, her warm breath was fanning my face, and despite a slight odor of vodka it did me good. The wind howled and raged, the rain smote upon the skiff, the waves splashed, and both of us, embracing each other convulsively, nevertheless shivered with cold. All this was only too real, and I am certain that nobody ever dreamed such an oppressive and horrid dream as that reality.

Beneath the influence

But Natasha was talking all the time of something or other, talking kindly and sympathetically, as only women can talk. Beneath the influence of her voice and kindly words, a little fire began to burn up within me, and something inside my heart thawed in consequence.

Then tears poured from my eyes like a hailstorm, washing away from my heart much that was evil, much that was stupid, much sorrow and dirt which had fastened upon it before that night. Natasha comforted me.

“Come, come, that will do, little one! Don`t take on! That`ll do!
God will give you another chance… you will right yourself and stand in your proper place again… and it will be all right….”

And she kept kissing me… many kisses did she give me… burning kisses… and all for nothing.

Those were the first kisses from a woman that had ever been bestowed upon me, and they were the best kisses too, for all the subsequent kisses cost me frightfully dear, and really gave me nothing at all in exchange.
Come, don`t take on so, funny one! I`ll manage for you to-morrow if you cannot find a place.” Her quiet, persuasive whispering sounded in my ears as if it came through a dream.

There we lay till dawn.

And when the dawn came, we crept from behind the skiff and went into the town. Then we took friendly leave of each other and never met again, although for half a year I searched in every hole and corner for that kind Natasha, with whom I spent the autumn night just described.

If she be already dead and well for her if it were so may she rest In peace! And if she be alive… still I say “Peace to her soul!” And may the consciousness of her fall never enter her soul… for that Would be a superfluous and fruitless suffering if life is to be lived.

Read More about Report of his Mission to Constantinople part 14

One Autumn Night part 7

By
Saksagan
-
0

I felt really wretched more from cold than from the words of my neighbor. I groaned softly and ground my teeth.

Almost at the same moment I felt two little arms about me one of (Item touched my neck and the other lay upon my face and at the lame time an anxious, gentle, friendly voice uttered the question:

“What ails you?”

I was ready to believe that someone else was asking me this and not Natasha, who had just declared that all men were scoundrels, and expressed a wish for their destruction. But she it was, and now she began peaking quickly, hurriedly.

“What ails you, eh? Are you cold? Are you frozen? Ah, what a one are, sitting there so silent like a little owl! Why, you should have Id me long ago that you were cold.

Gome… lie on the ground stretch yourself out and I will lie… there! How`s that? Now put your arms round me?… tighter! How`s that? You shall be warmer soon now… And then we`ll lie back to back…. The night will pull so quickly, see if it won`t. I say… have you too been drinking…? Turned out of your place, eh?… It doesn`t matter.”

And she comforted me…. She encouraged me.

Destiny of humanity

May I be thrice accursed! What a world of irony was in this single lad for me! Just imagine! Here was I, seriously occupied at this very lime with the destiny of humanity, thinking of the reorganization of the social system, of political revolutions, reading all sorts of devilishly wise books whose abysmal profundity was certainly unfathomable by their very authors at this very time, I say, I was trying with all my might to make of myself “a potent, active social force.”

It even seemed to me that I had partially accomplished my object; anyhow, at this time, in my ideas about myself, I had got so far as to recognize that I had an exclusive right to exist, that I had the necessary greatness to deserve to live my life, and that I was fully competent to play a great historical part therein.

And a woman was now warming me with her body, a wretched, battered, hunted creature, who had no place and no value in life, and whom I had never thought of helping till she helped me herself, and whom I really would not have known how to help in any way even if the thought of it had occurred to me.

Ah! I was ready to think that all this was happening to me in a dream in a disagreeable, an oppressive dream.

Read More about The Mummy`s Foot part 9

One Autumn Night part 6

By
Saksagan
-
0

He had a vest which cost fifteen rubles and boots with dress tops. For these reasons she had fallen in love with him, and he became her “creditor.” And when he became her creditor, he made it his business to take away from her the money which her other friends gave to her for bonbons, and, getting drunk on this money, he would fall to beating her; but that would have been nothing if he hadn`t also begun to “run after” other girls before her very eyes.

“Now, wasn`t that an insult? I am not worse than the others. Of course that meant that he was laughing at me, the blackguard. The day before yesterday I asked leave of my mistress to go out for a bit, went to him, and there I found Dimka sitting beside him, drunk. And he, too, was half seas over.

I said, `You scoundrel, you!` And he gave me a thorough hiding. He kicked me and dragged me by the hair. But that was nothing to what came after. He spoiled everything I had on left me just as I am now! How could I appear before my mistress? He spoiled everything… my dress and my jacket too it was quite a new one; I gave a fiver for it… and tore my kerchief from my head.

Oh, Lord! What will become of me now?” she suddenly whined in a lamentable, overstrained voice.

More boisterous

The wind howled, and became ever colder and more boisterous. Again my teeth began to dance up and down, and she, huddled up to avoid the cold, pressed as closely to me as she could, so that I could see the gleam of her eyes through the darkness.

“What wretches all you men are! I`d bum you all in an oven; I`d cut you in pieces. If any one of you was dying I`d spit in his mouth, and not pity him a bit. Mean skunks! You wheedle and wheedle, you wag your tails like cringing dogs, and we fools give ourselves up to you, and it`s all up with us! Immediately you trample us underfoot miserable loafers!”
She cursed us up and down, but there was no vigor, no malice, no hatred of these “miserable loafers” in her cursing that I could hear. The tone of her language by no means corresponded with its subject- matter, for it was calm enough, and the gamut of her voice was terribly poor.

Yet all this made a stronger impression on me than the most eloquent and convincing pessimistic books and speeches, of which I had read a good many and which I still read to this day. And this, you see, Was because the agony of a dying person is much more natural and violent than the most minute and picturesque descriptions of death.

Read More about Report of his Mission to Constantinople part 22

1...141516...18Page 15 of 18

EDITOR PICKS

POPULAR POSTS

POPULAR CATEGORY

©