| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Kwaidan by Lafcadio Hearn: demons: therefore please to feel no anxiety on my account."
The young man appeared to be rejoiced by these assurances, and expressed
his gratitude in fitting words. Then the other members of the family, and
the folk assembled in the adjoining room, having been told of the priest's
kind promises, came to thank him,-- after which the master of the house
said:--
"Now, reverend Sir, much as we regret to leave you alone, we must bid you
farewell. By the rule of our village, none of us can stay here after
midnight. We beg, kind Sir, that you will take every care of your honorable
body, while we are unable to attend upon you. And if you happen to hear or
see anything strange during our absence, please tell us of the matter when
Kwaidan |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Divine Comedy (translated by H.F. Cary) by Dante Alighieri: Virgil, my best-lov'd father; Virgil, he
To whom I gave me up for safety: nor,
All, our prime mother lost, avail'd to save
My undew'd cheeks from blur of soiling tears.
"Dante, weep not, that Virgil leaves thee: nay,
Weep thou not yet: behooves thee feel the edge
Of other sword, and thou shalt weep for that."
As to the prow or stern, some admiral
Paces the deck, inspiriting his crew,
When 'mid the sail-yards all hands ply aloof;
Thus on the left side of the car I saw,
The Divine Comedy (translated by H.F. Cary) |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Amy Foster by Joseph Conrad: a creeper on the end wall, a roof of shingle, and
some roses climbing on the rickety trellis-work of
the tiny porch. Kennedy pulled up to a walk. A
woman, in full sunlight, was throwing a dripping
blanket over a line stretched between two old ap-
ple-trees. And as the bobtailed, long-necked chest-
nut, trying to get his head, jerked the left hand,
covered by a thick dogskin glove, the doctor raised
his voice over the hedge: "How's your child,
Amy?"
I had the time to see her dull face, red, not with
Amy Foster |
