| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Reminiscences of Tolstoy by Leo Tolstoy: me they were written by Pushkin, and Pushkin was a great writer.
I was vexed at my father not being one, too. Then my mother said
that my father was also a well-known writer, and I was very glad
indeed.
At the dinner-table papa sits opposite mama and has his own
round silver spoon. When old Natália Petróvna, who
lives on the floor below with great-aunt Tatyána
Alexándrovna, pours herself out a glass of kvass, he picks
it up and drinks it right off, then says, "Oh, I'm so sorry,
Natália Petróvna; I made a mistake!" We all laugh
delightedly, and it seems odd that papa is not in the least
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Divine Comedy (translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) by Dante Alighieri: In judgment at a thousand miles away,
With the short vision of a single span?
Truly to him who with me subtilizes,
If so the Scripture were not over you,
For doubting there were marvellous occasion.
O animals terrene, O stolid minds,
The primal will, that in itself is good,
Ne'er from itself, the Good Supreme, has moved.
So much is just as is accordant with it;
No good created draws it to itself,
But it, by raying forth, occasions that."
The Divine Comedy (translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy: street corner, whence they watched the bright heap of new
hay lying in the moon's rays, and passed and repassed by the
forms of Henchard and the waggoners. The women had
witnessed what nobody else had seen--the origin of the
mishap; and Lucetta spoke.
"I saw it all, Mr. Henchard," she cried; "and your man was
most in the wrong!"
Henchard paused in his harangue and turned. "Oh, I didn't
notice you, Miss Templeman," said he. "My man in the wrong?
Ah, to be sure; to be sure! But I beg your pardon
notwithstanding. The other's is the empty waggon, and he
The Mayor of Casterbridge |
