tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21999805.post2977873323255536574..comments2024-03-28T11:28:31.364-05:00Comments on Anecdotal Evidence: `From Words to Worms to Stars'Patrick Kurphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08436175583386298032noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21999805.post-31358327035201346112010-07-25T18:36:39.147-05:002010-07-25T18:36:39.147-05:00What an amazing passage from Herbert, and you are ...What an amazing passage from Herbert, and you are convincing me to get around, finally, to Sir Thomas Browne's "Religio Medici" (it comes with Dorothy Sayers's endorsement as well).<br /><br />Joseph Brodsky, also, was fascinated with decay, and the color gray, which he thought was the color of time.<br /><br />Volkov's transcripts may not be entirely reliable but this quotation rings true: "One of the most grandiose opinions I ever read in my life I found in a certain minor poet from Alexandria, who said, 'Try during your life to imitate time. That is, try to be restrained and calm and to avoid extremes. Don't be especially eloquent, but strive for a monotone.' He went on. 'But do not be upset if you cannot do this during your life. Because when you die, you will be like time anyway.' Not bad? Two thousand years ago!"<br /><br />I have tried, and failed over the years, to identify the minor Alexandrian poet.Cynthia Havenhttp://bookhaven.stanford.edunoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21999805.post-5573192861028028202010-07-22T11:00:17.268-05:002010-07-22T11:00:17.268-05:00Vanity is not particularly fond of mirrors that pi...Vanity is not particularly fond of mirrors that picture "nothingness and dust," yes, but maybe the mirror has vanities of its own. <br /><br />Wistawa Szymborska offers this, from a trip to a "Museum":<br /><br />"The crown has outlasted the head.<br />The hand has lost out to the glove.<br />The right shoe has defeated the foot.<br /><br />As for me, I am still alive, you see.<br />The battle with my dress still rages on.<br />It struggles, foolish thing, so stubbornly!<br />Determined to keep living when I'm gone!"<br /><br />(tr. Baranczak and Cavavagh)WAShttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10403669322174979974noreply@blogger.com