Чешма

cheshma2

Чешмата има особено значение и символика в българската традиция. Тя е извор на живот и място за приказки, среща на влюбените, където стари и млади, жени и мъже, богати и бедни се спират за да утолят жаждата си и да напълнят стомните си. В миналото богатите и видни жители безвъзмездно давали пари за построяването на чешма, за да оставят следа и да дарят нещо ценно на техните съграждани.

Легенди разказват, че за да се избегне лоша орис в чешмата трябва да се вгради сянката на добра, лична девойка. Жестока е тази легенда защото остави ли момата сянката си в студения камък полинява. Но водата така тече чиста и носи живот на цялото село.

La fontana è un simbolo speciale nella tradizione bulgara. Si tratta di una fonte di vita e un luogo per parlare, punto d’incontro degli innamorati, dove giovani e anziani, uomini e donne, ricchi e poveri si fermano per dissetarsi e riempire le loro brocche. Nel passato, le persone ricche e i padroni donavano i loro soldi per costruire una fontana lasciando una tracia, qualcosa di prezioso ai loro concittadini.

La legenda dice che per essere evitata la cattiva sorte nella fontana si deve integrare l’ombra di una giovane e bella ragazza. E’ crudele questa tradizione, perché lasciata l’ombra nelle pietre fredde della fontana la ragazza si ammalava. E l’acqua scorreva pura e portava la vita nel villaggio.

Sputnik Sweetheart I

sputnik2.jpg

Were you asleep?” Sumire asked.

Um,” I groaned and instinctively glanced at the alarm clock beside my bed. The clock had huge fluorescent hands, but I couldn’t read the time. The image projected on my retina and the part of my brain that processed it were out of sync, like an old lady struggling, unsuccessfully, to thread a needle. What I could understand was that it was dark all around and close to Fitzgerald’s “Dark Night of the Soul”.

Back to End House

endhouse

 

“Freddie, give me your wrist watch as as a souvenir, will you?”

Slowly Frederica unclasped the jeweled watch from her wrist and handed it to Nick.

“Thanks. And now I suppose we must go through with this perfectly ridiculous comedy.”

“The comedy you planned and produced in End House. Yes but you should not have given the star part to Hercule Poirot. That, Mademoiselle, was your mistake your very grave mistake.”

Peril at End House, by Agatha Christie

Maria, Dubliners

clay2

The matron had given her leave to go out as soon as the women’s tea was over and Maria looked forward to her evening out. The kitchen was spick and span: the cook said you could see yourself in the big copper boilers. The fire was nice and bright and on one of the side-tables were four very big barmbracks. (…)

Maria was a very, very small person indeed but she had a very long nose and a very long chin. She talked a little through her nose, always soothingly: “Yes, my dear,” and “No, my dear.”

Clay,  James Joyce

Evil under the Sun § Зло под Слънцето

 

Stepmothers! It was rotten to have a stepmother, everybody said so. And it was true! Not that Arlena was unkind to her. Most of the time she hardly noticed the girl. But when she did, there was a contemptuous amusement in her glance, in her words. The finished grace and poise of Arlena’s movements emphasized Linda’s own adolescent clumsiness. With Arlena about, one felt, shamingly, just how immature and crude one was.

evil under the sun

Agatha Christie

Le Joueur de flûte

sphere

La quatrième jour, un étranger arriva à Hamelin et demanda à voir le maire :
-J’ai entendu dire que vous offriez mille pièces d’or à celui qui délivrerait la ville de ses rats.
Le maire demanda :
– Cela est vrai, mais qui êtes-vous ?
– On m’appelle le Joueur de flûte. Je sais comment vous aider.

Cendrillon au Marais

cenerentola.jpg

Le fils du roi, qu’on alla avertir qu’il venait d’arriver une grande princesse
qu’on ne connaissait point, courut la recevoir ; il lui donna la main
à la descente du carrosse, et la mena dans la salle où était la compagnie.
Il se fit alors un grand silence, on cessa de danser et les violons
ne jouèrent plus, tant on était attentif à contempler les grandes beautés
de cette inconnue.

Cendrillon

Christina Georgina Rossetti

cambridge-bridge-simple

It shakes,–my trees shake; for a wind is roused
In cavern where it housed:
Each white and quivering sail,
Of boats among the water leaves
Hollows and strains in the full-throated gale:
Each maiden sings again,
— Each languid maiden, whom the calm
Had lulled to sleep with rest and spice and balm,
Miles down my river to the sea
They float and wane,
Long miles away from me.

Autumn

Giannino finalmente tranquillo

Virginia e suo marito, fin dal loro ritorno dal viaggio di nozze che fecero
quando prese fuoco il caminetto nel salotto da ricevere, vennero ad
abitare questo quartiere che è molto comodo e centrale e dove mio cognato
ha messo pure il suo studio d’avvocato, che ha un ingresso a sé ma che
comunica con la casa per mezzo d’un usciolino che mette nella stanza
degli armadi. Io ho una cameretta piccola, ma elegante, che dà sul cortile
e dove sto benissimo.

crow-shadows1

9 gennaio

Il giornalino di Gian Burrasca di Vamba

 

 

Eugene Oneguine

il-fantasma

Его нежданным появленьем,
Мгновенной нежностью очей
И странным с Ольгой поведеньем
До глубины души своей
Она проникнута; не может
Никак понять его; тревожит
Ее ревнивая тоска,
Как будто хладная рука
Ей сердце жмет, как будто бездна
Под ней чернеет и шумит…
“Погибну”, Таня говорит,
“Но гибель от него любезна.
Я не ропщу: зачем роптать?
Не может он мне счастья дать”.

ГЛАВА ШЕСТАЯ

Traduction française… mais bien plus pale que l’original

La soudaine apparition d’Eugène, la tendresse qui avait un instant fait briller ses yeux, son étrange conduite avec Olga, tout cela a bouleversé l’âme de la jeune fille. Une angoisse jalouse l’oppresse ; il semble qu’une main glacée lui serre le cœur, et qu’un gouffre béant s’entr’ouvre et gronde sous ses pas « Je vais mourir, » dit-elle, « mais la blessure qui me vient de lui m’est chère ; je ne murmure pas : il ne peut me donner le bonheur ! »

 

Death in Midsummer

 

 

 

water-lily

Tomoko ran down to the beach in her bare feet. The pine needles stabbed at her as she went through the groove. The tide had come in, and she had to climb over the rock to the bathing-beach.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh? You’re related to the people who drowned at A. Beach? That’s too bad. Two children and a woman all at once, they say.

 

Yukio Mishima

La notte, Io e l’ombra mia

Mi è avvenuto più volte, svegliandomi nel cuor della notte (la notte, in questo caso, non dimostra veramente d’aver cuore), mi è avvenuto di provare al bujo, nel silenzio, una strana meraviglia, uno strano impaccio al ricordo di qualche cosa fatta durante il giorno, alla luce, senz’abbadarci; e ho domandato allora a me stesso se, a determinar le nostre azioni, non concorrano anche i colori, la vista delle cose circostanti, il vario frastuono della vita. Ma sì, senza dubbio; e chi sa quant’altre cose! Non viviamo noi, secondo il signor Anselmo, in relazione con l’universo? Ora sta a vedere quante sciocchezze questo maledetto universo ci fa commettere, di cui poi chiamiamo responsabile la misera coscienza nostra, tirata da forze esterne, abbagliata da una luce che è fuor di lei. E, all’incontro, quante deliberazioni prese, quanti disegni architettati, quanti espedienti macchinati durante la notte non appajono poi vani e non crollano e non sfumano alla luce del giorno? Com’altro è il giorno, altro la notte, così forse una cosa siamo noi di giorno, altra di notte: miserabilissima cosa, ahimè, così di notte come di giorno.

lecce

Il fu Mattia Pascal

 Luigi Pirandello

 

Through the looking glass

studying-a-view

’Let’s pretend there’s a way of getting through into it, somehow. Let’s pretend the glass has got all soft like gauze, so that we can get through. Why, it’s turning into a sort of mist now, I declare! It’ll be easy enough to get through—’

 

Alice

Little Muck

piccolo-mukGayly he wandered, the whole day, for he had set out to seek his fortune: if he saw upon the ground a potsherd shining in the sunlight, he took care to pick it up, in the belief that he could change it into a diamond of the first water; if he saw in the distance the cupola of a Mosque sparkling like fire, or the sea glittering like a mirror, he would hasten up, fully persuaded that he had arrived at fairy-land. But ah! these phantoms vanished as he approached, and too soon fatigue, and his stomach gnawed by hunger, convinced him that he was still in the land of mortals.

 

 

Wilhelm Hauff

Gerda’s garden

giardino.jpg

“What! are there no roses here?” cried Gerda, and she ran out into the garden and examined all the beds, and searched and searched.

There was not one to be found. Then she sat down and wept, and her tears fell just on the place where one of the rose trees had sunk down.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Snow Queen

La fée

la fée2.jpg

 

(…) and then an old, old woman came out of the house;
she was leaning upon a big, 
hooked stick,
and she wore a big sun hat,
which was covered 
with beautiful painted flowers.

Hans Christian Andersen

Marseille. Le Petit Chaperon Rouge

 

redriding hood.jpg

Je vais voir ma mère-grand, et lui porter une galette avec un pot de beurre, que ma mère lui envoie.
Demeure-t-elle bien loin? lui dit le Loup.
Oh! oui, lui dit le Petit Chaperon Rouge; c’est par delà. le moulin que vous voyez tout là-bas, là-bas, à la première maison du village.
Eh bien, dit le Loup, je veux l’aller voir aussi; je m’y en vais par ce chemin-ci et toi par ce chemin-là, et nous verrons à qui plus tôt y sera.

Le Cabinet des Fées