La sposa

 

10 Marzo.
 “Fra un mese prenderò il velo.
Si fanno già i preparativi per la festa. Tutti mi colmano di carezze.
Non passa giorno che il babbo e la mamma non vengano a trovarmi. Hanno voluto solennizzare quest’avvenimento. Ci sarà della musica, dei fuochi d’artificio, degli invitati.”
 secret church.jpg

Storia di una capinera

 

Giovanni Verga

Les filles de l’Ogre

sleeping girl

L’Ogre avait sept filles qui n’étaient encore que des enfants.(…).

Le petit Poucet qui avait remarqué que les filles de l’Ogre avoient des Couronnes d’or sur la teste, (…) se leva vers le milieu de la nuit, & prenant les bonnets de ses frères & le sien, il alla tout doucement les mettre sur la teste des sept filles de l’Ogre après leur avoir oté leurs Couronnes d’or qu’il mit sur la teste de ses frères & sur la sienne.

Le petit poucet

Le livre et la lumière

butterflies at the window.jpg

Un jour, j’ai lu un livre, et toute ma vie en a été changée. Dès
les premières pages, j’éprouvai si fortement la puissance du livre
que je sentis mon corps écarté de ma chaise et de la table devant
laquelle j’étais assis. Pourtant, tout en ayant l’impression que mon
corps s’éloignait de moi, tout mon être demeurait plus que jamais
assis sur ma chaise, devant ma table, et le livre manifestait tout son
pouvoir non seulement sur mon âme, mais sur tout ce qui faisait mon
identité. Une influence tellement forte que je crus que la lumière qui
se dégageait des pages me sautait au visage : son éclat aveuglait toute
mon intelligence, mais en même temps, la rendait plus étincelante.
Je crus que, grâce à cette lumière, je me referais moi-même, que je
quitterais les chemins battus. Je devinai les ombres d’une vie que
j’avais encore à connaître et à adopter.

Orhan Pamuk

Elephant Gun

elephant gun

If I was young, I’d flee this town
I’d bury my dreams underground
As did I, we drink to die, we drink tonight

Far from home, elephant gun
Let’s take them down one by one
We’ll lay it down, it’s not been found, it’s not around

Let the seasons begin – it rolls right on
Let the seasons begin – take the big king down

Let the seasons begin – it rolls right on
Let the seasons begin – take the big king down

And it rips through the silence of our camp at night
And it rips through the night
And it rips through the silence of our camp at night
And it rips through the silence, all that is left is all
that i hide

Beirut

XV. Rudy

“I kissed you, when you were young, kissed you on your mouth! Now I kiss your feet, you are entirely mine!”
He vanished in the clear blue water.
Everything was still; the church bells stopped ringing; the last tones died away with the splendour of the red clouds.
“You are mine!” sounded in the deep. “You are mine!” sounded from on high, from the infinite.
How happy to fly from love to love, from earth to heaven!
A string broke, a cry of grief was heard, the icy kiss of death conquered; the prelude ended; so that the drama of life might commence, discord melted into harmony.

la vierge des glaces

The Ice-Maiden

Hans Christian Andersen

The Old Street Lamp

The old man would read aloud about Africa, with its great forests and the wild elephants, while his wife would listen attentively, stealing a glance now and then at the clay elephants which served as flowerpots. “I can almost imagine I am seeing it all,” she said.

Ah! how the lamp wished for a wax taper to be lighted in it, for then the old woman would have seen the smallest detail as clearly as it did itself; the lofty trees, with their thickly[243] entwined branches, the naked negroes on horseback, and whole herds of elephants treading down bamboo thickets with their broad, heavy feet.

stariat ulichen fener

 

Hans Christian Andersen

OLE-LUK-OIE

Il est bien habillé, son habit est de soie, mais il est impossible d’en dire la couleur, il semble vert, rouge ou bleu selon qu’il se tourne, il tient un parapluie sous chaque bras, l’un décoré d’images et celui-là il l’ouvre au-dessus des enfants sages qui rêvent alors toute la nuit des histoires ravissantes, et sur l’autre parapluie il n’y a rien. Il l’ouvre au-dessus des enfants méchants, alors ils dorment si lourdement que le matin en s’éveillant ils n’ont rien rêvé du tout.

ole umbrella.jpg

Les galoches du bonheur

Dans une maison à Copenhague, non loin de Kongens Nytorv, s’était réunie chez un chambellan de Sa Majesté une société fort nombreuse et distinguée ; les hôtes avaient engagé tout ce beau monde pour être en retour aussi invités quelquefois (…)les galoches du bonheur

Ce qu’on fit ensuite ne mérite pas non plus d’être raconté ; passons donc dans le vestibule, où se trouvaient les manteaux, les cannes, les galoches des invités. Là se tenaient deux filles, l’une vieille, l’autre jeune ; au premier abord, on aurait supposé que c’étaient des femmes de chambre, venues pour accompagner leurs maîtresses au retour. Mais en les considérant d’un peu plus près, on s’apercevait vite que ce n’étaient pas des domestiques, ni même des personnes ordinaires (…)

 

 

Hans Christian Andersen

 

 

Ariadne

ariadne

You like apples, don’t you?” said Joyce. ” I read you did, or perhaps I heard it on the telly.
You’re the one who writes murder stories, aren’t you?”

“Yes”, said Mrs Oliver.

“We ought to hove made you do something connected with murders. Have a murder at the party tonight and make people solve it.

Hallowe’en Party, Agatha Christie

Un Gian Burrasca

.
Dopo la tempesta viene la calma! Tre giorni fa il cielo era cupo, ora invece è sereno. 
La pace è conclusa, l’assedio è levato. Stamani, dal buco della serratura, mi è stato promesso di non darmi più bastonate, e io ho promesso solennemente di ritornare a scuola, di studiare e di esser buono.
Così l’onore è stato salvo … e anche la mobilia e lo specchio grande, perché ho levato la barricata e sono uscito di camera.
Viva la libertà!
Gian Burrasca.
Vamba

Devant le chateau de glace

le corbeau

The walls of the palace were formed of drifted snow, and the windows and doors of cutting winds. There were more than a hundred rooms in it, all as if they had been formed of snow blown together. The largest of them extended for several miles. They were all lighted up by the vivid light of the aurora, and were so large and empty, so icy cold and glittering!

There were no amusements here; not even a little bear’s ball, when the storm might have been the music, and the bears could have danced on their hind legs and shown their good manners. There were no pleasant games of snapdragon, or touch, nor even a gossip over the tea table for the young-lady foxes. Empty, vast, and cold were the halls of the Snow Queen.

Hans Christian Andersen

Cards on the Table

cards on the table2

There they were well down to it, their faces serious, the bids coming quickly.
One heart.”
Pass.
Three clubs.
Three spades.
Four diamonds.”
Double.”
Four hearts.”

(…)

And the raised voice was his official voice, so different that all the heads at the
bridge table turned to him, and Anne Meredith’s hand remained poised over an
ace of spades in dummy.
I’m sorry to tell you all,” he said, “that our host, Mr. Shaitana, is dead.

Agatha Christie

Nel bosco

dans les bois2.jpg

“Il fatto è che se tu mi tradissi”, gli dice la ragazza, “sento che ne morirei.” Si porta la mano al cuore, come per dirgli che soffre spesso di quel timore. Loys la rassicura con ardenti carezze.
Lei coglie delle margherite e le sfoglia, per assicurarsi dell’amore di Loys.

Giselle

Dal testo di Théophile Gautier

 

Faster!

 ‘I wonder if all the things move along with us?’ thought poor puzzled Alice. And the Queen seemed to guess her thoughts, for she cried, ‘Faster! Don’t try to talk!’

Not that Alice had any idea of doing that. She felt as if she would never be able to talk again, she was getting so much out of breath: and still the Queen cried ‘Faster! Faster!’ and dragged her along. ‘Are we nearly there?’ Alice managed to pant out at last.

‘Nearly there!’ the Queen repeated. ‘Why, we passed it ten minutes ago! Faster!’ And they ran on for a time in silence, with the wind whistling in Alice’s ears, and almost blowing her hair off her head, she fancied.

alice pursuing the tree

Through the looking-glass

Lewis Carroll

Sherlock Holmes

Old London Now, however, we were beginning to come among continuous streets, where laborers and dockmen were already astir, and slatternly women were taking down shutters and brushing door-steps. At the square-topped corner public houses business was just beginning, and rough-looking men were emerging, rubbing their sleeves across their beards after their morning wet.

 

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Alice’s tree

alice on the tree 3.jpg

I wonder if I shall fall right through the earth! How funny it’ll seem to come out among the people that walk with their heads downward! The Antipathies, I think–‘ (she was rather glad there was no one listening, this time, as it didn’t sound at all the right word) ‘–but I shall have to ask them what the name of the country is, you know. Please, Ma’am, is this New Zealand or Australia?‘ (and she tried to curtsey as she spoke–fancy curtseying as you’re falling through the air! Do you think you could manage it?) ‘And what an ignorant little girl she’ll think me for asking! No, it’ll never do to ask: perhaps I shall see it written up somewhere.’

Nils Holgersson

Never had he seen the skies so blue as they were to-day. Birds of passage came on the wing. They came from foreign lands, having travelled over the Baltic Sea, by way of Smygahuk, and were now on their way North. They were of many different kinds; but he was only familiar with the wild geese, who came flying in two long lines, which met at an angle.

nils holgersson

The Wonderful Adventures of Nils

Selma Lagerlöf

A morning ride

l'homme au vélocipède

“It was a lovely morning, and, as I bicycled along, keeping a fatherly eye on Arthur’s activities, I realized for the first time in my life the full meaning of that exquisite phrase of Coleridge:

“Clothing the palpable and familiar With golden exhalations of the dawn,”

for in the pellucid air everything seemed weirdly beautiful, even Arthur Jukes’ heather-mixture knickerbockers, of which hitherto I had never approved.”

The Clicking Of Cuthbert

P. G. Wodehouse

1922

Humpty Dumpty

‘I said you looked like an egg, Sir,’ Alice gently explained. ‘And some eggs are very pretty, you know’ she added, hoping to turn her remark into a sort of a compliment.

‘Some people,’ said Humpty Dumpty, looking away from her as usual, ‘have no more sense than a baby!’

Alice didn’t know what to say to this: it wasn’t at all like conversation, she thought, as he never said anything to her; in fact, his last remark was evidently addressed to a tree—so she stood and softly repeated to herself:—

humpty

‘Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall:
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the King’s horses and all the King’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty Dumpty in his place again.’