Quotes from Cassandra: A Novel and Four Essays

“Per il dolore, la felicità, l'amore non ci sono segni. E questo mi sembra di rara infelicità.”
― Christa Wolf, quote from Cassandra: A Novel and Four Essays

“Ecco dove accadde. Lei è stata qui. Questi leoni di pietra, ora senza testa, l'hanno fissata. Questa fortezza, una volta inespugnabile, cumulo di pietre ora, fu l'ultima cosa che vide. Un nemico da tempo dimenticato e i secoli, sole, pioggia, vento, l'hanno spianata. Immutato il cielo, un blocco d'azzurro intenso, alto, distante. Vicine, ogg come ieri, le mura ciclopiche che orientano il cammino: verso la porta dal cui fondo non fiotta più sangue. Nelle tenebre. Nel macello. E sola.
Con questo racconto vado nella morte.
Termino qui, impotente, e niente, niente di quello che avrei potuto fare o non fare, volere o pensare, mi avrebbe condotto a una meta diversa. Più profondamente di ogni altro moto dell'animo, più profondamente persino della mia paura, mi impregna, mi corrode, mi avvelena l'indifferenza dei celesti verso noi terreni. Naufragata l'audace impresa di opporre il nostro debole calore alla loro gelidità.”
― Christa Wolf, quote from Cassandra: A Novel and Four Essays

“Dann kam Achill das Vieh. Des Mörders Eintritt in den Tempel, der, als er im Eingang stand, verdunkelt wurde. Was wollte dieser Mensch. Was suchte er bewaffnet hier im Tempel. Grässlichster Augenblick: Ich wusst es schon. Dann lachte er. Jedes Haar auf meinem Kopf stand mir zu Berge, und in die Augen meines Bruders trat der reine Schrecken. Ich warf mich über ihn und wurde weggeschoben wie ein Ding aus Nichts [...] Lachend, alles lachend. Ihm an den Hals griff. An die Kehle ging [...] Des Bruders Augen aus den Höhlen quellend. Und in Achills Gesicht die Lust. Die nackte grässliche männliche Lust [...] Nun hob der Feind, das Monstrum, im Anblick der Apollon-Statue sein Schwert und trennte meines Bruders Kopf vom Rumpf.”
― Christa Wolf, quote from Cassandra: A Novel and Four Essays

“Ich fürchtete das Schlimmste, nicht, weil ich den Plan der Griechen Zug um Zug durchschaute, sondern weil ich den haltlosen Übermut der Troer sah. Ich schrie, bat, beschwor und redete in Zungen.”
― Christa Wolf, quote from Cassandra: A Novel and Four Essays

“Se di me non sopravvivesse altro che l'odio. Se l'odio germogliare dalla mia fossa, un albero d'odio, esso sussurrerebbe: Achille la bestia. Se lo abbattessero, crescerebbe di nuovo. Se lo soffocassero, ogni filo d'erba farebbe suo quel messaggio: Achille la bestia, Achille la bestia. E ogni cantore che osasse cantare la gloria di Achille, morirebbe immediatamente tra i tormenti. Un abisso di disprezzo e di oblio tra le generazioni future e la bestia. Questo, Apollo, concedimi, se esisti. Non sarei vissuta invano.”
― Christa Wolf, quote from Cassandra: A Novel and Four Essays

“I did not like the thing in me which he had been able to seduce.”
― Christa Wolf, quote from Cassandra: A Novel and Four Essays

“Se fossimo formiche: l'intero popolo cieco si precipita nei fossati, annega, forma i ponti per i pochi sopravvissuti che sono il seme del nuovo popolo. Simili a formiche andiamo dentro ogni fuoco. Ogni acqua. Ogni fiume di sangue. Solo per non dover vedere. Che cosa? Noi.”
― Christa Wolf, quote from Cassandra: A Novel and Four Essays

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