“Strange how complicated we can make things just to avoid showing what we feel!”
“غريبٌ حقاً أمرنا , نختار طرقاً ملتوية كي لا نظهر حقيقة مشاعرنا”
“What comfort there is in the skin of someone you love!”
“Some day perhaps our time will be known as the age of irony. Not the witty irony of the eighteenth century, but the stupid or malignant irony of a crude age of technological progress and cultural regression.”
“لأن التعاسة في الحياة أكثر بكثير من السعادة, لذا فعدم أبديتها رحمة كبيرة ”
“Обичам те много - казах аз. - Обичам теб и този миг, и лятото, което ще отмине, и този пейзаж, и раздялата, и за първи път през живота си самия мен, защото целият съм твое огледало, отразявам те и така двойно те притежавам.”
“ذكرياتنا ليست تحفة عاجية معروضة في متحف محكم ضد الغبار. بل حيوان يعيش ويلتهم ويهضم.. إنها كالتنين في الأساطير, تلتهم نفسها لأنها الطريق الوحيد الذي تستطيع من خلاله الاستمرار.”
“لن أراك مرة ثانية، وهذا هو الأفضل؛ فأنا حدثتك الكثير عن نفسي، الأمر الذي يمنعني من محاولة رؤيتك ثانية”
“ربما أطلق في المستقبل على عصرنا هذا اسم زمن السخرية.”
“الإيمان بحدوث الأعجايب هو إحساس ملازم لهؤلاء الذين يعيشيون حالة الفرار واليأس والخوف ولولا هذا الإيمان لفد الإنسان قدرته على الاستمرار ”
“” إذا استطعت أن تلغي الشعور بالبحث عن العدالة فعندها يسهل عليك النظر إلى الحياة وكأنها مغامرة ! ”
“Омразата е киселина, която разяжда душата - без значение дали мразим, или сме мразени.”
“صمت كان يفكر بلا شك في كلمة أخيرة „ يبحث عن تأكيد حب .. عن شئ يمكن أن يحمله معه في رحلة وحدته”
“Тя седеше пред мен - изящна амазонка, гола с чаша вино в ръка, предизвикателна, неотстъпваща, хитра и смела - и аз разбрах, че по-рано изобщо не съм я познавал.”
“لو أستطيع الآن استحلاف الذاكرة ألا تظن أنني سأطلب منها أن تبقي هذه الليلة في ذاكراتي كما أراها الآن .. ألا تظن أنها يجب أن تحيا في داخلي على هذا النحو مادمت حيا ؟”
“لقد خلفنا أحلامنا في كل مكان كخيوط العنكبوت المتطايرة في الخريف”
“ربما ليست الحياة التي تنتظرها، بل العدم الذي تحاول استحلافه في بعض الأحيان”
“Обичай ме! Обичай ме и не питай. Нищо. Никога.”
“Ала кажете ми, щом като един човешки живот не е ценен, кое е ценното тогава?
- Нищо - отговорих аз и знаех, че беше истина и все пак не беше. - Само ние го правим ценен.”
“Isterijos ir baimės apimti žmonės seka paskui lozungus, nepriklausomai nuo to, kas ir kieno vardu juos skelbia, jei tik rėksnys pažada masei prisiimti sunkią mąstymo naštą ir atsakomybę už tai, ko ji bijo, bet negali išvengti.”
“أريد هيلين بعطرها و ثيابها، بالسرير و بالغروب. تمنيت لو أستطيع بسط نفسي عليها كلحاف و لو كانت لي آلاف الأيدي و آلاف الأفواه، تمنيت أن أصبح عدسة مقعرة كاملة أستطيع فيها أن أحسها أينما وجدت و من دون فراغات”
“الكراهيه هي أحد أنواع الحوامض التي تتلف النفس, ولا يفرق هذا الحامض بين كره النفس لذاتها أو كره الآخرين لها”
“Laimė - sąlyginis dalykas. Kas šitą suvokė, retai kada jaučiasi labai nelaimingas.”
“Гледах го да върви по улицата надолу с куфара в ръка, окаяна фигура, образа на вечния рогоносец и на вечния любещ.
Ала от цялата галерия тъпи победители не бе ли той притежавал по-дълбоко човека, когото обичаше? И какво притежаваме в действителност. Защо е тази врява около неща, които в най-добрия случай са само взети за известно време назаем; и защо са тези брътвежи за това, дали ги притежаваме повече или по-малко, след като измамната дума „притежавам“ означава само: да прегърнем нищото?”
“الأشخاص الذين أحبهم بعمق أكثر من صورة هؤلاء المنتصرين الأغبياء؟ ماذا نمتلك في الحقيقة؟ ولماذا هذا الصمت حول أشياء لا يمكن أن تزهر إلا إذا نظرنا إليها كإعارة لبعض الوقت؟ لماذا هذه المقولات كلها حولها؟ وما أهمية النقاش حول قوة أحد في امتلاكها إذا كانت كلمة امتلاك لا تعني سوى احتضان الهواء؟”
“Wir leben im Zeitalter der Paradoxe. Zur Erhaltung des Friedens führen wir Krieg”
“Sreća, kad je doživljujemo, nikad nije potpuna. Tek u sjećanju postaje potpuna...”
“Haß ist eine Säure, die die Seele auffrisst, ganz gleich, ob man selbst hasst oder gehasst wird ”
“Sie wissen, dass Zeit ein sehr dünner Aufguß des Todes ist, der uns langsam zugefügt wird wie ein harmloses Gift. Anfangs belebt es und lässt uns sogar glauben, wir seien fast unsterblich - aber wenn es Tropfen um Tropfen, Tag für Tag um einen Tropfen und einen Tag stärker wird, verändert es sich in eine Säure, die unser Blut trübe macht und zerstört. Selbst wenn wir versuchen wollten, mit den Jahren, die wir noch haben, die Jugend zurückzukaufen, so könnten wir es nicht, die Säure der Zeit hat uns verändert, und die chemische Verbindung ist nicht mehr dieselbe, es müsste denn ein Wunder geschehen.”
“Po danu Lisabon ima nečeg naivno teatralnog što privlači i očarava — ali je noću grad iz bajke koji se sa blistavo osvijetljenim terasama spušta ka moru, kao neka nagizdana žena što se naginje ka svom tamnoplavom ljubavniku.”
“Power is an illusion of perception.”
“Edgar, do you actually think that how long a person grieves is a measure of how much they loved someone? There's no rule book that says how to do this." She laughed, bitterly. "Wouldn't that be great? No decisions to make. Everything laid right out for us. But there's no such thing. You want facts, don't you? Rules. Proof. You're like your father that way. Just because a thing can't be logged, charted, and summarized doesn't mean it isn't real. Half the time we walk around in love with the idea of a thing instead of the reality of it. But sometimes things don't turn out that way. You have to pay attentin to what's real, what's in the world. Not some imaginary alternative, as if it's a choice we could make.”
“I was extremely curious about the alternatives to the kind of life I had been leading, and my friends and I exchanged rumors and scraps of information we dug from official publications. I was struck less by the West's technological developments and high living standards than by the absence of political witch-hunts, the lack of consuming suspicion, the dignity of the individual, and the incredible amount of liberty. To me, the ultimate proof of freedom in the West was that there seemed to be so many people there attacking the West and praising China. Almost every other day the front page of Reference, the newspaper which carded foreign press items, would feature some eulogy of Mao and the Cultural Revolution. At first I was angered by these, but they soon made me see how tolerant another society could be. I realized that this was the kind of society I wanted to live in: where people were allowed to hold different, even outrageous views. I began to see that it was the very tolerance of oppositions, of protesters, that kept the West progressing.
Still, I could not help being irritated by some observations. Once I read an article by a Westerner who came to China to see some old friends, university professors, who told him cheerfully how they had enjoyed being denounced and sent to the back end of beyond, and how much they had relished being reformed. The author concluded that Mao had indeed made the Chinese into 'new people' who would regard what was misery to a Westerner as pleasure.
I was aghast. Did he not know that repression was at its worst when there was no complaint? A hundred times more so when the victim actually presented a smiling face? Could he not see to what a pathetic condition these professors had been reduced, and what horror must have been involved to degrade them so? I did not realize that the acting that the Chinese were putting on was something to which Westerners were unaccustomed, and which they could not always decode.
I did not appreciate either that information about China was not easily available, or was largely misunderstood, in the West, and that people with no experience of a regime like China's could take its propaganda and rhetoric at face value. As a result, I assumed that these eulogies were dishonest. My friends and I would joke that they had been bought by our government's 'hospitality." When foreigners were allowed into certain restricted places in China following Nixon's visit, wherever they went the authorities immediately cordoned off enclaves even within these enclaves. The best transport facilities, shops, restaurants, guest houses and scenic spots were reserved for them, with signs reading "For Foreign Guests Only." Mao-tai, the most sought-after liquor, was totally unavailable to ordinary Chinese, but freely available to foreigners. The best food was saved for foreigners. The newspapers proudly reported that Henry Kissinger had said his waistline had expanded as a result of the many twelve-course banquets he enjoyed during his visits to China. This was at a time when in Sichuan, "Heaven's Granary," our meat ration was half a pound per month, and the streets of Chengdu were full of homeless peasants who had fled there from famine in the north, and were living as beggars. There was great resentment among the population about how the foreigners were treated like lords. My friends and I began saying among ourselves: "Why do we attack the Kuomintang for allowing signs saying "No Chinese or Dogs" aren't we doing the same?
Getting hold of information became an obsession. I benefited enormously from my ability to read English, as although the university library had been looted during the Cultural Revolution, most of the books it had lost had been in Chinese. Its extensive English-language collection had been turned upside down, but was still largely intact.”
“You turned your back on me when I needed you.”
“I know there's something here. I know you want more. Tell me...and it's yours.”
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