view larger

Member: Kamakura

CollectionsYour library (739)

ReviewsNone

Tagsshort stories (25), essay (17), ebook (15), PDF (15), history (15), poetry (14), war (10), decadence (7), symbolism (7), couple (7) — see all tags

Cloudstag cloud, author cloud

GroupsByzantinistik, South American Fiction-Argentine Writers, The Chapel of the Abyss

Favorite authorsLeonid Andreyev, Roberto Bolaño, Jorge Luis Borges, Nicolas Bouvier, Valery Bryusov, Charles Bukowski, Louis Calaferte, Julio Cortázar, Lawrence Durrell, James Ellroy, Remy de Gourmont, Ernest Hemingway, Ernst Jünger, Yasunari Kawabata, Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam, Jean Lorrain, Malcolm Lowry, Octave Mirbeau, Paul Morand, Saint-John Perse, Jean Richepin, Marcel Schwob, Giuseppe Ungaretti, Kenneth White (Shared favorites)

Favorite bookstoresAbraxas Libris, L'Odeur du Book, L'Opiomane, Librairie La Poterne

About meNot able to have a tenth of the time I'd like to devote to reading, and - I like it even more - hunting for books.

About my libraryA few dozens of ebooks (tagged as such -- most of them are PDFs of otherwise unreachable old editions) and scores of paperbacks and hardcovers. Some old editions (when found).

Mostly in French, but slowly building in English. Other languages... well, later maybe. I guess I'll have to stick to translation for now.

"Après tout, si la littérature n'est pas pour le lecteur un répertoire de femmes fatales et de créatures de perdition, elle ne vaut pas qu'on s'en occupe." - Julien Gracq, En lisant, en écrivant

"Literature, especially because it is an exercise practiced by sycophants of all stripes and political creeds--or an exercise that creates sycophants, has always been a step away from ignominy, from the vile, even from torture. The problem lies in its sycophantic nature. And also, of course, in fear" - Roberto Bolano in a 2001 interview with Luis Garcia

***

''The Sea -- In a Peace...''

The sea -- in a peace, long and lethal --
The movement -- as if vaporized.
The sea -- as if, made from cast metal,
A mirror of purified skies.

The stones, in hardness of doze,
The shores, by repose enslaved, --
Dream of the daring and joyous,
Honey and sour wave.

Valery Briusov
Translated by Yevgeny Bonver, September, 2000
http://www.poetryloverspage.com

***

LAMENT OF THE FRONTIER GUARD

By the north gate, the wind blows full of sand,
Lonely from the beginning of time until now!
Trees fall, the grass goes yellow with autumn,
I climb the towers and towers
to watch out the barbarous land:
Desolate castle, the sky, the wide desert.
There is no wall left to this village.
Bones white with a thousand frosts,
High heaps, covered with trees and grass;
Who brought this to pass?
Who was brought the flaming imperial anger?
Who has brought the army with drums and with kettle-drums?
Barbarous kings.
A gracious spring, turned to blood-ravenous autumn,
A turmoil of wars-men, spread over the middle kingdom,
Three hundred and sixty thousand,
And sorrow, sorrow like rain.
Sorrow to go, and sorrow, sorrow returning.
Desolate, desolate fields,
And no children of warfare upon them,
No longer the men for offence and defense.
Ah, how shall you know the dreary sorrow at the North Gate,
With Rihaku's name forgotten
And we guardsmen fed to the tigers

by Rihaku

In Ezra Pound, "Cathay"

LocationParis, France

Account typepublic, lifetime

Connection NewsConnection News

URLs http://www.librarything.com/profile/Kamakura (profile)
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/Kamakura (library)

Common KnowledgeSeries (44), Awards (123), Characters (941), Places (235)

Member sinceMay 30, 2006