Euripides, Hecuba 239-250

Tr. E. P. Coleridge:

Hecuba
Do you know when you came to spy on Ilium, disguised in rags and tatters, while down your cheek ran drops of blood?

Odysseus
I do; for it was no slight impression it made upon my heart.

Hecuba
Did Helen recognize you and tell me only?

Odysseus
I well remember the great risk I ran.

Hecuba
Did you embrace my knees in all humility?

Odysseus
Yes, so that my hand grew dead and cold upon your robe.

Hecuba
Was it I that saved and sent you forth again?

Odysseus
You did, and so I still behold the light of day.

Hecuba
What did you say then, when in my power?

Odysseus
Doubtless I found plenty to say, to save my life.

William Blake, A Letter

[To] George Cumberland, 12 April 1827, via The William Blake Archive / transcript; in bold, one of Harold Bloom's favourite passages (cf. the "Prologue" to The Visionary Company, p. 1)

Dear Cumberland,

I have been very near the gates of death & have returned very weak & an Old Man feeble & tottering, but not in Spirit & Life not in the Real Man The Imagination which Liveth for Ever. In that I am stronger& stronger as this Foolish Body decays. I thank you for the Pains you have taken with Poor Job. I know too well that a great majority of Englishmen are fond of The Indefinite which they Measure by Newtons Doctrine of the Fluxions of an Atom. A Thing that does not Exist. These are Politicians & think that Republican Art is Inimical to their Atom. For a Line or Lineament is not formed by Chance a Line is a Line in its Minutest Subdivision[s] Strait or Crooked It is Itself & Not Intermeasurable with or by any Thing Else Such is Job but since the French Revolution Englishmen are all Intermeasurable One by Another Certainly a happy state of Agreement to which I for One do not Agree. God keep me from the Divinity of Yes & No too The Yea Nay Creeping Jesus from supposing Up& Down to be the same Thing as all Experimentalists must suppose.

[...]

Flaxman is Gone & we must All soon follow every one to his Own Eternal House Leaving the Delusive Goddess Nature & her Laws to get into Freedom from all Law of the Members into The Mind in which every one is King& Priest in his own House God Send it so on Earth as it is in Heaven


I am Dear Sir Yours Affectionately
WILLIAM BLAKE

Robert Frost, "Acquainted with the Night"

I have been one acquainted with the night.
I have walked out in rain—and back in rain.
I have outwalked the furthest city light.

I have looked down the saddest city lane.
I have passed by the watchman on his beat
And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.

I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet
When far away an interrupted cry
Came over houses from another street,

But not to call me back or say good-bye;
And further still at an unearthly height,
One luminary clock against the sky

Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.
I have been one acquainted with the night.

Leonard Bernstein, Candide (BBC, 1988)

Candide at LeonardBernstein.com | "A Guide to Leonard Bernstein's Candide" at SondheimGuide.com | librettos: 1956 (Lillian Hellman & Richard Wilbur) • 1973 (Richard Wilbur & Hugh Wheeler) | venue: Theater Royal, Glasgow (1988) | cast: Voltaire/Pangloss/Martin/Cacambo: Nickolas Grace • Candide: Mark Beudert • Cunegonde: Marilyn Hill-Smith • Old Lady: Ann Howard • Governor/Captain/Gambler: Bonaventura Bottone • Maximilian: Mark Tinkler • Paquette: Gaynor Miles

Act 1
• 8:30: "Life is Happiness Indeed"
• 13:30: "The Best of All Possible Worlds" (1989, London)
• 19:09: "Oh, Happy We" (Candide & Cunegonde)
• 22:22: "It Must Be So" (Candide)
• 44:58: "Auto-da-Fé"
• 56:46: "Glitter and Be Gay" (Cunegonde) (2005, New York)
• 1:14:48: "I Am Easily Assimilated" (The Old Lady)

Act 2
• 1:35:45: "My Love" (The Governer)
• 1:53:57: "The Ballad of Eldorado" (Candide)
• 1:59:45: "Words, Words, Words" (Martin)
• 2:08:33: "The Kings' Barcarolle" (The Five Kings)
• 2:16:00: "We Are Women" (The Old Lady & Cunegonde) (2005, New York)
• 2:28:00: "Nothing More Than This" (Candide)
• 2:34:40: "Make Our Garden Grow"

"Meine Freundin ist schön..."

Puhdys - "Wenn ein Mensch lebt" • from: Heiner Carrow, Die Legende von Paul und Paula (1974) 

 

Wenn ein Mensch kurze Zeit lebt, sagt die Welt, dass er zu früh geht. Wenn ein Mensch lange Zeit lebt, sagt die Welt es ist Zeit. Meine Freundin ist schön, als ich aufstand ist sie gegangen. Weckt sie nicht, bis sie sich regt, ich habe mich in ihren Schatten gelegt. Jegliches hat seine Zeit, Steine sammeln, Steine zerstreun, Bäume pflanzen, Bäume abhaun, leben und sterben und Streit. Wenn ein Mensch kurze Zeit lebt, sagt die Welt, dass er zu früh geht. Wenn ein Mensch lange Zeit lebt, sagt die Welt es ist Zeit, dass er geht. Jegliches hat seine Zeit, Steine sammeln, Steine zerstreun, Bäume pflanzen, Bäume abhau'n, leben und sterben und Frieden und Streit. Weckt sie nicht, bis sie sich regt, ich habe mich in ihren Schatten gelegt. Wenn ein Mensch kurze Zeit lebt, sagt die Welt, dass er zu früh geht. Wenn ein Mensch lange Zeit lebt, sagt die Welt es ist Zeit, dass er geht. Meine Freundin ist schön, als ich aufstand ist sie gegangen. Weckt sie nicht, bis sie sich regt, ich habe mich in ihren Schatten gelegt.

When a person lives a short time the world says he went too early. When a person lives a long time the world says it is time. My girlfriend is beautiful when I get up, she is gone Don't wake her, until she stirs I have lain in her shadow To every thing there is a season: to collect stones, to scatter stones to plant trees, to harvest trees to live and to die and to wage wars. When a person lives a short time the world says he went too early. When a person lives a long time the world says it is time for him to live. To every thing there is a season: to collect stones, to scatter stones to plant trees, to harvest trees to live and to die, for peace and for war. Don't wake her, until she rouses herself I have lain in her shadow When a person lives a short time the world says he went too early. When a person lives a long time the world says it is time for him to live. My girlfriend is beautiful when I get up, she is gone Don't wake her, until she stirs I have lain in her shadow.

Wittgenstein, Preface to the Philosophical Investigations

I should not like my writing to spare other people the trouble of thinking. But, if possible, to stimulate someone to thoughts of his own.

Euripides, Hippolytus 106

I do not like a god worshipped at night.