Total solar eclipse

Novosibirsk, 1 August 2008
http://www.total-eclipse-2008.com/

Siberia

Quand on dit « Sibérie », personne n'a envie de sourire : c'est un mot qui charrie la prison et la mort. Les gens normaux n'ont pas envie d'explorer la Sibérie : il faut être fou pour vouloir aller voir où coule le fleuve _ _ _ _ _.

Atténtat, Amélie Nothomb,
Albin Michele, Paris,
15éme édition, 2007, p. 124.

Tell me about winds

Almásy: Let me tell you about winds. There is a whirlwind from southern Morrocco, the aajej, against which the fellahin defend themselves with knives. And there is the ghibli, from Tunis...
Katharine Clifton: [giggling] The 'ghibli'?
Almásy: [smiling] - the ghibli, which rolls and rolls and rolls and produces a rather strange nervous condition. And then there is the harmattan, a red wind, which mariners call the sea of darkness. And red sand from this wind has flown as far as the south coast of England, apparently producing showers so dense they were mistaken for blood.
Katharine Clifton: Fiction! We have a house on that coast and it has never, never rained blood.
Almásy: No, it's all true. Herodotus, your friend - he writes about it, and he writes about a wind, the samoun, which a nation thought was so evil that they declared war on it and marched out against it in full battle dress. Their swords raised.

The English Patient
(Anthony Minghella, 1996)

El tiempo pasa; los instantes flotan

—¡Pero el tiempo es oro! ¡No lo olvide usted!
—Según los casos; hay meses enteros que daría uno por cincuenta kopecks, y cuartos de hora que no se darían por ningún tesoro.

Ana Karenina, Cap. XXXV, Leon Tolstoi.

Adoucissement

The thrill of the blank notebook

Changing eating habits

I used to live on crumbs, until I realised
that I'm entitled to a whole loaf.

Cartas

Me parece que tengo una cálida moneda de oro en la mano y no la puedo soltar. Pero tampoco quiero soltarla [...]

De Federico García Lorca
a Salvador Dalí

Odisea. Canto XI, 373-374

La noche es larga, interminable, y aún no llegó
la hora de dormir en palacio. Cuéntame, huésped,
esas hazañas admirables.

Le risque de vivre

— Risquer sa vie, en l'occurrence.
— C'est un pléonasme. Le risque, c'est la vie même. On ne peut risquer que sa vie. Et si on ne la risque pas, on ne vit pas.
— Mais là, si je risque, je meurs !
— Tu meurs encore plus si tu ne risques pas.

Cosmétique de l'ennemi, Amélie Nothomb,
Éditions Albin Michel, 2001, p. 118.

Living on cloud nine

Penelope

Just in time...

Où suis-je ?

Spot the difference

'C'me on, guys, are you really calling me ugly duckling?'

Still closed, but...

... for the wrong reason. I did think that it was all over and done with, that I had no reason to keep on moaning, but I was wrong. However, this realization won't result in a revival of this blog for the moment. On the contrary, it rather hinders that possibility. I thought my wounds were healed, and yet they're festering again. Perhaps this blog is a make believe remedy for a mock sorrow, but the former was my main weapon to combat the latter, which hurt so badly then as it hurts now. So silence doesn't mean joy now, but intractable sorrow.

Closed for want of sorrow / Fermé pour cessation de malheur

Hace varios días que le busco el pulso al blog y no se lo encuentro. Lo rescaté con un propósito claro: expulsar todas las miasmas de mi cuerpo y de mi alma. Su objetivo está cumplido. La purificación ha terminado. Como el desenlace ha sido pacífico, no recurriré a la violencia extrema de suprimirlo. Lo dejaré como memento. Tampoco se sabe cuándo puede hacer falta de nuevo. En apariencia esto es un adiós, pero nunca fue más gozosa una despedida porque inaugura una nueva era. Las entradas se nutrían de dolor. Vivían y crecían parasitariamente de él. La poca inspiración que pudiera latir en ellas muere de asfixia en un nuevo e insólito escenario de acuerdo con la vida. Efectivamente, como decía Machado, se canta lo que se pierde. Yo ya no tengo nada más que cantar.

Life is just a bowl of cherries

Life is just a bowl of cherries


Life is just a bowl of cherries
Don't take it serious
Life's too mysterious
You work
You save
You worry so
But you can't take your dough
When you go go go

Keep repeating it's the berries
The strongest oak must fall
The best things in life
To you were just loaned
So how can you lose
What you've never owned
Life is just a bowl of cherries
So live and laugh at it all

Keep repeating it's the berries
You know the strongest oak
Has gotta fall
The sweet things in life
To you were just loaned
So how can you lose what you've never owned

Life is just a bowl of cherries
So live it
Love it
Wiggle your ears
And think nothin' of it
You can't do without it
There's no two ways about it
You live
And you laugh at it all!

Malgré tout

A matter of attitudes

At a (pleasant) crossroads

Thing is, any option seems the right choice!

Over the rainbow

On the sunny side of the street...

...it's possible to let go of the bunch of balloons and be pleased at the sight.

We're not in Kansas anymore

Cuando se vive en la cenicienta Kansas, es imposible atreverse a soñar el camino de baldosas amarillas.

Me neither

Lyrics here

Breaking new ground

Look before you leap

Society