Flannery O’Connor, Jacques Bens, Jaime Sabines, Peter Van Straaten,Toni Cade Bambara

De Amerikaanse schrijfster Flannery O’Connor werd geboren op 25 maart 1925 in Savannah, Georgia. Zie ook alle tags voor Flannery O’Connor op dit blog.

Uit: The Life You Save May Be Your Own

„The old woman and her daughter were sitting on their porch when Mr. Shiftlet came up their road for the first time. The old woman slid to the edge of her chair and leaned forward, shading her eyes from the piercing sunset with her hand. The daughter could not see far in front of her and continued to play with her fingers. Although the old woman lived in this desolate spot with only her daughter and she had never seen Mr. Shiftlet before, she could tell, even from a distance, that he was a tramp and no one to be afraid of.His left coat sleeve was folded up to show there was only half an arm in it and his gaunt figure listed slightly to the side as if the breeze were pushing him. He had on a black town suit and a brown felt hat that was turned up in the front and down in the back and he carried a tin tool box by a handle. He came on, at an amble, up her road, his face turned toward the sun which appeared to be balancing itself on the peak of a small mountain.

The old woman didn’t change her position until he was almost into her yard; then she rose with one hand fisted on her hip. The daughter, a large girl in a short blue organdy dress, saw him all at once and jumped up and began to stamp and point and make excited speechless sounds.

Mr. Shiftlet stopped just inside the yard and set his box on the ground and tipped his hat at her as if she were not in the least afflicted; then he turned toward the old woman and swung the hat all the way off. He had long black slick hair that hung flat from a part in the middle to beyond the tips of his ears on either side. His face descended in forehead for more than half its length and ended suddenly with his features just balanced over a jutting steel‑trap jaw. He seemed to be a young man but he had a look of composed dissatisfaction as if he understood life thoroughly.

“Good evening,” the old woman said. She was about the size of a cedar fence post and she had a man’s gray hat pulled down low over her head.“

Flannery O’Connor (25 maart 1925 – 3 augustus 1964)

Zelfportret, 1953

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Pol Hoste, Jacques Audiberti, Filip De Pillecyn, Evliya Çelebi, Anne Fanshawe

De Vlaamse schrijver Pol Hoste werd geboren in Lokeren op 25 maart 1947. Zie ook alle tags voor Pol Hoste op dit blog.

Uit: Vier Scabreuze

De volgende

‘Ik houd mij,’ deelde mij een dame mee, ‘maar even vast aan uw geslacht.’ We stonden op de tram. ‘Het is hier zo druk.’
‘Het weze mij een aangename plicht, mevrouw,’ sprak ik, gehecht aan openbaar vervoer, ‘reizigers als u voor onvoorziene schokken te behoeden.’
‘Hoe zwelt uw lid! Bedrieg ik mij?’ wilde ze weten.
‘Ik haak,’ sprak ik, ‘mij ook maar even vast in uw geslacht.’
‘Het subtiele past bij u,’ zei zij. ‘Ik merk het aan uw duim en mond.’
‘Althans tenminste het tactiele,’ zei ik. ‘Het verbale ligt mij minder. Wat dat betreft verkies ik snijbranders.’
‘En zo,’ vroeg zij, ‘mijn andere hand zich aan uw tong vasthouden wilde?’
‘Daarvoor heeft u twee handen,’ zei ik, ‘en ik waar u om vraagt.’
‘Laat dit uw laatste woord zijn!’ klonk haar stem.
Ze bracht vier vingers in, ik hijgde.
‘Geen halte, ik ben nat,’ riep ze. Mijn taal bleef stokken. Ik beet. Zij sloot.
Als men zich stevig vastklampt aan elkaar hoeft het leven niet slechts onaangenaam te zijn. Een witte vloed! Ballonnen! Men komt behouden thuis.“



Pol Hoste (Lokeren, 25 maart 1947)

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Antonio Fogazzaro, Daniel Schiebeler, Mary Webb, Erica Pedretti

De Italiaanse schrijver Antonio Fogazzaro werd geboren op 25 maart 1842 in Vicenza. Zie ook alle tags voor Antonio Fogazzaro op dit blog.

 

Uit: The Saint

„The Dessalles, brother and sister, had spentthe preceding summer at Maloja. Jeannestriving to make herself a pleasant companion,and hiding as best she could her incurablewound ; Carlino searching out traces of Nietzsche in mystic hours round Sils Maria or in worldlymoments flitting like a butterfly from one womanto another, frequently dining at St. Moritz, or atPontresina, making music with a military attache”of the German Embassy at Rome, or with Noemid’Arxel, and discussing religious questions withNoemi’s sister and brother-in-law The twod’Arxel sisters, orphans, were Belgian by birth, but of Dutch and Protestant ancestry. Theelder, Maria, after a peculiar and romantic court-ship, had married the old Italian philosopherGiovanni Selva, who would be famous in hisown country, did Italians take a deeper interestin theological questions; for Selva is perhapsthe truest representative of progressive Catholicism in Italy. Maria had become a Roman Catholic before her marriage. The Selvas spent thewinter in Rome, the rest of the year at Subiaco.
Noemi, who had remained true to the faith of her
fathers, divided her time between Brussels and
Italy. Only a month before, at the end of March,at Brussels, death had claimed the old governess,
with whom she had lived. Neither GiovanniSelva nor his wife had been able to come to Noemiat this great crisis, for Selva was seriously ill atthe time. Jeanne Dessalle, who had become muchattached to Noemi, persuaded her brother toundertake the journey to Belgium, a countrywith which he was hitherto unacquainted, andthen offered to take the Selvas’ place in Brussels.“

 

Antonio Fogazzaro (25 maart 1842 – 7 maart 1911)

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