De IJslandse schrijver Einar Kárason werd op 24 november 1955 geboren in Reykjavík. Zie ook alle tags voor Einar Kárason op dit blog.
Uit: Devil’s Island (Vertaald door David MacDuff en Magnus Magnusson)
“Tommi had come to the view that it was merely from envy that grown-ups always got so scandalised about young people who were able to take life lightly. Tommi himself – well, half a century earlier he had been just like Baddi, that was how history repeated itself. People often said that they were very alike, the grandfather and son, and Tommi would be touched but somewhat embarrassed and would change the subject. Although it was hard to understand, Tommi himself knew there was a grain of truth in it, for he could often see himself in Baddi: both of them were inordinately sensitive to cold, for instance, and before Baddi went abroad he always went around in long johns under his trousers and woollen stockings which came far up his legs – that fifteen-year-old ladies’ darling. And if there was no tobacco, the boys would just take a pinch of snuff like any other healthy young Icelanders.
Then again, Tommi did not forget how good the boy had become at football. It was too bad he had given up training. It happened just after the trip to the Faroes and Norway – that was when Grjóni and Lúddi and most of the old hard-core players had also dropped it, and a new generation had taken over, led by Danni and other young brats. It was an unforgettable day when Baddi came to training for the last time and said he couldn’t be bothered with all that kids’ stuff. Then off he stalked in his rubber shoes, lighting a cigarette stub with practised hands as he went and throwing the matchstick up in the air and back-heeling it as it fell.
That was the end of his football training.
Baddi was nearly sixteen when he set off into the world in the big aeroplane – the dear granny’s boy, she remembered it so well, the day he said goodbye to them at the airport, quiet but determined.”
Einar Kárason (Reykjavík, 24 november 1955)
De Ivoriaanse schrijver Ahmadou Kourouma werd geboren op 24 november 1927 in Togobala. Zie ook alle tags voor Ahmadou Kourouma op dit blog.
Uit:Allah Is Not Obliged (Vertaald door Frank Wynne)
“Don’t go thinking that I’m some cute kid, ‘cos I’m not. I’m cursed because I did bad things to my maman. According to Black Nigger African Native customs, if your mother is angry with you and she dies with all that anger in her heart, then she curses you and you’re cursed. And afterwards nothing ever goes right for you or anyone who knows you.I’m not some cute kid on account of how I’m hunted by the gnamas of lots of people. (Gnamas is a complicated Black Nigger African Native word that I need to explain so French people can understand. According to the Glossary,a gnama is the shadow of a person that remains after death.The shadow becomes an immanent malevolent force which stalks anyone who has killed an innocent victim.) And I killed lots of innocent victims over in Liberia and Sierra Leone where I was a child doing tribal warfare, and where I got fucked-up on lots of hard drugs.The gnamas of the innocent people I killed are stalking me, so my whole life and everything round me is fucked. Gnamokode!So that’s me – six points, no more no less, with my cheeky foul-mouthed attitude thrown in for good treasure. (Actually, you don’t say ‘for good treasure’,you say ‘for good measure’. I need to explain ‘for good measure’ for Black Nigger African Natives who don’t know nothing about anything. According to Larousse, it means extra, on top of everything else.)So that’s me, and it’s not an edifying spectacle. Anyway, now that I’ve introduced myself, I’m really, truly going to tell you the life story of my cursed, fucked-up life.Sit down and listen. And write everything down. Allah is not obliged to be fair about everything he does. Faforo!Before I got to Liberia, I was a fearless, blameless kid. I slept anywhere I wanted and stole all kinds of stuff to eat. My grandmother used to spend days and days looking for me: that’s because I was what they call a street kid. ”
Ahmadou Kourouma (24 november 1927 – 11 december 2003)
Cover
De Chinese dichter en schrijver Wen Yiduo werd geboren op 24 november 1899 in Xishui, Hubei. Zie ook alle tags voor Wen Yiduo op dit blog.
Song of the Seven Sons
5.GuangZhou Bay
The East Sea and GuangZhou are my keys
I am the unbreakable lock on the last stand
Why did you loan me to this thief?
Mother, you should have never abandoned me
Mother, have me back at your knees
I will hold your ankles as tight
Mother! I want to come home, Mother!
6.Kowloon
My cousin HongKong is telling his suffering
Mother, do you remember the young daughter Kowloon
Since you married me to the monster of the sea
My tears never stopped droping
Mother, I longed for the day to come home
I am terrified if the wish were in vain
Mother! I want to come home, Mother!
7.Lv Shun, Da Lian
We are Lv Shun, Da Lian, the identical twins
But how are going to compare our fates?
The two savage neighbors had us trampling
We are the two muddy under their feet
Mother, the time has come, claim us back
You never knew how much we miss you
Mother! I want to come home, Mother.
Wen Yiduo (24 november 1899 – 15 juli 1946)
De Nederlandse dichter en schrijver Jules Deelder werd geboren op 24 november 1944 te Rotterdam, in de wijk Overschie. Zie ook alle tags voor Jules Deelder op dit blog.
The Monk
Wie zoals ik ooit Monk
op een concert dik drie
kwartier geen noot zag
spelen maar al die tijd
in trance gelijk een me-
dicijnman rond de Stein-
way dansen en onder toe-
nemend gemor van een op-
eengepakt gehoor plots
als een speer op het i-
voor af duiken en na nog
één tel wachten met één
accoord die hele drie
kwartier goedmaken
doet
er verstandig aan van ’t
leven – althans op muzi-
kaal gebied – niet al te
veel meer te verlangen
en op z’n blote knieën
god te danken dat hij
The Monk bij die gele-
genheid heel hartelijk
heeft horen lachen
Alfabetisch
Alfabetisch gezien
staat alles voor niets
Adam voor Eva en
auto voor fiets
Hel komt voor hemel
Duivel voor god
Haat staat voor liefde
Sleutel voor slot
Dood komt voor leven
Donker voor licht
Zes staat voor zeven
Maan komt voor zon
Dicht staat voor open
Ledig voor vol
Beneden voor boven
en tegen voor voor
Jules Deelder (Rotterdam, 24 november 1944)
De Engels-Ierse schrijver Laurence Sterne werd geboren op 24 november 1713 in Clonmel, Tipperary, Ierland. Zie ook alle tags voor Laurence Sterne op dit blog.
Uit: The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman
“On the fifth day of November, 1718, which to the aera fixed on, was as near nine kalendar months as any husband could in reason have expected,—was I Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, brought forth into this scurvy and disastrous world of ours.—I wish I had been born in the Moon, or in any of the planets, (except Jupiter or Saturn, because I never could bear cold weather) for it could not well have fared worse with me in any of them (though I will not answer for Venus) than it has in this vile, dirty planet of ours,—which, o’ my conscience, with reverence be it spoken, I take to be made up of the shreds and clippings of the rest;—not but the planet is well enough, provided a man could be born in it to a great title or to a great estate; or could any how contrive to be called up to public charges, and employments of dignity or power;—but that is not my case;—and therefore every man will speak of the fair as his own market has gone in it;—for which cause I affirm it over again to be one of the vilest worlds that ever was made;—for I can truly say, that from the first hour I drew my breath in it, to this, that I can now scarce draw it at all, for an asthma I got in scating against the wind in Flanders;—I have been the continual sport of what the world calls Fortune; and though I will not wrong her by saying, She has ever made me feel the weight of any great or signal evil;—yet with all the good temper in the world I affirm it of her, that in every stage of my life, and at every turn and corner where she could get fairly at me, the ungracious duchess has pelted me with a set of as pitiful misadventures and cross accidents as ever small Hero sustained.”
Laurence Sterne (24 november 1713 – 18 maart 1768)
Portret door Louis Carrogis Carmontelle, rond 1762
Zie voor nog meer schrijvers van de 24e november ook mijn vorige blog van vandaag.