De Engelse schrijver Charles Dickens werd geboren op 7 februari 1812 in Landport. Zie ook alle tags voor Charles Dickens op dit blog.
Uit: Barnaby Rudge
“The proprietor of this charming retreat, and owner of the ragged head before mentioned — for he wore an old tie-wig as bare and frowzy as a stunted hearth-broom — had by this time joined them; and stood a little apart, rubbing his hands, wagging his hoary bristled chin, and smiling in silence. His eyes were closed; but had they been wide open, it would have been easy to tell, from the attentive expression of the face he turned towards them — pale and unwholesome as might be expected in one of his underground existence — and from a certain anxious raising and quivering of the lids, that he was blind.
‘Even Stagg hath been asleep,’ said the long comrade, nodding towards this person.
‘Sound, captain, sound!’ cried the blind man; ‘what does my noble captain drink — is it brandy, rum, usquebaugh? Is it soaked gunpowder, or blazing oil? Give it a name, heart of oak, and we’d get it for you, if it was wine from a bishop’s cellar, or melted gold from King George’s mint.’
‘See,’ said Mr Tappertit haughtily, ’that it’s something strong, and comes quick; and so long as you take care of that, you may bring it from the devil’s cellar, if you like.’
‘Boldly said, noble captain!’ rejoined the blind man. ‘Spoken like the ‘Prentices’ Glory. Ha, ha! From the devil’s cellar! A brave joke! The captain joketh. Ha, ha, ha!’
‘I’ll tell you what, my fine feller,’ said Mr Tappertit, eyeing the host over as he walked to a closet, and took out a bottle and glass as carelessly as if he had been in full possession of his sight, ‘if you make that row, you’ll find that the captain’s very far from joking, and so I tell you.’
‘He’s got his eyes on me!’ cried Stagg, stopping short on his way back, and affecting to screen his face with the bottle. ‘I feel ‘em though I can’t see ‘em. Take ‘em off, noble captain. Remove ‘em, for they pierce like gimlets.’
Mr Tappertit smiled grimly at his comrade; and twisting out one more look — a kind of ocular screw — under the influence of which the blind man feigned to undergo great anguish and torture, bade him, in a softened tone, approach, and hold his peace.
‘I obey you, captain,’ cried Stagg, drawing close to him and filling out a bumper without spilling a drop, by reason that he held his little finger at the brim of the glass, and stopped at the instant the liquor touched it, ‘drink, noble governor. Death to all masters, life to all ‘prentices, and love to all fair damsels.”
Charles Dickens (7 februari 1812 – 9 juni 1870)
De Duitse dichteres, schrijfster en vertaalster Lioba Happel werd geboren op 7 februari 1957 in Aschaffenburg. Zie ook alle tags voor Lioba Happel op dit blog.
en trekt haar vinger omhoog tevergeefs
bevochtigt het puntje van haar tong dan
met haar heel speciale sap
in een uitbundigheid van iets
dat vergeten is nu echter
haar hersenen binnen golft als een
bloedige zwarte rivier
uitgegoten kort voor de
uitdoving van overtollige
energieën in haar hersenstam
Vertaald door Frans Roumen
Lioba Happel (Aschaffenburg, 7 februari 1957)
Zie voor nog meer schrijvers van de 7e februari ook mijn blog van 7 februari 2019 en eveneens mijn blog van 7 februari 2016 deel 2 en eveneens deel 3.