De Britse schrijfster Charlotte Brontë werd geboren in Thornton op 21 april 1816. Zie ook alle tags voor Charlotte Brontë op dit blog.
Uit: Jane Eyre
„This was a demoniac laugh-low, suppressed, and deep-uttered, as it seemed, at the very keyhole of my chamber door. The head of my bed was near the door, and I thought at first the goblin-laugher stood at my bedside- or rather, crouched by my pillow: but I rose, looked round, and could see nothing; while, as I still gazed, the unnatural sound was reiterated: and I knew it came from behind the panels. My first impulse was to rise and fasten the bolt; mynext, again to cry out, ‘Who is there?’ Something gurgled andmoaned. Ere long, steps retreated up the gallery towards the third- storey staircase: a door had lately been made to shut in that staircase; I heard it open and close, and all was still.
‘Was that Grace Poole? and is she possessed with a devil?’ thought I. Impossible now to remain longer by myself: I must go to Mrs.Fairfax. I hurried on my frock and a shawl; I withdrew the bolt and opened the door with a trembling hand. There was a candle burning just outside, and on the matting in the gallery. I was surprised at this circumstance: but still more was I amazed to perceive the air quite dim, as if filled with smoke; and, while looking to the right hand and left, to find whence these blue wreaths issued, I became further aware of a strong smell of burning.
Something creaked: it was a door ajar; and that door was Mr.Rochester’s, and the smoke rushed in a cloud from thence. I thought no more of Mrs. Fairfax; I thought no more of Grace Poole,or the laugh: in an instant, I was within the chamber. Tongues of flame darted round the bed: the curtains were on fire. In the midst of blaze and vapour, Mr. Rochester lay stretched motionless, in deep sleep.“
Charlotte Brontë (21 april 1816 – 31 maart 1855)
De Franse schrijver Patrick Rambaud werd geboren op 21 april 1946 in Parijs. Zie ook alle tags voor Patrick Rambaud op dit blog.
Uit Il neigeait
„Les chevaux rongeaient le bois des mangeoires, broutaient le chaume des paillasses, l’herbe mouillée : il en mourut dix mille avant même qu’on ait aperçu l’ombre d’un Russe. La famine régnait. Les soldats se remplissaient l’estomac d’une bouillie de seigle froide, ils avalaient des baies de genièvre ; ils se battaient pour boire l’eau des bourbiers, parce que les paysans avaient jeté au fond de leurs puits des charognes ou du fumier. Il y eut de très nombreux cas de dysenterie, la moitié des Bavarois mourut du typhus avant de combattre. Les cadavres d’hommes et de chevaux se putréfiaient sur les routes, l’air empuanti qu’on respirait donnait la nausée. D’Herbigny pestait mais il se savait favorisé : pour la Garde impériale, des officiers avaient réquisitionné les vivres destinés à d’autres corps d’armée ; il s’en était suivi des bagarres et pas mal de rancœur envers les privilégiés.
Tout en cheminant, le capitaine croquait une pomme verte chipée dans la poche d’un mort. La bouche pleine, il appela son domestique :
– Paulin !
– Monsieur ? dit l’autre d’une voix expirante.
– Saperlotte ! On n’avance plus ! Qu’est-ce qui se passe ?
– Ah ça, Monsieur, j’en sais rien.
– Tu ne sais jamais rien !
– Le temps d’accrocher notre âne à votre selle et je cours m’informer…
– Parce que, en plus, tu me vois tirer un bourricot ? Âne toi-même ! J’y vais.“
Patrick Rambaud (Parijs, 21 april 1946)
De Engelse schrijver John Mortimer werd geboren op 21 april 1923 in Londen. Zie ook alle tags voor John Mortimer op dit blog.
Uit: Rumpole and the Reign of Terror
„The good news was that Mahmood had sufficient qualifications to practise as a doctor in England and had got a post at Oakwood Hospital. It was no doubt, as Tiffany said, because Mahmood’s father was so overcome with the happiness of the occasion that he had died on the night of their wedding, leaving his son the desirable house in Kilburn. Although he was permitted to remain in England and work here as a doctor, Mahmood, like his father, never became a British citizen.
There seemed to have been no blot on the contented life of the young Khan family until that dreadful morning when the police called early at the Kilburn house and Dr Mahmood met the fate he had managed to avoid in his native country. He was under arrest.
‘And not being a British subject, he’s liable to be deported.’ Bonny Bernard spoke in pessimistic and depressing terms, a process known to him as ‘preparing the client for the worst’. Tears welled in Tiffany’s eyes, which she wiped quickly away with the back of her hand as she went on with her story. They came for Mahmood Khan when Tiffany was getting their children ready for school and he was about to leave for the hospital. They were three police officers in plain clothes and they refused to explain why he was being arrested or where he was being taken. He, it seemed, was controlled and told her it must be some extraordinary mistake. It was only as they were going out of the house that one of the officers thought to announce that Mahmood was being arrested under the Terrorism Act. The last thing she heard him say was that the idea was ridiculous.“
John Mortimer (21 april 1923 – 16 januari 2009)
De Duitse schrijver Peter Schneider werd geboren in Lübeck op 21 april 1940. Zie ook alle tags voor Peter Schneider op dit blog.
Uit: Skylla
„Und wahr ist auch, dass ich Lucynna fast an sie verloren habe.
Wenn eine Liebe zerbricht, stellt sie sich im Gedächtnis als ein Trümmerhaufen dar, jeder Bruchteil wird zum Indiz, das auf die spätere Katastrophe verweist. Manchmal habe ich mich bei der Rekonstruktion dieser Geschichte wie jener Archäologe gefühlt, der es unternimmt, aus Tausenden von Marmorstücken die ursprüngliche Skulptur zu erschließen, und am Ende entdeckt,
dass er die fehlenden Teile seines Puzzles falsch ergänzt hat. Also reißt er die falschen Teilstücke wieder auseinander und versucht es mit einer anderen Strategie, aber in der neuen Anordnung passen andere Teile nicht mehr, die sich früher einfügten – alte Lücken schließen sich, aber es bilden sich neue. Die gesuchte, einzig richtige Lösung, die alle Bausteine zu einem stimmigen Gesamtbild zusammenfügt, es gibt sie nicht.
Nein, eigentlich wollten wir nie und nirgendwo ein Haus bauen. Wir hatten genügend Freunde in der Toskana, in der Provence, in Portugal, die uns gewarnt hatten. Macht Ferien in teuren Hotels, mietet euch in einer Suite ein, fliegt in der Businessclass, es kommt euch immer noch billiger als ein Haus! Ganz abgesehen von den Folgen, die sich nicht in Geld rechnen lassen!“
Peter Schneider (Lübeck, 21 april 1940)
Onafhankelijk van geboortedata:
De Cubaanse dichteres María Elena Cruz Varela werd in 1953 geboren in Colón. Zie ook alle tags voor María Elena Cruz Varela op dit blog.
Self-Portrait with a Cut Ear
It’s dawn. Again. Life is obliging. Obliging us.
It’s dawn. Again. Dissolved in speech. Locked
in a spiral down to the last fall,
fall into nothing, horror of nothing. Devouring us.
I come with my relics of all that is wrong.
With one ear gone. And bleeding. A bullet in my temple.
Abandonment. Ridiculous bedroom of a miserable hotel.
The world was standing outside. A party of others.
I spied on them. Hungry eye nailed to openings.
I come from all that is wrong.
I travel from the torturous circles of hell.
I come from what is wrong; just that: from the wrong.
But it’s dawn. It’s dawn again. Obliging. Obliging us.
Vertaald door Mairym Cruz-Berna
María Elena Cruz Varela (Colón, 1953)
Zie voor nog meer schrijvers van de 21e april ook mijn vorige blog van vandaag.