De Engelse dichteres en schrijfster Christina Georgina Rossetti werd geboren in Londen op 5 december 1830. Zie ook mijn blog van 5 december 2006.
After Death
The curtains were half drawn, the floor was swept
And strewn with rushes, rosemary and may
Lay thick upon the bed on which I lay,
Where through the lattice ivy-shadows crept.
He leaned above me, thinking that I slept
And could not hear him; but I heard him say:
“Poor child, poor child:” and as he turned away
Came a deep silence, and I knew he wept.
He did not touch the shroud, or raise the fold
That hid my face, or take my hand in his,
Or ruffle the smooth pillows for my head:
He did not love me living; but once dead
He pitied me; and very sweet it is
To know he still is warm though I am cold.
Sappho
I sigh at day-dawn, and I sigh
When the dull day is passing by.
I sigh at evening, and again
I sigh when night brings sleep to men.
Oh! it were far better to die
Than thus forever mourn and sigh,
And in death’s dreamless sleep to be
Unconscious that none weep for me;
Eased from my weight of heaviness,
Forgetful of forgetfulness,
Resting from care and pain and sorrow
Thro’ the long night that knows no morrow;
Living unloved, to die unknown,
Unwept, untended, and alone.
Beneath Thy Cross
Am I a stone, and not a sheep,
That I can stand, O Christ, beneath thy cross,
To number drop by drop Thy Blood’s slow loss,
And yet not weep?
Not so those women loved
Who with exceeding grief lamented Thee;
Not so fallen Peter weeping bitterly;
Not so the thief was moved;
Not so the Sun and Moon
Which hid their faces in a starless sky,
A horror of great darkness at broad noon–
I, only I.
Yet give not o’er,
But seek Thy sheep, true Shepherd of the flock;
Greater than Moses, turn and look once more
And smite a rock.
Christina Rossetti (5 december 1830 – 27 december 1894)
Zie voor onderstaande schrijvers ook mijn blog van 5 december 2006.
De Russische dichter Fjodor Tjoettsjev werd geboren op 5 december 1803 in Ovstug in het gouvernement Orjol.
De Duitse schrijfster Eugenie Marlitt werd geboren op 5 december 1825 in Arnstadt.
De Oostenrijkse schrijver en taalkundige Alois Brandstetter werd op 5 december 1938 in Aichmühl bei Pichl, Oberösterreich geboren.
De Amerikaanse schrijfster Joan Didion werd geboren in Sacramento Valley op 5 december 1934.