De Britse schrijver Evelyn Waugh werd geboren in Londen op 28 oktober 1903. Zie ook alle tags voor Evelyn Waugh op dit blog.
Uit: Brideshead Revisited
“Ah, cricketing all day long I expect, like your brother. He found time to study, too, though. He’s not been here since Christmas, but he’ll be here for the Agricultural I expect. Did you see this piece about Julia in the paper? She brought it down for me. Not that it’s nearly good enough of her, but what it says is very nice. ‘The lovely daughter whom Lady Marchmain is bringing out this season… witty as well as ornamental… the most popular débutante,’ well that’s no more than the truth, though it was a shame to cut her hair; such a lovely head of hair she had just like her Ladyship’s. I said to Father Phipps it’s not natural. He said, ‘Nuns do it,’ and I said, ‘Well, surely, Father, you aren’t going to make a nun out of Lady Julia? The very idea!'”
Sebastian and the old woman talked on. It was a charming room, oddly shaped to conform with the curve of the dome. The walls were papered in a pattern of ribbon and roses. There was a rocking horse in the corner and an oleograph of the Sacred Heart over the mantelpiece; the empty grate was hidden by a bunch of pampas grass and bulrushes; laid out on the top of the chest of drawers and carefully dusted were the collection of small presents which had been brought home to her at various times by her children, carved shell and lava, stamped leather, painted wood, china, bog oak, damascened silver, blue-john, alabaster, coral, the souvenirs of many holidays.
Presently Nanny said: “Ring the bell, dear, and we’ll have some tea. I usually go down to Mrs. Chandler, but we’ll have it up here to-day. My usual girl has gone to London with the others. The new one is just up from the village. She didn’t know anything at first, but she’s coming along nicely. Ring the bell.”
But Sebastian said we had to go.
“And Miss Julia? She will be upset when she hears. It would have been such a surprise for her.”
“Poor Nanny,” said Sebastian when we left the nursery. “She does have such a dull life. I’ve a good mind to bring her to Oxford to live with me, only she’d always be trying to send me to church. We must go quickly before my sister gets back.”
“Which are you ashamed of, her or me?”
“I’m ashamed of myself,” said Sebastian gravely. “I’m not going to have you get mixed up with my family. They’re so madly charming. All my life they’ve been taking things away from me. If they once got hold of you with their charm, they’d make you their friend, not mine, and I won’t let them.”
“All right,” I said. “I’m perfectly content. But am I not going to be allowed to see any more of the house?”
“It’s all shut up. We came to see Nanny. On Queen Alexandra’s Day it’s all open for a shilling. Well, come and look if you want to….”
He led me through a baize door into a dark corridor; I could dimly see a gilt cornice and vaulted plaster above; then, opening a heavy, smooth-swinging, mahogany door, he led me into a darkened hall.”
De Hongaarse dichter en schrijver István Kemény werd geboren op 28 oktober 1961 in Boedapest. Zie ook alle tags voor István Kemény op dit blog.
De tv
Ik deelde mijn jeugd met de tv.
Wij ravotten. Zij voerden ons gezamenlijk
Mij met melk en brood, hem met stroom
En aandacht. Ik werd een volwassene
Hij een dier, een wild dier. Hij verleerde het praten,
Ik leerde het. Bij het afscheid
Begrepen wij elkaar niet langer. Ik dacht dat hij
Ook mij vergeten was. Een paar jaar geleden
Zag ik hem terug in Roemenië.
Hij had al kleur, maar
Ze hadden hem een ring door de neus gehaald
En lieten hem dansen op het plein.
Hij zag mij en rukte zich los
Rende naar mij toe, likte mijn gezicht.
Ze dachten hij vermoordt mij, maar hij wilde slechts
dat ik hem naar huis zou brengen.
Maar ik moest toen een trein halen en
Liet de tv aan zijn lot over.
Vertaald door Eva Bodor en Mischa Andriessen
Zie voor nog meer schrijvers van de 28e oktober ook mijn blog van 28 oktober 2018 deel 2 en eveneens deel 3.