Franz Innerhofer, Jamal Abro, Clyde Fitch, John Galt, Jerome K. Jerome, Udo Steinke, Klaus Konjetzky

De Oostenrijkse schrijver Franz Innerhofer werd geboren op 2 mei 1944 in Krimml. Zie ook alle tags voor Franz Innenhofer op dit blog.

Uit: Schöne Tage

„Wieder in der Küche, fragte die Stiefmutter, warum er kein weißes Hemd angezogen habe. Dann ging alles sehr schnell. Der Weiße Sonntag nicht bewußt. Schulbeichte nicht nachgeholt. Schrecken. Aufspringen des Vaters. Resignation. Holl in die etwas höher liegende Speisekammer gestoßen. Hose herunter. Mit Riemen zugeschlagen. Wie immer mußte Holl um die Züchtigung bitten, nach der Züchtigung sich bedanken. Eine Übernahme vom Großvater. Die ersten Riemenhiebe schmerzten am meisten, dann sah Holl nur noch gelangweilt zum vergitterten Fenster hinauf. Das Keuchen des Vaters widerte ihn an. Die Hose mußte er halten, weil die Knöpfe ausgerissen waren. Dann warf ihn der Vater über die Stufen auf den Küchenboden hinunter, wo er hart aufschlug. Aufschreien der Stiefmutter. Stumme Gesichter der Mägde. Schmerz. Holl schämte sich. Dann befahl ihm der Vater daheim zu bleiben.”
(…)

Er wollte nicht auch noch die letzte Schande auf sich nehmen. über Arbeit klagen, war die größte Schande. Er wollte nur noch sterben, einschlafen und nicht mehr aufwachen, aber er wurde immer wieder geweckt, brutal aus dem Schlaf gerissen, und dachte sofort an die Schlucht, die Hose feucht-kalt, die Fußlappen feucht, die Stiefel feucht, die Milchkannen kalt, der Melkeimer kalt. Er torkelte hinter dem Melker durch den dreckigen Stall und dachte: Morgen geht da ein anderer.“

 

 

De Sindi schrijver Jamal Abro werd geboren op 2 mei 1924 in in Sangi, een klein dorpje in Mehar Dholka. Zie en ook alle tags voor Jamal Abro op dit blog.

Uit: Pirani

“The dogs would not stop barking and they kept it up till they had followed the strangers back to the outskirts of the hamlet. the dogs then wagged their tails as if they had done their duty. Outside the hamlet, after considerable high-haggling the bargain was struck for sixty rupees!
The Brohis were now getting ready to return to the hungry hills. They pulled down the shacks and loaded the bullocks. The children kept chattering about the hills and the babble trees on the hills. Lalu’s village was on the way. Pirani’s mother walked abreast, almost touching her daughter, while the father offered his finger for Pirani to hold. Are we returning home? asked Pirani. The father nodded. He could feel a corrosive void turning and twisting within him. The mother felt as if something heavy were hammering within her breast, trying to get out.
Lalu’s People were waiting. As they drew nearer, Pirani’s mother twitched convulsively and clasped her daughter. Lifting her high, she pressed Pirani to her bosom. The mother and daughter were panting, their hearts pounding fast, their eyes panic-stricken.
Others stood around them. The father with his trembling hands lurched forward and tore away his daughter with a look of finality. The mother broke down, her heart crushed, her very vitals cut into pieces. She screamed, Pirani, oh, my little Pirani! The girl shrieked back… The birds flew away in panic.“

 

 

De Amerikaanse (toneel) schrijver Clyde Fitch werd geboren op 2 mei in 1865 in Elmira, New York. Zie ook alle tags voor Clyde Fitch op dit blog.

Uit: The Stubbornness Of Geraldine

“GERALDINE. Glad!?! Glad!! Surely an Englishman knows what love of one’s country means ! how it’s born in one, and nothing ever gets it out !
Let me tell you something ! The day I sailed, a pale, small, timid girl, this same uncle gave me, to wave from the boat, a little stars and stripes; Uncle Ray DID love his country as well as a few other things ! Perhaps you’ll think it silly of me, but from that day to this I’ve never let go that little flag. I’ve travelled all over Europe, but never went to sleep one night without it under my pillow at first, and afterward in a little sort of amulet about my neck [Taking hold of a chain she wears.], when it threatened to become rags! Glad to go back to America ? It’s what I’ve been dreaming of, longing for, waiting for on tiptoe since the very hour I left fourteen years ago! Glad/!! I don’t pretend to explain; I can only tell you that even to speak of going back fills me with an emotion
I don’t understand. I feel it here ! [Her hand over her bosom.] And here! [At her throat.] It’s why it’s home, you know, that’s all !
TILBURY. I know what you mean. I felt it in South Africa.
GERALDINE. [With quick interest and sympathy.] Were you in many battles there?
TILBURY. No, but I was in all the hospitals !
GERALDINE. [She laughs.] Let’s walk. [To
FRAULEIN.] We’re going to walk up and down a little, just here in front of you.“

 

 

De Schotse schrijver John Galt werd geboren in Irvine op 2 mei 1779. Zie ook alle tags voor John Galt op dit blog.

Uit: The Life of Lord Byron

“Sir Nicholas died in 1540, leaving an only son, Sir John Byron, whom Henry VIII. made Steward of Manchester and Rochdale, and Lieutenant of the Forest of Sherwood.  It was to him that, on the dissolution of the monasteries, the church and priory of Newstead, in the county of Nottingham, together with the manor and rectory of Papelwick, were granted.  The abbey from that period became the family seat, and continued so until it was sold by the poet.
Sir John Byron left Newstead and his other possessions to John Byron, whom Collins and other writers have called his fourth, but who was in fact his illegitimate son.  He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 1579, and his eldest son, Sir Nicholas, served with distinction in the wars of the Netherlands.  When the great rebellion broke out against Charles I., he was one of the earliest who armed in his defence.  After the battle of Edgehill, where he courageously distinguished himself, he was made Governor of Chester, and gallantly defended that city against the Parliamentary army.  Sir John Byron, the brother and heir of Sir Nicholas, was, at the coronation of James I., made a Knight of the Bath.  By his marriage with Anne, the eldest daughter of Sir Richard Molyneux, he had eleven sons and a daughter.  The eldest served under his uncle in the Netherlands; and in the year 1641 was appointed by King Charles I., Governor of the Tower of London.  In this situation he became obnoxious to the refractory spirits in the Parliament, and was in consequence ordered by the Commons to answer at the bar of their House certain charges which the sectaries alleged against him.  But he refused to leave his post without the king’s command; and upon’ this the Commons applied to the Lords to join them in a petition to the king to remove him.  The Peers rejected the proposition.
On the 24th October, 1643, Sir John Byron was created Lord Byron of Rochdale, in the county of Lancaster, with remainder of the title to his brothers, and their male issue, respectively.  He was also made Field-Marshal-General of all his Majesty’s forces in Worcestershire, Cheshire, Shropshire and North Wales: nor were these trusts and honours unwon, for the Byrons, during the Civil War, were eminently distinguished.  At the battle of Newbury, seven of the brothers were in the field, and all actively engaged.”

 

 

De Engelse schrijver Jerome Klapka Jerome werd geboren op 2 mei 1859 in Walsall, in het toenmalige graafschap Staffordshire. Zie ook alle tags voor Jerome K. Jerome op dit blog.

Uit: Tea-table Talk

“They are very pretty, some of them,” said the Woman of the World; “not the sort of letters I should have written myself.”
“I should like to see a love-letter of yours,” interrupted the Minor Poet.
“It is very kind of you to say so,” replied the Woman of the World.
“It never occurred to me that you would care for one.”
“It is what I have always maintained,” retorted the Minor Poet; “you have never really understood me.”
“I believe a volume of assorted love-letters would sell well,” said the Girton Girl; “written by the same hand, if you like, but to different correspondents at different periods. To the same person one is bound, more or less, to repeat oneself.”
“Or from different lovers to the same correspondent,” suggested the Philosopher. “It would be interesting to observe the response of various temperaments exposed to an unvaried influence. It would throw light on the vexed question whether the qualities that adorn our beloved are her own, or ours lent to her for the occasion.
Would the same woman be addressed as ‘My Queen!’ by one correspondent, and as ‘Dear Popsy Wopsy!’ by another, or would she to all her lovers be herself?”
“You might try it,” I suggested to the Woman of the World, selecting, of course, only the more interesting.”

 

 

De Duitse schrijver en dichter Klaus Konjetzky werd geboren op 2 mei 1943 in Wenen. Zie ook alle tags voor Klaus Konjetzky op dit blog.

 

Aufzuhebende Widersprüche

Folg ich, wozu ich neige,
dem Kuckucksruf,
schwinden die Fernsehantennen…

Folg ich den Bürgersteigen,
laufe ich Geiselnehmern in die Hand,
geht mir ein Polizistenhund ans Bein,
pinkeln mich Wasserwerfer an,
bevor ich mich einer Festnahme
widersetzen muß.

 

 

 

De Duitse schrijver Udo Steinke werd geboren op 2 mei 1942 in Łódź. Zie ook alle tags voor Udo Steinke op dit blog.

Uit: Die Buggenraths

„Zwischen den angewelkten Grashalmen perlten Herbsttröpfchen vorwitzig zur Erde hinab und wurden sofort aufgesaugt von dem ausgetrockneten Friedhofsgrund; der Morgentau war zu schwach für eine Aufweichung des ziegelharten Bodens, und an eine Arbeitserleichterung war somit nicht zu denken. Doch das Grab musste in zwei Stunden offen sein, denn zwölf Uhr mittags wollte der Herr Pfarrer eine Hand voller Erde zurückwerfen in das Loch des Vergessens, und anschliessend sollte er den Segen für eine Familiengründung sprechen“