De Engelse dichter, schrijver en essayist James Leigh Hunt werd geboren op 19 oktober 1784 in Southgate, Middlesex. Zie ook mijn blog van 19 oktober 2006.
Death
Death is a road our dearest friends have gone;
Why with such leaders, fear to say, “Lead on?”
Its gate repels, lest it too soon be tried,
But turns in balm on the immortal side.
Mothers have passed it: fathers, children; men
Whose like we look not to behold again;
Women that smiled away their loving breath;
Soft is the travelling on the road to death!
But guilt has passed it? men not fit to die?
O, hush — for He that made us all is by!
Human we’re all — all men, all born of mothers;
All our own selves in the worn-out shape of others;
Our used, and oh, be sure, not to be ill-used brothers!
The Negro Boy
Paupertas onus visa est grave.
Cold blows the wind, and while the tear
Bursts trembling from my swollen eyes,
The rain’s big drop, quick meets it there,
And on my naked bosom flies!
O pity, all ye sons of Joy,
The little wand’ring Negro-boy.
These tatter’d clothes, this ice-cold breast
By Winter harden’d into steel,
These eyes, that know not soothing rest,
But speak the half of what I feel!
Long, long, I never new one joy,
The little wand’ring Negro-boy!
Cannot the sigh of early grief
Move but one charitable mind?
Cannot one hand afford relief?
One Christian pity, and be kind?
Weep, weep, for thine was never joy,
O little wand’ring Negro-boy!
Is there a good which men call Pleasure?
O Ozmyn, would that it were thine!
Give me this only precious treasure;
How it would soften grief like mine!
Then Ozmyn might be call’d, with joy,
The little wand’ring Negro-boy!
My limbs these twelve long years have borne
The rage of ev’ry angry wind:
Yet still does Ozmyn weep and mourn,
Yet still no ease, no rest can find!
Then death, alas, must soon destroy
The little wand’ring Negro-boy!
No sorrow e’er disturbs the rest,
That dwells within the lonely grave;
Thou best resource, the wo-wrung breast
E’er ask’d of Heav’n, or Heav’n e’er gave!
Ah then, farewell, vain world, with joy
I die the happy Negro-boy!
Leigh Hunt (19 oktober 1784 – 28 augustus 1859)
Zie voor onderstaande schrijvers ook mijn blog van 19 oktober 2006.
De Guatemalteekse schrijver Miguel Ángel Asturias werd geboren op 19 oktober 1899 in Guatemala-Stad.
De Britse schrijver John le Carré werd geboren op 19 oktober 1931 in Poole, Dorset, Engeland.