Patrick Hamilton, Karl Gutzkow, Urmuz, Jean Ingelow, Ebenezer Elliott, Paul Green

De Engelse schrijver Patrick Hamilton werd geboren op 17 maart 1904 in Hassocks, Sussex. Zie ook alle tags voor Patrick Hamilton op dit blog.

Uit: Hangover Square

“What, then, had been happening in his head a few moments before —and in the long hours before that? What?… Well, never mind now. There was plenty of time to think about that when he had found a compartment. He must find an empty one so that he could be by himself. If he had any luck, he might be alone all the way to London — there oughtn’t to be many people travelling on Boxing Day. He walked up to the far end of the train, and selected an empty compartment. As he turned the handle of this, the hissing of the engine abruptly stopped. The station seemed to reel at the impact of the sudden hush, and then, a moment later, began to carry on its activities again in a more subdued, in an almost furtive way. That, he realized, was exactly like what happened in his head — his head, that was to say, when it went the other way, the nasty way, the bad, dead way. It had just gone the right way, and he was back in life again. He put his suit-case on the rack, clicked it open, and stood on the seat to see if he had packed his yellow-covered The Bar 20 Rides Again. He had. It was on the top. It was wonderful how he did things when he didn’t know what he was doing. (Or did he, at the time, in some way know what he was doing? Presumably he did.) Anyway, here was his Bar 20. He clicked the bag shut again, sat down, pulled his overcoat over his legs, put the book on his lap, and looked out of the window. He was back in life again. It was good to be back in life. And yet how quiet and dismal it was in this part of the world. The trolley was still being rolled about the platform at the barrier end of the station: two porters were shouting to each other in the distance; another porter came along trying all the doors, reaching and climactically trying his own handle, and fading away again in a series of receding jabs: he could hear two people talking to each other through the wooden walls of the train, two compartments away; and if he listened he could hear, through the open window, the rhythmic purring of the mud-coloured sea, which he could see from here a hundred yards or so beyond the concrete front which was so near the station as to seem to be almost part of it. Not a soul on the front. Cold and quiet. And the sea purred gently. Dismal, dismal, dismal. He listened to the gentle purring of the sea, and waited for the train to start, his red face and beer-shot eyes assuming an expression of innocent vacancy and misery. »

 

 
Patrick Hamilton (17 maart 1904 – 23 september 1962)
Scene uit de gelijknamige film uit 1945 met Laird Cregar als George Harvey Bone (rechts)

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Patrick Hamilton, Hans Wollschläger, Jean Ingelow, Karl Gutzkow, Ebenezer Elliott, Paul Green

De Engelse schrijver Patrick Hamilton werd geboren op 17 maart 1904 in Hassocks, Sussex. Zie ook alle tags voor Patrick Hamilton op dit blog.

Uit: Hangover Square

“For two or three minutes he walked along in a dream, barely conscious of anything. The motion of his body caused his raincoat to make a small thundering noise: his big sports shoes creaked and rustled on the grass of the cliff-top. On his left, down below, lay the vast grey sweep of the Wash under the sombre sky of Christmas afternoon; on his right the scrappy villas in the unfinished muddy roads. A few couples were about, cold, despairing, bowed down by the hopeless emptiness and misery of the season and time of day. He passed a shelter, around which some children were running, firing toy pistols at each other. Then he remembered, without any difficulty, what it was he had to do: he had to kill Netta Longdon.

He was going to kill her, and then he was going to Maidenhead, where he would be happy.

It was a relief to him to have remembered, for now he could think it all out. He liked thinking it out: the opportunity to do so was like lighting up a pipe, something to get at, to get his teeth into.


Scene uit het gelijknamige toneelstuk, Finborough Theatre, Londen, 2008

Why must he kill Netta? Because things had been going on too long, and he must get to Maidenhead and be peaceful and contented again. And why Maidenhead? Because he had been happy there with his sister, Ellen. They had had a splendid fortnight, and she had died a year or so later. He would go on the river again, and be at peace. He liked the High Street, too. He would not drink any more-or only an occasional beer. But first of all he had to kill Netta.

This Netta business had been going on too long. When was he going to kill her? Soon-this year certainly. At once would be best-as soon as he got back to London-he was going back tomorrow, Boxing Day. But these things had to be planned: he had so many plans: too many. The thing was so incredibly, absurdly easy. That was why it was so difficult to choose the right plan. You had only to hit her over the head when she was not looking. You had only to ask her to turn her back to you because you had a surprise for her, and then strike her down. You had only to invite her to a window, to ask her to look down at something, and then throw her out. You had only to put a scarf playfully round her neck, and fondle it admiringly, and then strangle her. You had only to surprise her in her bath, lift up her legs and hold her head down.”

 

Patrick Hamilton (17 maart 1904 – 23 september 1962)

Lees verder “Patrick Hamilton, Hans Wollschläger, Jean Ingelow, Karl Gutzkow, Ebenezer Elliott, Paul Green”

Patrick Hamilton, Hans Wollschläger, Jean Ingelow, Karl Gutzkow, Ebenezer Elliott, Paul Green

De Engelse schrijver Patrick Hamilton werd geboren op 17 maart 1904 in Hassocks, Sussex. Zie ookalle tags voor Patrick Hamilton op dit blog.

 

Uit: Hangover Square

„It was, actually, only in the few moments following the sudden transition-the breaking down of the sound track, the change from the talkie to the silent film-that he now ever thought about, or indeed was conscious of-this extraordinary change which took place in his mind. Soon enough he was watching the silent film-the silent film without music-as though there had never been any talkie-as though what he saw had always been like this.

A silent film without music-he could have found no better way of describing the weird world in which he now moved. He looked at passing objects and people, but they had no colour, vivacity, meaning-he was mentally deaf to them. They moved like automatons, without motive, without volition of their own. He could hear what they said, he could understand their words, he could answer them, even; but he did this automatically, without having to think of what they had said or what he was saying in return. Therefore, though they spoke it was as though they had not spoken, as though they had moved their lips but remained silent. They had no valid existence; they were not creatures experiencing pleasure or pain. There was, in fact, no sensation, no pleasure or pain at all in this world: there was only himself-his dreary, numbed, dead self.

There was no sensation, but there was something to be done. Emphatically, most emphatically there was something to be done. So soon as he had recovered from the surprise-but nowadays it was hardly a surprise-of that snap in his head, that break in the sound track, that sudden burst into a new, silent world-so soon as he had recovered from this he was aware that something had to be done. He could not think what it was at first, but this did not worry him. He could never think of it at first, but it would come: if he didn’t nag at it, but relaxed mentally, it would come.“

 

Patrick Hamilton (17 maart 1904 – 23 september 1962)

Lees verder “Patrick Hamilton, Hans Wollschläger, Jean Ingelow, Karl Gutzkow, Ebenezer Elliott, Paul Green”

Patrick Hamilton, Hans Wollschläger, Jean Ingelow, Karl Gutzkow, Ebenezer Elliott, Paul Green

De Engelse schrijver Patrick Hamilton werd geboren op 17 maart 1904 in Hassocks, Sussex. Zie ook mijn blog van 17 maart 2007 en ook mijn blog van 17 maart 2009 en ook mijn blog van 17 maart 2010.

 

Uit: Hangover Square

 

„They used to rag him until it at last became an accepted thing. “Old Bone” was said to be in one of his “dotty” moods. Mr. Thorne used to be sarcastic. “Or is this one of your-ah-delightfully convenient periods of amnesia, my dear Bone?” But even Mr. Thorne came to accept it. “Extra ordinary boy,” he once heard Mr. Thorne say (not knowing that he was overheard), “I really believe it’s perfectly genuine.” And often, instead of making him look a fool in front of the class, he would stop, give him a curious, sympathetic look, and, telling him to sit down, would without any ironic comment ask the next boy to do what he had failed to do.

“Dead” moods-yes, all his life he had had “dead” moods, but in those days he had slowly slipped into and out of them-they had not been so frequent, so sudden, so dead, so completely dividing him from his other life. They did not arrive with this extraordinary “snap”-that had only been happening in the last year or so. At first he had been somewhat disturbed about it; had thought at moments of consulting a doctor even. But he had never done so, and now he knew he never would. He was well enough; the thing did not seriously inconvenience him; and there were too many other things to worry about-my God, there were too many other things to worry about!

And now he was walking along the cliff at Hunstanton, on Christmas afternoon, and the thing had happened again. He had had Christmas dinner with his aunt, and he had gone out, as he had told her, to “walk it off.” He wore a light raincoat. He was thirty-four, and had a tall, strong, beefy, ungainly figure. He had a fresh, red complexion and a small moustache. His eyes were big and blue and sad and slightly bloodshot with beer and smoke. He looked as though he had been to an inferior public school and would be pleased to sell you a second-hand car. Just as certain people look unmistakably “horsey,” bear the stamp of Newmarket, he bore the stamp of Great Portland Street. He made you think of road houses, and there are thousands of his sort frequenting the saloon bars of public-houses all over England. His full mouth was weak, however, rather than cruel. His name was George Harvey Bone.“

 

 

Patrick Hamilton (17 maart 1904 – 23 september 1962)

 

 

Lees verder “Patrick Hamilton, Hans Wollschläger, Jean Ingelow, Karl Gutzkow, Ebenezer Elliott, Paul Green”

Hans Wollschläger, Jean Ingelow, Patrick Hamilton, Karl Gutzkow, Ebenezer Elliott, Paul Green

De Duitse schrijver, essayist, vertaler, uitgever, historicus, organist en muziekwetenschapper Hans Wollschläger werd geboren op 17 maart 1935 in Minden. Zie ook mijn blog van 17 maart 2007 en ook mijn blog van 17 maart 2008 en ook mijn blog van 17 maart 2009.

 

Uit: Tiere sehen dich an oder Das Potential Mengele

 

Sie werden in Gefängniszellen gehalten, so eng wie die Stehsärge von Oranienburg; das Licht, das ihnen morgens aufgeht, kommt von der Neonröhre, die angeht; ihre Grundlebensbedürfnisse werden mit der chemischen Keule niedergeschlagen, ihre Grundtriebe ebenso an- und abgestellt, Fortpflanzung und Nachkommenaufzucht auf perverse Art mechanisiert. Ihr einziger Daseinszweck: Selbstaufzucht, Selbstvervielfältigung. Haftpsychosen sind die Regelfolge, Selbstmordversuche; die Lebensdauer, die ihnen zugebilligt wird, liegt tief unter ihrer natürlichen Lebenserwartung; das Urteil, Begnadigung ausgeschlossen, lautet generell auf Lebenslänglich.

Es ist die Rede von Tieren, nicht von Menschen. Die Unterschiede sind bekannt, wenn sie auch vom Menschentier überschätzt werden; der Nicht-Unterschied (um selbst auf der psycho-vegetativen Ebene nicht von jener »Gleichheit« zu reden, die auch innerhalb der Menschenart eine heikle Behauptung wäre): elementare Sensibilität gegenüber Perversionen in der Ordnung des lebendigen; Geltung des Lustprinzips; Leidensfähigkeit. Wer das bestreitet, dementiert seine eigene Erfahrungs- und Wahrnehmungssensibilität; er widerspricht zudem den Erkenntnissen unserer ersten Verhaltensforscher wie Konrad Lorenz und steht, mit nichts als seinem Selbstinteresse in Händen, als frech anmaßender Idiot da. Als Selbstbetrüger oder Heuchler steht da, wer sich auf Unwissenheit herausredet. Denn es gibt mittlerweile eine umfangreiche Literatur darüber, und für die 30 Prozent Analphabeten, die keine Bücher lesen können, haben auch Fernsehen und Zeitschriften das Nötige getan, um selbst die verklebtesten Augen aufzusperren: für eine Greuel- und Grauensperspektive, ohnegleichen, so weit die Erde reicht und die Welterscheinung von Menschenhand bestimmt wird.“

 

hans_wollschlaeger

Hans Wollschläger (17 maart 1935 – 19 mei 2007)

 

De Engelse dichteres en schrijfster Jean Ingelow werd geboren op 17 maart 1820 in Boston, Lincolnshire. Zie ook mijn blog van 17 maart 2007 en ook mijn blog van 17 maart 2009.

 

Like A Laverock In The Lift

 

It’s we two, it’s we two, it’s we two for aye,

All the world, and we two, and Heaven be our stay!

Like a laverock in the lift, sing, O bonny bride!

All the world was Adam once, with Eve by his side.

 

What’s the world, my lass, my love! – what can it do?

I am thine, and thou art mine; life is sweet and new.

If the world have missed the mark, let it stand by;

For we two have gotten leave, and once more we’ll try.

 

Like a laverock in the lift, sing, O bonny bride!

It’s we two, it’s we two, happy side by side.

Take a kiss from me, thy man; now the song begins:

“All is made afresh for us, and the brave heart wins.”

 

When the darker days come, and no sun will shine,

Thou shalt dry my tears, lass, and I’ll dry thine.

It’s we two, it’s we two, while the world’s away,

Sitting by the golden sheaves on our wedding-day.

 

ingelow_portrait

Jean Ingelow (17 maart 1820 – 20 juli 1897)

 

De Engelse schrijver Patrick Hamilton werd geboren op 17 maart 1904 in Hassocks, Sussex. Zie ook mijn blog van 17 maart 2007 en ook mijn blog van 17 maart 2009.

 

Uit: Hangover Square

 

„Click! … Here it was again! He was walking along the cliff at Hunstanton and it had come again … Click! … Or would the word “snap” or “crack” describe it better?

It was a noise inside his head, and yet it was not a noise. It was the sound which a noise makes when it abruptly ceases: it had a temporarily deafening effect. It was as though one had blown one’s nose too hard and the outer world had suddenly become dim and dead. And yet he was not physically deaf: it was merely that in this physical way alone could he think of what had happened in his head.

It was as though a shutter had fallen. It had fallen noiselessly, but the thing had been so quick that he could only think of it as a crack or a snap. It had come over his brain as a sudden film, induced by a foreign body, might come over the eye. He felt that if only he could “blink” his brain it would at once be dispelled. A film. Yes, it was like the other sort of film, too-a “talkie.” It was as though he had been watching a talking film, and all at once the soundtrack had failed. The figures on the screen continued to move, to behave more or less logically; but they were figures in a new, silent,indescribably eerie world. Life, in fact, which had been for him a moment ago a “talkie,” had all at once become a silent film. And there was no music.

He was not frightened, because by now he was used to it. This had been happening for the last year, the last two years-in fact he could trace it back as far as his early boyhood. Then it had been nothing so sharply defined, but how well he could remember what he called his “dead” moods, in which he could do nothing ordinarily, think of nothing ordinarily, could not attend to his lessons, could not play, could not even listen to his rowdy companions. „

 

Hamilton

Patrick Hamilton (17 maart 1904 – 23 september 1962)

 

 

De Duitse schrijver en journalist Karl Gutzkow werd geboren op 17 maart 1811 in Berlijn. Zie ook mijn blog van 17 maart 2009.

 

Uit: Briefe und Skizzen aus Berlin

 

„Wer mit der Topographie Berlins vertraut ist, wird wissen, daß die Residenz von der Spree in zwei Theile getheilt ist. Nach einer Durchschnittsrechnung wohnen auf der rechten Seite die Stände, denen das Genießen ihre Arbeit, auf der linken meist die,
denen das Arbeiten Genuß ist. Es ist charakteristisch, daß auf dem linken Ufer die Erde, nämlich Torf verkauft wird, auf dem rechten die Früchte derselben, Obst nämlich, das meist aus der Niederlausitz auf Kähnen hieher verfahren wird. Wenn man von der Gegend der Schleusen herunter kommt, den Fluß zur Rechten behält, so muß man unfern der Gertraudtenbrücke links in eine Verbindungsstraße einlenken, um zum Petriplatze zu gelangen. Wer hätte in der Scharrnstraße nicht zuweilen einen flüchtigen Blick auf die ausgewählte Gemäldesammlung geworfen, die ein trödelnder Handelsmann nahe der Ecke dort aufgestellt hat! Bald sind es Bilder, in jenem lichtscheuen Geschmacke ausgeführt, daß man Mühe hat, aus den dunkeln Farbenmassen die Umrisse der Zeichnung wieder zu erkennen, bald jene sonnenhellen, wasserfarbnen Skizzen, denen die Schatten nicht aus Versehen, sondern aus Manier fehlen.

Man findet dort täglich eine reiche Auswahl bärtiger Kriegshelden in der Tracht des großen Kurfürsten, Mönchskutten, kahle Tonsuren, viel Allongeperrücken und einfache Zöpfe, auch weibliche Porträts, meist mit gereiften Titustouren, denen eine Rose oder eine Perlenschnur einverleibt ist, kurz, Moden und Charaktere, in denen man die Schönheiten und Wonnen früherer Jahrhunderte wieder erkennen kann. Freilich habe ich mich sonst nie hinstellen mögen, um die goldgerahmten Herrlichkeiten näher in Augenschein zu nehmen, weil ich durch eine Wagenburg von alten Kesseln, eisernen Kochtöpfen, grün angestrichenen Koffern, wie sie die ältern Dienstmädchen bei uns haben, von Wiegen, Betten, Gläsern und andern Habseligkeiten mir erst den Weg hätte bahnen müssen.“

 

karl_gutzkow

Karl Gutzkow (17 maart 1811 – 16 december 1878)

 

 

De Engelse dichter Ebenezer Elliott werd geboren op 17 maart 1781 in Masborough, Yorkshire. Zie ook mijn blog van 17 maart 2009.

 

Sonnet 24

 

The footprints of departed life remain
For hours, or years, or age-long years of years,
On sand, clay, stone. Thus, chroniclers of tears
Die, but not so Time’s History of Pain.
Rooted on graves, Truth bears a living flower!
Man may forgive, but wounds their scars retain
As warnings! and the Powers of Good ordain
That to forget shall not be in our power.
For worst ills, too, have roots: they are the fruit
Of plotted action worn to habitude;
And the grey dynasties of Force might live,
Safe in their privilege of fraud and feud,
If agony died recordless and mute,
And to forget were easy as forgive.

 

Ebenezer_Elliott
Ebenezer Elliott (17 maart 1781 – 1 december 1849)
Standbeeld in Weston Park, Sheffield

 

 

De Amerikaanse toneelschrijver Paul Green werd geboren op 17 maart 1894 in Lillington, North Carolina. Zie ook mijn blog van 17 maart 2007 en ook mijn blog van 17 maart 2009.

 

Uit: The Lost Colony (Introduction)

 

„Despite all of which, Fearing, Saunders, Green, and the rest went merrily on. A large contingent of so-called CCC boys was already encamped on Roanoke Island (men in the Civilian Conservation Corps, a forerunner of the WPA, who were building up sand dunes on the outer banks in one of the early futile efforts to stabilize those barrier islands), and Fearing got a crew of them, with mules and scoops, to work on the theater, grading the seating area and building up a stage at water’s edge. Theater equipment came from the Rockefeller Foundation (an organ for musical accompaniment) and the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill (lights and related gear). The university also supplied the director (Samuel Selden) and several actors (numerous local residents also acted in the play, as did men from the CCC camp). Actors for the leading parts were professionals provided by the Federal Theatre Project. The U.S. Postal Department issued a Virginia Dare stamp to publicize the event, and the Treasury minted a Dare/Raleigh half-dollar, allowing the Roanoke Island Historical Association to sell the coins for $1.50 apiece to raise money.“

 

paulgreen1

Paul Green (17 maart 1894 – 4 mei 1981)
Met beeldhouwer William Hipp, Chapel Hill, N.C., 1976

Hafid Aggoune, Rense Sinkgraven, William Gibson, Siegfried Lenz, Urmuz, Hans Wollschläger, Jean Ingelow, Patrick Hamilton, Karl Gutzkow, Ebenezer Elliott, Paul Green

De Franse schrijver Hafid Aggoune werd geboren op 17 maart 1973 in Saint-Etienne. Hij studeerde moderne letterkunde en geschiedenis in Lyon en begon al tijdens zijn studie aan zijn eerste roman Les Avenirs. Het boek verscheen in 2004 en hij ontving er de prix de l’Armitière 2004 en de prix Félix Fénéon 2005 voor. In 2008 verscheen Premières heures au paradis, in 2009 Rêve 78.

 

Uit: Les Avenirs

 

„Ma vie n’est nulle part, ni devant ni derrière, écrite, présente, en dehors de moi, sous mes yeux usés, entre mes vieilles mains, sur les pages de ce vieux cahier. Je ne saurais dire si c’est moi qui retrouve le passé ou l’inverse. L’écriture résonne en moi. Tous ces mots sont si familiers. Je ne sais plus. C’est mon écriture, ma voix abyssale. Tout remonte. C’était oublié. C’était là. Tout est là, au fond du corps. Le corps notre mémoire. Mon corps écriture. Mon corps lecteur.
Les mots étaient là, autre chose que des mots, une nébuleuse flottant dans le gouffre. Il me manquait les mots d’avant les mots. Maintenant, ils m’assaillent. Ils ont le visage d’un fond de puits, comme soufflés par un autre qui serait moi et dontj’ignore tout, sauf cette voix lisible qui les porte.

(…)

 

Le monde n’a changé ni hier ni aujourd’ hui, et il ne changera pas demain. Un jour nous sommes un mardi. La nuit viendra et nous ne serons plus un mardi. Nous serons un mercredi, puis un jeudi, un vendredi, jusqu’au retour du mardi. Sans fin, les aiguilles amènent le retour des jours. Le monde se répète mais ce n’est jamais une répétition. Chaque jour devrait porter un nom différent car chaque jour est unique, irremplaçable, infini, et le monde ne change pas. Seuls nos regards se transforment.
Je ne vois pas les feuilles modifier leurs couleurs entre les saisons. Un jour, je les entends craquer sous mes doigts. C’est l’automne, elles sont vidées de leur eau. Elles sèchent et craquent. ce sont des visages végétaux. Elles nous ressemblent et nous leur ressemblons.“

 

Aggoune

Hafid Aggoune (Saint-Etienne, 17 maart 1973)

 

De Nederlandse dichter Rense Sinkgraven werd op 17 maart 1965 geboren in het Friese Sint Jacobiparochie en groeide op in het Drentse Smilde. Hij is afgestudeerd filosoof aan de RuG en werkt als organisator bij de Schrijversschool Groningen. Sinkgraven publiceerde onder andere in de bundels Het Hogere Noorden, Dichter bij de Stad, Groningen, de stad in gedichten, War On War (gedichten geen bommen) en in de literaire bladen Mosselvocht, Tzum, Rottend Staal, Passionate, Noachs Kat, De Hobbyrocker en Krakatau. Hij treedt regelmatig op en maakt deel uit van de Dichtclub te Groningen.

De paraplu van K. Schippers

 

Zwart. Handvat bekrast.

Waterwerende stof op twee punten

vastgehecht met zwart draad aan balein.

Punt licht gebogen.

 

Twee baleinen geknakt bij bevestigingspunt.

Ingeklapt: een elegant vrouwtje

met afstaande oren. Of: een tanig vrouwtje

met een wipneus en een buikje.

 

Ook: een existentiële polonaiseparaplu

diepzinnig dansend op één been.

 

Uitgeklapt: een mislukte parachute.

Een opgewonden standje dat

klappen kreeg. Gefnuikte vleermuisvleugels.

Glimmende ster van vermoeid metaal.

 

Ook: een bevallige vrouw een beetje loensend

in een regenpak dat haar fantastisch staat.

 

Als dit niet zijn paraplu was

zou ik niet zó kijken.

 

Sinkgraven

Rense Sinkgraven (Sint Jacobiparochie, 17 maart 1965)

 

De Amerikaanse schrijver William Ford Gibson werd geboren in Conway (South Carolina) op 17 maart 1948. Zie ook mijn blog van 17 maart 2008.

 

Uit: Pattern Recognition

 

Five hours’ New York jet lag and Cayce Pollard wakes in Camden Town to the dire and ever-circling wolves of disrupted circadian rhythm.

It is that flat and spectral non-hour, awash in limbic tides, brainstem stirring fitfully, flashing inappropriate reptilian demands for sex, food, sedation, all of the above, and none really an option now.

Not even food, as Damien’s new kitchen is as devoid of edible content as its designers’ display windows in Camden High Street. Very handsome, the upper cabinets faced in canary-yellow laminate, the lower with lacquered, unstained apple-ply. Very clean and almost entirely empty, save for a carton containing two dry pucks of Weetabix and some loose packets of herbal tea. Nothing at all in the German fridge, so new that its interior smells only of cold and long-chain monomers.

She knows, now, absolutely, hearing the white noise that is London, that Damien’s theory of jet lag is correct: that her mortal soul is leagues behind her, being reeled in on some ghostly umbilical down the vanished wake of the plane that brought her here, hundreds of thousands of feet above the Atlantic. Souls can’t move that quickly, and are left behind, and must be awaited, upon arrival, like lost luggage.

She wonders if this gets gradually worse with age: the nameless hour deeper, more null, its affect at once stranger and less interesting?“

 

gibson

William Gibson (Conway, 17 maart 1948)

 

De Duitse schrijver Siegfried Lenz werd op 17 maart 1926 in Lyck, in de landstreek Masuren in Oostpruisen geboren. Zie ook mijn blog van 17 maart 2007 en ook mijn blog van 17 maart 2008.

Uit: Schweigeminute

“Wir setzen uns mit Tränen nieder”, sang unser Schülerchor zu Beginn der Gedenkstunde, dann ging Herr Block, unser Direktor, zum bekränzten Podium. Er ging langsam, warf kaum einen Blick in die vollbesetzte Aula; vor Stellas Photo, das auf einem hölzernen Gestell vor dem Podium stand, verhielt er, straffte sich, oder schien sich zu straffen, und verbeugte sich tief. Wie lange er in dieser Stellung verharrte, vor deinem Photo,Stella,über das ein geripptes schwarzes Band schräg hinlief, ein Trauerband, ein Gedenkband; während er sich verbeugte, suchte ich dein Gesicht, auf dem das gleiche nachsichtige Lächeln lag, das wir, die ältesten Schüler, aus deiner Englischstunde kannten. Dein kurzes schwarzes Haar, das ich gestreichelt, deine hellen Augen, die ich geküßt habe auf dem Strand der Vogelinsel: Ich mußte daran denken, und ich dachte daran, wie du mich ermuntert hast, dein Alter zu erraten. Herr Block sprach zu deinem Photo hinab, er nannte dich liebe, verehrte Stella Petersen, er erwähnte, daß du fünf Jahre zum Lehrerkollegium des Lessing-Gymnasiums gehörtest, von den Kollegen geschätzt, bei den Schülern beliebt. Herr Block vergaß auch nicht, deine verdienstvolle Tätigkeit in der Schulbuchkommission zu erwähnen, und schließlich fiel ihm ein, daß du ein allzeit fröhlicher Mensch gewesen warst: “Wer ihre Schulausflüge mitmachte, schwärmte noch lange von ihren Einfällen, von der Stimmung, die alle Schüler beherrschte, dies Gemeinschaftsgefühl, Lessingianer zu sein; das hat sie gestiftet, dies Gemeinschaftsgefühl.”

 

Lenz

Siegfried Lenz (Lyck, 17 maart 1926)

 

 

De Roemeense schrijver en avantgardist Urmuz (eig. Demetru Dem. Demetrescu-Buzău) werd geboren op 17 maart 1883 in Curtea de Argeş. Zie ook mijn blog van 17 maart 2007 en ook mijn blog van 17 maart 2008.

 

Uit: Fuchsiada   (Vertaald door Julian Semilian and Sanda Agalidi)

 

„Fuchs was not engendered by his mother, not quite… In the beginning, when he came into being, he was not actually seen, but only heard, because Fuchs, when he was given birth opted to come out through one of his grandmother’s ears, his mother being possessed not at all of a musical ear.

     Following that, Fuchs went directly to the Conservatory… There he took the form of a perfect chord and, after spending at first, out of artistic modesty, three years hidden at the bottom of a piano, without anyone’s knowledge, came up to the surface and in a few minutes concluded the course in harmony and counterpoint and wound up his piano studies… Then he stepped down, but counter to all his expectations, discovered regretfully that two of the sounds from which he was composed, altered by the passage of time, had decayed: one, into a pair of mustaches with spectacles behind the ears, while the other, into an umbrella – which together with a G-sharp which was still left to him, endowed Fuchs with his precise, allegoric, and definitive form…

     Later, during puberty, it is told, Fuchs developed a kind of genital organs which were solely a young and exuberant vine leaf, as he was by nature uncommonly bashful, and would not permit, for the very life of him, anything more than a leaf or a flower…

     This leaf also serves him – it is so believed – as daily nutriment. The artist absorbs it each evening before bedtime, then crawls quietly at the bottom of his umbrella and after he locks himself in securely with two musical keys, falls asleep carried off by musical staves and swayed by wings of angelic harmonies, and seized by dreams hearkened till the following morn, when – bashful as his wont – will not surface from his umbrella until a new leaf has grown to replace the old.“

 

triana_urmuz

Urmuz (17 maart 1883 – 23 novemmber 1923)
Portret door Triana

 

De Duitse schrijver, essayist, vertaler, uitgever, historicus, organist en muziekwetenschapper Hans Wollschläger werd geboren op 17 maart 1935 in Minden. Zie ook mijn blog van 17 maart 2007 en ook mijn blog van 17 maart 2008.

Uit: Anderrede vom Weltgebäude herab oder Kleine Mauerschau des Alterns

 

Über die ganz ernsten Dinge läßt sich eigentlich bloß ernst nicht mehr reden, schon gar nicht über das komplizierte und unabsehbar implizierende Ernsteste Ding überhaupt, den Tod. Sein Dasein allein läßt einem derart die Luft wegbleiben, daß die Wörter nicht mehr von der Zunge kommen: eine Lebe-Welt, in der Alles, aber auch Alles von ihm abgeschlossen wird, und zumeist auch noch auf die haarsträubendste Weise, ist das unglaubliche Absurdum selber. Man kann imgrunde gar nicht davonreden und müßte, wollte man’s wenigstens versuchen, einen eigenen Zynismus dafür ersinnen: eine Satire-Form, die das Große Gelächter wie ein Stück Eis über den Rücken schöbe; Karl Kraus hätte sie schreiben können. Unser tod-ernstes Mienenspiel ist zu sehr kompromittiert durch die Alfanzereien,die wir täglich damit begleiten, als daß es für das wüste Un-Ding noch ausreichte, von dem wir’s haben.Spätestens seit der Tod nicht als Person mehr vorstellbar ist, mit der man Bergman’sche (oder sogarnoch bessere) Dialoge führen könnte, ist auch die Vorstellung dahin, er wäre als Nebenwesen überlistbar, zu besiegen, gar selber sterblich; die Religionen, die ihn früher so wohlgemut nach seinem Stachel gefragt haben, werden in Kürze nur noch eine liebenswürdige Erinnerung sein. Selbst Bazon Brock, der seinerzeit, mit meinem ungeteilten Beifall, eine Liga zu seiner Abschaffung gegründet hat,war ohne Fortune, wenn man ihm nicht als Teilerfolg anrechnen will, daß er selber trotz seiner Werke noch da ist. Die Situation ist tatsächlich absurd, em
pörend, unerhört: das Leben als nun wirklich prädestinierter Kreuzweg aufs Grab zu stellt eine derartige Zumutung des Großen Ganzen an uns Kleine Teilchen dar, daß mir schon in der Wiege die mir dort beigebrachte, ebenso stark geglaubte wie schwach beglaubigte Vorstellung von einem allmächtigen und allgütigen Schöpfer, egal ob Gott, Allah oder das Tetragrammaton geheißen, schier zum Kopfschütteln war.“

 

hans-Wohlschlaeger

Hans Wollschläger (17 maart 1935 – 19 mei 2007)

 

De Engelse dichteres en schrijfster Jean Ingelow werd geboren op 17 maart 1820 in Boston, Lincolnshire. Zie ook mijn blog van 17 maart 2007.

 

One morning, oh! So early

 

One morning, oh! so early, my beloved, my beloved,

All the birds were singing blithely, as if never they would cease;

‘Twas a thrush sang in my garden, “Hear the story, hear the story!”

And the lark sang, “Give us glory!”

And the dove said, “Give us peace!”

 

Then I hearkened, oh! so early, my beloved, my beloved,

To that murmur from the woodland of the dove, my dear, the dove;

When the nightingale came after, “Give us fame to sweeten duty!”

When the wren sang, “Give us beauty!”

She made answer, “Give us love!”

 

Sweet is spring, and sweet the morning, my beloved, my beloved;

Now for us doth spring, doth morning, wait upon the year’s increase,

And my prayer goes up, “Oh, give us, crowned in youth with marriage glory,

Give for all our life’s dear story,

Give us love, and give us peace!”

 

Jean_Ingelow

Jean Ingelow (17 maart 1820 – 20 juli 1897)

 

De Engelse schrijver Patrick Hamilton werd geboren op 17 maart 1904 in Hassocks, Sussex. Zie ook mijn blog van 17 maart 2007.

 

Uit: The Midnight Bell

 

“The Saloon Bar was narrow and about thirty feet in length. On your right was the bar itself, in all its bottly glitter, and on your left was a row of tables set against a comfortable and continuous leather seat which went the whole length of the bar. At the far end the Saloon Bar opened out into the Saloon Lounge. This was a large, square room filled with a dozen or so round, copper-covered tables… the whole atmosphere was spotless, tidy, bright, and a little chilly. This was no scene for the brawler, but rather for the principled and restrained drinker, with his wife. In here and in the Saloon Bar, The Midnight Bell did most of its business—the two other bars (the Public and the Private) being dreary, seatless bareboarded structures wherein drunkenness was dispensed in coarser tumblers and at a cheaper rate to a mostly collarless and frankly downtrodden stratum of society. The Public Bar could nevertheless be glimpsed by a customer in the Saloon Bar, and as the evening wore on it provided the latter with an acoustic background of deep mumbling and excited talk without which, indeed, the nightly drama of the Saloon Bar would have been rather like a cinematograph drama without music…”

 

pathamilton

Patrick Hamilton (17 maart 1904 – 23 september 1962)

 

De Duitse schrijver en journalist Karl Gutzkow werd geboren op 17 maart 1811 in Berlijn. Na de romans “Briefe eines Narren” en “Maha Guru.Geschichte eines Gottes” publiceerde hij in 1835 de roman “Wally, die Zweiflerin”, die wegens zijn „immorele“ inhoud een schandaal veroorzaakte. Gutzkow moest er 2,5 maanden voor de cel in en kreeg in Pruisen een schrijfverbod. Na zijn vrijlating werd hij de uitgever van de Frankfurter Börsenzeitung en de Frankfurter Telegraf. Vanaf 1837 woonde hij in Hamburg. Zijn kunstenaarsdrama “Richard Savage, Sohn einer Mutter” uit 1839 stond binnen een half jaar op het speelplan van achtien Duitse theaters.

 

Uit: Berlin — Panorama einer Weltstadt

„Ob man bei Stehely einen Begriff von der Verberlinerung der Literatur bekommen kann–ganz gewiss, oder man muesste sich taeuschen in dieser stummen Bewegungssprache, die einen Haufen von Zeitschriften mit wilder Begier und neidischem Blick zusammentraegt, ihn mit der Linken sichert und mit der Rechten eine nach der andern vor die starren, teilnahmslosen Gesichtszuege haelt. Die Eisenstange und das Schloss des Journals scheint mit schwerer Gewalt auch seine Zunge zu fesseln–wer wuerde hier seinen Nachbar auf eine interessante Notiz aufmerksam machen? Ein feindliches

Heer koennte eine Meile von Berlin entfernt sein, kein Mensch wuerde die Geschichte vortragen, man wuerde auf den Druck
warten und auch dann noch ein Exemplar durch aller Haende wandern lassen–fast in der Weise, wie in Stralow die honetten Leute vor jeder lebhafteren Gruppe vorbeigehen mit dem troestenden Zuruf, man wuerd’ es ja morgen gedruckt lesen“

 

karl_gutzkow

Karl Gutzkow (17 maart 1811 – 16 december 1878)

 

De Engelse dichter Ebenezer Elliott werd geboren op 17 maart 1781 in Masborough, Yorkshire. Toen hij zestien was ging hij werken in de ijzerwarenwinkel van zijn vader. Tegelijkertijd ging hij door met zijn zelfstudie literatuur en botanica. Toen hij veertig was moest hij na een bankroet nog eens helemaal opnieuw beginnen. Ditmaal was hij wel succesvol. De onderwerpen van zijn gedichten werden nu politieker. Met de Corn Law Rhymes had hij veel succes.

 

 

Retrospection

 

World of my boyhood! art thou what thou wast?

Seen through the melancholy mist of years,

Thy woods a pale diminish’d shadow cast

O’er thoughts grown grey, and feelings dimm’d with tears.

Our spirits, biggen’d by their griefs and fears,

Sadden and dwindle, with their backward view,

All they behold. Chang’d world! thy face appears

Poor as the toy that pleas’d when life was new;

And mournful as th’inscription, trite and true,

That lingers on our little sister’s grave.

Roch Abbey! Canklow! Aldwark! if I crave,

Now, a boy’s joy, from some lone flower’s deep blue,

Will your loved flowers assume a pensive hue?

Or smile as once they smiled, still growing where they grew?

 

Elliott

Ebenezer Elliott (17 maart 1781 – 1 december 1849)

 

Zie voor onderstaande schrijver ook mijn blog van 17 maart 2007.

De Amerikaanse toneelschrijver Paul Green werd geboren op 17 maart 1894 in Lillington, North Carolina.