Beers & Books CXXXII – Antonio Tabucchi

Like a blazing comet,
I've traversed infinite nights,
interstellar spaces of the imagination,
voluptuousness and fear.
I've been a man, a woman, an old person,
a little girl,
I've been the crowds on the grand boulevards
of the capital cities of the West,
I've been the serene Buddha of the East, whose
calm and wisdom we envy.
I've known honour and dishonour,
enthusiasm and exhaustion. ...
I've been the sun and the moon, and everything
because life is not enough.
*
I live quietly at home among family and friends.

Antonio Tabucchi (24 September 1943 – 25 March 2012)

Laughing Lhursday*

Fortune favours fools,
or as a German saying goes,
"Die dümmsten Bauern
ernten die dicksten Kartoffeln"
(The dumbest farmers
harvest the biggest potatoes).

Once again
the old saying
offered me great comfort.

And here to put my genius
into the right perspective.

* [For first time visitors]: Typo in the title? Nah. It's just that
I would not let a tiny T spoil an avantgardistic alliteration.

Saturday Night Music – Anna Netrebko

Anna Netrebko *18 September 1971

Beers & Books CXXXI – Frank O'Connor

"No man is ever as anti-feminist
as a really feminine woman."

Frank O'Connor (17 September 1903 – 10 March 1966)

Ronny Drew's Guide to Dublin

 

Ronnie Drew (16 September 1934 – 16 August 2008)

Beers & Books CXXX – Bernard MacLaverty

„There's nobody can fix this but yourself.
You are the only one
who can make the changes.“

Bernard MacLaverty *14 September 1942

Beers & Books CXXIX – Dante Aleghieri

                        "I love to doubt as well as know."

*
Divine Comedy
*
"The secret of getting things done is to act!"
*
Follow your path, and let the people talk.
*
"He who sees a need
and waits to be asked for help
is as unkind as if he had refused it."
*
"The hottest places in hell
are reserved for those who,
in time of great moral crisis,
maintain their neutrality.

Dante Aleghieri (1265 – 14 September 1321)

Beers & Books CXXVIII – Empire

Empire

Antonio Negri * 1 August 1933

Michael Hardt * 1960

Beers & Books CXXVII – Mary Oliver

It's very important
to write things down instantly,
or you can lose the way
you were thinking out a line.
I have a rule
that if I wake up at 3 in the morning
and think of something, I write it down.
I can't wait until morning - it'll be gone.

Mary Oliver (September 10, 1935 – January 17, 2019)

"Massoud Day"

The behavior of the Taliban
as well as their extremist attitudes
do not correspond in any way
with a tolerant Islam.

Ahmad Shah Massoud (2 September 1953 – 9 September 2001)

Beers & Books CXXVI – Andrea Camilleri

Sicily has suffered 13 foreign dominations
from which she has taken both
the best and the worst.

Andrea Camilleri  (6 September 1926 – 17 July 2019)

Beers & Books CXXV – Carmen Laforet

I write short, my words tight
to the thread of the narrative.

Carmen Laforet (6 September 1921 – 28 February 2004)

Saturday Night Music – Mikis Theodorakis