Beers & Books CXCIX – Alessandro Baricco

 Read the flight of your arrow
if you want to know your future.

Alessandro Baricco *25 January 1958

Beers & Books CXCIII – E.T.A. Hoffmann

Once you are dancing with the devil,
the prettiest capers won't help you.

E.T.A. Hoffmann (24 January 1776 – 25 June 1822)

Beers & Books CXCII – Giulio Stocchi

Con questa poesia della tua gloriosa penna in mente
alzo il mio bicchiere, caro vecchio amico.
*
With this poem from your glorious pen in mind
I raise my glass, dear old friend.

* * *

L’amico che è morto
di notte mi torna
a parlare
Mi chiede notizie
del mondo
che ha dovuto
abbandonare
Ascolta ciò che dico
Poi scuote la testa
sospira
e scompar
*
The friend who died
comes back to me at night
to speak
He asks me for news
Of the world
that he had to
abandon
He listens to what I say
Then he shakes his head
sighs
and disappears

Giulio Stocchi (20 January 1944 – April 2019)

Beers & Book CXCI – Nâzım Hikmet

However and wherever we are,
we must live as if we will never die.

Nâzım Hikmet (15 January 1902 – 3 June 1963)

Beers & Books CXC – Jack London

Burning Daylight
*
There's only one way to make a beginning,
and that is to begin;
and begin with hard work, and patience,
prepared for all the disappointments.

Jack London (12 Januar 1876 – 22 November 1916)

Beers & Books CLXXXIX – Eduardo Mendoza

La ciudad de los prodigos / The City of Marvels
*
Un problema deja de serlo si no tiene solución.

A problem is no longer a problem if it has no solution.

Eduardo Mendoza *11 January 1943

Beers & Books CLXXXVIII – Antonio Muñoz Molina

I have spent a great deal of my life
being part of minorities.
Some of the people I admire the most in the world
have had the courage to defend, against wind and tide,
minority viewpoints in those frightening times
when any disagreement with universal conformity
is identified as treason.

* * *
Like a Fading Shadow
The Polish Rider

Antonio Muñoz Molina *10 January 1956

Beers & Books CLXXXVII – Gianni Celati

Nella vita d'un turista che va un po' lontano,
credo che a un certo punto sorge
per forza la domanda:
"Ma cosa sono venuto qui a fare?"
Domanda che mette in moto
il gran cinema delle giustificazioni con se stessi,
per non dirsi sul serio:
"Sono qui a non far niente"
*
In the life of a tourist who goes a little far away,
I think that at a certain point the question necessarily arises:
"What did I come here for?"
This question sets in motion
the great cinema of justifications to oneself,
so as not to say seriously:
"I'm here to do nothing".

Gianni Celati (10 January 1937 – 3 January 2022)

Beers & Books CLXXXVI – Leonardo Sciascia

The truth is at the bottom of a well.
You look in a well,
and you see the sun or the moon,
but if you jump in,
there's no longer the sun or the moon;
there's the truth.

 

Leonardo Sciascia (8 January 1921 – 20 November 1989)

Beers & Books CLXXXV – Maeve Brennan

"All we have to face in the future
is what has happened in the past.
It is unbearable."

Maeve Brennan  (6 January 1917 – 1 November 1993)

Laughing Lhursday*

In the year 2097 ...

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

Beers & Books CLXXXIV – Carlos Saura

¡Esa Luz! / This Light!

Carlos Saura *4 January 1932

Beers & Books CLXXXIII – J. R. R. Tolkien

It is no bad thing
celebrating a simple life.

  

J. R. R. Tolkien (3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973)