Quotations
"Aunt Marigold, who had never had any children of her own, knew more mothercraft than many women who had. She had not only the seeing eye but the understanding heart as well." -L.M. Montgomery, Magic for Marigold
"When I was a child I told my mother everything. After she died I learned that it was better to keep some things to myself. My father represented authority, which meant — to me — that he could not also represent understanding." -William Maxwell, So Long, See You Tomorrow
"They'd know it was me. My mother always know it's me. She's psychic."
-J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye
"So this is his mother.
This small woman.
The gray-eared procreator.
The boat in which, years ago,
he sailed to shore.
The boat from which he stepped
into the world,
into un-eternity.
Genetrix of the man
with whom I leap through fire.
So this is she, the only one
who didn't take him
finished and complete.
She herself pulled him
into the skin I know,
bound him to the bones
that are hidden from me.
She herself raised
the gray eyes
that he raised to me.
So this is she, his Alpha.
Why has he shown her to me.
Born.
So he was born, too.
Born like everyone else.
Like me, who will die.
The son of an actual woman.
A new arrival from the body's depths.
A voyager to Omega.
Subject to
his own absence,
on every front,
at any moment.
He hits his head
against a wall
that won't give way forever.
His movements
dodge and parry
the universal verdict.
I realized
that his journey was already halfway over.
But he didn't tell me that,
no.
'This is my mother.'
was all he said." -Wisława Szymborska, "Born" (Translated by Stanisław Baranczak and Clare Cavanagh)
"Aunt Marigold, who had never had any children of her own, knew more mothercraft than many women who had. She had not only the seeing eye but the understanding heart as well." -L.M. Montgomery, Magic for Marigold
"When I was a child I told my mother everything. After she died I learned that it was better to keep some things to myself. My father represented authority, which meant — to me — that he could not also represent understanding." -William Maxwell, So Long, See You Tomorrow
"They'd know it was me. My mother always know it's me. She's psychic."
-J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye
"So this is his mother.
This small woman.
The gray-eared procreator.
The boat in which, years ago,
he sailed to shore.
The boat from which he stepped
into the world,
into un-eternity.
Genetrix of the man
with whom I leap through fire.
So this is she, the only one
who didn't take him
finished and complete.
She herself pulled him
into the skin I know,
bound him to the bones
that are hidden from me.
She herself raised
the gray eyes
that he raised to me.
So this is she, his Alpha.
Why has he shown her to me.
Born.
So he was born, too.
Born like everyone else.
Like me, who will die.
The son of an actual woman.
A new arrival from the body's depths.
A voyager to Omega.
Subject to
his own absence,
on every front,
at any moment.
He hits his head
against a wall
that won't give way forever.
His movements
dodge and parry
the universal verdict.
I realized
that his journey was already halfway over.
But he didn't tell me that,
no.
'This is my mother.'
was all he said." -Wisława Szymborska, "Born" (Translated by Stanisław Baranczak and Clare Cavanagh)
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