Translated Quotes

“I love the night passionately. I love it as I love my country, or my mistress, with an instinctive, deep, and unshakeable love. I love it with all my senses: I love to see it, I love to breathe it in, I love to open my ears to its silence, I love my whole body to be caressed by its blackness. Skylarks sing in the sunshine, the blue sky, the warm air, in the fresh morning light. The owl flies by night, a dark shadow passing through the darkness; he hoots his sinister, quivering hoot, as though he delights in the intoxicating black immensity of space. ”
― Guy de Maupassant

“Well, at heart I knew she'd never be a normal woman. And I didn't want her to be one, because what I loved in her were the indomitable and unpredictable aspects of her personality”
― Mario Vargas Llosa, Travesuras de la niña mala

“Overly literal translations, far from being faithful, actually distort meaning by obscuring sense.”
― Ken Liu, The Three-Body Problem

“Thus in a single phrase I can define the great illusion concerning 'love' in this world. It is the effort to join reality with the apparition.”
― Yukio Mishima, The Temple of the Golden Pavilion

“O Don Quixote, wise as thou art brave,
La Mancha's splendor and of Spain the star!
To thee I say that if the peerless maid,
Dulcinea del Toboso, is to be restored
to the state that was once hers, it needs must be
that thy squire Sancho take on his bared behind,
those sturdy buttocks, must consent to take
three thousand lashes and three hundred more,
and well laid on, that they may sting and smart;
for those are the authors of her woe
have thus resolved, and that is why I've come,
This, gentles, is the word I bring to you.”
― Cervantes, Don Quixote

“Cheap, sentimental things”
― Edith Grossman, The Bad Girl

“I told myself that in the country of my birth, from which I was disengaged in an increasingly irreversible way, there undoubtedly were many men and women like him, basically decent people who had dreamed all their lives of the economic, social, cultural, and political progress that would transform Peru into a modern, prosperous, democratic society with opportunities open to all, only to find themselves repeatedly frustrated, and, like Uncle Ataulfo, had reached old age - the very brink of death - bewildered, asking themselves why we were moving backward instead of advancing and were worse off now with more discrimination, inequality, violence, and insecurity than when they were starting out”
― Edith Grossman, The Bad Girl

“¡A la mierda! ¡El que quiera leer a Rimbaud que aprenda francés!”
― Budd Schulberg

“Selvom det var Zaras ansigt, der kunne ses på Pashas video, fortalte den ikke noget om Zara, men om Natasha, den måtte aldrig nogensinde blive en fortælling om Zara. Zaras egen historie var et helt andet sted, Natashas var på båndet.”
― Sofi Oksanen, Puhdistus

“Der ville aldrig komme nogen og sige de ord til hende, stå fast ved dem og sikre, at det hun havde været igennem, aldrig ville ske igen. Hun var den eneste, der kunne tage hånd om det. Ingen andre ville nogensinde gøre det for hende.”
― Sofi Oksanen, Puhdistus

“Alting gentog sig. Selvom rublen var skiftet ud med kronen, og militærflyene oven over hendes hoved var blevet færre, og officerernes koner mindre højrøstede, og selvom den estiske nationalsang dagligt lød fra højttalerne i Lange-Hermann-tårnet, ville der altid dukke en ny kernelæderstøvle op, altid en ny støvle, en, der var magen til, eller også så den anderledes ud, men måden den trådte én over halsen på, ville altid være den samme.”
― Sofi Oksanen, Puhdistus

“Her fiercest sincerities were translated by the male ego, on arrival, into daffy flirtation. (p. 24)”
― Jonathan Lethem, Dissident Gardens

“Light means knowledge in the Greek language it can also be translated as illumination, knowledge, insight, understanding and wisdom”
― Sunday Adelaja

“It was deep beyond measuring, and crammed full of darkness, as if all the world's darknesses had been boiled down to their ultimate density.”
― Murakami Haruki

“La creación no terminó al sexto día (...) la creación sucede a nuestro alrededor, a pesar y a través de nosotros, a la velocidad de los días y las noches, y nos gusta llamarla: Amor.”
― David Mitchell, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet

“Il y a des mots qu'on peut prendre dans la main. Et certains qui ont une odeur... Par exemple, "poêle à frire". Je n'aime pas dire "poêle à frire", la pièce est aussitôt pleine de fumée grasse.

- Et qu'est-ce que tu dis alors ?

Elle réfléchit. "Je dis "rose"." Et je vis le mouvement, je vis le souffle de ses lèvres fleurir comme un bourgeon qui s'ouvre, doucement, avec des feuilles à la respiration sourde, et une odeur merveilleuse. Rose.”
― Gertrud Kolmar, Susanna

“Men in love have always liked to talk; women in love, on the other hand, don't want to talk, because they know, without even knowing that they know, that once a man really understands a woman he'll stop loving her.”
― Zhang Ailing

“In days long past, Jarod said he’d write a sentence about my love, translated in Russian, and that sentence, like my love, is clearly not for sale, unlike his virginity, or this book, which I’m both offering at ten times the market value, so hurry up and buy now, before it goes down.”
― Will Advise, Nothing is here...

“Og hvis han hamrede bogen ned i bordet, ville alle i rummet glo, og de ville ikke se andet end hans hudfarve og hans vrede, og så ville de tro, de vidste noget om ham, og det ville være det samme noget, som havde legitimeret at smide hans oldefar H i fængsel, men det ville også være anderledes, mindre åbenlyst, end det engang var.”
― Yaa Gyasi, Homegoing

“If i live on longer, shall i again, i wonder, yearn for these days ? The world that i once saw as bitter, now, is dear to me !”
― Fujiwara no Kiyosuke, pictures of the heart

“Métamorphoses

la nuit je veux l'enrouler autour de moi comme un drap chaud
elle avec ses étoiles blanches, avec sa malédiction grise
avec ses bouts ondoyants, qui traquent les coqs des jours,
je pends dans les charpentes aussi raide qu'une chauve-souris,
je me laisse tomber dans l'air et je pars en chasse.

Homme, j'ai rêvé de ton sang, je te mords jusqu'à la blessure,
je me love dans tes cheveux et j'aspire ta bouche.
Au-dessus des tours émondées les cimes du ciel sont noires.
De leurs troncs dénudés suinte de la résine vitreuse
vers des coupes invisibles de porto.
Dans mes yeux marron demeure le reflet,
Avec mes yeux marron doré je pars chercher ma proie,
je capture poisson dans les tombes, celles qui se tiennent entre les maisons
je capture poisson dans la mer : et la mer est une place plus loin
avec des mats brisés, des amours noyés.

Les lourdes cloches du navire sonnent venant de la forêt des algues.
Sous la forme du navire se fige une forme d'enfant,
dans ses mains du limon, au front une lumière.
Entre nous les eaux voyagent, je ne te garde pas.
Derrière des vitres gelées luisent des lampes bariolées et blanches,
des cuillères livides coulent dans le bol, glace multicolore ;
je vous appâte avec des fruits rouges, faits avec mes lèvres

je suis un petit en-cas dans le gobelet de la nuit.”
― Gertrud Kolmar

“The Buried Woman // Die Begrabene

In life we all pursued our aims.
What held us up was lust and games.
What drove us on was want and strife,
And what we earned: an end to life.

So now I lie stretched out alone,
All covered up with earth and stone.
"I have and want" I cannot say;
"I must and will" became my way.

In lands of light exults decay.
He clothes himself as blue as a day;
In many forms deceives the eye,
And builds the tower of Babel high.

We see his face in movie halls
And nailed to newsstands, fences, walls;
His name is there for all to see;
"Success," he's called, "Technology."

His cruel machines, his brutal crimes
Break every record of our times.
His coffin governs East and West.
But will it soon be laid to rest?

The victory of death seems near.
But no! At last a grave appears,
Awakens, yawns its jaws to bite,
And crushes death in lasting night.”
― Gertrud Kolmar

“How much of the person behind the camera can be seen in the works? Is one hidden behind them or on the contrary do they unveil you? I think they do. The narrator is the real main character.”
― Christina Hesselholdt, Vivian

“I mourned, hands clenched, before that mound.
For the piercing cold of grief had caught
Me in the doleful dread and bound
My heart, though reason solace sought.
I longed for my pearl, locked in the ground,
While fierce contentions in me fought.
In Christ, though comfort could be found.
My wretched will was still distraught.
I fell upon that flowery plot.”
― Anonymous

“Each grass from a lifeless grain is bred,
Else to harvest no wheat were won:
Always from good is good begun.
So seemly a seed could not die in vain,
That sprig nor spice there would be none
Of that precious pearl without a stain.”
― Anonymous

“- I verkligheten har vi bara ett val, ta chansen eller missa den.”
― Marc Levy

“Think of it as a little rest in the long journey of your life. This is your harbor. And your boat is just dropping anchor here for a little while. And after you're well rested, you can set sail again.”
― Satoshi Yagisawa, Maki Hojyo in ASAKUSA: Maki Hojyo digital photo book

“Farewell, love me always, and make me suffer even worse.”
― Mariana Alcoforado, The Letters of a Portuguese Nun

“Haʻina ʻia mai ana ka puana
Ka poʻe i aloha i ka ʻaina

The story is told
Of the people who love the land”
― Carol Maxym, ʻIolani Palace: A Metaphor for Two Centuries of Hawaiʻi History