Emily

“Some men say an army of horse and some men say an army on foot and some men say an army of ships is the most beautiful thing on the black earth. But I say it is
what you love.

Easy to make this understood by all.
For she who overcame everyone
in beauty (Helen)
left her fine husband

behind and went sailing to Troy.
Not for her children nor her dear parents
had she a thought, no-
led her astray

]for
]lightly
]reminded me now of Anaktoria
who is gone.

I would rather see her lovely step
and the motion of light on her face
than chariots of Lydians or ranks
of footsoldiers in arms.

]not possible to happen
]to pray for a share
]
toward [
]
out of the unexpected.”
― Sappho, If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho

“I hope your bacon burns.”
― Diana Wynne Jones , Howl’s Moving Castle

“Eros shook my mind like a mountain wind falling on oak trees.”
― Sappho, If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho

“While the astronauts, heroes forever, spent mere hours on the moon, I have remained in this new world for nearly thirty years. I know that my achievement is quite ordinary. I am not the only man to seek his fortune far from home, and certainly I am not the first. Still, there are times I am bewildered by each mile I have traveled, each meal I have eaten, each person I have known, each room in which I have slept. As ordinary as it all appears, there are times when it is beyond my imagination." (from "The Third and Final Continent")”
― Jhumpa Lahiri, Interpreter Of Maladies