Bogdan Raț

“Time flows in the same way for all human beings; every human being flows through time in a different way.”
― Yasunari Kawabata

“He got off on Lincoln and slavery and dared any man there to deny that Lincoln and the negro and Moses and the children of Israel were the same, and that the Red Sea was just the blood that had to be spilled in order that the black race might cross into the Promised Land.”
― William Faulkner

“The certitude that everything has been written negates us or turns us into phantoms. I know of districts in which the young men prostrate themselves before books and kiss their pages in a barbarous manner, but they do not know how to decipher a single letter. Epidemics, heretical conflicts, peregrinations which inevitably degenerate into banditry, have decimated the population. I believe I have mentioned suicides, more and more frequent with the years. Perhaps my old age and fearfulness deceive me, but I suspect that the human species -- the unique species -- is about to be extinguished, but the Library will endure: illuminated, solitary, infinite, perfectly motionless, equipped with precious volumes, useless, incorruptible, secret.”
― Jorge Luis Borges, The Library of Babel

“Totusi iubirea peste blestem


Obsesia mea despre tine 
Renaste, in mine, acum 
Si iarasi e rau si e bine 
Si toate se afla pe drum. 

O clasica dragoste veche, 
Transcrisa in versuri, candva, 
Acum isi gaseste pereche 
Si replica este a ta. 

Poemele mele supreme, 
Traite-ntre bine si rau, 
Acum, s-au intors ca probleme, 
Le-as trece pe numele tau. 

Mereu, intre viata si moarte, 
Mi-a fost si mi-e dat sa ma zbat, 
Iar astazi, cand esti prea departe, 
Abia te mai strig sugrumat. 

Si nu mai dau lumii de stire 
Ideea de care ma tam, 
Ca nu mai exista iubire, 
Asa cum exista blestem. 

N-am cum sa accept ca, din toate, 
Ramane doar zborul tarat 
Si faptul ca nu se mai poate 
Iubi decat rau si urat. 

Vin versuri stravechi sa-mi inspire 
Poemul cel nou ce il chem 
Si totusi exista iubire, 
In veci, peste orice blestem. ”
― Adrian Păunescu