mysteredgar

“They weren’t real travelers: they left in order to return. And they were relieved when they got back, with a sense of having fulfilled an obligation.”
― Olga Tokarczuk, Flights

“Οι νεκροί με έμαθαν να διαβάζω. Ξαναγράφοντας αυτή τη πρόταση καταλαβαίνω πως λέει πολύ περισσότερα και πολλά διαφορετικά πράγματα απ'όσα ήθελα να εκφράσω. Οι άνθρωποι που με έμαθαν να διαβάζω δεν υπάρχουν πια. Τα πράγματα που θα διάβαζα έκτοτε έχουν γραφτεί κυρίως από νεκρούς. Αυτά που γράφω τώρα είναι τα λόγια ενός ανθρώπου που έχει πάρει την άγουσα... Δεν ήξερα πως κάτω από τη γλώσσα λαγοκοιμάται τόσο πολύς θάνατος.”
― Georgi Gospodinov, Физика на тъгата

“He said that death marks places like a dog marking its territory. Some people can sense it right away, while others simply start to feel uncomfortable after a time. Every stay in any place betrays the quiet ubiquitousness of the dead. As he said:
‘At first you always see what’s alive and vibrant. You’re delighted by nature, by the local church painted in different colours, by the smells and all that. But the longer you’re in a place, the more the charm of those things fades. You wonder who lived here before you came to this home and this room, whose things these are, who scratched the wall above the bed and what tree the sills were cut from. Whose hands built the elaborately decorated fireplace, paved the courtyard? And where are they now? In what form? Whose idea led to these paths around the pond and who had the idea of planting a willow out the window? All the houses, avenues, parks, gardens and streets are permeated with the deaths of others. Once you start feeling this, something starts to pull you elsewhere, you start to think it’s time to move on.’
He added that when we are in motion, there’s no time for such idle meditations. Which is why to people on trips everything seems new and clean, virginal, and, in some sense, immortal.”
― Olga Tokarczuk, Flights

“Travel and tell no one, live a true love story and tell no one, live happily and tell no one, people ruin beautiful things.”
― Kahlil Gibran