8.07.2021

Dostoyevky, the misunderstood and misquoted

 Facebook is full of  posts with a picture of Dostoyevsky and the caption Tolerance will reach such a level that intelligent people will be banned from thinking so as not to offend the imbeciles. This site states that Dostoyevsky is being misquoted. (note that his name is misspelled). Of course, he is a heavy read and at times hard to understand; fragments sometimes are pure philosophical discourse.  But if one would like to misquote  to reflect on today's culture it should be.. INTOLERANCE will reach etc.

Is this another example of Russian interference on FB?

7.18.2021

Heine, the poet in Paris

 This article reminded me again  why Heine is one my favorite poets. Elegant irony, simple vocabulary that I can follow with my pitiful German. Quotable and put on songs by many. Oscillating between a rich uncle and Karl Marx. An admirer of Saint-Simon...Seeing clearly the march of history .... A German poet in Paris, with almost no statue but still with us.  

2.21.2021

Cuore. abridged

My wife asked me to translate a sentence from Italian. I asked her what you don't know cuore? Never read Cuore? Read the book when I was in second or third grade. Someone gave me a slim booklet, probably published around early 1940s. Later leafed Cuore - selected stories by the communist regime in late 50s. 

I checked today and to my surprise it was published in 1887 and has over 200 pages. Talking about cultural appropriation! Fighting over the heart of little kids in the dark century.