“Okonkwo was popularly called the "Roaring Flame." As he looked into the log fire he recalled the name. He was a flaming fire. How then could he have begotten a son like Nwoye, degenerate and effeminate? […]
He sighed heavily, and as if in sympathy the smoldering log also sighed. And immediately Okonkwo's eyes were opened and he saw the whole matter clearly. Living fire begets cold, impotent ash. He sighed again, deeply.”
Source: Things Fall Apart (1958), Chapter 17 (p. 143)
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Chinua Achebe 63
Nigerian novelist, poet, professor, and critic 1930–2013Related quotes
Source: Expiration Date (1995), Chapter 40 (p. 312)
“Fire he sang,
that trees fear, and I, a tree, rejoiced in its flames.”
A Tree Telling of Orpheus (1968)
Context: Fire he sang,
that trees fear, and I, a tree, rejoiced in its flames.
New buds broke forth from me though it was full summer.
As though his lyre (now I knew its name)
were both frost and fire, its chords flamed
up to the crown of me.
I was seed again.
I was fern in the swamp.
I was coal.
“So great was the extremity of his pain and anguish that he did not only sigh but roar.”
Job 3.
Commentaries
“Then Sir Launcelot saw her visage, but he wept not greatly, but sighed.”
Book XXI, ch. 11
Le Morte d'Arthur (c. 1469) (first known edition 1485)
Source: Culture series, Use of Weapons (1990), Chapter Six (p. 178).
