Del terreno nel concavo seno
Vasto incendio se bolle ristretto,
A dispetto del carcere indegno,
Con più sdegno gran strada si fa.
Fugge allora; ma, intanto che fugge,
Crolla, abbatte, sovverte, distrugge
Piani, monti, foreste e città.
Act III, scene 3.
Achille in Sciro (1736)
Anna Akhmatova (1889–1966) Russian modernist poet
The mountains bow before this anguish,
The great river does not flow.
In mortal sadness the convicts languish;
The bolts stay frozen.
Translated by D. M. Thomas
Requiem; 1935-1940 (1963; 1987), Dedication
Anna Akhmatova (1889–1966) Russian modernist poet
Requiem; 1935-1940 (1963; 1987), Instead of a Preface
Stanley Milgram (1933–1984) Social psychologist
Source: Obedience to Authority : An Experimental View (1974), p. 188
Context: Each individual possesses a conscience which to a greater or lesser degree serves to restrain the unimpeded flow of impulses destructive to others. But when he merges his person into an organizational structure, a new creature replaces autonomous man, unhindered by the limitations of individual morality, freed of humane inhibition, mindful only of the sanctions of authority.
Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) English poet and novelist
The Churchyard from The London Literary Gazette (3rd January 1829)
The Vow of the Peacock (1835)
Wang Zhihuan (688–742) Chinese poet
"On the Stork Tower" (《登鹳雀楼》), trans. Yuanchong Xu
Xu Yuanchong (1921) Translator of Chinese poetry
Wang Zhi-huan, "On the Heron Tower"
Song of the Immortals: An Anthology of Classical Chinese Poetry (1994)
John of the Cross (1542–1591) Spanish mystic and Roman Catholic saint
Spiritual Canticle of The Soul and The Bridegroom
Context: Let us rejoice, O my Beloved!
Let us go forth to see ourselves in Thy beauty,
To the mountain and the hill,
Where the pure water flows:
Let us enter into the heart of the thicket. ~ 36
“The purest water is formed by flowing through the muddiest mountains”
Siddharth Katragadda (1972) Indian writer
page 45
Dark Rooms (2002)
