A literal translation of the poem mentioned so often in The Brothers Karamazov, source of the phrase “sticky little leaves.” Translation by Stephen Boykewich.
The cold winds are still blowing
And carrying the morning frost.
The first little flowers
Have just appeared through the spring thaw holes,
As though from some miraculous, waxy kingdom,
The first bee has flown out
Of its [...]
“The railroad is to travel what the whore is to love. Just as comfortable, and just as horribly mechanical and fatally monotonous.” - Tolstoy, in a letter to Turgenev.
! This man’s capacity to shock and horrify me - while being ever-so-civilized - never seems to end. Calling whores “monotonous”!
I just wrote a review where I contested that Joseph O’Neill’s writing is lyrical, beautiful, exquisite, etc. For contrast, I provide what I consider exquisite writing. This is the beginning of Ruskin’s Stones of Venice. Note the languorous conclusions of the sentences. This is all silk and pillows, no doubt, and not all writing should [...]
The associates of Sulla, from Plutarch:
“He kept company with actresses, musicians, and dancers, drinking with them on couches night and day. His chief favorites were Roscius the Player, Sorex the Arch Mime, and Metrobius the Impersonator of Women, for whom, though past his prime, he continued to be passionately fond up to the last, and [...]