| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Adam Bede by George Eliot: when the sound of the scythe being whetted makes us cast more
lingering looks at the flower-sprinkled tresses of the meadows.
He might have seen other beauties in the landscape if he had
turned a little in his saddle and looked eastward, beyond Jonathan
Burge's pasture and woodyard towards the green corn-fields and
walnut-trees of the Hall Farm; but apparently there was more
interest for him in the living groups close at hand. Every
generation in the village was there, from old "Feyther Taft" in
his brown worsted night-cap, who was bent nearly double, but
seemed tough enough to keep on his legs a long while, leaning on
his short stick, down to the babies with their little round heads
Adam Bede |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Iliad by Homer: before these odds, but it will be worse if I am left alone and
taken prisoner, for the son of Saturn has struck the rest of the
Danaans with panic. But why talk to myself in this way? Well do I
know that though cowards quit the field, a hero, whether he wound
or be wounded, must stand firm and hold his own."
While he was thus in two minds, the ranks of the Trojans advanced
and hemmed him in, and bitterly did they come to rue it. As
hounds and lusty youths set upon a wild boar that sallies from
his lair whetting his white tusks--they attack him from every
side and can hear the gnashing of his jaws, but for all his
fierceness they still hold their ground--even so furiously did
The Iliad |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Salome by Oscar Wilde: [Les soldats reculent.] Tetrarque, tetrarque, commandez e vos
soldats de m'apporter la tete d'Iokanaan. [Un grand bras noir, le
bras du bourreau, sort de la citerne apportant sur un bouclier
d'argent la tete d'Iokanaan. Salome la saisit. Herode se cache le
visage, avec son manteau. Herodias sourit et s'evente. Les
Nazareens s'agenouillent et commencent e prier.] Ah! tu n'as pas
voulu me laisser baiser ta bouche, Iokanaan. Eh bien! je la
baiserai maintenant. Je la mordrai avec mes dents comme on mord un
fruit mur. Oui, je baiserai ta bouche, Iokanaan. Je te l'ai dit,
n'est-ce pas? je te l'ai dit. Eh bien! je la baiserai maintenant .
. . Mais pourquoi ne me regardes-tu pas, Iokanaan? Tes yeux qui
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