| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Lysis by Plato: it is really too bad; and worse still is his manner of singing them to his
love; he has a voice which is truly appalling, and we cannot help hearing
him: and now having a question put to him by you, behold he is blushing.
Who is Lysis? I said: I suppose that he must be young; for the name does
not recall any one to me.
Why, he said, his father being a very well-known man, he retains his
patronymic, and is not as yet commonly called by his own name; but,
although you do not know his name, I am sure that you must know his face,
for that is quite enough to distinguish him.
But tell me whose son he is, I said.
He is the eldest son of Democrates, of the deme of Aexone.
Lysis |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Essays of Travel by Robert Louis Stevenson: careful of dignity. He dares not be comical; his fun must escape
from him unprepared, and above all, it must be unaccompanied by any
physical demonstration. I like his society under most circumstances,
but let me never again join with him in public gambols.
But the impulse to sing was strong, and triumphed over modesty and
even the inclemencies of sea and sky. On this rough Saturday night,
we got together by the main deck-house, in a place sheltered from the
wind and rain. Some clinging to a ladder which led to the hurricane
deck, and the rest knitting arms or taking hands, we made a ring to
support the women in the violent lurching of the ship; and when we
were thus disposed, sang to our hearts' content. Some of the songs
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Divine Comedy (translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) by Dante Alighieri: And counter to the heavens ran through those paths
Which the sun sets aflame, when he of Rome
Sees it 'twixt Sardes and Corsicans go down;
And that patrician shade, for whom is named
Pietola more than any Mantuan town,
Had laid aside the burden of my lading;
Whence I, who reason manifest and plain
In answer to my questions had received,
Stood like a man in drowsy reverie.
But taken from me was this drowsiness
Suddenly by a people, that behind
The Divine Comedy (translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) |
