| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from In a German Pension by Katherine Mansfield: a little vacant smile on her lips, only her eyes shifting uneasily from
side to side.
"Beer they've given it, too," whispered Frau Rupp, "and white wine and an
ice. It never did have a stomach; she ought to have left it at home."
Frau Brechenmacher turned round and looked towards the bride's mother. She
never took her eyes off her daughter, but wrinkled her brown forehead like
an old monkey, and nodded now and again very solemnly. Her hands shook as
she raised her beer mug, and when she had drunk she spat on the floor and
savagely wiped her mouth with her sleeve. Then the music started and she
followed Theresa with her eyes, looking suspiciously at each man who danced
with her.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot: . . . Cum Iunone iocos et 'maior vestra profecto est
Quam, quae contingit maribus', dixisse, 'voluptas.'
Illa negat; placuit quae sit sententia docti
Quaerere Tiresiae: venus huic erat utraque nota.
Nam duo magnorum viridi coeuntia silva
Corpora serpentum baculi violaverat ictu
Deque viro factus, mirabile, femina septem
Egerat autumnos; octavo rursus eosdem
Vidit et 'est vestrae si tanta potentia plagae',
Dixit 'ut auctoris sortem in contraria mutet,
Nunc quoque vos feriam!' percussis anguibus isdem
The Waste Land |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Marie by H. Rider Haggard: misunderstandings, the Cape Colony was then in tumult, almost in
rebellion, and the Boers, by thousands, sought new homes in the unknown,
savage-peopled North. Of this blood-stained time I have tried to tell;
of the Great Trek and its tragedies, such as the massacre of the
true-hearted Retief and his companions at the hands of the Zulu king,
Dingaan.
But you have read the tale and know its substance. What, then, remains
for me to say? Only that in memory of long-past days I dedicate it to
you whose image ever springs to mind when I strive to picture an English
gentleman as he should be. Your kindness I never shall forget; in
memory of it, I offer you this book.
Marie |
