| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Kwaidan by Lafcadio Hearn: before it; and the water-tank had recently been filled.
On returning to the sick room, the young man was shocked by the
announcement that his uncle had ceased to breathe. Death had come to the
sleeper painlessly; and the dead face smiled.
The young man told his mother of what he had seen in the cemetery.
"Ah!" exclaimed the widow, "then it must have been Akiko!"...
But who was Akiko, mother?" the nephew asked.
The widow answered:--
"When your good uncle was young he was betrothed to a charming girl called
Akiko, the daughter of a neighbor. Akiko died of consumption, only a little
before the day appointed for the wedding; and her promised husband sorrowed
Kwaidan |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Case of The Lamp That Went Out by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: that was evidently in your thoughts as you peered out of the garden
gate this morning, although you would not come out into the street.
I know that you do not read even one newspaper regularly. I know
also that yesterday and today you bought a great many papers,
apparently to get every possible detail about a certain subject.
Do you deny this?"
She did not deny it, she did not answer at all. She sank down on
a chair, her wide staring eyes looking straight ahead of her, and
trembling so that the old chair cracked underneath her weight. But
this condition did not last long. The woman had herself well under
control. Muller's coming, or something else, perhaps, may have
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Divine Comedy (translated by H.F. Cary) by Dante Alighieri: Mount thou before: for that no power the tail
May have to harm thee, I will be i' th' midst."
As one, who hath an ague fit so near,
His nails already are turn'd blue, and he
Quivers all o'er, if he but eye the shade;
Such was my cheer at hearing of his words.
But shame soon interpos'd her threat, who makes
The servant bold in presence of his lord.
I settled me upon those shoulders huge,
And would have said, but that the words to aid
My purpose came not, "Look thou clasp me firm!"
The Divine Comedy (translated by H.F. Cary) |
