Saturday 5 May 2012

Tagore & Virginia

One of my friends is big on Tagore and when I told him I'm into birds now he mentioned the tiny poems Stray Birds. I dipped in - really dipped in, just read fragments - but found it all a bit sentimental - almost like 326 spiritual greetings cards, the kind you find in New Age shops - though these are translations, so maybe something is lost.

This one's a gem though, number 2:

'O troupe of little vagrants of the world, leave your footprints in my words.'

And I love this, from Virginia's essay 'On Being Ill':

'Comatose with headaches. Can't write (with a whole novel in my head too - it's damnable).'

That's from the introduction by Hermione Lee, I haven't read the essay yet.


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