Franz Kafka

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Automne (Autumn), a French Poem


Van Gogh – Landscape with House and Ploughman 1889, Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russia


Helas!...Helas!

Il pleut ici, le feuillage tombe
 je m'ennui, c'est dejà  l'automne.  
Dejà  frappe  l'hiver,
chauffé par ce vin amer. 

Une  inquiétude  me poussa:
jamais tu ne  reviendras.

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Saturday, November 19, 2011

Travels with Charley: In Search of America, by John Steinbeck


In 1960, in the twilight of his life, behind the wheel of a camper  named - after the horse of Don Quixote - Rocinante,  John Steinbeck set off to a ten thousand miles road trip around the United States.  His company were Charlie,  a French poodle, and the sheer desire to rediscover America.   
John Steinbeck's Camper Truck
Through the four corners of the continent, his search of the nation garnered a better understanding of the  epochal changes that had been on the way and underpinned the transition to the modern post-industrial world that we also experience today. The mass production and elaboration of  food, the evil force of advertising, the ubiquity of culture and information powered by mass media technology, the insane and destructive  engine of progress, the decline of a country purposely brought down to political indifference and ignorance of its very own greatness.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

The true artist...

Loneliness is for the true artist the best companion: the deserted track, the neglected path, the windy runlet in the thicket.


Secluded from the world of men, paradoxically, the artist understands it better, grows wiser and, little by little, gets ready to turn back to the community of people.

His purpose on earth might be as simple as throwing a stone that ripples the waters. As full of merit as it may be, thankless indeed is the life of the true artist!