| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3 4 5] > | Poll: Can you quote literary passages from books or poetry by memory? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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When I was a little child. Bir yokluktu Ankara. Apres moi dull and wild. Town ne oldu, que sera?
Oğuz Atay
| | | | | what a lot of stuff we had to learn at school ... | Sep 23, 2009 |
Loads of Shakespeare, Keats, Shelley and of course, in Scotland, Robert Burns.
In Italian, all the texts everyone else seems to have had to learn - Dante, Petrarch, Leopardi and so on.
and in French I loved the sound of Verlaine:
"Les sanglots longs des violons de l'automne blessent mon cœur d'une langueur monotone."
| | | | | First I voted No | Sep 23, 2009 |
But thinking better after all I do remember quite a few:
La Fontaine:
Maître corbeau sur un arbre perché
Tenait en son bec un fromage........
Eça de Queirós (Portuguese novelist) in 'A cidade e as Serras'
Jacinto just arriving in Portugal from Paris:
«Então é Portugal, hein? ... Cheira bem».
«Está claro que cheira bem, animal!»
Evelyn Waugh in 'Brideshead Revisited'
'......- a minute to sa... See more But thinking better after all I do remember quite a few:
La Fontaine:
Maître corbeau sur un arbre perché
Tenait en son bec un fromage........
Eça de Queirós (Portuguese novelist) in 'A cidade e as Serras'
Jacinto just arriving in Portugal from Paris:
«Então é Portugal, hein? ... Cheira bem».
«Está claro que cheira bem, animal!»
Evelyn Waugh in 'Brideshead Revisited'
'......- a minute to say good-bye.'
'So long to say so little.'
'You knew?'
'Since this morning; since before this morning; all this year.'
And a few others which are not so dear to my heart. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Amy Duncan (X) 
Brazil
Local time: 18:19
Portuguese to English
+ ...
| Some lines, here and there... | Sep 23, 2009 |
This has been great fun reading everyone's posts.
I remember snatches of this and that and find that they'll suddenly pop into my mind for no reason. Here are a few:
JABBERWOCKY
Lewis Carroll
`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub b... See more This has been great fun reading everyone's posts.
I remember snatches of this and that and find that they'll suddenly pop into my mind for no reason. Here are a few:
JABBERWOCKY
Lewis Carroll
`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"
One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.
William Butler Yeats THE SECOND COMING
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Evangeline
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
THIS is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks,
Bearded with moss, and in garments green, indistinct in the twilight,
Stand like Druids of eld, with voices sad and prophetic...
There are lots of others, but these are the ones that came to mind just now. ▲ Collapse
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In spite of the fact that I have always steadfastly refused to learn anything by heart. The fact of the matter is, I simply fell in love with the fascinating combination of sound and meaning of particular passages (that's why what you remember is mostly in your native language):
Dante Alighieri
"Fatti non foste a viver come bruti, ma a perseguir virtute e canoscenza"
"La bocca sollevò dal fiero pasto
quel peccator forbendola ai capelli
del capo ch'egli avea ... See more In spite of the fact that I have always steadfastly refused to learn anything by heart. The fact of the matter is, I simply fell in love with the fascinating combination of sound and meaning of particular passages (that's why what you remember is mostly in your native language):
Dante Alighieri
"Fatti non foste a viver come bruti, ma a perseguir virtute e canoscenza"
"La bocca sollevò dal fiero pasto
quel peccator forbendola ai capelli
del capo ch'egli avea di retro guasto" ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz | Sep 23, 2009 |
"Hombres necios que acusais
a la mujer sin razón,
sin ver que sois la ocasión
de lo mismo que culpais."
I don't remember many since I was never fond of studying by memory, but this I remember because it is my favorite!
| | | | Anthony Baldwin
United States
Local time: 17:19
Portuguese to English
+ ...
| Chaucer, Shakespeare | Sep 23, 2009 |
Chaucer (from my medieval lit courses. I will never forget this)
Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote
The droghte of Merche hath perced to the roote
And bathed every veyne in swich 3 licour
Of which vertu engendred is the flour
Whan Zephirus eek with his swete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his halfe cours y-ronne
And smale fowles maken melodye
That slepen... See more Chaucer (from my medieval lit courses. I will never forget this)
Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote
The droghte of Merche hath perced to the roote
And bathed every veyne in swich 3 licour
Of which vertu engendred is the flour
Whan Zephirus eek with his swete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his halfe cours y-ronne
And smale fowles maken melodye
That slepen al the night with open ye
(So priketh hem nature in hir corages
Than longen folk to goon on pilgrimages
And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes
To ferne halwes, couthe in sondry londes
And specially, from every shires ende
Of Engelond, to Caunterbury they wende
The holy blisful martir for to seke
That hem hath holpen, whan that they were seke
I can recite several Shakespearean sonnets.
here is my favorite:
Sonnet 44
If the dull substance of my flesh were thought,
Injurious distance should not stop my way;
For then despite of space I would be brought,
From limits far remote, where thou dost stay.
No matter then although my foot did stand
Upon the farthest earth removed from thee;
For nimble thought can jump both sea and land
As soon as think the place where he would be.
But, ah, thought kills me that I am not thought,
To leap large lengths of miles when thou art gone,
But that, so much of earth and water wrought,
I must attend time's leisure with my moan,
Receiving nought by elements so slow,
But heavy tears, badges of either's woe.
I particularly like this one, as it shows just how progressive the Bard's thinking was,
to imagine transporting himself as a thought, before SciFi even existed!
God gi'ye good e'en
/Tony
[Edited at 2009-09-23 13:58 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Henry Hinds
United States
Local time: 15:19
English to Spanish
+ ...
In memoriam
Virtually all the comments here are from those who answered "yes", but I am among the majority who answered "no". Throughout my entire life I have not had much ability to memorize texts of any kind. I cannot even falthfully recall the words to songs I have heard for years, only snippets and sometimes incorrectly. Memorization was never a part of my education, and if it had been, I probably would have failed miserably.
Fortunately my memory for equivalencies in translation is much be... See more Virtually all the comments here are from those who answered "yes", but I am among the majority who answered "no". Throughout my entire life I have not had much ability to memorize texts of any kind. I cannot even falthfully recall the words to songs I have heard for years, only snippets and sometimes incorrectly. Memorization was never a part of my education, and if it had been, I probably would have failed miserably.
Fortunately my memory for equivalencies in translation is much better. ▲ Collapse
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Caro Maucher
Germany
Local time: 23:19
Member (2005)
English to German
+ ...
| Certainly... | Sep 23, 2009 |
I just love showing off! (c: (Which was also a reason for learning a few select phrases in Spanish.)
And I love listening to others showing off as well. I think it's wonderful how this way poetry and literature are actually within life, rather than just between book covers.
| | | | Paul Dixon
Brazil
Local time: 18:19
Portuguese to English
+ ...
| Some excerpts: | Sep 23, 2009 |
Some excerpts that I know by heart are:
"Wee sleekit, cow'rin' tim'rous beastie,
Oh what a panic's in thy breestie!
Thou need nae start awa' sie hasty,
Wi' bick'rin' brattle!"
(Robbie Burns - To A Field Mouse)
"I wandered lonely as a cloud,
That floats on high, o'er vales and hills,
And all at once I saw a cloud,
A host of golden daffodils.
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in t... See more Some excerpts that I know by heart are:
"Wee sleekit, cow'rin' tim'rous beastie,
Oh what a panic's in thy breestie!
Thou need nae start awa' sie hasty,
Wi' bick'rin' brattle!"
(Robbie Burns - To A Field Mouse)
"I wandered lonely as a cloud,
That floats on high, o'er vales and hills,
And all at once I saw a cloud,
A host of golden daffodils.
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance."
(William Wordsworth - Daffodils)
"Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears!
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.
The evil that men do lives after them.
The good is oft interred with their bones."
(William Shakespeare - Julius Caesar)
"What's in a name?
That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet."
(William Shakespeare - Romeo & Juliet)
"She left the web, she left the loom,
She made three paces through the room,
She saw the water-lily bloom,
She saw the helmet and the plume,
She look'd down to Camelot."
(Alfred Tennyson - The Lady of Shalott)
In Portuguese:
"Minha terra tem palmeiras
Onde canta o sabiá
As aves que aqui gorjeiam
Não gorjeiam como lá"
(Gonçalves Dias - Canção do Exílio) ▲ Collapse
| | | | | @ Caro Giese | Sep 23, 2009 |
Caro Giese wrote:
I just love showing off! (c: (Which was also a reason for learning a few select phrases in Spanish.)
And I love listening to others showing off as well. I think it's wonderful how this way poetry and literature are actually within life, rather than just between book covers.
Hola Caro,
The poll did ask a bit for showing off, I agree.
But I really think literature/poetry can actually be everywhere, in the movies, in our grandparents' sayings, in popular music, etc., so I personally don't necessarily associate literature/poetry with snobbery.
Take, for example, the following lines from one of the most famous Beatles' songs, Eleonor Rigby (which I know by heart since I like the song):
Father McKenzie writing the words of a sermon that no one will hear
No one comes near
Look at him working
Darning his socks in the night when there's nobody there
What does he care?
There's rhyme, there's music, (there's probably some marihuana, too ), there's even wisdom...
And think of all the movies, another form of art that may be considered a lot more "popular", where sometimes literature/poetry mix. I also tend to remember (usually just because I liked it), some lines I hear in movies.
For example, I discovered, after watching Wim Wender's Das Himmel über Berlin (The Sky Over Berlin), that the line whose sound I liked so much - which the main character repeated all the time - was actually from a poem by Peter Handke about childhood: "Als das Kind Kind war" (more or less, "when the child was a child...).
Magic...
| | | | cc in nyc
Local time: 17:19
French to English
| Unlocked verses | Sep 23, 2009 |
I was going to answer "no" to the poll, but I peeked at the forum first. Then I saw Natalie Reis's post and...
O bruit doux de la pluie
Par terre et sur les toits
Pour le coeur qui s'ennuie
O le chant de la pluie.
-- Verlaine (continued)
M'introduire dans ton histoire
C'est en héros effarouché
S'il a du talon nu touché
Quelque gazon de territoire
A des glaciers attentatoir
-- Mallarmé
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cc in nyc
Local time: 17:19
French to English
| Locked doors need keys | Sep 23, 2009 |
I was going to answer "no" to the poll, but I peeked at the forum first. Then I saw Natalie Reis's post and... continuing:
O bruit doux de la pluie
Par terre et sur les toits
Pour le coeur qui s'ennuie
O le chant de la pluie.
Il pleure sans raison
Dane ce coeur qui s'écoeure
Quoi, nulle trahison?
Ce deuil est sans raison
C'est bien la pire peine
De ne savoir pourquoi
Sans amour et sans haine
Mon coeur... See more I was going to answer "no" to the poll, but I peeked at the forum first. Then I saw Natalie Reis's post and... continuing:
O bruit doux de la pluie
Par terre et sur les toits
Pour le coeur qui s'ennuie
O le chant de la pluie.
Il pleure sans raison
Dane ce coeur qui s'écoeure
Quoi, nulle trahison?
Ce deuil est sans raison
C'est bien la pire peine
De ne savoir pourquoi
Sans amour et sans haine
Mon coeur a tant de peine
-- Verlaine
M'introduire dans ton histoire
C'est en héros effarouché
S'il a du talon nu touché
Quelque gazon de territoire
A des glaciers attentatoire
....
-- Mallarmé
I know there's more in there... Just have to find the keys.
[Edited at 2009-09-23 15:14 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Spike Milligan poem | Sep 23, 2009 |
I found this on a piece of paper in a drawer in a cottage my parents rented for a holiday in Scotland. I must have been about 9 or 10 (let's say it was over 30 years ago).
This is how I remember it:
Was midnight in the schoolroom
And every desk was shut
When suddenly from the alphabet
There came a loud tut-tut
Said A to B, "I don't like C
His manners are a lack
For all I ever see of C
Is a semi-circular back"
... See more I found this on a piece of paper in a drawer in a cottage my parents rented for a holiday in Scotland. I must have been about 9 or 10 (let's say it was over 30 years ago).
This is how I remember it:
Was midnight in the schoolroom
And every desk was shut
When suddenly from the alphabet
There came a loud tut-tut
Said A to B, "I don't like C
His manners are a lack
For all I ever see of C
Is a semi-circular back"
"I disagree," said D to B
"I've never found C so
From where I stand he seems to be
An uncompleted O"
C was vexed, "I'm much perplexed
You criticise my shape
I'm made like that to help spell Cat
And Cow and Cool and Cape"
"He's right" said E, said F, "Yupee!"
Said G, "'Ip, 'Ip, 'ooray!"
"You're dropping me," cried H to G
"Don't do it please I pray"
"Get out my way," said LL to K
"I'll make poor I look ILL"
To stop this stunt J stood in front
And suddenly ILL was JILL
"U know," said V, "that W
Is twice the age of me
For as a Roman V is five
I'm half as young as he.
X and Y yawned sleepily
"Look at the time!" they said
"Let's all get off to beddy byes"
And so they all went Z-Z-Z" ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Poetry in songs | Sep 23, 2009 |
ICL wrote: Take, for example, the following lines from one of the most famous Beatles' songs, Eleonor Rigby (which I know by heart since I like the song): Father McKenzie writing the words of a sermon that no one will hear
No one comes near
Look at him working
Darning his socks in the night when there's nobody there
What does he care?
Interesting, and very true. There are many beautiful song lyrics and Eleonor Rigby is up there among them (with Lady Madonna!).
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