The meaning of love (Bishop)

Alone in his apartment, he contemplated the meaning of love.

Many as the moments were when he'd have liked to believe that what he and Beth felt for each other was true love, he knew it wasn't. It was not the emotion, or rather the situation, that he knew in Anvallic as cariah. Though he had quickly grown to like the speech of Ashamoil...it was his view that his native language offered more precise tools for defining certain concepts and emotional states, of which love happened to be one. In Beth's language he could, if he wished, say "I love you." In Anvallic this phrase was impossible, for cariah, loving, had no form in the singular person, but could only be expressed in the plural. It was understood to be something that existed as a mutual sentiment or not at all, and it implied a voluntary blending of identities. When one person wished to affirm cariah with another, the expression most often used was, "We love as water loves water and fire loves fire."

To say precisely, "I love you," he would have needed to use naithul, which had the meaning of turning or leaning towards the object of the verb. It variously implied fond feelings, admiration, carnal desire, or even fervent devotion, but held no implication of reciprocal sentiment.... Equals rarely used the term towards each other.

K. J. Bishop, The Etched City

The biggest surprise

The biggest surprise is how much of what happens between people isn't real.

The suffering (Frankl)

When a man finds that it is his destiny to suffer, he will have to accept his suffering as his task; his single and unique task. He will have to acknowledge the fact that even in suffering he is unique and alone in the universe. No one can relieve him of his suffering or suffer in his place. His unique opportunity lies in the way in which he bears his burden.

Victor Frankl, Man's Search For Meaning

The tragic lack (King)

One thing she admired about Hardy was the inevitability of his tragedies. He was right up there with the Greeks, the way Tess for example picked up steam. You felt the first spasm of motion in the very first scene, then with each subsequent scene the tragedy gathered power. But life itself was nothing like that. In life the lack of inevitabiliity—the lack of any design at all—was the tragedy.

Lily King, The English Teacher

New poems

+6

300 Days of Sun

I received my copy today of the inaugural issue (Spring 2014) of 300 Days of Sun, containing my poems "Global Warming" and "The Spellcasters." It looks great!

Later love (Eliot)

How is it that the poets have said so many fine things about our first love, so few about our later love? Are their first poems their best? or are not those the best which come from their fuller thought, their larger experience, their deeper-rooted affections? The boy’s flute-like voice has its own spring charm; but the man should yield a richer, deeper music.

George Eliot, Adam Bede