luni, 6 iulie 2009
sâmbătă, 4 iulie 2009
Tipping the Velvet
Tipping the Velvet is a 1998 novel written by Sarah Waters, set in the Victorian era. It was her debut novel. It tells the story of Nancy Astley, an oyster girl from the English town of Whitstable, who falls in love with a male impersonator and stage performer named Kitty Butler. The book, like the rest of Waters' novels, has a strong lesbian theme, though Tipping the Velvet in particular deals very candidly with the topic of lesbian sex and desire along with the role that economic class can play in oppression. According to Waters, the title is Victorian slang for cunnilingus.[1]
Sappho and Erinne in the Garden of Mythilène Siméon Solomon, 1864
A depiction of Sappho with her friend, Erinne or Erinna, to whom some of her verse is addressed.
The Death of Adonis
by: Sappho (c. 610-570 B.C.)
translated by Arthur S. Way
Fragments 108, 110, 115, 117, 116, 111, 114, and 113 combined.
This is the lamentation-song
For Adonis — woe for Adonis, woe!
Thus wailed Aphrodite in anguish-throe,
As she strove to hold him back from death:
"Let thine heart not faint, O love! Be strong!
O me, it burns me, thy failing breath!
It kindles through all my being a fire!
My heart is aflame with despairing desire!"
She calls to her Eros of golden wing,
She bids him steep in the ice-cold spring
Fine linen, and lay on Adonis' brow: —
"O love, let its coolness revive thee now! . . .
Vain, vain! — his eyes see me no more;
They are fixed in a gaze upon Hades' door!
They close — he sleeps — not the sleep of the dead!
Hush, stir not a pebble with heedless tread!
No, no! this is death! Now remaineth to me
No sweetness on earth — nor honey nor bee!"
Abonați-vă la:
Postări (Atom)