23 quotes
I know well that only words, that words alone,
like the high mountains, have no fear of age or death.
The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel (1938)
Who holds a sword is tempted, who has youth must play,
he who does not fear death on earth does not fear God.
The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel (1938)
Blessed are those eyes that have seen more water than any man!
Blessed be that haughty mind that aimed at the greatest hope!
The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel (1938)
A woman's body is a dark and monstrous mystery;
between her supple thighs a heavy whirlpool swirls,
two rivers crash, and woe to him who slips and falls!
The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel (1938)
A slave's soul has no worth, my brothers; it lacks strength
to tread on this great earth with gallantry and freedom.
The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel (1938)
Death gestured with his hands and bade the king thrice welcome.
The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel (1938)
Speak straight and clear! I only hear that manly prayer
which like a huge fist breaks my head against the stones.
The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel (1938)
Alas for him who seeks salvation in good only!
Balanced on God's strong shoulders, Good and Evil flap
together like two mighty wings and lift him high.
The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel (1938)
Crocodiles sweetly shut their lidded eyes, and yawned,
for the blond meat had been quite good, and in slow rains
new flesh would sprout once more and then be munched anew.
The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel (1938)
Her green eyes fluttered swiftly twice or thrice, then glazed,
her mouth gaped open, bleating, then her jaws hung loose
and retched up all her soul in lumps of clotting blood.
The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel (1938)
But we, O blockhead, with dogged spite and armored love
shall force those deaf dark powers to grow ears and hear us!
The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel (1938)
The rosy mountain peaks laughed like high lustrous thoughts,
and Helen, speechless, raised her pale hands toward the sun
and joyed to feel its warm rays falling on her frozen palms.
The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel (1938)
O Sun, great Oriental, my proud mind's golden cap,
I love to wear you cocked askew and to burst in song
to rouse our hearts, so long as you and I both live.
The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel (1938)
And now, my gallant lads — I don't know when or how —
that worm's god-slaying sword has fallen into my hands;
I swear that from its topmost iron tip the blood still drips!
The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel (1938)
Thus night with all her snares passed through the upper world
and baited all heads sweetly, fed all foolish hopes,
for night can bring to men all shrewish day denies,
wrapped as a gift in the green leaves of opiate dream.
The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel (1938)
Monarch of earth, I shall confess my secret craft:
I've always fought to purify wild flame to light,
and kindle whatever light I found to burst in flame.
The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel (1938)
Comrades, I've voyaged long and far on sea and soul,
my eyes have seen disease, gods, ghosts, and men, and yet
in no land have I seen a more false, murderous siren
than that wind-headed, babbling, blind bitch-hound called Hope!
The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel (1938)
I've fought with men and gods, I've weighed them well and found
the sea more firm than earth, the air more firm than sea,
and man's impalpable soul still yet more firm than air!
The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel (1938)
I hate all virtues based on food and bloated bellies;
though food and drink are good, I'm better slaked and fed
by that inhuman flame which burns in our black bowels.
I like to name that flame which burns within me God!
The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel (1938)
Descend you weary-laden, descend in the dark earth,
help me to finish swiftly my dread master's shroud,
let each hem hold my pain, each corner hide a crow,
a lean, voracious crow to peck his heart out bit by bit.
The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel (1938)