Category: Lit & Crit

Go thereGo there

Corpses float on the surface of the sea,
While in the lowest depths are found the pearls.

– The Arabian Nights (trans. Lyons, et al.)

Get a move onGet a move on

“Sorrow follows whoever thinks of himself as Time’s favorite.” – The Arabian Nights (trans. Lyons, et al.)

Finders keepersFinders keepers

God has produced no finer sight than that
Which shows two lovers on a single bed,
Embracing one another in content,
Pillowing each other with their wrists and arms.
For when hearts are united in their love,
It is cold iron on which their critics strike.
You who blame the lovers for their love,
Have you the power to mend an ailing heart?
If in your lifetime you find one true friend
How good this is! Live for this friend alone.

– The Arabian Nights (trans. Lyons, et al.)

Power potionPower potion

“Wine has many uses. It helps you to digest food, dispels care, cures wind, purifies the blood, clears the complexion and restores the body. It emboldens cowards and encourages copulation.” – The Arabian Nights (trans. Lyons, et al.)

A remarkable coinkydinkA remarkable coinkydink

“You know ‘journalist’ and ‘justice’ both begin with the same letter?” – Mister Caution, Alphaville

Not to be giving permissionNot to be giving permission

“Were it not for misdeeds there would be no forgiveness.” – The Arabian Nights (trans. Lyons, et al.)

Good luckGood luck

“Leave a place where there is injustice;
Abandon the house to lament its builder.
You can find another land in place of that one,
But you will never find another life.
Do not let the blows of fate concern you;
Every misfortune will reach its end.
Whoever is fated to die in a certain land
Will die in no other place than that.”

– The Arabian Nights (trans. Lyons, et al.)

Compare and contrastCompare and contrast

“Three things are better than three other things. The day of one’s death is better than the day of one’s birth, a live dog is better than a dead lion, and the grave is better than poverty.” – The Arabian Nights (trans. Lyons, et al.)

The foundations of universal suffrageThe foundations of universal suffrage

“Toil and hardship together with a lack of means teach a man bad manners and stupidity.” – The Arabian Nights (trans. Lyons, et al.)

Thank goodness for thatThank goodness for that

“There is many a grave sin that only shame has kept me from committing.” – The Arabian Nights (trans. Lyons, et al.)

Same as it ever wasSame as it ever was

“A story is told that a powerful king of the Israelites was sitting one day on his royal throne when he saw a man coming in through the palace door with an appearance that was both unpleasing and awesome. The king shrank back in fear at this as the man approached, but then, jumping up in front of him, he said: ‘Man, who are you and who gave you permission to enter my palace and come into my presence?’ ‘It was the master of the house who ordered me to come,’ said the man. ‘No chamberlain can keep me out; I need no permission to come into the presence of kings; I fear the power of no ruler or the number of his guards. I am the one from whom no tyrant can find refuge, nor can any flee from my grasp. I am the destroyer of delights and the parter of friends.’ When the king heard this, he fell on his face and his whole body trembled. At first he lost consciousness, but when he recovered he said: ‘Are you the angel of death?’ ‘Yes,’ said the angel, and the king then said: ‘Allow me a single day’s delay so that I may ask pardon for my sins and seek forgiveness from my Lord, returning the wealth that is in my treasuries to its owners lest I have to endure the hardship of having to account for it and the pain of punishment for it.’ The angel said: ‘Impossible—there is no way in which you can be granted this. How can I allow you any delay when the days of your life have been counted, your breaths numbered and all your minutes set down in the book of fate?’ ‘Give me just one hour,’ the king said, but the angel replied: ‘The hour has been accounted for. It passed while you were still paying no attention and you have used up all your breaths except for one.’ ‘Who will be with me when I am carried to my grave?’ asked the king, and the angel said: ‘Nothing will be with you except for your own deeds.’

– The Arabian Nights (trans. Lyons, et al.)

In the old daysIn the old days

“In the old days a certain king wanted to ride out one day with a number of his courtiers and officers of state in order to show off his splendid trappings to his people. He ordered his emirs and the great men of his state to prepare themselves to accompany him. He ordered the master of his wardrobe to bring out for him the most splendid robes that would suitably adorn him, and he had the best and finest of his pure-blooded horses brought out. After this had been done, he chose the clothes that he preferred and took his pick of the horses. Then he put on his clothes, mounted the horse and rode out with his cortège, wearing a collar studded with gems, pearls of all kinds and rubies. As he rode among his men, exulting in his pride and haughtiness, he swelled with pride, telling himself that there was no one like him in the world, and he started to manifest with a measure of haughtiness and vainglory that in his arrogance he would not look at anyone.

“A man wearing shabby clothes stood in front of him and greeted him, and when the king failed to return the greeting he seized his horse’s rein. ‘Take your hand away,’ said the king, ‘for you don’t know whose rein it is that you are holding.’ ‘There is something that I need from you,’ said the man. The king replied: ‘Wait until I dismount and then you can tell me what it is.’ ‘It is a secret,’ the man said, ‘and I can only whisper it into your ear.’ The king bent down to listen and the man said: ‘I am the angel of death and I intend to take your soul.’ ‘Give me time to go home and say goodbye to my family, my children, my neighbors and my wife,’ the king asked, but the angel said, ‘You are not going to go back and you will never see them again, for the span of your life is at an end.’ He then took the king’s soul and the king fell dead from the back of his horse.”

– The Arabian Nights (trans. Lyons, et al.)

Seized daysSeized days

“This is the age of the ugly and puffed-up, who are characterized by stupidity and cruelty, full of hatred and hostility.” – The Arabian Nights (trans. Lyons, et al.)

A limited time offerA limited time offer

“Hasten to do whatever good deed occurs to you
For generosity is not always possible.
How many a man has held back from a generous action
He could have done, and then has been restrained by poverty.”

– The Arabian Nights (trans. Lyons, et al.)

Cut him some slackCut him some slack

When a man is short of money, distressed and preoccupied, he cannot be blamed for what he says, as this does not come from his heart.” – The Arabian Nights (trans. Lyons, et al.)

Keeping the citizens unitedKeeping the citizens united

“If a rich man says something wrong, the people say:
‘You may be right, and what you say is not impossible,’
But if a poor man speaks the truth, they say:
‘You are a liar; what you say is wrong.’
Money invests a man with dignity and beauty in all lands.
Money is the tongue of those who seek eloquence,
And the weapon of whoever wants to fight.”

– The Arabian Nights (trans. Lyons, et al.)

Let that be a lessonLet that be a lesson

“You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should have behaved better.” – Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

Not to mention a profit centerNot to mention a profit center

“It is a wise man who built the first prison, as this is a tomb for the living and brings pleasure to their enemies.” – The Arabian Nights (trans. Lyons, et al.)

And, in fact . . .And, in fact . . .

“Caution is no guard against destiny and what is written in the book of fate is not to be avoided. Death, which carried off my grandfather, will not leave me, and if my father is alive today he may not be alive tomorrow.” – The Arabian Nights (trans. Lyons, et al.)

But it has cookiesBut it has cookies

“You who are seeking this vile world,
It is destruction’s net, a pit of sorrows.
It is a dwelling which may bring
Laughter one day, but will fetch tears the next.
Evil befall it! Its attacks never cease;
No price, however great, ransoms its prisoners.”

– The Arabian Nights (trans. Lyons, et al.)

Try it sometimeTry it sometime

“Visit your love; take no heed of the envious,
Who will not help you in your affairs of love.
God in His mercy creates no finer sight
Than of two lovers lying on one bed
In one another’s arms, clothed in contentment,
Pillowed on one another’s wrists and arms.
If in your lifetime you find one true friend,
How good a friend is this; live for that one alone.
When hearts are joined in love,
The envious are striking on cold iron.
You who blame lovers for their love,
Have you the power to cure the sick at heart?
God in Your mercy, let us meet
Before death comes, if only by one day.”

– The Arabian Nights (trans. Lyons, et al.)

The barest necessityThe barest necessity

“If someone says: ‘Love starts with choice,’ tell them:
‘That is a lie; it all comes from necessity.’ “

– The Arabian Nights (trans. Lyons, et al.)

Enough to go aroundEnough to go around

“You wrong Time if you ask it to be fair.
Do not blame it; it was not created for fair dealing.
Take what comes easily and leave care aside.
Time must contain both trouble and happiness.”

– The Arabian Nights (trans. Lyons, et al.)

Hand in handHand in hand

“There is no wisdom without power.
Were they to try to pawn me and my wisdom,
Together with my books and my inkstand,
For one day’s worth of food, it would not work
And such a bargain would be thought contemptible.
The poor, their state, their life,
How dark they are with troubles!
In summer they cannot find food, and in the cold
They have to warm themselves over a brazier.
Street dogs attack them and they are the butt
Of every despicable man.
When one of them complains about his lot,
There is none to excuse him among all mankind.
Such is the life of the poor man;
It will be best for him when he is in his grave.”

– The Arabian Nights (trans. Lyons, et al.)

That’s just the way it isThat’s just the way it is

“You have no power at all over your daily bread;
Neither learning nor letters will fetch it for you.
Fortune and sustenance are divided up;
One land is fertile while another suffers drought.
Time’s changes bring down cultured men,
While fortune lifts the undeserving up.
Come, death, and visit me, for life is vile;
Falcons are brought down low while ducks are raised on high.
Feel no surprise if you should see a man of excellence
In poverty, while an inferior holds sway.
How wretched is this kind of world
That leaves us in such trouble and distress!
In the morning it may be that things go well,
But I must drink destruction’s cup when evening comes.”

– The Arabian Nights (trans. Lyons, et al.)

What it’s aboutWhat it’s about

“Power concerns the organization, arrangement, and distribution of material objects in physical space. Whatever ideas and ideals are brought to bear on this process are necessarily corrupted and weighed down by their contact with decaying matter. Politics, in other words, is the art of juggling corpses and anyone whose highest value is power stinks of the grave.” – Hans Abendroth, The Zero and the One

Lest unmoored we should then beLest unmoored we should then be

“God proved easy to dispose of. Religion may one day disappear. But human beings cannot live without theology.” – Hans Abendroth, The Zero and the One

Free fallingFree falling

“Of all literary genres, tragedy alone remains free from the pretensions to arithmetic that, until history caught up with them, were still indulged in by German philosophers and English novelists, who compensated for their thematic anxieties as an ostrich might—by limiting their scope to the trifling situations of everyday morality. Such moralists are nothing more, in the final analysis, than the authors of etiquette manuals, dressed up in logic and argument, on the one hand, and narrative and dialogue, on the other. In their books, they were content to waltz and quadrille over the depths where tragedy is written because a century of improvements in shoe manufacture enabled them to forget that, in history, there is no floor.” – Hans Abendroth, The Zero and the One

The ricochet effectThe ricochet effect

“Just as self-hatred is the purest form of pride, the desire to be someone else is the purest form of vanity.” – Hans Abendroth, The Zero and the One

Mad monkeys, angry apesMad monkeys, angry apes

“Moderns regard violence as something internal to human beings: they often speak of the violence that originates in mankind, as if violence were a series of actions a man might perform, or—were he less ignorant, irrational, or superstitious—might as well not perform. That is why moderns are always surprised by sudden outbreaks of violence; it is why they ultimately cannot understand the phenomenon, even as their scientific and technological achievements multiply it exponentially. The ancients, however, knew better. Violence does not exist in man; man exists in violence. Man is merely a vessel for violence, the site where it occurs, the name given by violence itself to the instrument that enacts it. When the man in man is stripped away, he returns to his source and becomes his God.” – Hans Abendroth, The Zero and the One