Friday, July 19, 2019

July 19, Friday in Memes #12


Book Beginnings of Fridays hosted by Gillion Dumas of Rose City Reader. A weekly meme where readers share the first sentence of the book they are reading and say what they think. 
The Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice. Join us every Friday and share an excerpt from a book you’ve been reading.

My Book Beginnings:
 Longren, a sailor of the Orion, a rugged, three-hundred ton brig on which he had served for ten years and to which he was attached more strongly than some sons are to their mothers, was finally forced to give up the sea.
My 56:
Goodreads
 Gray lay down by the fire, gazing at the water and the reflection of the flames. He was thinking, but effortlessly; in this condition one's mind, while observing one's surroundings absently, comprehends them but dimly; it rushes on like a stallion in a jostling herd, crushing and shoving aside, and halting; emptiness, confusion and delay
attend it in turn. It wanders within the souls of things; from bright agitation it hurries to secret intimations; passing from earth to sky, conversing on the subject of life with imaginary personages, snuffing out and embellishing one's memories. In this cloudy
movement all is live and palpable, and all is as loosely hung together as a hallucination.
Outline: I know what the story is about, but I have never read it in English. So it is quite interesting to read Grin's metaphors and allusions in translation. Most of his works have a captivating plot, but sometimes overloaded with some philosophical thinking, which I have difficulty to grasp. Scarlet Sails (or Crimson Sails) are the most popular work of Grin outside Russia, it is really short and quite beautiful. It is one of my childhood favourite.

7 comments:

  1. What language is your mother-tongue? I admire people who not only speak but read a second, third, fourth language. My Friday Quotes

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  2. Not sure I would enjoy this much, I'm too much into current fiction. Hope you loved it though. Happy weekend!

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  3. Translations can be tricky. Hope this turns out to be a good read for you.

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  4. I really enjoyed those snippets. Thanks for sharing! Hope you have a great weekend! :)

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  5. This sounds interesting. Hope the translation ends up being okay.

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  6. I'm not familiar with this book but it sounds very interesting. I wish I had the skills to read books in more languages. I used to be able to read a little French but haven't used it in so many years that I'm pretty sure I couldn't do it at all now.

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