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Henryk Sienkiewicz:Henryk Adam Aleksander Pius Sienkiewicz (Polish pronunciation: [?x?nr?k ?adam al??ksand?r ?p?us ????k?ev?it??]; also known as "Litwos" [?litf?s]; May 5, 1846 ? November 15, 1916) was a Polish journalist and Nobel Prize-winning novelist. A Polish szlachcic (noble) of the Oszyk coat of arms, he was one of the most popular Polish writers at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, and received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1905 for his "outstanding merits as an epic writer."  Henryk Sienkiewicz, portrait by Kazimierz Mordasewicz (1899) Born into an impoverished noble family in Russian-ruled Poland, Sienkiewicz wrote historical novels set during the Rzeczpospolita (Polish Republic, or Commonwealth). Many of his novels were first serialized in newspapers, and even today are still in print. In Poland, he is best known for his historical novels "With Fire and Sword", "The Deluge", and "Pan Michael" (The Trilogy) set during the 17th-century Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, while internationally he is best known for Quo Vadis, set in Nero's Rome. Quo Vadis has been filmed several times, most notably the 1951 version. Latarnik (Lighthouse Keeper) is a short story writen by Henryk Sienkiewicz in 1881. (source: Wikipedia) |
Freedom quotas from Zorba the Greek:?If I am in the mood, I will play. I will sing. And I will dance the Zembekiko, the Hassepiko, the Pentozalit ? but I tell you plainly from the start, I must be in the mood. Let?s have that clear. If you force me, it?ll be finished. As regards those things, you must realise, I am a man.? ? A man? What do you mean?? ?Well, free!??It is a mystery, he murmured, a great mystery! So, if we want liberty in this bad world, we?ve got to have all those murders, all those lousy tricks, have we? I tell you. If I began to go over all the bloody villainy and all the murders we did, you?d have your hair stand on end. And yet, the result of all that, what?s it been?? ? Liberty!? ?Instead of wiping us out with a thunderbolt, God gives us liberty!? ?I just don?t understand!??How does a plant sprout and grow into a flower on manure and muck? Say to yourself, Zorba, that the manure and muck is man and the flower liberty.? ?For hundreds of years, Dante?s verses have been sung in the poet?s country. And just as love songs prepare Italian girls for love, so the ardent Florentine verses prepared Italian youths for the day of deliveries. From generation to generation, all communed with the soul of the poet and so transformed their slavery into freedom? ?Did you hear that bird? It seemed to say something to us, than it flew away.? ?My friend smiled.? It?s a bird, let it sing;? ?it?s a bird let it speak,? he said, quoting a line from one of our popular ballads.? ?How was it that at this moment, at daybreak on this Cretan coast, such a memory should come into my head, together with that faithful verse, and fill my mind with bitterness.? |