Louise Glück, born on 22 April 1943, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2020. “First Memory” Long ago, I was wounded. I livedto revenge myselfagainst my father, notfor what he was—for what I was: from the beginning of time,in childhood, I thoughtthat pain meantI was not loved.It meant I loved. “First Memory” is… Read More Happy Birthday, Louise Glück!
R.S. Thomas, in full Ronald Stuart Thomas, was a Welsh poet and Anglican priest whose birth anniversary falls today: he was born on 29 March 1913 and died in 2000.Noted for his Welsh nationalism and his intense spirituality , he was also a political activist, a pacifist, and an ardent supporter of the Campaign for… Read More R.S. Thomas and Poetry
Seamus Heaney, Irish poet, playwright and translator, was born on 13 April 1939 . Widely recognized as one of the major poets of the 20th century, he received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1995 “for works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles and the living past.”He died in 2013. The… Read More Heaney and Historical Continuity
On 23 October 1958 Boris Pasternak (1890 – 1960) was announced as the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature “for his important achievement both in contemporary lyrical poetry and in the field of the great Russian epic tradition.”Pasternak accepted the award, but was later forced to decline it by Soviet authorities who had banned… Read More When Pasternak had to decline the Nobel Prize
Louise Glück (born in New York City in 1943) has just been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature “for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal“. Here is one of her poems, which has often been likened to a feminist anthem, from the collection “The Triumph of Achilles” (1985). Mock… Read More Louise Glück
Niels Henrik David Bohr was born in Copenhagen on 7 October 1885, exactly one hundred and thirty-five years ago. This Danish physicist (one of the most important of the 20th century), who was also a philosopher and a promoter of scientific research, made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum theory, for which he… Read More Bohr & Dogmatism ⚛️
“The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it’s indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference. Because of indifference, one dies before one actually dies. To be in the window and watch people being… Read More The Opposite of Love
Pearl S. Buck (born on 26 June 1892) was an American writer and novelist. Her novel “The Good Earth”, published in 1931, immediately became a bestseller in the United States and earned her a Pulitzer Prize in 1932. In 1938, Buck became the fourth female and first American woman to win a Nobel Prize for… Read More Pearl S. Buck
What do Bob Dylan and George Bernard Shaw have in common? They are the only two people to win both an Oscar and a Nobel Prize. In 2016, Bob Dylan was awarded the Nobel prize for Literature “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition”, becoming the first songwriter to… Read More Bob Dylan and George Bernard Shaw
Dario Fo (24 marzo 1926 –13 ottobre 2016), l’eterno giullare, è stato drammaturgo, attore, regista, scrittore, autore, illustratore, pittore e scenografo: un uomo di teatro a tutto tondo, famoso per i suoi testi di satira politica e sociale e per aver valorizzato il grammelot, quello strumento recitativo che assembla suoni, onomatopee, parole prive di senso… Read More Dario Fo (24 marzo 1926 –2016)
words and music and stories 