A beautiful letter.
Mary Ashley (c. 1843–1903) was an English astronomer.
— posted by Roger W. Smith
September 2024
Mary Ashley to Walt Whitman
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my books on baseball
Juan Ramón Jiménez – books in my library
Juan Ramon Jimenez – my library
The above downloadable Word document comprises an inventory of books by and about the Spanish poet Juan Ramón Jiménez in my personal home library.
— Roger W. Smith
August 2024; updated July 2025
Ralph Colp, Jr., “Why Stalin Couldn’t Stop Laughing”
2 Ralph Colp, Jr., ‘Why Stalin Couldn’t Stop Laughing’ – Clio’s Psyche, Sept 1996
Posted here (PDF above):
Ralph Colp, Jr., “Why Stalin Couldn’t Stop Laughing,” Clio’s Psyche, Volume 3, Number 2 (September, 1996)
This article provides concise and cogent insights into the mind and personality of a dictator.
— posted by Roger W. Smith
August 2024
the original “Power Broker” articles (The New Yorker)
a photo: Lorca and Jiménez
From left to right, Federico García Lorca, Zenobia Camprubí (Juan Ramón Jiménez’s wife), Isabel García Lorca (Federico García Lorca’s sister), Emilia Llanos (friend of Federico García Lorca), Juan Ramón Jiménez, and Concha García Lorca (Federico García Lorca’s sister) at the Paseo de los Cipreses in the Generalife (Granada, Spain), summer of 1924.
See also:
https://www.universolorca.com/en/personaje/jimenez-mantecon-juan-ramon/
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Addendum:
I showed this photo to my therapist, Ralph Colp Jr., who commented, with his usual humanity, that there was something marvelous about the expression of the persons in the photograph; they were so alive.
— posted by Roger W. Smith
August 2024
Thomas Merton, Introduction; Augustine, The City of God
Thomas Merton – Introduction, ‘The City of God’
Posted here:
Thomas Merton, Introduction
Saint Augustine, The City of God ; translated by Marcus Dods (New York: Modern Library, 1950)
Merton’s preface is well reading and hard to find, if you don’t happen to own the book.
— posted by Roger W. Smith
August 2024
ГРЕШИТЬ (a poem by Alexander Blok)
Word document with Russian and English translation above.
I wish to thank Yuri Doykov for alerting me to this poem.
— posted by Roger W. Smith
July 2024
pity
Blake, ‘How Sweet I Roamed from Field to Field’
See two Word documents, above.
— posted by Roger W. Smith
July 2024
William Blake, “Mrs Blake” (circa 1805)
the beauty of Russian syntax
Если окажутся, хоть некоторые, хоть слабые шансы на успех, было бы грешно их не использовать. (Yesli okazhutsya, khot’ nekotoryye, khot’ slabyye shansy na uspekh, bylo by greshno ikh ne ispol’zovat’.)
If there are at least some, even faint, chances of success, it would be a sin not to make use of them.
— Yuri Doykov, Pochemu molchal Pitirim Sorokin?; Ot Lubyanki do Garvarda (1918-1930) [Why was he silent?; Pitirim Sorokin? From the Lubyanka to Harvard (1918-1930]
The words are a quotation from Alexander Guchkov, a minister of war in Kerensky’s provisional government, in a letter to Sorokin.
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Russian is, indeed, an intricate and beautiful language.
The subjunctive is used here; and subtle wording to get the writer’s point across.
грешно: dative case of грех (sin)
грешно (dative), pronounced greshno
грех (nominative), pronounced grekh
The Russian letter х has no sound corresponding to any English letter. It is the first letter in the surname Khrushchev.
I love studying languages. French, for instance, in high school Learning the intricacies of verbs and conjugations. The passé composé; le subjonctif.
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иди и впредь не греши
idi i vpred’ ne greshi
go and sin no more
— John 8:11 (Old Church Slavonic)
— posted by Roger W. Smith
July 2024