De Zweedse dichter en schrijver Bengt Gunnar Ekelöf werd geboren op 15 september 1907 in Stockholm. Zie ook mijn blog van 15 september 2007 en ook mijn blog van 16 september 2008 en ook mijn blog van 15 september 2009.xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Uit: Diwan on the Prince of Emgion

Five times I saw the Shadow
And greeted her as we passed,
But the sixth time
In a narrow alley of the lower city
Suddenly she stood before me
Barring my way
And began to revile me
In the coarsest language
Then she asked:
“Why have you rejected me?
Why have you not lain with your Shadow?
Am I so repulsive?”
To which I answered:
“How can a man lie with his Shadow?
It is customary
To let it walk two paces behind him
Until the evening.”
She smiled scornfully
And pulled her black shawl tighter about her face:
“And after sunset?”
“Then a wanderer has two shadows,
One from the lantern he has just left behind him
And one from the lantern he is just approaching:
They keep changing places.”
She smiled scornfully and laid her hand on the neighboring wall:
“Then I am not your Shadow?”
I said: “I do not know whose shadow you are”
And meant to walk on
But, lifting her hand, she showed its black impression
In the moonlight on the white wall
And said again:
“Then I am not your Shadow?”
To which I answered:
“I see who you are.
It is for you to take me
Not for me to take you”
She smiled scornfully. “Beloved,” she said
“At your place? Or at mine?”
“At yours,” I answered.

Vertaald door Steven Fowler

Gunnar Ekelöf (15 september 1907 – 16 maart 1968)

Portret door Reinhold Ljunggrens, 1958

De Britse schrijfster Agatha Christie werd geboren in Torquay (Devon) op 15 september 1890. Zie ook mijn blog van 16 september 2008 en ook mijn blog van 15 september 2009.

Uit: Murder on the Orient Express

„It was five o'clock on a winter's morning in Syria. Alongside the platform at Aleppo stood the train grandly designated in railway guides as the Taurus Express. It consisted of a kitchen and dining-car, a sleeping-car and two local coaches.
By the step leading up into the sleeping-car stood a young French lieutenant, resplendent in uniform, conversing with a small lean man, muffled up to the ears, of whom nothing was visible but a pink-tipped nose and the two points of an upward curled moustache.
It was freezingly cold, and this job of seeing off a distinguished stranger was not one to be envied, but Lieutenant Dubosc performed his part manfully. Graceful phrases fell from his lips in polished French. Not that he knew what it was all about. There had been rumours, of course, as there always were in such cases. The General -- his General's -- temper had grown worse and worse. And then there had come this Belgian stranger -- all the way from England, it seemed. There had been a week -- a week of curious tensity. And then certain things had happened. A very distinguished officer had committed suicide, another had resigned -- anxious faces had suddenly lost their anxiety, certain military precautions were relaxed. And the General -- Lieutenant Dubosc's own particular General -- had suddenly looked ten years younger.“

Agatha Christie (15 september 1890 – 12 januari 1976)

Buste bij de haven van Torquay

De Duitse schrijfster en dichteres Ina Seidel werd geboren op 15 september 1885 in Halle. Zie ook mijn blog van 15 september 2007 en ook mijn blog van 15 september 2009.

Lichtmeß

Stille Luft und eingewölkte Himmelskuppel, hinter deren
Lichter Alabasterwölbung steht mit silberklaren schweren
Strahlenschwertern ausgebreitet, abgedämpft und gött-
                                                                           lich fern:

Der im Winterdunst verlorne,
Der ersehnte, neu geborne
Ungeheure Sonnenstern.

August

Sanft - so dehnt sich mein Herz,
Segel, gehoben von Luft,  
Sehnt sich weit länderwärts,
Stiller, blauer August -
Sanft so dehnt sich mein Herz.

Silberne Fäden fliehn    
An mir vorüber im Wind,
Schimmernde Wolken ziehn,
Wege bedrängen mich lind.  

Wege verlocken mein Herz,
Einer dem andern mich gibt,
Wiesenzu, wälderwärts:
Oh, wie die Erde mich liebt! -
Sanft - so dehnt sich mein Herz ...

Ina Seidel (15 september 1885 – 2 oktober 1974)

Illustratie door U. Postler

De Amerikaanse schrijver Jim Curtiss werd geboren op 15 september 1969 in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania. Zie ook mijn blog van 15 september 2009.

Uit: Sheboygan, Poland

„As I ate breakfast while staring out the kitchen window, the phone rang. I let the answering machine take it and was startled to hear, “Hello, I'm calling from the American School of English – I was told Elijah Counts could be…”

I spit a mouthful of Cookie Crisp into the sink and ran over to the phone.

Taking a deep breath, I picked up the receiver. “Hello?”

The speaker continued: “…and if he could – Oh… uh… Hello. Can I speak to Elijah Counts?”

“That's me.”

“Great, I'm glad I caught you! Elijah, I just got your online application, and I'm really happy you're interested in the job in Poland!”

I blinked.

“Elijah? Are you there?”

“…”

“Elijah?”

“Uh…sorry. D…did you say… 'Poland'?”

I switched on the speakerphone and paced as Todd, the smooth recruiter from The American School, promised me three meals a day and a private room, with bathroom, for the whole summer in the resort town of Wegierska Górka, Poland, an hour south of Katowice.

There, I would spend a leisurely summer – beginning just three weeks hence – teaching children and teenagers English over four two-week intervals. A substantial bulk payment, in Polish Zloty, would come at the end of the summer.

“So, Elijah, are you interested?”

After a short pause I said, “You know, on a certain level I am. But I honestly never considered going to Poland, so you'll have to give me some time to think about it.”

Jim Curtiss (Beaver Falls, 15 september 1969)