.i“ * ^ / . . . . . ` `~

Libation Bearers, 380-381 (English):

τοῦτο διαμπερὲς οὖς
ἵκεθ᾽ ἅπερ τι βέλος.

[ ἅπερ = ὥσπερ, as, so as.]

(Loeb, translation Haines. Book 9, 42,4) —

But above all, when thou findest fault with a man for faithlessness and ingratitude, turn thy thoughts to thyself. For evidently that fault is thine own, whether thou hadst faith that a man with such a character would keep faith with thee, or if in bestowing a kindness thou did not bestow it absolutely and as from the very doing of having at once received the full complete fruit. For when thou hast done a kindness, what more would thou have?

Greek:

μάλιστα δέ, ὅταν ὡς ἀπίστῳ ἢ ἀχαρίστῳ μέμφῃ, εἰς σεαυτὸν ἐπιστρέφου: προδήλως γὰρ σὸν τὸ ἁμάρτημα, εἴτε περὶ τοῦ τοιαύτην τὴν διάθεσιν ἔχοντος ἐπίστευσας ὅτι τὴν πίστιν φυλάξει, εἴτε τὴν χάριν διδοὺς μὴ καταληκτικῶς ἔδωκας μηδὲ ὥστε ἐξ αὐτῆς τῆς πράξεως εὐθὺς ἀπειληφέναι πάντα τὸν καρπόν. τί γὰρ πλέον θέλεις εὖ ποιήσας ἄνθρωπον;

Forever Overhead — to be noted that this story doesn’t seem to end in quite the same spirit with which it begins. The spirit it begins with seems autobiographical and exhibits an incredible descriptive power, bringing together in a very small space pretty much all the sensations one will ever have at a public swimming pool. The spirit it concludes with seems philosophical and perhaps more reaching and abstruse in what it says…. Not uninteresting but I can’t decide on the extent to which it follows from what’s come before. The scenario it most suggests for me is one in which Wallace “found an end” for an interesting fragment, and the end serves, but imperfectly.

Stupid thing: I noticed in this story the phrase “coins of light” which he also uses in the beautiful opening to The Pale King. Also, Infinite Jest.

He has a terrible fear of dying because he has not yet lived. By this I do not mean that wife and child, fields and cattle are essential to living. The only essential thing for life is forgoing smugness, moving into the house instead of admiring it and hanging garlands around it. One might argue that this is a matter of fate and is not given to anyone’s hand. But then why this sense of remorse; why does the remorse never stop? To become finer and more savoury? That, too. But why do such nights always end on this note: I could live and I do not live. The second major reason – perhaps it is all really one, I don’t seem to be able to sort them apart now – is the idea: ‘What I have toyed with is really going to happen. I have not bought myself off by my writing. I died my whole life long and now I will really die. My life was sweeter than other people’s and my death will be all the more terrible.’…. [KAFKA]

« J’ai su tout cela quand je ne savais encore rien. » *

Reading Wings of The Dove I find James having used the word beautifully (and related forms) quite a bit again. (In Golden Bowl (1904) the word occurred about 180 times, in Wings (1902) 150, in The Ambassadors (1903) more like 80…. Wow: could he have really written these books over three years? It appears so.) First number below is occurrences in first volume; second in the second; third is the total; in paren is the ratio of occurrences in the first volume (which is about 3/4ths the length of the second) to those of the second.

Beaut–: 67/ 83 ……… 150 (.8)

wonder–: 92 /124 ………. 216 (.74)

wondrous: 4 /4 ……….. 8 (1)