Embourgeoisement

As I am a wretched bad writer, many of my friends have advised me to practise more, to do which I have made many attempts but allways forgot or got tired so that it was never atended to. I am now about to write a sort of journal, to note down some of the chief things that come under my observation each day. This, I hope, will induce me to make use of my pen every day a little. My account of each subject will be very short - a sort of multo in parvo - as my book is very small and my time not very large.

Diary of William Tayler, Footman, 1837 (Thanks to The Diary Junction)

self-worth

One of the remarkable attributes of American slaves was how little each of them appeared to have internalized a lack of her or his self-worth. The sense of value in the self kept alive their hopes for release from undeserved bondage and fueled the fires of their efforts to struggle against slavery. For slave women their realization of the interlocking nature of race and gender oppression forced them to greater self-dependency in order to survive. Central to the will to survive was the knowledge that others, especially children, could not survive unless they did. This sense of responsibility for the future of the race, handed down from one generation of women to the next, together with the support that emanated from within the women's community, was among the most important of internal resources on which slave women drew to sustain themselves and help those who depended on them.

--Nellie Y. McKay, "The Narrative Self: Race, Politics, and Culture in Black American Women's Autobiography"

die Tropfen meiner Zähren

"Do you have any hobbies?"
"Listening to music."
"What kind of music?"
"I like Bach."
"Anything in particular?"
"BWV 846 to 893."
Tengo mulled that one over. "The Well-Tempered Clavier, Books I and II."
"Yes."
"Why did you answer with the BWV numbers?"
"They're easier to remember."
The Well-Tempered Clavier was truly heavenly music for mathematicians. It was composed of prelude and fugue pairs in major and minor keys using all twelve tones of the scale, twenty-four pieces per book, forty-eight pieces in all, comprising a perfect cycle.
"How about other works?" Tengo asked.
"BWV 244."
Tengo could not immediately recall which work of Bach's had a BWV number of 244.
Fuka-Eri began to sing.

Buß’ und Reu’
Knirscht das Sündenherz entzwei
Daß die Tropfen meiner Zähren
Angenehme Spezerei
Treuer Jesu, dir gebären
Knirscht das Sündenherz entzwei
Knirscht das Sündenherz entzwei
Buß’ und Reu’ Buß’ und Reu’
Knirscht das Sündenherz entzwei
Buß’ und Reu’
Buß’ und Reu’
Knirscht das Sündenherz entzwei
Buß’ und Reu’
Buß’ und Reu’

Tengo was momentarily dumbstruck. Her singing was not exactly on key, but her German pronunciation was amazingly clear and precise. 　
“‘St. Matthew Passion,’ ” Tengo said. “You know it by heart.” 　
“No I don’t,” the girl said. 　
Tengo wanted to say something, but the words would not come to him. All he could do was look down at his notes and move on to the next question.
--Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

Translation of the German text:

Guilt and pain
Break the sinful heart in twain,
So the teardrops of my weeping
A most soothing precious balm,
Jesus, thee doth offer. (Minnesota Public Radio)

Literature Humor

Nation Watches In Envy As 15-Year-Old Jots Notes In Margin Of 'To Kill A Mockingbird'
'God, Those Were The Days,' Longing Citizens Announce

FEBRUARY 16, 2012 | ISSUE 48•07 WACO, TX

—The nation gazed wistfully at high school sophomore Eliza Baker as she took notes in a dog-eared copy of Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird at a municipal bus stop Thursday. “What pure, tender joy—not to have a care in the world beyond identifying themes in a classic American novel,” said bystander Jeanne Copley, 24, adding that she envied the 15-year-old’s seeming engrossment in the book and the unrestrained eagerness with which the girl turned from one page to the next. “I think I just saw her write ‘Scout = American Dream?’ in the margin. Ah, I just want to tell her to cherish this moment. Cherish every last precious second of it while you still can.” Sources said Baker later wrote an emotionally laden breakup letter to her boyfriend of two weeks, hurtling the nation into a rapturous fit of fond reverie

Proud Foolish Bird

A good example of the literary affect of Xu Zhimo 徐志摩 (1897-1931):

I have nothing more to say. I just want you to remember there is a kind of bird that heaven made to sing until it spits up blood. Its song contains the happiness of another world it alone knows, and a tragedy and pain it alone knows. A poet is such a foolish bird; he places his tender heart firmly upon a bed of thorny roses, and in his mouth he sings of the brilliance of the stars and moon and the hope of mankind, and he doesn't stop until the blood of his heart drips out and makes the white flowers completely red; his pain and happiness are all mixed up together.

我再没有别的话说，我只要你们记得有一种天教歌唱的鸟不到呕血不住口，它的歌里有它独自知道的别一个世界的愉快，也有它独自知道的悲哀与伤痛的鲜明；诗人也是一种痴鸟，他把他的柔软的心窝紧抵着蔷薇的花刺，口里不住的唱着星月的光辉与人类的希望非到他的心血滴出来把白花染成大红他不住口。他的痛苦与快乐是浑成的一片。

From the preface to Menghu ji 猛虎集 (Ferocious tiger, 1931), translated by Charles Laughlin in The Literature of Leisure

Sea Levels in the Maldives

Novel prospects for the Maldives do not include a condemnation to future flooding. The people of the Maldives have, in the past, survived a higher sea level of about 50–60 cm. The present trend lack signs of a sea level rise. On the contrary, there is firm morphological evidence of a significant sea level fall in the last 30 years. This sea level fall is likely to be the effect of increased evaporation and an intensification of the NE-monsoon over the central Indian Ocean.

--Nils-Axel Mörner et. al., 2004

Here, we determine rates of sea-level rise from tide gauges in the region. We also examine sea-level data from the TOPEX/Poseidon satellite altimeter and from a reconstruction of sea level...We find no evidence for the fall in sea level at the Maldives as postulated by Mörner et al. (2004). Our best estimate of relative sea-level rise at Funafuti, Tuvalu is 2 ± 1 mm yr− 1 over the period 1950 to 2001. The analysis clearly indicates that sea-level in this region is rising.

--John A. Church et. al., 2006

We find that sea level has decreased substantially in the south tropical Indian Ocean whereas it has increased elsewhere.

--Weiqing Han et al., 2009

Global sea levels have risen through the 20th century. These rises will almost certainly accelerate through the 21st century and beyond because of global warming, but their magnitude remains uncertain.

--Robert J. Nichols et al., 2010

The Northwest Passage

Arctic ice has been melting slowly for two decades as temperatures have climbed, but in the summer of 2007 that gradual thaw suddenly accelerated. By the time the long Arctic night finally descended in October, there was 22 percent less sea ice than had ever been observed before, and more than 40 percent less than the year that the Apollow capsule took its picture. The Arctic ice cap was 1.1 million square miles smaller than ever in recorded history, reduced by an area twelve times the sive of Great Britain. The summers of 2008 and 2009 saw a virtual repeat o the epic melt; in 2008 both the Northwest and Northeast passages opened for the first time in human history. The first commercial ship to make the voyage through the newly opened straits, the MV Camilla Desgagnes, had an icebreaker on standby in case it ran into trouble, but the captain reported, "I didn't see one cube of ice."

--Bill McKibben, Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet