Cesare Pavese
Cesare Pavese was born in a small town in which his father, an official, owned property. He attended school and later, university, in Turin. Denied an outlet for his creative powers by Fascist control of literature, Pavese translated many 20th-century American writers in the 1930s and '40s: Sherwood Anderson, Gertrude Stein, John Steinbeck, John Dos Passos, Ernest Hemingway, and William Faulkner; a 19th-century writer who influenced him profoundly, Herman Melville (one of his first translations was of Moby Dick); and the Irish novelist James Joyce. He also published criticism, posthumously collected in La letteratura americana e altri saggi (1951; American Literature, Essays and Opinions, 1970). His work probably did more to foster the reading and appreciation of U.S. writers in Italy than that of any other single man.
A founder and, until his death, an editor of the publishing house of Einaudi, Pavese also edited the anti-Fascist review La Cultura. His work led to his arrest and imprisonment by the government in 1935, an experience later recalled in “Il carcere” (published in Prima che il gallo canti, 1949; in The Political Prisoner, 1955) and the novella Il compagno (1947; The Comrade, 1959). His first volume of lyric poetry, Lavorare stanca (1936; Hard Labour, 1976), followed his release from prison. An initial novella, Paesi tuoi (1941; The Harvesters, 1961), recalled, as many of his works do, the sacred places of childhood. Between 1943 and 1945 he lived with partisans of the anti-Fascist Resistance in the hills of Piedmont.
The bulk of Pavese's work, mostly short stories and novellas, appeared between the end of the war and his death. Partly through the influence of Melville, Pavese became preoccupied with myth, symbol, and archetype. One of his most striking books is Dialoghi con Leucò (1947; Dialogues with Leucò, 1965), poetically written conversations about the human condition. The novel considered his best, La luna e i falò (1950; The Moon and the Bonfires, 1950), is a bleak, yet compassionate story of a hero who tries to find himself by visiting the place in which he grew up. Several other works are notable, especially La bella estate (1949; in The Political Prisoner, 1955).
Shortly after receiving the Strega Prize for it, Pavese took his own life in his hotel room by taking an overdose of pills.
“Kader diye bir şey yoktur,yalnız sınırlar vardır.En kötü yazgı,sınırları sabırla karşılamaktır.Karşı çıkmak gerekir.”
“si era fermata e si eramessa a piangere perché dormire era una stupidaggine erubava tempo all'allegria.”
“Oysa herkes öldürür sevdiği şeyi,Bu herkesçe biline.Kimi sert bir bakışla yapar bunu,Kimi övücü sözlerle.”
“Vei fi iubit în ziua în care vei putea să-ţi arăţi slăbiciunile fără ca celălalt să se folosească de asta pentru a-şi spori puterea.”
“Se întâmpla ca o femeie să întâlnească o epavă şi să decidă să facă din ea un bărbat sănătos. Uneori, reuşeşte. Se întâmplă ca o femeie să întâlnească un bărbat sănătos şi să decidă să facă din el o epavă. Chestia asta îi reuşeşte întotdeauna.”
“Perfect behavior is born of complete indifference. Perhaps this is why we always love madly someone who treats us with indifference.”
“But here's the worst part: the trick to life lies in hiding from those we hold most dear how much they mean to is; if not, we'd lose them.”
“The words that strike us are those that awake an echo in a zone we have already made our own—the place where we live—and the vibration enables us to find fresh starting points within ourselves.”
“Will power is the only tensile strength of one's own disposition. One cannot increase it by a single ounce.”
“Non si ricordano i giorni, si ricordano gli attimi.”
“Sevgilim, çocuklara şaka yapılmaz. Ben de bir çocuktum.”
“Life is pain and the enjoyment of love is an anesthetic.”
“all is the sametime has gone bysome day you comesome day you'll diesomeone has diedlong time ago.”
“Val la pena esser solo, per essere sempre più solo?”
“There is mercy for everyone, except those who are bored with life.”
“Dawn's faint breathbreathes with your mouthat the ends of empty streets.Gray light your eyes,sweet drops of dawnon dark hills.Your steps and breathlike the wind of dawnsmother houses.The city shudders,Stones exhale—you are life, an awakening.Star lostin the light of dawn,trill of the breeze,warmth, breath—the night is done.You are light and morning.”
“Ti ride negli occhi la stranezza di un cielo che non è il tuo.”
“Ne sanıyorsun?Ay herkes için vardır,yağmurda,hastalıklar da.İnsan yeraltında da yaşasa,sarayda da yaşasa,kan her yerde kırmızıdır.”
“Przyjdzie śmierć i będzie miała twoje oczy -ta śmierć, która nam towarzyszyod świtu do zmierzchu, bezsenna,milcząca, jak odwieczne poczucie winylub bezsensowny nałóg. Twoje oczybędą pustym słowem,przemilczanym krzykiem, ciszą.Takimi je widzisz co dzień ranokiedy nad sobą pochylasz sięw lustrze. Kochana nadziejo,tego dnia i my się dowiemyże jesteś życiem i że jesteś niczym.Śmierć ma dla wszystkich spojrzenie.Przyjdzie śmierć i będzie miała twoje oczy.Będzie tak, jak gdybyś porzuciła nałóg,jak gdybyś ujrzała w lustrzepojawienie się martwej twarzy,jak gdybyś słuchała zamkniętych warg.Niemi zstąpimy w topiel.”
“Tutt’al più commuoversi sugli altri,mai su se stesso.To pity others perhaps, never to pity one’s self.Be touched by others, don’t be touched by yourself”
“Sono libri, - disse lui, - leggici dentro fin che puoi. Sarai sempre un tapino se non leggi nei libri.”
“Tu seras aimé le jour où tu pourras montrer tes faiblesses sans que l'autre s'en serve pour augmenter sa force.”
“Prova a dire ai mortali queste cose che sai.”
“The only joy in the world is to begin.”
“No woman marries for money; they are all clever enough, before marrying a millionaire, to fall in love with him first.”
“From someone who doesn't want to share your destiny, you should neither accept a cigarette”
“Attendre est encore une occupation. C'est ne rien attendre qui est terrible.”
“On ne se souvient pas des jours, on se souvient des instants.”
“يجب أن نلاحظ ما يلي:فى أيامنا هذه، الانتحار وسيلة للغياب.يرتكب فىخجل، و فى صمت و انبطاح. لم يعد الإنتحار تصرفاًحراً بل فعل استسلام. من يدرى هل سيعود الإنتحار المتفائل ثانية إلى العالم؟؟”
“One does not kill oneself for love of a woman, but because love—any love—reveals us in our nakedness, our misery, our vulnerability, our nothingness.”
“Leggendo non cerchiamo idee nuove, ma pensieri già da noi pensati, che acquistano sulla pagina un suggello di conferma.”
“Verrà la morte e avrà i tuoi occhi. (Death will come and it will have your eyes.)”
“Every luxury must be paid for, and everything is a luxury, starting with being in this world.”
“The great lovers will always be unhappy, because for them love is great and so they ask of their beloved the same intensity of thought that they have for her – otherwise they feel betrayed.”
“Traveling is a brutality. It forces you to trust strangers and to lose sight of all that familiar comfort of home and friends.You are constantly off balance. Nothing is yours except the essential things: air, sleep, dreams, sea, the sky - all things tending towards the eternal or what we imagine of it.”
“La sorpresa es el móvil de cada descubrimiento.”
“We do not remember days, we remember moments.”