Vera Pavlova

“Basked in the sun,listened to birds,licked off raindrops,and only in flightthe leaf saw the treeand graspedwhat it had been.”

“… if necessary, the books shall be divided as follows:you get the odd, I get the even pages;"the books" are understood to mean the ones we used to read aloudtogether, when we would interrupt our reading for a kiss,and would get back to the book after half an hour …”

“Why is the word yes so brief?it should bethe longest,the hardest,so that you could not decide in an instant to say it,so that upon reflection you could stopin the middle of saying it.”

“I have brushed my teeth.This day and I are even.”

“Let us touch each otherwhile we still have hands,palms, forearms, elbows . . .Let us love each other for misery,torture each other, torment,disfigure, maim,to remember better,to part with less pain.”