Translators From The United States

"[...] Pao-yu was given even more freedom than before. He spent most of his time playing the willing slave to the young ladies and his favored maids. Occasionally Pervading Fragrance or Precious Virtue would remonstrate with him and advise him to give some thought to his studies and his future career, but such advice only irritated him and brought the retort that he was surprised to see in them the same worldliness that he only associated with the more vulgar sex. Black Jade, alone, never gave him occasion for such remarks."

"I sing of warfare and a man at war. From the sea-coast of Troy in early days He came to Italy by destiny, To our Lavinian western shore, A fugitive, this captain, buffeted Cruelly on land as on the sea By blows from powers of the air—behind them Baleful Juno in her sleepless rage. And cruel losses were his lot in war, Till he could found a city and bring home His gods to Latium, land of the Latin race, The Alban lords, and the high walls of Rome. Tell me the causes now, O Muse, how galled In her divine pride, and how sore at heart From her old wound, the queen of gods compelled him— A man apart, devoted to his mission— To undergo so many perilous days And enter on so many trials. Can anger Black as this prey on the minds of heaven?"

"Sing in me, Muse, and through me tell the story of that man skilled in all ways of contending, the wanderer, harried for years on end, after he plundered the stronghold on the proud height of Troy. He saw the townlands and learned the minds of many distant men, and weathered many bitter nights and days in his deep heart at sea, while he fought only to save his life, to bring his shipmates home. But not by will nor valor could he save them, for their own recklessness destroyed them all— children and fools, they killed and feasted on the cattle of Lord Hêlios, the Sun, and he who moves all day through the heaven took from their eyes the dawn of their return."

"Anger be now your song, immortal one, Akhilleus' anger, doomed and ruinous, that caused the Akhaians loss on bitter loss and crowded brave souls into the undergloom, leaving so many dead men—carrion for dogs and birds; and the will of Zeus was done. Begin it when the two men first contending broke with one another—the Lord Marshal Agamémnon, Atreus' son, and Prince Akhilleus. Among the gods, who brought this quarrel on? The son of Zeus by Lêto. Agamémnon angered him, so he made a burning wind of plague rise in the army: rank and file sickened and died for the ill their chief had done in despising a man of prayer."

"We know how to tell many believable lies, But also, when we want to, how to speak the plain truth."

"Whoever escapes marriage And women's harm, comes to deadly old age Without any son to support him."

"There's no way to get around the mind of Zeus."

"When the defiant boy, whose heart had never trembled, saw this girl at the head of her troop of companions he stiffened, and every bone in his body absorbed liquid fire."

"The person who casts off desires, who acts free from craving and lust, indifferent to "I, my, me," that person will arrive at peace."

"Achilles—bring back the story, Goddess, of the formidable hero descended through Aeacus from thundering Jupiter, but denied His heaven, his deeds indeed famous through Homeric song, but with much more to celebrate."

"Through me is the way to the city of woe. Through me is the way to sorrow eternal. Through me is the way to the lost below."

"Shimmering, iridescent, deathless Aphrodite."

"Some say an army on horseback, some say on foot, and some say ships are the most beautiful things on this black earth, but I say it is whatever you love."

"The moon has set, And the Pleiades. Midnight. The hour has gone by. I sleep alone."

"Don't try to sell me on death, Odysseus. I'd rather be a hired hand back up on earth, Slaving away for some poor dirt farmer, Than lord it over all these withered dead."

"Don't try to cut any deals with me, Hector. Do lions make peace treaties with men? Do wolves and lambs agree to get along?"

"I have borne what no man Who has walked this earth has ever yet borne. I have kissed the hand of the man who killed my son."

"And for yourself, may the gods grant you Your heart's desire, a husband and a home, And the blessing of a harmonious life. For nothing is greater or finer than this, When a man and woman live together With one heart and mind, bringing joy To their friends and grief to their foes."

"Your mission, Roman, is to rule the world. These will be your arts: to establish peace, To spare the humbled, and to conquer the proud."

"Rage: Sing, Goddess, Achilles' rage, Black and murderous, that cost the Greeks Incalculable pain."

"Human generations are like leaves in their seasons. The wind blows them to the ground, but the tree Sprouts new ones when spring comes again. Men too. Their generations come and go."

"It was glorious to see—if your heart were iron, And you could keep from grieving at all the pain."

"The Way is calm and wide, Not easy, not difficult. But small minds get lost. Hurrying, they fall behind.Clinging, they go too far, Sure to take a wrong turn. Just let it be! In the end, Nothing goes, nothing stays."

"Ah, my friend, if you and I could only Get out of the war alive and then immortal and ageless all of our days, I would never again fight among the foremost Or send you into battle where men win glory. But as it is, death is everywhere In more shapes that we can count, And since no mortal is immune or can escape, Let's go forward, either to give glory To another man, or get glory from him."

"According to a stagist conception of progressive history (which is usually blind to its implicit teleology), the work of figures like Foucault, Derrida and other cutting-edge French theorists is often intuitively affiliated with a form of profound and sophisticated critique that presumably far surpasses anything found in the socialist, Marxist or anarchist traditions. It is certainly true and merits emphasis that the Anglophone reception of French theory, as John McCumber has aptly pointed out, had important political implications as a pole of resistance to the false political neutrality, the safe technicalities of logic and language, or the direct ideological conformism operative in the McCarthy-supported traditions of Anglo-American philosophy. However, the theoretical practices of figures who turned their back on what Cornelius Castoriadis called the tradition of radical critique—meaning anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist resistance—surely contributed to the ideological drift away from transformative politics. According to the spy agency itself, post-Marxist French theory directly contributed to the CIA’s cultural program of coaxing the left toward the right, while discrediting anti-imperialism and anti-capitalism, thereby creating an intellectual environment in which their imperial projects could be pursued unhindered by serious critical scrutiny from the intelligentsia."

"The precarization of academic labor contributes to the demolition of radical leftism."

"Crewmates, by now we are hardly strangers to evil and hardship. We've suffered worse. God will grant us an end to these sufferings also. ... Take heart once again and dispel your fears and depression. Maybe the day'll come when even this will be joy to remember."

"Euryalus, is it the gods who put this fire in our minds, or is it that each man's relentless longing becomes a god to him?"

"I sing of arms and of a man: his fate had made him fugitive; he was the first to journey from the coasts of Troy as far as Italy and the Lavinian shores."

"For other peoples will, I do not doubt, still cast their bronze to breathe with softer features, or draw out of the marble living lines, plead causes better, trace the ways of heaven with wands and tell the rising constellations; but yours will be the rulership of nations, remember Roman, these will be your arts: to teach the ways of peace to those you conquer, to spare defeated peoples, tame the proud."

"Should some senator or congressman have a sudden attack of conscience and blurt something out, “dark money” brings them to their senses and reminds them that their job is to facilitate the transfer of public funds into the pockets of the few and to not ask too many questions."

"Widespread ignorance bordering on idiocy is our new national goal. ... The ideal citizen of a politically corrupt state, such as the one we now have, is a gullible dolt unable to tell truth from bullshit. An educated, well-informed population, the kind that a functioning democracy requires, would be difficult to lie to, and could not be led by the nose by the various vested interests running amok in this country."

"It’s never been such a good time to be a crook. In what other country of laws does one enjoy so much freedom to defraud one’s government and fellow citizens without having to worry about cops showing at the door? Small-time crooks sooner or later end up in the slammer, but our big-time con artists, as we’ve come to learn, are now regarded as the untouchables, too well-heeled and powerful to lock up."

"For William J. Higginson, haiku was a perfect rose, glistening with dew—and, in the latter half of the twentieth century, he was its foremost gardener."

"the clock chimes, chimes, and stops but the river..."

"Small moments of natural wonder (as a youth), seemed to have prepared me to appreciate Japanese haiku."

"The arts have always transcended national boundaries as the haiku demonstrates."

"Haiku reading and writing can lead to a deeper understanding and appreciation of life and our environment."

"I believe haiku help us to see the world more clearly and haiku may be a useful therapy for all."

"Haiku can be the antidote against the kind of poetry dominated by egos and battling personalities."

"Dear reader dearest inscrutable listener inscrutably harking or regrettably more likely not harking except in that chamber in me that posits you with me every moment I’m speaking or trying to speak"

"Gessen is American, too. They (Gessen is transgender and non-binary and prefers the pronouns "they/them") were born in Russia, grew up in the US, and then lived in Russia again as a journalist, before returning to the US. This allows for a deep comparison between Trump and Vladimir Putin, on whom they have written a well-known book The Man Without a Face. The parallels are evident: Trump admires Putin. Indeed, he would like to be America's Putin."

"[On the actions of Israel in the Gaza Strip during the 2023 Israel-Hamas war] I'm not convinced that genocide is the right term. I think ethnic cleansing is the right term. But in any case, I think it's likely that crimes against humanity are being committed there. This is something I want to mention: This whole idea of crimes against humanity — like the idea of genocide — these are concepts that came out of World War II and the Holocaust. When we're thinking about whether a crime against humanity has been committed, or if a genocide has been committed, we're performing the act of comparing the Holocaust to current events. That's a foundational stone of our contemporary international legal system. So to ban that kind of comparison is to try to [throw] a wrench in the entire works of international humanitarian law, and I think Israel does that quite advisedly."

"In the United States, when we talk about mass violence and we are not talking about ideology, we usually talk about the easy availability of guns. Of course, access to guns matters. The easier it is, technically, to kill people, the more people will be killed."

"Yet, although no one pursues the politics of hating or othering children and arguing that they should be dead, school shootings proliferate, because one can imagine no terror greater than the terror inflicted on children and on their families. The essential precondition for mass violence, it seems, is not guns or hate but a culture of terror, a common imaginary that includes the possibility of a mass shooting."

"[The Russian media] Coverage is repetitive not just from day to day, television channel to television channel; nearly identical stories appear in print and online media, too. According to a number of current and former employees at Russian news outlets, there is a simple explanation for this: at weekly meetings with Kremlin officials, editors of state-controlled media, including broadcasters and publishers, coördinate topics and talking points. Five days a week, a state-controlled consultancy issues a more detailed list of topics."

"No powerful political actor had set out to destroy the American political system itself — until, that is, Trump won the Republican nomination. He was probably the first major party nominee who ran not for president but for autocrat. And he won."

"[In answer to the question: "You were born in Russia, spent your teenage years in America then moved back to Moscow as an adult. Do you feel more Russian or American?"] It doesn't really work that way. But when you have emigrated as often as I have, you learn the benefits of being an outsider. I am very comfortable not belonging. I find it extremely beneficial to my work as a journalist to be highly attuned to this culture yet at the same time hovering outside of it."

"[On Trump] He talks and you don’t even know where the punctuation marks fall. And the more you try to engage with those words, the less they mean."

"Trump has struck more countries with more fire power in a week than Putin often does in a year. Where Putin's unpredictable persona is a carefully cultivated one, Trump has given no evidence that his madman act is an act."