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Significance of "shine" vs. "burn" in "All of You"

In "All of You," the final song from the movie Encanto, Mirabel sings: Look at this family, a glowing constellation So full of stars, and everybody wants to shine But the stars don't shine, ...
DLosc's user avatar
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1 vote
0 answers
7 views

What was wrong with Tanilo?

In Juan Rulfo's short story "Talpa" (part of the collection The Burning Plain and Other Stories, of which George D. Schade's English translation is freely available to borrow from the ...
Rand al'Thor's user avatar
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1 vote
1 answer
41 views

What do the food motifs mean in Macbeth, what is the purpose of adding food motifs to certain Scenes, like in Act 4 scene 1

For example, the following lines: Against the churches, though the yeasty waves Confound and swallow navigation up, Through bladed corn be lodged and trees blown down, Though castles topple on their ...
thebeasttrumpeter's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
33 views

What do these parts of Hecate's speech in Act 3 scene 5 from Macbeth mean?

The lines are the following: How did you dare to trade and traffic with Macbeth … (…) shall draw him on to his confusion. He shall spurn fate, scorn death, and bear his hopes 'bove wisdom, grace, and ...
thebeasttrumpeter's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
20 views

Who first translated Juan Rulfo's Pedro Páramo into English?

In 2011, user hippietrail asked in the previous incarnation of Literature Stack Exchange, The current English version of Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo was translated by Margaret Sayers Peden. I know ...
Tsundoku's user avatar
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2 votes
1 answer
51 views

Did Esteban kill Justo or not?

I've just read Juan Rulfo's short story "At daybreak" ("En la madrugada"), part of the collection The Burning Plain and Other Stories (whose Spanish original is available online ...
Rand al'Thor's user avatar
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4 votes
1 answer
31 views

What is the significance of the 'one word' in Gabriela Mistral's poem Una palabra

In Gabriela Mistral's poem Una palabra (literally "one word"), the speaker says (in the first stanza, from the translation in Mapping a different star: five poems by Gabriela Mistral), I ...
Tsundoku's user avatar
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5 votes
1 answer
101 views

What were the works of Tagore that Mistral commented on?

Mistral's first published collection, Desolación, contains a number of prose works in addition to her poetry. In one of them, "Commentarios a poemas de Rabindranath Tagore", Mistral wrote ...
Clara Díaz Sanchez's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
36 views

Poem About Missshapen Tree

Looking for a poem about a tree that has grown in adverse conditions, but is more interesting because it has more character. Thought it was written by a famous American poet but my searches don't ...
Stephan Meinke's user avatar
11 votes
1 answer
1k views

How does the first stanza of Robert Burns's "For a' that and a' that" translate into modern English?

I want to like this poem, but I guess I'm too dense to make sense of the first stanza, mainly because (I suppose) of Burns's dialect: Is there, for honest poverty, That hangs his head, and a’ that? ...
bob.sacamento's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
216 views

Who was Blanca Subercaseaux, to whom Gabriela Mistral dedicated the poem Encargo a Blanca?

Many of Gabriela Mistral's poems are dedicated to specific persons. These are often authors who can be looked up on the Spanish Wikipedia, such as Emma Godoy, Max Daireaux, Francis de Miomandre, José ...
Tsundoku's user avatar
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2 votes
0 answers
34 views

Why are "La Tambora" and "La Serpentina" left untranslated in this English version of Rulfo's "We're very poor"?

I've been reading George D. Schade's English translation of Juan Rulfo's The Burning Plain and Other Stories, which is freely available to borrow from the Internet Archive. In the story "We're ...
Rand al'Thor's user avatar
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3 votes
1 answer
226 views

Who is Veronica in Gabriela Mistral's poem La huella?

The first stanza in Gabriela Mistral's poem La huella ("The footprint") mentions or appears to address a certain Veronica. The translation of that stanza follows below: Of the fugitive man ...
Tsundoku's user avatar
  • 51.1k
5 votes
1 answer
237 views

What's the background behind "They gave us the land"?

In Juan Rulfo's short story "They gave us the land" (part of the collection The Burning Plain and Other Stories, of which the Spanish original is available online and George D. Schade's ...
Rand al'Thor's user avatar
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3 votes
1 answer
86 views

What is the status of Rulfo's La Cordillera?

In George D. Schade's introduction to his English translation of Juan Rulfo's The Burning Plain and Other Stories, he says (bold emphasis mine): Born in the state of Jalisco, Mexico, in 1918, Rulfo ...
Rand al'Thor's user avatar
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1 vote
0 answers
24 views

What is the fall of Europe in Gabriela Mistral's poem Caída de Europa?

Gabriela Mistral's poem Caída de Europa was published in the 1954 collection Lagar (Winepress). (The poem is dedicated to Roger Caillois, who published a bilingual edition of a selection of Mistral's ...
Tsundoku's user avatar
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3 votes
0 answers
34 views

What is the single word in Gabriela Mistral's La que camina?

The second stanza in Gabriela Mistral's poem La que camina introduces a "single word" that is somehow vital to the woman described in the poem. The poem's second and third stanzas can be ...
Tsundoku's user avatar
  • 51.1k
2 votes
1 answer
220 views

What's the title of this sci-fi story about a sentient planet?

It's an early short sci-fi story. 1950 to 1960's maybe. 3 people are on an unusual planet that seems sentient. A young man, a young woman, and a little older man say 30 years old. The young woman has ...
Diego's user avatar
  • 23
3 votes
0 answers
14 views

Why does Nessim steal Balthazar's key in Justine?

A significant event in Lawrence Durrell's Justine is Balthazar's losing the key used to wind up the watch he has inherited from his father. The unnamed narrator comes upon him searching for the key in ...
verbose's user avatar
  • 31.5k
7 votes
1 answer
507 views

What is the "strife" that makes a city strong in "Oedipus"?

In Oedipus Tyrannus, after Jocasta reveals to Oedipus that Laius was killed where "three roads meet", Oedipus begins to freak out, beginning to realize that it was indeed him who killed the ...
Mithical's user avatar
  • 27.2k
4 votes
0 answers
25 views

What is the purpose of the "Workpoints" appended to Durrell's Justine?

At the end of Lawrence Durrell's Justine (1957, rev. 1962) is a brief appendix called "Workpoints." They appear to be either Durrell's jottings about his characters and settings, or outtakes ...
verbose's user avatar
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6 votes
1 answer
41 views

Narrator's name in Durrell's Justine

The back cover of my copy of Lawrence Durrell's 1957–1962 The Alexandria Quartet refers to the narrator as L. G. Darley ("L. G. Darley attempts to reconcile himself with [sic] the end of his ...
verbose's user avatar
  • 31.5k
3 votes
0 answers
45 views

Meaning of "on the dreary littorals of Alexandria, with her sex broken" in Durrell's Justine

I'm unable to figure out the meaning of this sentence in Lawrence Durrell's Justine: I found Melissa, washed up like a half-drowned bird, on the dreary littorals of Alexandria, with her sex broken.......
verbose's user avatar
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4 votes
0 answers
34 views

Social commentary in "In the Graveyard" by Chekhov

Within "In the Graveyard" (1884) by Chekhov, the narrator and his friends meet an actor in a graveyard. They initially mistake him to be a clerk, and are promptly corrected. "No, an ...
psubodiosa's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
56 views

Short Story about a car breaking down in the desert, darts, and maybe cannibals

I read an English textbook many years ago (late 80s, early 90s I think). In that book, I read a short story and can only vaguely remember a very few details. There was a family driving down a road ...
Bardicer's user avatar
  • 133
1 vote
2 answers
71 views

Looking for a young-adult book about kids that get stuck in a cave

As near as I can remember, I read this book in 7th or 8th grade, so figure it would be written toward 10-15 year olds. I'm looking for a book where 2-4 (can't remember exactly) kids decide to explore ...
user avatar
6 votes
2 answers
1k views

What does the word "well" mean in the last line of Shakespeare's Sonnet 73?

Shakespeare's Sonnet 73, "That time of year thou mayst in me behold", spends its first 12 lines comparing different types of the passage of time (such as seasons and days) to human mortality,...
Mithical's user avatar
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6 votes
1 answer
1k views

A book I read around 25 years ago including a salt sea that blinds people, "gods" including two called Ari and Paty

I know it's a long shot, but I'm trying to find a book I read about 25 years ago, checked out from a public library in California. Here is was I can remember of it: Book details: Likely a YA fantasy ...
Rebeccah Hazel's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
39 views

Why did the Maharaja reject the British durai's offer?

In the tale The Tiger King by Kalki see a particular paragraph in the III part of the story which reads: At another time he was in danger of losing his throne. A high-ranking British officer visited ...
Manvendra Singh Gehlot's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
630 views

What is Horatio’s role in Hamlet?

I’m struggling to make sense of his character—beyond his rationality serving to highlight all the disorder. I know of what he provides to the play: belief, a confidant for Hamlet, etc. But I keep ...
wapvalerie's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
40 views

Is there any link between the various supernatural phenomena described in M. R. James' The Residence at Whitminster?

Major spoilers follow for the short story The Residence at Whitminster from M. R. James' collection A Thin Ghost and Others. This story lists various peculiar goings-on. In order, they are: Lord Saul ...
Matt Thrower's user avatar
  • 23.6k
1 vote
0 answers
34 views

Questions about Alfred Noyes' Midnight Express #4: Is Mortimer's death suicide or murder?

I have this(these) question(s) regarding Alfred Noyes' "Midnight Express" Because I have about ten questions regarding this, I will post each individually. I don't want to give any exerpt ...
FKcosθ's user avatar
  • 213
0 votes
1 answer
79 views

Book that ends with someone knocking on the door

The only detail I remember of the book/story was that it ended with someone/something banging/scratching on the front door, but the characters never find out what it is. In the context I heard of it, ...
Richie Bendall's user avatar
2 votes
3 answers
344 views

Who is "he" in a sentence from Daudet's The Last Lesson?

In this line from "The Last Lesson" by Alphonse Daudet: But he had the courage to hear every lesson to the very last. Who is "he" here, Franz or M. Hamel? Initially I thought it ...
Manvendra Singh Gehlot's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
114 views

Questions about Alfred Noyes' Midnight Express #3: What is Mortimer's "escape"?

I have this(these) question(s) regarding Alfred Noyes' "Midnight Express" Because I have about ten questions regarding this, I will post each individually. I don't want to give any exerpt ...
FKcosθ's user avatar
  • 213
1 vote
1 answer
71 views

Why was Stephen Spender's visit no longer a mystery?

The end of the excerpt "Poets and Pancakes" by Asokamitran says: The reaction to Stephen Spender at Gemini Studios was no longer a mystery. The boss of the Gemini Studios may not have much ...
Manvendra Singh Gehlot's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
374 views

Meaning of "got behind with his chrysanthemums" in "The Enemy" by Pearl S. Buck

Here is a paragraph from the story "The Enemy" by Pearl S. Buck: “You say the man escaped?” the General asked faintly. He had been operated upon a week before, an emergency operation to ...
Manvendra Singh Gehlot's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
178 views

What is the "Royal Air" in Dickinson's poem 788 (Publication – is the Auction)?

The third stanza of Dickinson's poem 788 (Publication – is the Auction) goes like this: Thought belong to Him who gave it – Then – to Him Who bear It's Corporeal illustration – sell The Royal Air – ...
Mithical's user avatar
  • 27.2k
4 votes
1 answer
1k views

Why does Odysseus laugh at Zeus' sign before killing the suitors?

When Odysseus strings his bow, that none of the suitors beforehand have been able to string, he then plucks it like a harp, sounding a note. After that, Zeus gets involved, sending a thunderclap as a ...
Mithical's user avatar
  • 27.2k
4 votes
1 answer
72 views

What are "Platt Skeet" and "Whoof, whoof"?

In Agatha Christie's The Man in the Brown Suit (freely/legally available to read online), one excerpt from Eustace Pedler's diaries describes his experience at the the Legislative Assembly of South ...
Rand al'Thor's user avatar
  • 76.7k
3 votes
0 answers
35 views

Questions about Alfred Noyes' Midnight Express #2: who was (were) the doppelgänger(s)?

I have this(these) question(s) regarding Alfred Noyes' "Midnight Express" Because I have about ten questions regarding this, I will post each individually. I am not giving any exerpt because ...
FKcosθ's user avatar
  • 213
1 vote
1 answer
59 views

Meaning of "reeds" in "Fat City" by Leonard Gardner

Here is an excerpt from chapter 6 of the novel Fat City by Leonard Gardner. Later in the night it began to rain. To Ernie the first patters were like small sounds from Faye’s mouth. Her lips had been ...
Soroush Gh's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
45 views

Intention of Conrad in Under Western Eyes

Razumov, the hero/anti-hero in Conrad's 1911 Under Western Eyes is a middle-low class young college student in czarist Russia that by chance and to his sorrow turns out to be involved in a terrorist ...
Daniel Castro's user avatar
7 votes
1 answer
949 views

Who is the "Sea-queen" mentioned in "Oedipus", and why is she referenced?

Towards the beginning of Oedipus Tyrannus, the chorus calls out to various gods, including Apollo, Artemis, and Athena, asking them to drive away the plague from Thebes. As part of this, there are ...
Mithical's user avatar
  • 27.2k
2 votes
1 answer
677 views

A Title "That in Aleppo Was"

I remember a title, not a book or a story, but a title of some piece of literature I read or heard about decades ago. The title was something like "That in Aleppo Was". And so I am asking ...
M. A. Golding's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
64 views

André Gide and the classicist and romantic authors

André Gide in a short text compares classicism and romantism. In this passage, he speaks about their relation to emotion and speech. He asserts that classicists, in contrary to romantics, manage to ...
Starckman's user avatar
  • 485
4 votes
1 answer
160 views

Who are Catalina and Teresa in Gabriela Mistral's poem Vieja?

The last two lines in Gabriela Mistral's poem Vieja are as follows: las viejas que pudieron no morir: Clara de Asís, Catalina y Teresa. Translation: the old women who could not die: Clara/Clare of ...
Tsundoku's user avatar
  • 51.1k
3 votes
1 answer
228 views

What style/Form is the Stranger's Poem in, from The Magnus Archives?

In season 5 of the Magnus Archives, Jon, the Archivist, reads a long poem inspired by viewing the phenomenon known as The Stranger. An excerpt of the text is as follows, taken from Snarp: Your face ...
AncientSwordRage's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
162 views

Why does Telemachus hang the women instead of following Odysseus' instructions?

In The Odyssey, after Odysseus has slain the suitors, he tells Telemachus to have the disloyal women help to clean up the mess, and then to cut them to pieces: “These dead must be disposed of first ...
Mithical's user avatar
  • 27.2k
1 vote
2 answers
52 views

Who or what are the Pelayos in Gabriela Mistral's poem Ronda de los metales?

In Gabriela Mistral's poem Ronda de los metales, one of the stanzas goes as follows (emphasis mine): El cobre es arrebato, la plata es maternal, los hierros son Pelayos, el oro Abderrahmán. ...
Tsundoku's user avatar
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