Eng echt: Taalkunstenaar Tolstoy

“We veronderstellen vaak dat door alle moeilijkheden uit ons leven te verwijderen, ons doel eenvoudiger bereikt kan worden, maar in tegendeel, beste man, het is slechts temidden van de zorgen van de wereld dat we onze voornaamste doelen kunnen verwezenlijken.”

(Uit: Oorlog en Vrede, Leo Tolstoy)

Landschappen van het alledaagse, en vingerwijzingen naar de hemelpoort, meer zorgvuldig en briljant dan de romans van de grote Tolstoy, zijn mij niet bekend. Voor de liefhebber wat schilderachtige doorkijkjes in de belevingswerelden van zijn Levende karakters…

From 'The Death of Ivan Ilych':

“Ivan Ilych tried to defend all those things to himself and suddenly felt the weakness of what he was defending. There was nothing to defend.”

“… in them he saw himself - all that for which he had lived – and saw clearly that it was not real at all, but a terrible and huge deception which had hidden both life and death.”

“… knowing that He whose understanding mattered would understand.”

“And suddenly it grew clear to him that what had been oppressing him and would not leave him, was all dropping away at once from two sides, from ten sides, and from all sides.”

”How good and how simple!” he thought. “And the pain?” he asked himself, “What has become of it? Where are you, pain?” He turned his attention to it. “Yes, here it is. Well, what of it? Let the pain be. And death… where is it?”

He sought his former accustomed fear of death and did not find it. “Where is it? What death?” There was no fear because there was no death. In place of death there was light. “So that’s what it is!” he suddenly exclaimed aloud. “What joy!”

“It is finished”, said someone near him. He heard those words and repeated them in his soul. “Death is finished” he said to himself. “It is no more!” He drew in a breath, stopped in the midst of a sigh, stretched out, and died.

From 'Kreutzer Sonata':

“As I recall them now, the views I maintained were not at all so dear to me that I could not have given them up; but she was of the opposite opinion and to yield meant yielding to her, and that I could not do. It was quite the same with her.”

“A thousand different plans of how to revenge myself on her and get rid of her, and how to improve matters and go on as if nothing had happened, came into my head.

… I notice that I am getting confused and not thinking what is necessary, and to prevent myself from perceiving that my thoughts are not to the point, I go on smoking.”

“I wanted her not to desire that which she was bound to desire. It was utter insanity.”

“I looked at the children and at her bruised, disfigured face, and for the first time I forgot myself, my rights, my pride, and for the first time I saw a human being in her. And so insignificant did all that had offended me, all my jealousy, appear…”

From 'Family Happiness':

“There is no condition in which one cannot be happy. To me now nothing seems bad, but only pitiful and amusing. Above all – le mieux est l’ennemi du bien. Life must go on, something may change; and nothing can be better than the present.”

“Happy indeed I was; but I was tormented by the thought that this happiness cost me no effort and no sacrifice. I wanted to love him in spite of obstacles.”

“… had he not said so, I might have realized that my uncomfortable feelings were my own fault and dangerous nonsense, and that the sacrifice I desired was there before me, in the task of overcoming these feelings.

I was haunted by the thought that I could escape from depression by a mere change from the country…”

“I know that excitement is always painful; I have learnt that from the experience of life. I love you, and I can’t but wish to save you from excitement.”

“… you will have to endure everything before you come back again. And there will be much work to do. Christ is with you, keep Him, and he will keep you. You will behold great sorrow, and in this sorrow you will be happy. Here is a commandment for you: seek happiness in sorrow. Work, work tirelessly.”