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414 pages, Paperback
First published August 20, 2004
…he, Mundus, the most reliable and predictable person in this building and probably in the whole history of the school, having worked here for more than thirty years, impeccable in his profession, a pillar of the institution, a little dull perhaps, but respected and even feared in the university for his astounding knowledge of ancient languages.
I would not like to live in a world without cathedrals. I need their beauty and grandeur. I need them against the vulgarity of the world. I want to look up at the illuminated church windows and let myself be blinded by the unearthly colours. I need their lustre: I need it against the dirty colours of the uniforms…
But there is also another world I don’t want to live in: the world where the body and independent thought are disparaged, and the best things we can experience are denounced as sins. The world that demands love of tyrants, slavemasters, and cutthroats, whether their brutal boot steps reverberate through the streets with a deafening echo or they slink with feline silence like cowardly shadows through the streets and pierce their victims in the heart with flashing steel.
To stand by yourself – that was also part of dignity. That way, a person could get through a public flogging with dignity. Galileo. Luther. Even somebody who resisted the temptation to deny his guilt. Something politicians couldn’t do. Honesty, the courage for honesty. With others and yourself.
"من بين آلاف التجارب التي نخوض غمارها، هناك تجربة واحدة لا غير يمكن أن تسعفنا في نقلها الكلمات. ومن بين كل التجارب الخرساء المستعصية على القول،تكمن تلك التي تهب لحياتنا، خلسة، شكلها ولونها، ولحنها معاً "
"الأمر يتعلق بقدرتي الأن في هذه النقطة من حياتي علي إتخاذ وجهة مختلفة تماما عن تلك التي جعلت مني ما أنا عليه اليوم، أنا الذي لست إلا أنا بسبب تحقق أمنيات لم تكن لي! إنني الان شخص آخر"
" فى شبابنا نعيش حياتنا كما لو اننا خالدون . و معرفتنا بطبيعتنا الفانية تطوف حولنا مثل شريط ورقى صغير لا يكاد يلمس جلدنا . متى يتغير هذا فى الحياة ؟ متى يبدأ هذا الشريط فى الضغط علينا بشدة لينتهى الى خنقنا؟ و كيف نميز ضغطه الناعم و الصلب فى آن واحد , الضغط الذى يبدو انه لن يرتخى ابداً ؟ كيف نميزه عند الاخرين ؟ و كيف نميزه فى داخلنا نحن ؟ "
I start trembling at the thought of the unplanned & unknown but inevitable & unstoppable force with which parents leave traces in their children that, like traces of branding, can never be erased. The outlines of parental will & fear are written with a white-hot stylus in the souls of children who are helpless & ignorant of what is happening to them. We need a whole life to find & decipher the branded text & we can never be sure that we have understood it.Raimund's enchantment with the life of Amadeu de Prado, who had enjoyed a brilliant childhood, causes him to work at translating the thoughts of the man, while pursuing clues to the man's later life in Lisbon, always it seems in search of deeper meaning about the moral decisions that had been made & which ultimately determined Dr. Prado's fate.