#english

Remember Barbara It rained all day on Brest that day And you walked smiling Flushed enraptured streaming-wet In the rain Remember Barbara It rained all day on Brest that day And I ran into you in Siam Street You were smiling And I smiled too Remember Barbara You whom I didn't know You who didn't know me Remember Remember that day still Don't forget A man was taking cover on a porch And he cried your name Barbara And you ran to him in the rain Streaming-wet enraptured flushed And you threw yourself in his arms Remember that Barbara And don't be mad if I speak familiarly I speak familiarly to everyone I love Even if I've seen them only once I speak familiarly to all who are in love Even if I don't know them Remember Barbara Don't forget That good and happy rain On your happy face On that happy town That rain upon the sea Upon the arsenal Upon the Ushant boat Oh Barbara What shitstupidity the war Now what's become of you Under this iron rain Of fire and steel and blood And he who held you in his arms Amorously Is he dead and gone or still so much alive Oh Barbara It's rained all day on Brest today As it was raining before But it isn't the same anymore And everything is wrecked It's a rain of mourning terrible and desolate Nor is it still a storm Of iron and steel and blood But simply clouds That die like dogs Dogs that disappear In the downpour drowning Brest And float away to rot A long way off A long long way from Brest Of which there's nothing left. ↗

— Jacques Prévert

#english #jacques #poetry #prevert #love

It is not against reason, said the Englishman, to prefer the destruction of the world to a scratch on your finger – how much easier to understand the same price for the gash in your soul. ↗

— Paul Hoffman

#cale #destruction #easier #easy #english-quote

We are men without ambition, and all we want is to be left alone, in peace so that we can try and be happy. So few people will understand this simplicity. ↗

— Upamanyu Chatterjee

#english #men

It was English, and the wych-elm that she saw from the window was an English tree. No report had prepared her for its peculiar glory. It was neither warrior, nor lover, nor god; in none of these roles do the English excel. It was a comrade, bending over the house, strength and adventure in its roots, but in its utmost fingers tenderness, and the girth, that a dozen men could not have spanned, became in the end evanescent, till pale bud clusters seemed to float in the air. ↗

— E.M. Forster

#english #tree #men

Nature pulls one way and human nature another. ↗

— E.M. Forster

#english-lit #gay-authors #nature

In the English language there are orphans and widows, but there is no word for the parents who loses a child. ↗

— Jodi Picoult

#english #inadequacy-of-words #language #lose #loss

So I went to English school, secondary English school, so forget going to Mecca for my religious education. ↗

— Abdullah Ahmad Badawi

#english #english school #forget #going #i

I disliked singing in English and neither liked the story nor the character of Cressida. ↗

— Walter Legge

#disliked #english #i #liked #neither

English people don't have very good diction. In France you have to pronounce very particularly and clearly, and learning French at an early age helped me enormously. ↗

— Vivien Leigh

#clearly #diction #early #early age #english

I graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles, with an English literature degree and travelled for a year before going to work. ↗

— Natalie Massenet

#before #california #degree #english #english literature