The Diary of a Madman by Guy Maupassant

The Diary of a Madman“He was dead—the head of a high tribunal, the upright magistrate whose irreproachable life was a proverb in all the courts of France.”

In The Diary of a Madman, a renowned and respected judge of the highest order dies at the age of eighty-two.  All his life he had dedicated to pursuing the most vicious criminals and to defending the weak and helpless. Defendants trembled because It was as if he could read the minds of those who were to be tried in his court.  At his funeral, soldiers carried his coffin and there were many tears as this respected and venerable magistrate was finally laid to rest.

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The Maiden Without Hands by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm

The Maiden Without Hands “A miller fell slowly but surely into poverty, until finally he had nothing more than his mill and a large apple tree which stood behind it.”

(The 1819 Version)

One day a poor miller met a strange old man who promised him that he would make him wealthy if, in three years he would give the dearest thing to him that was standing behind his mill.  Thinking the odd man was referring to the apple tree, he quickly concurred.

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Love Sonnet XIII by Pablo Neruda

Pablo Neruda as a young man

Pablo Neruda as a young man
~ source Wikipedia

 

The light that rises from your feet to your hair,
the strength enfolding your delicate form,
are not mother of pearl, not chilly silver:
you are made of bread, a bread the fire adores.

The grain grew high in its harvest of you,
in good time the flour swelled;
as the dough rose, doubling your breasts,
my love was the coal waiting ready in the earth.

Oh, bread your forehead, your legs, your mouth,
bread I devour, born with the morning light,
my love, beacon-flag of the bakeries:

fire taugh you a lesson of the blood;
you learned your holiness from flour,
from bread your language and aroma.

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