Inferno, Canto 1
Midway upon the journey of our life
I found myself within a forest dark,
For the straightforward pathway had been lost.
Ah me! how hard a thing it is to say
What was this forest savage, rough, and stern,
Which in the very thought renews the fear.
So bitter is it, death is little more;
But of the good to treat, which there I found,
Aşk hakkında çok okudum, çok düşündüm ve nasıl sonuca vardığımı duymak ister misin? İnsan sahip olamadığı şeye aşık olur, kişiye değil. Bu bazen bir kadının kaybettiği babası yerine koyduğu bir adam oluyor, bazen yorulduğu yokluktan onu kurtaran bir şövalye, bazen bir adam için dokunulmamış bir ten, bazense ona tanrı gibi hissettiren bir seks deneyimi. Ve bazen de özgürlük. İnsanlar gerçekten kişilere mi aşık oluyor sanıyorsun?
"Kaçan kovalanır" zırvalığı da aklını karıştırmadı mı hiç? Elde edemediğine bağlanıyorsun. Uğultulu Tepeler'de evin kızı neden bir beslemeye tutuldu? Çünkü heyecanlıydı, çünkü bunun onaylanmayacağını ve buna sahip olamayacağını biliyordu.
Yusuf Atılgan Aylak Adam'da bütün kitap boyunca neden buladığı aşkın yetişemeyeceği otobüste olduğunu söyledi?
Rome ve Juliet, düşman ailelerin çocukları olmasa yine de ölür müydü sanıyorsun?
Aşk-ı Memnu'da Bihter hırslarının kurbanı mı oldu, Behlül'e olan aşkının mı? Hayır, aşk ve edebiyat dramadır. Sonu mutsuz biten hikayeleri herkes daha çok sevmedi mi? Mutlu bir sona sahip olmadıklarını bildiklerinden...
Titanik batmasaydı; Rome, Juliet ve Bihter ölmeseydi; Çalıkuşu'nda Feride, Kamran'ı terk etmeseydi; yine de efsane olurlar mıydı?
Rose gerçekten Jake'e aşık olsaydı onun ölmesine izin verip kendisine başka bir hayat kurabilir miydi? O fotoğrafları hatıyor musun? Ata biniyordu, çocukları ve torunları olmuştu, gülüyordu ve mutluydu. Jake olsun ya da olmasın, annesinin dayattığı değil, kendi istediği hayatı yaşamıştı, onun aşık olduğu buydu.
Derwent again. All thoughts led back to him. All roads led to Rome.
Sayfa 274Kitabı okudu
"Bexté Romé tuneye."
Sayfa 147Kitabı okudu
Sometimes, it is simply better to leave Rome to the Romans
Gerald Massey
No matter though it towers to the sky,
And darkens earth, you cannot make the lie
Immortal; though stupendously enshrined
By art in every perfect mould of mind:
Angelo, Rafael, Milton, Handel, all
Its pillars, cannot stay it from the fall.
The Pyramid of Imposture reared by Rome,
All of cement, for an eternal home,
Must crumble back to earth, and every gust
Shall revel in the desert of its dust;
And when the prison of the Immortal, Mind,
Hath fallen to set free the bound and blind,
No more shall life be one long dread of death;
Humanity shall breathe with ampler breath,
Expand in spirit, and in stature rise,
To match its birthplace of the earth and skies
Rome under the Christian emperors set out to destroy its own rich patrimony—the writings of the pagan poets, philosophers and historians, which were among the highest achievements of classical civilization. Scribes were forbidden to copy out the old pagan texts on pain of death or, perhaps worse, the amputation of the scribe’s writing hand. Existing texts were seized and burned or, sometimes, literally erased—because vellum was both expensive and reusable, the old pagan writings were often rubbed off the page so that a pious Christian text could be put there in its place.
With the reign of Theodosius I (c. 346-395), a fierce and even fanatical Christian true believer who ascended to the throne in 379, the war of God against the gods entered its final and decisive phase. He was the first emperor to formally elevate Christianity to the legal status of the state religion of Rome. As a faithful member of the “orthodox” and “catholic” church, he condemned Arianism and other Christian beliefs and practices that the orthodox church regarded as apostasies and heresies.
Constantine was depicted in a manner that was strongly suggestive of a pagan god—the head was adorned with the radiate crown that was an attribute of Sol Invictus , the sun god, and the right hand carried the figure of Victory, one of the most cherished pagan goddesses of ancient Rome. The figure itself, in fact, was a statue of Apollo from the site of ancient Troy whose face was reworked to resemble Constantine.
To symbolize the fact that the city of Constantine was now the “New Rome,” wholly replacing the old capital as the seat of the empire, Constantine ordered the statue of the goddess Athena to be seized and carried from Rome to Constantinople. At least two pagan temples were erected in Constantinople while Constantine himself was yet alive—one was dedicated to the demigods Castor and Pollux, patrons of horsemanship in general and cavalry in particular, and another to Fortuna, the goddess who was believed to determine one’s fortune, good or ill. A third shrine, dedicated to the spirit of “Holy Peace,” was also associated with pagan tradition, and a fourth was devoted to Constantine himself.
Constantine’s city is conventionally depicted as a purely Christian enterprise. Like Akhenaton, we are invited to believe, he set out to build a pristine new capital on virgin soil. Just as the young pharaoh sought to distance himself from the old gods and goddesses of Egypt, the emperor aspired to create a place that would be wholly free of pagan shrines and statuary that adorned the streets of Rome.