Under the gaze of Ulysses –

Species, words and other landscapes

a TRAVEL NOTEBOOK by Manuel Valente Alves

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Approaches

“The boat glides over the water, the canebrakes sip by on the banks. Perched on a tree, a cormorant that has opened its wings to dry off his etched against the sky like a crucifix, the gnats Swarm like an uncaring handful of the loose coinage of life; and he German scholar who specializes in Danubian literature does not envy Kafka or Musil, with their genius for depicting dark cathedrals or inconclusive committees, but rather Fabre or Maeterlinck, the bards of the bees and the termites; and he understands how Michelet, having written the history of the French Revolution, would have liked to write the history of the birds and the sea.” –– Claudio Magris, Danube (1986)

HOME | SPECIES | WORDS | STARS IN MY POCKET | GRAINS OF SAND | ABOUT | CONTACT