Words

Words

from "The Face of the Horse" by Nikolai Alekseevich Zabolotsky
"Then we should hear words.
Words as large as apples. Thick
as honey or buttermilk.
Words which penetrate like flame
And, once within the soul, like fire in some hut,
Illuminate its wretched trappings.
Words which do not die
And which we celebrate in song."

The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje, p. 238.
"She has always wanted words, she loved them, grew up on them. Words gave her clarity, brought reason, shape. Whereas I thought words bent on emotions like sticks in water."

A Woman in Berlin by Anonymous

p. 189 "Poor words, you do not suffice."

The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje

p. 231  "The words of her husband in praise of her meant nothing. But I am a man whose life in many ways, even as an explorer, has been governed by words. By rumors and legends. Charted things. Shards written down. The tact of words. In the desert to repeat something would be to fling more water into the earth. Here nuance took you a hundred miles."

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