now something serious ..

loves this poeme knows her by heart but in bulgarian of course !!!!!


Poor child
Take heed of this small child of earth;
He is great; he hath in him God most high.
Children before their fleshly birth
Are lights alive in the blue sky.

In our light bitter world of wrong
They come; God gives us them awhile.
His speech is in their stammering tongue,
And his forgiveness in their smile.

Their sweet light rests upon our eyes.
Alas! their right to joy is plain.
If they are hungry Paradise
Weeps, and, if cold, Heaven thrills with pain.

The want that saps their sinless flower
Speaks judgment on sin's ministers.
Man holds an angel in his power.
Ah! deep in Heaven what thunder stirs,

When God seeks out these tender things
Whom in the shadow where we sleep
He sends us clothed about with wings,
And finds them ragged babes that weep!

Well yeah although i am not one of his big fans cant deny his talent ....the most famouse and translated in so many languages "miserables" is one of his best books .Thw way he put the innocence to the crime ,the beautiful thing to the ugly thing (sorry i cant use the exaclt words ) ,the ligth to the dark ....will say i like only this book and the poeme Poor child ...probably cause is touching the most innocent souls and lifes --children )

Now decided to write here also ,and i admit to discuss any kind of things more then cussing and hearts game is hard for me but i will do my best .As most do know we Bulgarians years ago we were learn Russian history ,literature ,listening Russian music and etc .After democracy came here at 89 things have changed a lot .Many people here now thinks that Russian literature is just too hard which is very true .Many don't even like to talk about Russia and etc cause the European and American influence .But me personally i think Russia was great country ,had amazing writers which is worth to read .To enter in another time in another views of living ,idols and etc .So now will try to present my personal opinion for one Novel which i am sure almost everybody have read - War and peace .I admit when was at school and we all had to discuss it and write about it was hard time for all of us .But i cant deny that's one of the book which deep left a lot of things in me .The novel shows the war between France and Russia in 1812 years ,also shows heroes like Napoleon and Alexander 1 .And the victory of Russia over France .The novel shows the life of 3 generation on the phone of the war .The most thing what attracted my attention was how the writer attention was about the nation ,this thing which is about the simple person ,his life his kind of surviving his view about the war .No matter all the blood ,all the victims in this war Tolstoy tries to show the happiness of the life ,that every heroes enjoy his life no matter the difficulties.One of the biggest heroes Bolkonski is a simple person who thinks that the big power have some mean .Since he goes and figth in the war he realised that in the life exist so many others things beside the outside reachiness and selfloving .When he lost his wife he goes in depression and then natash bring him to life .and etc etc .
Would like to see if somebody who have read this novel what he thinks and etc )

Sorry for the late reply Mags : )

Now then....where was I? Oh yes...Tolstoy - Gogol - Turgenev - Gorky - Solzhenitsyn - Dostoevsky - Chekhov - Pushkin - Pasternak...to list but a few : ) I really don't think Russian Literature is in any kind of crisis! The writers I have mentioned have had a major influence on western thought, art and culture.

In fact...when I was a young undergraduate studying Literature, one of the ways in which I was taught to analyse texts was through the use of Russian Formailsm - a perspective that looks at the artistry of writing - a sharp focus on the techniques used by writers. It was quite revolutionary thinking in its time, but is now standard amongst all students of literature. So...the Russians have had a major influence on Literary Criticism itself - without them we may not have had structuralism, modernism and post-modernism.

As far as 'War and Peace' is concerned...it was compulsory reading for me in my undergraduate days. I can't say it wasn't a drag having to plough through the several volumes that make the complete novel, but like the other really long books (Middlemarch, Don Quixote, Vanity Fair) it is ultimately worth the effort. A reading of 'War and Peace' and 'Anna Karenina' left me with a historical understanding of Russia and Russians that I, otherwise, would never have had.

I think Maggie...that to say that Russian novels such as these are not influential in the West is wrong. The novel itself has moved on significantly in our time. We live in an age of instant gratification now - TV, computers, mobile phones, fast travel and instant coffee. People don't have the time or inclination to read long novels unless it is for some kind of study anymore. This goes for the works of all great writers Russian or not - e.g. the Brontes, George Eliot, Charles Dickens etc. But - that isn't to say that they don't influence us...almost everything you see on television or in the cinema can ultimately be traced back to some great text.

I am totally agree with you Space that in nowadays people don't have time for such a things ,once is too far from their own life ,and second a few will read such a novels for plasir .Most read when they have to study them .But how if not trough these books people can get some clue about Russia and etc . You know these books represent the reality in the time of war in time back .......And you what most of all impressed me in this novel ..all the blood all the horror of the war ..in whole book you can feel the hope for better life ,the hope for ending war ...I guess that i have special feel for the Russian history and literature ,,so when i read this novel is like i been there ,like is happening with me also .has a lot of influence on me and also cause most of the facts are real ,you know that he use in war and peace his own experience of knowing the army structure in Russia .probably writers like Tolstoy ,Gorky ,Checkoff , Pushkin and etc ,in their novels the thing what is so hard represented is the suffering .In Dostoevsky works the Cristian symbolism is the biggest theme l.And i don't think the Russian literature has big influence on west Europe Space ,you will be surprised that few people ever heard of them ,,,,not talking people like you who are teachers and learn Russian literature :)I remember my teen age when we all had to read these books in summer vacation ,now you know what this generation is reading ?if they even read something ........