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Varlam Shalamov QUOTES

Varlam Shalamov QUOTES

1 " If bones could freeze, then the brain could also be dulled and the soul could freeze over. And the soul shuddered and froze- perhaps to remain frozen forever. "

― Varlam Shalamov , Kolyma Tales

2 " Все же с горки дальше видно,
Шире кругозор...
Как равнине ни обидно,
Это – свойство гор. "

― Varlam Shalamov

3 " Le poète se mourait depuis si longtemps qu'il avait cessé de comprendre que c'était la mort. Parfois, une idée simple et forte se frayait un chemin à travers son cerveau, douloureuse et presque palpable : qu'on lui avait volé le pain qu'il avait mis sous sa tête. "

― Varlam Shalamov , Kolyma Tales

4 " Tragedy is not deep and sharp if it can be shared with friend. "

― Varlam Shalamov , Kolyma Tales

5 " Life repeats Shakespearian themes more often than we think. Did Lady Macbeth, Richard III, and King Claudius exist only in the Middle Ages? Shylock wanted to cut a pound of flesh from the body of the merchant of Venice. Is that a fairy tale? "

― Varlam Shalamov , Kolyma Tales

6 " We realized that life, even the worst of life, consists of an alternation of joys and sorrow, successes and failure more than the successes. "

― Varlam Shalamov , Kolyma Tales

7 " There is a much that a man should not see, should not know, and if he should see it, it is better for him to die. "

― Varlam Shalamov , Колымские рассказы

8 " I remember the old northern legend of how God created the taiga while he was still a child. There were few colors, but they were childishly fresh and vivid, and their subjects were simple. Later, when God grew up and became an adult, he learned to cut out complicated patters from his pages and created many bright birds. God grew bored with his former child's world and he threw snow on his forest creation and went south forever. "

― Varlam Shalamov , Kolyma Tales

9 " A human being survives by his ability to forget. Memory is always ready to blot out the bad and retain only the good. "

― Varlam Shalamov

10 " Cold, hunger, and sleeplessness rendered any friendship impossible, and Dugaev – despite his youth – understood the falseness of the belief that friendship could be tempered by misery and tragedy. For friendship to be friendship, its foundation had to be laid before living conditions reached that last border beyond which no human emotion was left to a man – only mistrust, rage, and lies. Dugaev remembered well the northern proverb that listed the three commandments of prison life: ‘Don’t believe, don’t fear, don’t ask. "

― Varlam Shalamov , Kolyma Tales

11 " We realized that life, even the worst life, consists of an alternation of joys and sorrows, successes and failures, and there was no need to fear the failures more than the successes. "

― Varlam Shalamov , Kolyma Tales

12 " We learned one other amazing thing: in the eyes of the state and its representatives a physically strong person was better – yes, better – more moral, more valuable than a weak person who couldn’t shovel twenty cubic meters of dirt out of a trench in a day. The former was more moral than the latter. He fulfilled his ‘quota’, that is, carried out his chief duty to the state and society and was therefore respected by all. His advice was asked and his desires were taken into consideration, he was invited to meetings whose topics were far removed from shovelling heavy slippery dirt from wet and slimy ditches. "

― Varlam Shalamov , Kolyma Tales

13 " I discovered that the world should be divided not into good and bad people but into cowards and non-cowards. Ninety-five percent of cowards are capable of the vilest things, lethal things, at the mildest threat. "

― Varlam Shalamov , Kolyma Stories

14 " Friendship is not born in conditions of need or trouble. Literary fairy tales tell of ‘difficult’ conditions which are an essential element in forming any friendship, but such conditions are simply not difficult enough. If tragedy and need brought people together and gave birth to their friendship, then the need was not extreme and the tragedy not great. Tragedy is not deep and sharp if it can be shared with friends. "

― Varlam Shalamov , Kolyma Tales

15 " Nothing could be avoided, and nothing could be foreseen. What was the point of unnecessary fear? "

― Varlam Shalamov , Kolyma Tales

16 " We were disciplined and obedient to authority. We realized that truth and lies were twin sisters, and that truth on earth came in thousands of different forms. "

― Varlam Shalamov , Kolyma Stories

17 " A horse can't endure even a month of the local winter life in a cold stall if it's worked hard hours in subzero weather. . . . But man lives on. Perhaps he lives by virtue of his hopes? But he doesn't have any hope . . . . . He is saved by a drive for self-preservation, a tenacious clinging to life, a physical tenacity to which his entire consciousness is subordinated. He lives on the same things as a bird or a dog, but he clings more strongly to life than they do. He has a greater endurance than that of any animal. "

― Varlam Shalamov , Kolyma Tales

18 " Friendship is not born in conditions of need or trouble. Literary fairy tales tell of ‘difficult’ conditions which are an essential element in forming any friendship, but such conditions are simply not difficult enough. If tragedy and need brought people together and gave birth to their friendship, then the need was not extreme and the tragedy not great. Tragedy is not deep and sharp if it can be shared with friends. Only real need can determine one’s spiritual and physical strength and set the limits of one’s physical endurance and moral courage. "

― Varlam Shalamov , Kolyma Tales

19 " Дружба не зарождается ни в нужде, ни в беде. Те «трудные» условия жизни, которые, как говорят нам сказки художественной литературы, являются обязательным условием возникновения дружбы, просто недостаточно трудны. Если беда и нужда сплотили, родили дружбу людей — значит, это нужда не крайняя и беда не большая. Горе недостаточно остро и глубоко, если можно разделить его с друзьями. В настоящей нужде познается только своя собственная душевная и телесная крепость, определяются пределы своих возможностей, физической выносливости и моральной силы. "

― Varlam Shalamov , Колымские рассказы

20 " I'm dressed appropriate for the season mama, I'm dressed appropriately for the season. "

― Varlam Shalamov , Kolyma Tales