3
" The great events of an age appear, to those living through them, as backdrops only to the vastly more compelling dramas of their own lives, and how could it be otherwise?
In this same way, many of the men and women there in the Hippodrome (and some who were not, but later claimed to have been) would cling to one private image or another of what transpired. They might be entirely different things, varying moments, for each of us has strings within the soul, and we are played upon in different ways, like instruments, and how could it be otherwise? "
― Guy Gavriel Kay , Lord of Emperors (The Sarantine Mosaic, #2)
11
" « Je ne veux pas que vous partiez », dit Shirin. Il la dévisagea sans répliquer. Elle releva son petit menton. Ses traits, il l’avait décidé depuis longtemps, étaient plaisants au repos, sans être vraiment frappants. C’était quand elle manifestait une émotion, rire, souffrance, colère, chagrin, effroi – n’importe quoi de tout cela –, que le visage de Shirin s’animait vraiment, que sa beauté forçait l’attention, qu’on en prenait conscience, que naissait le désir. Et quand elle se mouvait, aussi, sa grâce de danseuse, sa souplesse, la suggestion implicite que des désirs charnels à peine admis pouvaient être satisfaits. C’était une créature que ne pourrait jamais capturer un art dénué de mouvement. « "
― Guy Gavriel Kay , Lord of Emperors (The Sarantine Mosaic, #2)
15
" And knowing, too, that this sort of artistry could not endure past the shaping moment, could only be spoken of after by those who recalled, or misrecalled, who had seen and half seen and not seen at all, distorted by memory and desire and ignorance, the achievement of it written as if on water or on sand.
It mattered, terribly, and just now it didn't matter at all. Or could the fragility, the defining impermanence actually intensify the glory? The thing lost as soon as made? "
― Guy Gavriel Kay , Lord of Emperors (The Sarantine Mosaic, #2)
