Letters (105 page)
Authors: Saul Bellow
58
French: at first sight; lit., thunderbolt
59
Latin: Do not despair.
60
German: Please don’t forget me.
61
German: Ever thine
62
Yiddish: a sweetened dish of stewed fruits and vegetables; fig., an imbroglio
63
Italian: Answer, friend!
64
creeping, crawling
65
Latin: Let us therefore rejoice.
66
French: as he is
67
Yiddish: I’m barely getting by.
68
German: blood sausage and horseradish
69
French: For want of better company, one goes to bed with manuscripts.
70
Latin: old man Bellow
71
Yiddish: family
72
German: politics in the higher sense
73
German: and ready
74
French: lit. on the moon; unrealistic, out to lunch
75
Yiddish: hoodlums, thugs
76
Yiddish: cozy, down-to-earth, unpretentious
77
Latin: I love because it is absurd—a modification of Tertullian’s
Credo quia absurdum
, I believe because it is absurd.
Credo quia absurdum
, I believe because it is absurd.
78
French: Still pursued by women; worried nonetheless. An amusing situation. They’re
all
furious—north, west, and even here, but I continue to do my duty.
all
furious—north, west, and even here, but I continue to do my duty.
79
French: Above all, reasonable.
80
French:
Type
me a letter.
Type
me a letter.
81
French: I’m eager to read what you’ve written.
82
Spanish: big problems
83
The bride is too beautiful? Fig., What am I complaining about?
84
Latin: moment of death
85
Yiddish: filth
86
Latin:
De mortuis (nil nisi bonum dicendum est)
—Speak no ill of the dead.
De mortuis (nil nisi bonum dicendum est)
—Speak no ill of the dead.
87
Yiddish and Hebrew: a worry
88
Yiddish: May you use it well.
89
French: under threat of penalty
90
Hebrew: friends
91
French: bent back
92
German: what it all means
93
Yiddish: impossible woman, ballbuster
94
French: It is necessary to be absolutely modern.
95
Warms (the heart) a little.
96
Latin: A word (is enough) to the wise.
97
French: I’m holding up pretty well.
98
French: nerve or cheek; lit., forelock
99
French: Bad taste leads to crimes.
100
Hebrew: “Strength unto you!”
101
Hebrew: “Be strong!”
102
French: “Everything passes . . . everything breaks.”
103
Yiddish: pests, bothersome people
104
Hebrew: the quorum of ten men required for public prayer three times daily
105
Yiddish: whores
106
German: sloppiness
107
Hebrew: soul
108
Yiddish: joy
109
Latin: While I breathe, I hope.
110
German: old-fashioned thermal spa or cure resort, e.g., Karlsbad, Marienbad, Baden-Baden, etc.
111
Yiddish: But it’s not a matter of life or death to me.
112
French: pipeline; fig., connections, pull
113
Hebrew: “Here am I.” When called by God in Genesis, Abraham says the same.
114
Hebrew and Yiddish: people of the city; here, more specif., dignitaries or worthies
115
Spanish: “Indignities of Old Age”: Goya’s etching shows an elderly man struggling to rise from his chamber pot.
116
pathological shortening of the stride and quickening of the gait; more loosely, frenetic activity
117
Latin: Make haste slowly!
118
French: the disordering of all the senses
119
French: No kidding!
120
French: want of manners
121
French: thanks a million
122
French: out of commission
123
Yiddish: pests, bothersome people
124
French: Let us go on!
125
French: relaxed, nonchalant
126
French: to cheer you up, old buddy
127
French: felled oaks, a phrase from Victor Hugo given currency by
Les chênes qu’on a bat
(1971), André Malraux’s account of his final afternoon with de Gaulle.
Les chênes qu’on a bat
(1971), André Malraux’s account of his final afternoon with de Gaulle.
128
French: crippled veteran
Other books
A Taste for Love by Marita Conlon-McKenna
Lay It on My Heart by Angela Pneuman
Amy and Isabelle by Elizabeth Strout
The Severed Tower by J. Barton Mitchell
BelleBehindBars by Wynter Daniels
The Gravedigger's Ball by Solomon Jones
The Crack in the Cosmic Egg by Joseph Chilton Pearce
The Ideal Wife by Mary Balogh
Nocturnal by Nathan Field
