the ‘Blue Moon’
“Thursday, May 31 brings us the second of two full Moons for North Americans this month. Some almanacs and calendars assert that when two full Moons occur within a calendar month, that the second full Moon is called the “Blue Moon.””
—Joe Rao, SPACE.com, May 25, 2007.
The irony mark
The lawyer’s grey eyes
“The lawyer’s grey eyes tried not to laugh, but they leaped with irrepressible joy, and Alexei Alexandrovich could see that his was not only the joy of a man who was receiving a profitable commission—here there was triumph and delight, there was a gleam that resembled the sinister gleam he had seen in his wife’s eyes.”
—Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina, 1877, translated by Richar Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, 2000.
a diamond of the first water
“[T]here was something in her that was higher than her surroundings—there was the brilliance of a diamond of the first water amidst glass. This brilliance shone from her lovely, indeed unfathomable, eyes. . . . Looking into those eyes, everyone thought he knew her thoroughly and, knowing, could not but love her. ”
—Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina, 1877, translated by Richar Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, 2000.
small joys
“[T]he children themselves repaid her griefs with small joys. These joys were so small that they could not be seen, like gold in the sand, and in her bad moments she saw only griefs, only sand; but there were also good moments, when she saw only joys, only gold.”
—Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina, 1877, translated by Richar Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, 2000.
Meet Chan Yen
seeing her in black
“Kitty had seen Anna every day, was in love with her, and had imagined her inevitably in lilac. But now, seeing her in black, she felt that she had never understood all her loveliness. She saw her now in a completely new and, for her, unexpected way. Now she understood that Anna could not have been in lilac, that her loveliness consisted precisely in always standing out from what she wore, that what she wore was never seen on her. And the black dress with luxurious lace was not seen on her; it was just a frame, and only she was seen—simple, natural graceful, and at the same time gay and animated.”
—Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina, 1877, translated by Richar Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, 2000.
like the sun
“He stepped down, trying not to look long at her, as if she were the sun, yet he saw her, like the sun, even without looking.”
—Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina, 1877, translated by Richar Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, 2000.
‘Not bad’
“‘Not bad,’ he said, peeling the sloshy oysters from their pearly shells with a little silver fork and swallowing them one after another.”
—Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina, 1877, translated by Richar Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, 2000.
light and shade
“‘All the variety, all the charm, all the beauty of life are made up of light and shade.’”
—Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina, 1877, translated by Richar Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, 2000.