From “Life is a Dream”
by pinkagendist
From “Life is a Dream”
Segismundo’s Monologue:
We live, while we see the sun,
Where life and dreams are as one;
And living has taught me this,
Man dreams the life that is his,
Until his living is done.
The king dreams he is king, and he lives
In the deceit of a king,
Commanding and governing;
And all the praise he receives
Is written in wind, and leaves
A little dust on the way
When death ends all with a breath.
Where then is the gain of a throne,
That shall perish and not be known
In the other dream that is death?
Dreams the rich man of riches and fears,
The fears that his riches breed;
The poor man dreams of his need,
And all his sorrows and tears;
Dreams he that prospers with years,
Dreams he that feigns and foregoes,
Dreams he that rails on his foes;
And in all the world, I see,
Man dreams whatever he be,
And his own dream no man knows.
And I too dream and behold,
I dream I am bound with chains,
And I dreamed that these present pains
Were fortunate ways of old.
What is life? a tale that is told;
What is life? a frenzy extreme,
A shadow of things that seem;
And the greatest good is but small,
That all life is a dream to all,
And that dreams themselves are a dream.
Calderón de la Barca (Arthur Symons translator)
As the author of ‘Living the Dream’, what can I say? Except THANKS!
It’s the Spanish version of the “To be or not to be” speach, how could anyone dislike it?
I like!
It’s an absolute MUST READ!!!
I’ve been meaning to ask – do you speak Spanish?
My mother is Spanish and my father is French, by the time I was 15 we’d lived on 3 different continents- so I grew up speaking Spanish, Portuguese, English and French
-jaw drops- And are you equally fluent in all /four/? I was born in Hungary so I speak English and Hungarian but my written Hungarian is probably on a par with that of an 8 year old – i.e. not great!
I’m awful at all four
I’m kidding. My education was entirely in International Schools. The IS program is in English but we also have language, history and social studies classes in the language of the host country. My fluency varies with what nationalities I most interact with. Nowadays it’s mostly British and Spanish people. 12 years ago it was Spanish and French, before that it was English and Portuguese. It is like riding a bike, though. After a two week immersion, reading a book in the language or watching tv, it comes back and starts flowing again.
-grins- I going to take your word on that. I have enough trouble with just two languages.