"A peculiar anthologic maze, an amusing literary chaos, a farrago of quotations, a mere olla podrida of quaintness, a pot pourri of pleasant delites, a florilegium of elegant extracts, a tangled fardel of old-world flowers of thought, a faggot of odd fancies, quips, facetiae, loosely tied" (Holbrook Jackson, Anatomy of Bibliomania) by a "laudator temporis acti," a "praiser of time past" (Horace, Ars Poetica 173).
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Wednesday, December 09, 2009
Reading History
Fan Chengda (1126-1193), Reading History (tr. J.D. Schmidt):
After scheming a lifetime for victory over others, They ended up feasting the ravens and worms. I adjust my flickering lampwick to read more clearly, My eyes blur trying to decide, who was right, who was wrong.