Simonides Σιμωνίδης
480 BC · Keos, Greece · Handed down as the inscription on the grave of the Spartans who died at Thermopylae
Stranger, tell the Spartans that here we lie, obedient to their words.
ὦ ξεῖνʼ, ἄγγειλον Λακεδαιμονίοις ὅτι τῇδε
κείμεθα, τοῖς κείνων ῥήμασι πειθόμενοι.Greek Anthology 7.249
In the same thread
Machado de Assis
1881 · Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
For some time I hesitated whether I should open these memoirs at the beginning or at the end, that is, whether I should put my birth or my death in first place.
Algum tempo hesitei se devia abrir estas memorias pelo principio ou pelo fim, isto é, se poria em primeiro logar o meu nascimento ou a minha morte.
The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas, chapter 1
Machado de Assis
1881 · Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
I am not exactly an author who is dead, but a dead man who is an author.
eu não sou propriamente um autor defunto, mas um defunto autor
The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas, chapter 1
Miguel de Cervantes
1605 · Spain
In a village of La Mancha, the name of which I have no wish to recall, there lived not long ago one of those gentlemen who keep a lance in the rack, an old shield, a lean nag and a greyhound for coursing.
En un lugar de la Mancha, de cuyo nombre no quiero acordarme, no ha mucho tiempo que vivía un hidalgo de los de lanza en astillero, adarga antigua, rocín flaco y galgo corredor.
Don Quixote, part 1, chapter 1, the first sentence
Higuchi Ichiyo 樋口一葉
1895 · Tokyo, Japan · Picturing the neighbourhood behind the Yoshiwara pleasure quarter, where the children grow up
Go round to the front and the willow of backward glances at the great gate trails long; the lamps of the three-storey houses are mirrored in the Blackened-Teeth Ditch and their uproar seems close enough to touch; and from the rickshaws coming and going day and night you can guess at a prosperity beyond reckoning
廻れば大門の見返り柳いと長けれど、お齒ぐろ溝に燈火うつる三階の騷ぎも手に取る如く、明けくれなしの車の行來にはかり知られぬ全盛をうらなひてTakekurabe (Growing Up), the opening
1 in 100 Billion · The social network of those who came before us