"Cinderella" by Will Eisner (in English)

from The Spirit Section - The Chicago Sunday
(5.10.1947)

“The Ass and His Purchaser” by Aesop (in English)

     A man wished to purchase an Ass, and agreed with its owner that he should try out the animal before he bought him. He took the Ass home and put him in the straw-yard with his other Asses, upon which the new animal left all the others and at once joined the one that was most idle and the greatest eater of them all. Seeing this, the man put a halter on him and led him back to his owner. On being asked how, in so short a time, he could have made a trial of him, he answered, "I do not need a trial; I know that he will be just the same as the one he chose for his companion." 

            A man is known by the company he keeps.

“Rimas” by Raimundo Correia (in Portuguese)

Rondo pela noite

Imaginando mil coisas

Meditando sozinho

Até a madrugada

Isto tudo é tão contrário

Medo e coragem

Amor e ódio

Revolta e compreensão

Mas nada rima nesse mundo

Apenas eu e você restávamos

Resto do que o mundo já foi

Intensamente, imensamente, eternamente

Até mesmo nós sucumbimos

Reavaliamos nossa condição

Indiferentes, deixamos de rimar

Menos um casal no mundo

Agora ando sozinho

Meditando noite adentro

Imaginando e esquecendo mil e uma coisas

Rondando até a madrugada

“Máquina Breve” by Cecília Meireles (in Portuguese)

O pequeno vaga-lume

com sua verde lanterna,

que passava pela sombra

inquietando a flor e a treva

— meteoro da noite, humilde,

dos horizontes da relva;

o pequeno vaga-lume,

queimada a sua lanterna,

jaz carbonizado e triste e

qualquer brisa o carrega:

mortalha de exíguas franjas

que foi seu corpo de festa.

Parecia uma esmeralda

e é um ponto negro na pedra.

Foi luz alada, pequena

estrela em rápida seta.

Quebrou-se a máquina breve

na precipitada queda.

E o maior sábio do mundo

sabe que não a conserta.

“Ava Maria Plena Gratia” by Oscar Wilde (in English)

Was this His coming! I had hoped to see

A scene of wondrous glory, as was told

Of some great God who in a rain of gold

Broke open bars and fell on Danae:

Or a dread vision as when Semele

Sickening for love and unappeased desire

Prayed to see God's clear body, and the fire

Caught her white limbs and slew her utterly:

With such glad dreams I sought this holy place,

And now with wondering eyes and heart I stand

Before this supreme mystery of Love:

A kneeling girl with passionless pale face,

An angel with a lily in his hand,

And over both with outstretched wings the Dove.

“In Memoriam: Francis Archibald Douglas” by Lord Alfred Douglas (in English)

Dear friend, dear brother, I have owed you this

Since many days, the tribute of a song.

Shall I cheat you who never did a wrong

To any man ? No, therefore though I miss

All art, all skill, in this short armistice

From my soul's war against the bitter throng

Of present woes, let these poor lines be strong

In love enough to bear a brother's kiss.

Dear saint, true knight, I cannot weep for you,

Nor if I could would I call back the breath

To your dear body ; God is very wise,

All that this year had in its womb He knew,

And, loving you, He sent His Son like Death,

To put His hand over your kind gray eyes.

“Fables For Little Folk” by Robert E. Howard (in English)

He was six foot four and wide as a door

And he weighed two hundred pounds

And he laughed as he spoke, "I’ll cool that bloke.

I’ll flatten him in two rounds."

Ah, the crowd they cheered, but the crowd they jeered

When his foeman stepped in the ring;

They hissed and jowled and the giant scowled

And rushed with a round-house swing.

Yes, he came full tilt but the beans were spilt

For the smaller man timed him fair

And knocked him out with a left hand clout

And the crowd gave him the air.

So the moral is this: make your foeman miss

And never lead with your right,

But the first that you’re to do is be sure

That it’s not Jack Dempsey you fight.