Authors: Saul Bellow
Letters (105 page)
58
French: at first sight; lit., thunderbolt
59
Latin: Do not despair.
60
German: Please don’t forget me.
61
German: Ever thine
62
Yiddish: a sweetened dish of stewed fruits and vegetables; fig., an imbroglio
63
Italian: Answer, friend!
64
creeping, crawling
65
Latin: Let us therefore rejoice.
66
French: as he is
67
Yiddish: I’m barely getting by.
68
German: blood sausage and horseradish
69
French: For want of better company, one goes to bed with manuscripts.
70
Latin: old man Bellow
71
Yiddish: family
72
German: politics in the higher sense
73
German: and ready
74
French: lit. on the moon; unrealistic, out to lunch
75
Yiddish: hoodlums, thugs
76
Yiddish: cozy, down-to-earth, unpretentious
77
Latin: I love because it is absurd—a modification of Tertullian’s
Credo quia absurdum
, I believe because it is absurd.
Credo quia absurdum
, I believe because it is absurd.
78
French: Still pursued by women; worried nonetheless. An amusing situation. They’re
all
furious—north, west, and even here, but I continue to do my duty.
all
furious—north, west, and even here, but I continue to do my duty.
79
French: Above all, reasonable.
80
French:
Type
me a letter.
Type
me a letter.
81
French: I’m eager to read what you’ve written.
82
Spanish: big problems
83
The bride is too beautiful? Fig., What am I complaining about?
84
Latin: moment of death
85
Yiddish: filth
86
Latin:
De mortuis (nil nisi bonum dicendum est)
—Speak no ill of the dead.
De mortuis (nil nisi bonum dicendum est)
—Speak no ill of the dead.
87
Yiddish and Hebrew: a worry
88
Yiddish: May you use it well.
89
French: under threat of penalty
90
Hebrew: friends
91
French: bent back
92
German: what it all means
93
Yiddish: impossible woman, ballbuster
94
French: It is necessary to be absolutely modern.
95
Warms (the heart) a little.
96
Latin: A word (is enough) to the wise.
97
French: I’m holding up pretty well.
98
French: nerve or cheek; lit., forelock
99
French: Bad taste leads to crimes.
100
Hebrew: “Strength unto you!”
101
Hebrew: “Be strong!”
102
French: “Everything passes . . . everything breaks.”
103
Yiddish: pests, bothersome people
104
Hebrew: the quorum of ten men required for public prayer three times daily
105
Yiddish: whores
106
German: sloppiness
107
Hebrew: soul
108
Yiddish: joy
109
Latin: While I breathe, I hope.
110
German: old-fashioned thermal spa or cure resort, e.g., Karlsbad, Marienbad, Baden-Baden, etc.
111
Yiddish: But it’s not a matter of life or death to me.
112
French: pipeline; fig., connections, pull
113
Hebrew: “Here am I.” When called by God in Genesis, Abraham says the same.
114
Hebrew and Yiddish: people of the city; here, more specif., dignitaries or worthies
115
Spanish: “Indignities of Old Age”: Goya’s etching shows an elderly man struggling to rise from his chamber pot.
116
pathological shortening of the stride and quickening of the gait; more loosely, frenetic activity
117
Latin: Make haste slowly!
118
French: the disordering of all the senses
119
French: No kidding!
120
French: want of manners
121
French: thanks a million
122
French: out of commission
123
Yiddish: pests, bothersome people
124
French: Let us go on!
125
French: relaxed, nonchalant
126
French: to cheer you up, old buddy
127
French: felled oaks, a phrase from Victor Hugo given currency by
Les chênes qu’on a bat
(1971), André Malraux’s account of his final afternoon with de Gaulle.
Les chênes qu’on a bat
(1971), André Malraux’s account of his final afternoon with de Gaulle.
128
French: crippled veteran
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