- published: 26 Dec 2015
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The recto and verso are respectively the "front" and "back" sides of a leaf of paper in a bound item such as a codex, book, broadsheet, or pamphlet. In languages written from left to right (such as English) the recto is the right-hand page and the verso the left-hand page. These are terms of art in the binding, printing, and publishing industries, and can be applied more broadly to any field where physical documents are exchanged.
The term recto-verso describes two-sided text. The terms are important in the field of codicology, where each physical sheet of a manuscript is numbered and the sides are referred to as recto and verso. Critical editions of manuscripts will often mark the position of text in the original manuscript, or manuscripts, in the style '42r.' or '673vº'. Often "recto" is implied if no "v" for "verso" is given, so that the pages are numbered: f1, f1v, f2, f2v ....".
The use of the terms 'recto' and 'verso' are also used in the codicology of manuscripts written in right-to-left scripts, like Syriac, Arabic and Hebrew. However, as these scripts are written in the other direction to the scripts witnessed in European codices, the recto page is to the left while the verso is to the right. The reading order of each folio remains 'first recto, then verso' regardless of writing direction.
Like serpents entangled in faint starlight black seals entwined in crystal gleam
Dark shapes enframed in a myriad of suns
The infinity ends
The past plains of snow the visions of frozen landscapes flow silent yet charming sights of pale serenity
You've chosen the way
Where patterns of frost lead you astray to the glacial crypt of thoughts
Aside and away from inner space you roam afar from sanctuary of morbid self beyond the reason locked in a rotten shell while lost in everlasting sleep
The path that you walk so gracefully paved with icy thorns led you to the realm forlorn
You've chosen the way
Where patterns of frost lead you astray to the glacial crypt of thoughts
To knowledge that made illusion of your existence fade