Czeslaw Milosz, Notes.

featuring Euripides, Ovid, and Seneca

• ὡς τρὶς ἂν παρ᾽ ἀσπίδα/στῆναι θέλοιμ᾽ ἂν μᾶλλον ἢ τεκεῖν ἅπαξ (Euripides Med. 250-1)
  
• for I would rather thrice stand by the shield/ than once bear a child
• καὶ σοῖς ἀραία γ᾽ οὖσα τυγχάνω δόμοις. (Euripides Med. 608)
  
• I am a curse unto your house as well
• καὶ μανθάνω μὲν οἷα τολμήσω κακά/θυμὸς δὲ κρείσσων τῶν ἐμῶν βουλευμάτων/ὅσπερ μεγίστων αἴτιος κακῶν βροτοῖς. (Euripides Med. 1078-80)
  
• I know what evils I dare to do/ my heart is stronger than my plans/ and great is my blame for the blood
• dum ferrum flammaeque aderunt sucusque veneni/ hostis Medeae nullus inultus erit (Ovid Her. 12.181-2)
  
• as long as I have iron and fire and poison at my disposal/ no enemy of Medea’s will go unpunished
• viderit ista deus, qui nunc mea pectora versat/ nescio quid certe mens mea maius agit! (Ovid Her. 211-2)
  
• the god who twists my heart will witness these deeds/ for surely I know not what vast act my mind devises!
• tum me de tigride natam/ tum ferrum et scopulos gestare in corde fatebor (Ovid Met. 7.32-3) 
  
• then I will be called the daughter of a tiger/ and they will say I carry iron and stone in my heart
• maximus intra me deus est (Ovid Met. 7.55)  
  
• the greatest god is within me
• et vertice sidera tangam (Ovid Met. 7.61)
  
• and I will reach the stars with the crown of my head
• Medea superest, hic mare et terras vides/ ferrumque et ignes et deos et fulmina (Seneca Med. 166-7)
  
• Medea stands alone, here you see the sea and the lands/ and iron and fire and gods and lightning
• si placet, damna ream;/ sed redde crimen (Seneca Med. 245-6)
  
• condemn me if you like;/ but give me back my crime
• invadam deos/ et cuncta quatiam (Seneca Med. 424-5)
  
• I will invade the gods/ and shake all things
• Medea nunc sum; crevit ingenium malis (Seneca Med. 910)
  
• Now I am become Medea; my nature has grown amidst evil

Sylvia Plath, The Journals of Sylvia Plath

“And you ask yourself again—what have you done with your time, where have you buried the best years of your life?”

– Fyodor Dostoevsky, from “White Nights: A Sentimental Love Story (From the Memoirs of a Dreamer),” The Best Short Stories of Dostoevsky (Modern Library, 1992)

i love comforting nihilism. who cares, we’re all gonna die. eat that cake. buy that eyeshadow. be nice to people. you dont owe the world shit. the stars dont care about what we do. give anyway because why spend your eighty years on this rock miserable and making other people miserable. the sun is going to blow up and we’re all gonna die someday. make the most of what time you do have. use the fine china for taco night and microwave lunch. smell the flowers. tell a stranger they are beautiful.