After the Fireworks (45 page)

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The seas I sail were never crossed before;

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Minerva breathes, Apollo is my guide,

and all nine Muses point me out the Bears.

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“Coffee?” “No, I never drink it, never. For the liver, you know, it's bad. It's also said that the intestines. . . .”

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Ye other few, who early raised your necks

for Angels' bread, on which one here on earth

subsists, but with which none are ever sated . . .

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“Boiled fish, grilled meat, boiled potatoes. . . .”

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The innate and ceaseless thirsting for the Realm

in God's own image made. . .

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Boiled fish.

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The innate and ceaseless thirsting for the Realm

in God's own image made, was bearing us

as swiftly as ye see the heavens revolve.

On high looked Beatrice, and I on her. . . .

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Yes, I am, I am Beatrice.

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A pun meaning “feelings—fractions away.”

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On high looked Beatrice, and I on her.

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All nine Muses point me out the Bears.

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All the better, all the better.

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Apollo, Apollo, why have you forsaken me?

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“You are like a flower”

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The Devil's Trill Sonata
.

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With the full authority of office.

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Rabble, riffraff.

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An elderly woman of great prestige.

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A supposed right of a feudal lord to have sexual relations with a vassal's bride on her wedding night.

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A believer.

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An observant follower.

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Naughty.

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Eighteenth-century.

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“Where are the lovely moments of sweetness and pleasure?”

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Witty remarks thought of too late.

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With the respective differences having been considered.

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An aria in three-part form comprising a theme, a secondary contrasting part, and a repetition of the first part.

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In a sportive manner, used in musical direction.

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Very agitated or hurried, used in musical direction.

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Ill-mannered.

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A rude, uncouth person.

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Likes are cured by likes.

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Sanskrit Buddhist mantra: Untranslatable, but “Praise to the jewel in the lotus,” literally.

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And there he is, and there he is, Figaro,

The most comical of Belgium, Figaro!

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Likes are cured by likes.

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Village fair.

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Chamber pot.

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French boiled sweets (“stupid mistakes from the town of Cambrai”).

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Hindu symbol representing energy and strength.

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“But he's a negro.”

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“But we are in the twentieth century. And the war will not last long.”

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Outhouse.

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A pass.

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For the improvement of the cattle breed.

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A pass.

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“But what is that?”

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For the improvement of the cattle breed.

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“Woman is flighty,” from Verdi's Rigoletto.

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“It's my own sun,” Neapolitan song by Capurro.

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“God walks through the fields”.

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Second in command of the division.

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For the improvement of the cattle breed.