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🦋 O Livro dos Conselhos
Until you attain the truth,
you will not be able to amend it.
But if you do not amend it,
you will not attain it. Meanwhile,
do not resign yourself.
- from The Book of Exhortations | Enquanto não alcançares a verdade,
não poderes corrigi-la.
Porém, se a não corrigires,
não a alcançarás. Entretanto,
não te resignes. |
The epigraph to The History of the Siege of Lisbon cites the same source as the epigraph to Blindness -- what is this source? The Portuguese wiki page on the novel states that it is the Book of Exhortations of El-Rei Dom Duarte, who is King Edward the Eloquent of Portugal. Other sites state that the epigraphs come from Deuteronomy, or from a fictional Book of Exhortations. I like the Portuguese wiki page's idea -- does not appear to be any transcription of Dom Duarte's book online for me to check however. (An edition of it was published in 1982, is all I've been able to find.) I'm pretty sure the Deuteronomy idea is wrong -- the two epigraphs do not sound biblical. The idea that the source is fictional is certainly possible -- it's what I had been leaning towards -- but would not be as interesting.
posted evening of Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009
➳ More posts about The History of the Siege of Lisbon
➳ More posts about José Saramago
➳ More posts about Readings
➳ More posts about Blindness
➳ More posts about O Livro dos Conselhos
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