Janet Fitch, White Oleander
"His voice was cloves and nightingales, it took us to spice markets in the Celebs, we drifted with him on a houseboat beyond the Coral Sea. We were like cobras following a reed flute."
67 Quotes
"His voice was cloves and nightingales, it took us to spice markets in the Celebs, we drifted with him on a houseboat beyond the Coral Sea. We were like cobras following a reed flute."
"كان صوته قرنفلاً وبلابل، حملنا إلى أسواق التوابل في سيليبس، طفنا معه على قارب عائم وراء بحر المرجان. كنا كالأفاعي تتبع ناي راعٍ."
Janet Fitch, White Oleander
"The pearls weren't really white, they were a warm oyster beige, with little knots in between so if they broke, you only lost one. I wished my life could be like that, knotted up so that even if something broke, the whole thing wouldn't come apart."
"لم تكن اللآلئ بيضاء حقًا، بل كانت بلون المحار الدافئ المائل للبيج، مع عقد صغيرة بينها، بحيث إذا انفرطت، لا تخسر إلا واحدة. تمنيت لو كانت حياتي كذلك، معقودة بإحكام، حتى إذا انكسر شيء، لا ينهار كل شيء."
Janet Fitch, White Oleander
"Now I wish she'd never broken any of her rules. I understood why she held to them so hard. Once you broke the first one, they all broke, one by one, like firecrackers exploding in your face in a parking lot on the Fourth of July."
"الآن أتمنى لو أنها لم تكسر أياً من قواعدها قط. لقد أدركتُ لمَ تمسكت بها بكل هذه القوة. فما إن تكسر القاعدة الأولى، حتى تتهاوى كلها، واحدة تلو الأخرى، كالمفرقعات تنفجر في وجهك في موقف سيارات في الرابع من يوليو."
Janet Fitch, White Oleander
"I was always mortified. Didn't they know they were tying thier mothers to the ground? Weren't chains ashamed of their prisoners?"
"كنتُ دائمًا في خزيٍ عظيم. ألم يعلموا أنهم كانوا يربطون أمهاتهم بالأرض؟ ألم تخجل السلاسل من أسراها؟"
Janet Fitch, White Oleander
"Marvel hates her because she's pretty and doesn't have any kids to worry about."
"مارفل تكرهها لجمالها وخلو بالها من همّ الأطفال."
Janet Fitch, White Oleander
"Who are you? the band sang. I tried to remember but I really couldn't say."
"من أنت؟ غنت الفرقة. حاولت أن أتذكر، لكنني حقاً لم أستطع أن أجيب."
Janet Fitch, White Oleander
"We strive for beauty and balance, the sensual over the sentimental."
"نسعى للجمال والاتزان، ونؤثر الحسي على العاطفي."
Janet Fitch, White Oleander
"I wanted to freeze this moment forever, the chimes, the slight splash of the water, the chink of the dogs’ leashes, laughter from the pool, the skritch of my mother’s dip-pen, the smell of the trees, the stillness. I wished I could shut it in a locket to wear around my neck. I wished a sleep would find us, at this absolute second, like sleep over the castle of sleeping beauty."
"تمنيت لو أستطيع تجميد هذه اللحظة إلى الأبد: رنين الأجراس، رذاذ الماء الخفيف، حفيف سلاسل الكلاب، ضحكات من المسبح، حكّة قلم أمي الغمّاس، عبير الأشجار، السكون. تمنيت لو أمكنني حبسها في قلادة أرتديها حول عنقي. تمنيت لو يغشانا النوم، في هذه الثانية بالذات، كنوم غشّى قلعة الأميرة النائمة."
Janet Fitch, White Oleander
"My heart felt like a balloon that was filling too full, and I panicked. I might get the bends, the way scuba divers did when they surfaced too fast."
Janet Fitch, White Oleander
"Don't turn over rocks if you don't want to see the pale creatures who live under them."
Janet Fitch, White Oleander
"Her fingers moved among barnacles and mussels, blue-black, sharp-edged. Neon red starfish were limp Dalis on the rocks, surrounded by bouquets of stinging anemones and purple bursts of spiny sea urchins."
Janet Fitch, White Oleander
"don't turn over rocks if you don't want to see the pale creatures who live underneath them."
Janet Fitch, White Oleander
"Whenever she turned her steep focus to me, I felt the warmth that flowers must feel when they bloom through the snow, under the first concentrated rays of the sun."
Janet Fitch, White Oleander
"The moon rose, squatting in the strained blue."
Janet Fitch, White Oleander
"Love is temperamental. Tiring. It makes demands. Love uses you, changes its mind. But hatred, now, that's something you can use. Sculpt. Wield. It's hard, or soft, however you need it. Love humiliates you, but Hatred cradles you."
Janet Fitch, White Oleander
"Her hatred glittered irresistibly. I could see it, the jewel, it was sapphire, it was the cold lakes of Norway."
Janet Fitch, White Oleander
"She took a life because someonehumiliated her, hurt her image of herself as the Valkyrie, thestainless warrior. Exposed her weakness, which was only love. So sheavenged herself. So easy to justify, I wrote to her. It's because youfelt like a victim you did it. If you were really strong, you couldhave tolerated the humiliation."
Janet Fitch, White Oleander
"If it weren't for me, she wouldn't have to take jobs like this. She would be half a planet away, floating in a turquoise sea, dancing by moonlight to flamenco guitar. I felt my guilt like a brand... I had seen girls clamor for new clothes and complain about what their mothers made for dinner. I was always mortified. Didn't they know they were tying their mothers to the ground? Weren't chains ashamed of their prisoners?"
Janet Fitch, White Oleander
"I thought of my mother as Queen Christina, cool and sad, eyes trained on some distant horizon. That was where she belonged, in furs and palaces of rare treasures, fireplaces large enough to roast a reindeer, ships of Swedish maple."
Janet Fitch, White Oleander
"I wanted to tell her not to entertain despair like this. Despaire wasn't a guest, you didn't play its favorite music, find it a comfortable chair. Despair was the enemy."-white oleander"
Janet Fitch, White Oleander
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