We

by Yevgeny Zamyatin

No, a wild sunshine, rushing and burning, tearing everything into small bits….

For there were some whose love was sought by everyone and others whose love was sought by no one.

Her wrinkles shone, that is, her wrinkles diverged like rays, which created the impression of shining.

I really feel there in the brain some foreign body like an eyelash in the eye. One does not feel one’s whole body but this eye with a hair in it, one cannot forget it for a second….

“Out for a walk?” Her round blue eyes opened toward me widely, blue windows leading inside; I penetrate there unhindered; there is nothing in there, I mean nothing foreign, nothing superfluous.

Which I am I?

One loves only the things one cannot conquer.”

I fell momentarily to the bottom of the ocean of sleep like an overloaded ship which has been wrecked.

Cold water! Quick! Some logic! I pour pailfuls of it, but my logic merely sizzles on the hot metal and disappears in the air in the form of vapor.

You ought to learn how to tremble with fear, with joy, with wild anger, with cold; you should pray to fire!

Here I learned from personal experience that laughter is the most terrible of weapons; you can kill anything with laughter, even murder.