The Land of Green Plums Quotes

“Women always need other women to lean on. They become friends in order to hate each other better. The more they hate each other, the more inseparable they become.”
― Herta Müller, The Land of Green Plums

“When we don't speak, said Edgar, we become unbearable, and when we do, we make fools of ourselves.”
― Herta Müller, The Land of Green Plums

“If only the right person would have to leave, everyone else would be able to stay in the country.”
― Herta Müller, The Land of Green Plums

“I wanted love to grow back, like the grass when it’s mown down. To grow differently, if need be, like children’s teeth, like hair, like fingernails. To spring up at will, wild and untended. The chill of the sheets made me shudder, and so did the warmth that followed when I lay down.”
― Herta Müller, The Land of Green Plums

“No cities can grow in a dictatorship, because everything stays small when it’s being watched.”
― Herta Müller, The Land of Green Plums

“At a time I used to think that in a world without guards people would walk differently from the way we do in our country. Where people are allowed to think and write differently, I thought, they will also walk differently.”
― Herta Müller, The Land of Green Plums

“In this county, we had to walk, eat, sleep and love in fear.”
― Herta Müller, The Land of Green Plums

“Only the demented would not have raised their hands in the great hall. They had exchanged fear for insanity".”
― Herta Müller, The Land of Green Plums

“We laughed a lot, to hide it from each other. But fear always finds an out. If you control your face, it slips into your voice. If you manage to keep a grip on your face and your voice, as if they were dead wood, it will slip out through your fingers. It will pass through your skin and lie there. You can see it lying around on objects close by.”
― Herta Müller, The Land of Green Plums

“Heute geht es mir besser, ich bin fast ein Mensch.”
― Herta Müller, The Land of Green Plums

“Occasionally a yellow leaf fell from the tree. Then one or the other of us would turn up his eyes as though to see the leaf fall once again. We didn’t wait for the next leaf, which fell a little later. Out eyes lacked the patience. We didn’t commit ourselves to leaves. Only to flying splashes of yellow that distracted our faces from one another’s”
― Herta Müller, The Land of Green Plums

“Ich wusste nicht, wie das Licht verschwindet, obwohl ich eine ganze Stunde hinsah. Er sagte, es gäbe Sachen, die eben nicht in die Augen gehen.”
― Herta Müller, The Land of Green Plums

“How do you have to live, I wondered, to be in harmony with what you honestly think?”
― Herta Müller, The Land of Green Plums

“اذا صمتنا نفر الآخرون منا، واذا تكلمنا ضحكوا علينا”
― Herta Müller, The Land of Green Plums

“Today the grass listens when I speak of love. It seems to me that this word isn't honest even with itself.”
― Herta Müller, The Land of Green Plums

“Das Kind redet weiter. Beim Reden bleibt etwas auf der Zunge liegen. Das Kind denkt sich, es kann nur die Wahrheit sein, die sich auf die Zunge liegt wie ein Kirschkern, der nicht in den Hals fallen will. Solange die Stimme beim Reden ins Ohr steigt, wartet sie auf die Wahrheit. Aber gleich nach dem Schweigen, denkt sich das Kind, ist alles gelogen, weil die Wahrheit in den Hals gefallen ist.”
― Herta Müller, The Land of Green Plums

“راه خیابان به سوری شهر را در پیش گرفت. وقتی کسی جایی برای رفتن نداشته باشد، سرتاسر شهر دورش حلقه می‌زند.”
― Herta Müller, The Land of Green Plums

“قفل چمدان، دروغی بیش نبود. در مملکت همان‌قدر کلید مشابه وجود داشت که کارگران همسان. هر کلیدی یک دروغ بود.”
― Herta Müller, The Land of Green Plums

“خنده‌هایمان تلخ بود. ما از آن برای نقب زدن به دردهایمان سود می‌جستیم. خوب می‌دانستیم چگونه یکدیگر را بیازاریم و از درد و رنج هم لذت ببریم؛ از حساس خرد شدن یکدیگر در لوای عشقی خشن، و این‌که چقدر بی‌طاقت هستیم هر ناسزا ماننده دانه‌های تسبیح به ناسزای دیگر می‌انجامید تا آنکه قربانی دم فرومی‌بست.”
― Herta Müller, The Land of Green Plums

“ﻭﻗﺘﯽ ﺳﺨﻨﯽ ﻧﻤﯽ ﮔﻮﯾﯿﻢ،
ﻏﯿﺮﻗﺎﺑﻞ ﺗﺤﻤﻞ ﻣﯽ ﺷﻮﯾﻢ
ﻭ ﺁﻧﮕﺎﻩ ﮐﻪ ﺯﺑﺎﻥ ﻣﯽ ﮔﺸﺎﯾﯿﻢ،
ﺍﺯ ﺧﻮﺩ ﺩﻟﻘﮑﯽ ﻣﯽ ﺳﺎﺯﯾﻢ.”
― Herta Müller, The Land of Green Plums

“In der Fabrik hing oben am Giebel, der am höchsten in den Himmel und am tiefsten in den Hof schaute, eine Losung:
Proletarier aller Länder vereinigt euch.
Und unten auf dem Boden gingen Schuhe, die das Land nur in der Flucht verlassen durften.”
― Herta Müller, The Land of Green Plums

“The gym instructor was the first to raise his hand. All the other hands flew up after his. While raising their hands, everybody looked at the raised hands of the others. If someone's own hand wasn't as high as the others', he would stretch his arms a little farther. People kept their hands up until their fingers grew tired and started to droop and their elbows began to feel heavy and pull downward. Everyone looked around, and since no one else's arm was lowered, they straightened their fingers again and extended their elbows. Sweat stains showed under the arms; shirts and blouses came untucked. Necks were stretched, ears turned red, lips parted and stayed half-open. Heads kept still, while eyes slid from side to side.”
― Herta Müller, The Land of Green Plums

“Lola writes in her notebook: Leaf-fleas are even worse. Someone said, They don't bite people, because people don't have leaves. Lola writes, When the sun is beating down, they bite everything, even the wind. And we all have leaves. Leaves fall off when you stop growing, because childhood is all gone. And they grow back when you shrivel up, because love is all gone. Leaves spring up at will, writes Lola, just like tall grass. Two or three children in the village don't have any leaves, and those have a big childhood. A child like that is an only child, because it has a father and a mother who have been to school. The leaf-fleas turn older children into younger ones - a four-year-old into a three-year-old, a three-year-old into a one-year-old. Even a six-months-old, writes Lola, and even a newborn. And the more little brothers and sisters the leaf-fleas make, the smaller the childhood becomes.”
― Herta Müller, The Land of Green Plums

“Mein Vater, sagte Georg, hat das Fahrrad zum Bahnhof mitgenommen, damit er auf dem Hinweg nicht so nahe neben mir gehen muss und auf dem Rückweg nicht an seinen Händen spürt, dass er allein nach Hause geht.”
― Herta Müller, The Land of Green Plums

“Con las palabras en la boca aplastamos tantas cosas como con los pies sobre la hierba. Pero también con el silencio.”
― Herta Müller, The Land of Green Plums

“در آن زمان باور داشتم که در یک جهان بدون پاسدار مردم مثل کشور ما راه نمی‌روند، جهانی که در آن مردم مجازند هر طور می‌خواهند فکر کنند.”
― Herta Müller, The Land of Green Plums

“چیزهایی وجود دارد که آدم نمی‌تواند آنها را ببیند، چیزهایی که مثل دود به درون ذهن می‌خزد.”
― Herta Müller, The Land of Green Plums

“من به آن دست زدم، دستانم آن را پنجره‌ای معمولی یافتند، باز کردن و بستن آن مشکل‌تر از باز و بسته کردن چشمانم نبود. پنجره واقعی باید توی همین گور باشد.”
― Herta Müller, The Land of Green Plums

“تنها کسانی که قصد فرار نداشتند دیکتاتور و پاسدارانش بودند. در چشمان و دستان و لبانشان می‌دیدی که امروز و فردا و پسین‌فردا با گلوله و سگ، گورستان‌ها بر پا می‌کنند.”
― Herta Müller, The Land of Green Plums

“ما هرروز همدیگر را می‌دیدیم، دور یک میز می‌نشستیم، اما ترس دست ازسرمان برنمی‌داشت، گویی ما خودمان ترس را دستی‌دستی به محل ملاقات می‌آوردیم. برای پنهان کردن آن از یکدیگر، دائم می‌خندیدم اما ترس همیشه برای نشان دادن خود راه خروجی می‌یافت.”
― Herta Müller, The Land of Green Plums