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Dream Tales and Prose Poems

by Ivan Turgenev

26 of 54 · Contents · Download EPUB

Necessitas — Vis — Libertas!

A Bas-Relief

A tall, bony old woman, with iron face and dull, fixed look, moves with long strides, and, with an arm dry as a stick, pushes before her another woman.

This woman—of huge stature, powerful, thick-set, with the muscles of a Hercules, with a tiny head set on a bull neck, and blind—in her turn pushes before her a small, thin girl.

This girl alone has eyes that see; she resists, turns round, lifts fair, delicate hands; her face, full of life, shows impatience and daring.... She wants not to obey, she wants not to go, where they are driving her... but, still, she has to yield and go.

Necessitas—Vis—Libertas!

Who will, may translate.

May 1878.

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