死猫兒頭

Sozan, a Chinese Zen master, was asked by a student: 'What is the most valuable thing in the world?'
The master replied: 'The head of a dead cat.'
'Why is the head of a dead cat the most valuable thing in the world?' inquired the student.
Sozan replied: 'Because no one can name its price.'

room without ermine

Egy másik alkalommal - az érettségi vizsgán, vagy legalábbis akkoriban - megint felszólította Bancsit az öreg király.
- Tudod-e, fiam, mi a legértékesebb dolog a világon?
- Egy döglött macska - mondta föl szó szerint a buddhista tételt a jeles diák -, mert annak senki sem tudja megszabni az árát.
A király nem is figyelt rá, hosszasan hallgatott. Párás szemmel bámult a tiszta kék égbe, nagyon messzi, a semmin is túl. Alig kivehetően mintha ezt mormolta volna:
- Emigrálni az időből.

freud with ermine

Between the veranda and the river meadows, out on which it looked, all was garden, orange grove, and almond orchard; the orange grove always green, never without snowy bloom or golden fruit, the garden never without flowers, summer or winter; and the almond orchard, in early spring, a fluttering canopy of pink and white petals, which, seen from the hills on the opposite side of the river, looked as if rosy sunrise clouds had fallen and become tangled in the tree-tops. On either hand stretched away other orchards, - peach, apricot, pear, apple pomegranate; and beyond these, vineyards. Nothing was to be seen but verdure or bloom or fruit, at whatever time of year you sat on the Senora's south veranda.
Helen Hunt Jackson

mouse with ermine

We have flattered ourselves by inventing proverbs of comparison in matter of blindness, - "blind as a bat," - for instance. It would be safe to say that there cannot be found in the animal kingdom a bat, or any creature, so blind in its own range of circumstance and connection, as the greater majority of human beings are in the bosoms of their families. Tempers strain and recover, hearts break and heal, strength falters, fails, and comes near to giving way altogether, every day, without being noted by the closest lookers-on.
Helen Hunt Jackson

lucinda freud: kitty with ermine

Among these vines, singing from morning till night, hung the Senora's canaries and finches, half a dozen of each, all of different generations, raised by the Senora. She was never without a young bird-family on hand; and all the way from Bonaventura to Monterey, it was thought a piece of good luck to come into possession of a canary or finch of Senora Moreno's raising.
Helen Hunt Jackson