Their Eyes Were Watching God

Есть две вещи, которые каждый должен делать сам: идти к Богу и учиться жить, не цепляясь за других...

Then you must tell 'em dat love ain't somethin' lak uh grindstone dat's de same thing everywhere and do de same thing tuh everything in touch. Love is lak de sea. It's uh muvin' thing, but still and all, it takes its shape from de shore it meets, and it's different with every shore.

Now, women forget all those things they don't want to remember, and remember everything they don't want to forget. The dream is the truth. Then they act and do things accordingly.

There are years that ask questions and years that answer.

«Белый человек сбрасывает груз и велит ниггеру подобрать. И ниггер подбирает, потому что должен. Но нести этот груз он не хочет. Он передает его женщинам. Женщины ниггеров - мулы этого мира...»

«Бабушка взяла величайшее творение Господа - горизонт - сколько бы человек не стремился к горизонту, он всегда будет впереди, - и сжала его до крохотной ниточки. И ниточку эту она повязала на шею внучки так туго, чтобы задушить ее. Она ненавидела старуху, так изуродовавшую ее во имя любви».

Женщины забывают всё то, чего не хотят помнить, и помнят все, чего не хотят забывать.

The time of dying was over. It was time to bury the dead.

The wind came back with triple fury, and put out the light for the last time. They sat in company with the others in other shanties, their eyes straining against crude walls and their souls asking if He meant to measure their puny might against His. They seemed to be staring at he dark, but their eyes were watching God.

Tea Cake touched Janie and said, “Ah reckon you wish now you had of stayed in yo’ big house ’way from such as dis,
don’t yuh?”
“Naw.”
“Naw?”
“Yeah, naw. People don’t die till dey time come nohow, don’t keer where you at. Ah’m wid mah husband in uh storm, dat’s all.”

‘de higher de monkey climbs de mo’ he show his behind’

People ugly from ignorance and broken from being poor.

Tea Cake had more good nature under his toe-nails than they had in their so-called Christian hearts.

“Look lak she been livin' through uh hundred years in January without one day of spring.”

“Janie saw her life like a great tree in leaf with the things suffered, things enjoyed, things done and undone. Dawn and doom was in the branches”

“Of course he wasn't dead. He could never be dead until she herself had finished feeling and thinking. The kiss of his memory made pictures of love and light against the wall. Here was peace. She pulled in her horizon like a great fish-net. Pulled it from around the waist of the world and draped it over her shoulder. So much of life in its meshes! She called in her soul to come and see.”

“All gods who receive homage are cruel. All gods dispense suffering without reason. Otherwise they would not be worshipped. Through indiscriminate suffering men know fear and fear is the most divine emotion. It is the stones for altars and the beginning of wisdom. Half gods are worshipped in wine and flowers. Real gods require blood.”

“It is so easy to be hopeful in the daytime when you can see the things you wish on. But it was night, it stayed night. Night was striding across nothingness with the whole round world in his hands . . . They sat in company with the others in other shanties, their eyes straining against cruel walls and their souls asking if He meant to measure their puny might against His. They seemed to be staring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God.”

“Two things everybody's got tuh do fuh theyselves. They got tuh go tuh God, and they got tuh find out about livin' fuh theyselves.”

“She had waited all her life for something, and it had killed her when it found her.”