And flowers, and bumblebees, and grass, and ears of corn, And azure sky, and noonday heat…

And flowers, and bumblebees, and grass, and ears of corn, And azure sky, and noonday heat… The hour will come, and the Lord will ask the prodigal son: “Were you happy in your life on earth?”
And I shall forget everything, remembering only these Field paths between the ears of corn and the grasses, And through sweet tears I shall not manage to answer, Having fallen at the merciful knees.

Ivan Bunin, 1918

The illustration is taken from the book “The Images of the Gods of the Ancients” by the Italian poet Vincenzo Cartari, 1608

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At the close of the Strugatskys' "Roadside Picnic" the Golden Sphere is asked for this: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to leave no one aggrieved, but the digest really does come free

At the close of the Strugatskys' "Roadside Picnic" the Golden Sphere is asked for this: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to leave no one aggrieved, but the digest really does come free. So, here is the

Frederic Leighton

Frederic Leighton. “Daedalus and Icarus”, 1869 Daedalus warns his son not to climb too high: the heat of the sun may melt the wax, but Icarus is already gazing into the distance, and the lamentations of a foolish old man interest him not in the least

And flowers, and bumblebees, and grass, and ears of corn, And azure sky, and noonday heat…

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At the close of the Strugatskys' "Roadside Picnic" the Golden Sphere is asked for this: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to leave no one aggrieved, but the digest really does come free

Frederic Leighton

Attempts to resolve the problems of many years of uncontrolled mass migration

Characters from Gogol's "Petersburg Tales" on the pedestal of the monument to Nikolai Gogol on Nikitsky Boulevard, photograph of the 1960s