title:Minimal Literature ver.2.0e
by Taro Kimura
1991


THE LOST STEPS
BY ALEJO CARPENTIER

Huguenots expelled from
Savoy by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, had gone
over to the Encyclopedia in the person of one of my great-
grandfathers, a friend of Baron Holbach. They had pre-
served the family Bibles without any longer believing in
their content, but because of a certain poetic quality they
possessed...


CHILDREN OF THE ARBAT
BY ANATOLI RYBAKOV

Mikhail Yurevich bought his books with the pittance he earned,
denying himself everything; summer and winter he wore the same
suit with worn-out elbows and lapels.
"Of all of man's inventions," he said, gluing a half-decayed page
to a thin, transparent sheet of paper, "the book is the greatest, and
of all the people on earth, the writer is the most amazing
phenomenon. We only know Nicholas I and Count Benckendorff
because they had the honor of living at the same time as Alexander
Sergeyevich Pushkin. What would we know of the history of
mankind if there were no Bible? Or about France if there had been
no Balzac, Stendhal, or Maupassant? The word is the only thing
that lives forever."
"What about the pyramids and the cathedrals?" Varya protested.
"The monuments of architecture and the great painters of the
Renaissance?"
"In order to enjoy the works of Michelangelo and Raphael you
have to go to Rome or Florence or Dresden, you have to visit the
Louvre or the Hermitage. But I don't have to go anywhere for
Dante or Goethe, I always have them with me," he said, surveying
his shelves.


THE HOLY BIBLE

THE OLD TESTAMENT
ECCLESIASTES 1.16-18
I said to myself, "I have acquired
great wisdom, surpassing all who were
over Jerusalem before me; and my mind
has had great experience of wisdom and
knowledge." And I applied my mind
to know wisdom and to know madness
and folly. I perceived that this also is
but a striving after wind.
For in much wisdom is much vexa-
tion,
and he who increases knowledge in-
creases sorrow.

12.11-14
The sayings of the wise are like
collected sayings which are given by
one Shepherd. My son, beware of
anything beyond these. Of making
many books there is no end, and much
study is a weariness of the flesh.
The end of the matter; all has been
heard. Fear God, and keep his com-
mandments; for this is the whole duty
of man. For God will bring every
deed into judgment, with every secret
thing, whether good or evil.


THE NEW TASTAMENT
THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES
26.24-25
And as he thus made his defense,
Festus said with a loud voice, "Paul,
you are mad; your great learning is
turning you mad." But Paul said,
"I am not mad, most excellent Festus,
but I am speaking the sober truth.

THE REVELATION TO JOHN
1.3
Blessed is he who reads aloud
the words of the prophecy, and blessed
are those who hear, and who, keep what
is written therein; for the time is
near.


THE LOTUS SUTRA TRANSLATED BY SENCHU MURANO

"What are the proper things the Bodhisattva-mahasattva should ap-
proach? He should not approach kings or princes or ministers or other
government directors. He should not approach heretics or aspirants for
the Law of Brahman or Nirgranthas or writers of worldly literature or
writers of non-Buddhist songs of praise or Lokayatas or Anti-Lokayatas.


CAPITAL
BY KARL MARX
TRANSLATED BY FREDERICK ENGELS

Of the Christian colonial system, W. Howitt, a man who
makes a specialty of Christianity, says: "the barbarities and
desperate outrages of the so-called Christian race, through out
every region of the world, and upon every people they have
been able to subdue, are not to be paralleled by those of any
other race, however fierce, however untaught, and however
reckless of mercy and of shame, in any age of the earth."


ECCE HOMO
BY NIETZSCHE
TRANSLATED BY ANTHONY M. LUDOVICI

The birth of Christianity out of the spirit
of resentment, not, as is supposed, out of the
"spirit,"


A RAW YOUTH
BY DOSTEYVSKY
TRANSLATED BY CONSTANCE GARNET

"Dear boy," he said one day, not in my room, but in the
street, when I was seeing him home after a long conversation,
"to love people as they are is impossible. And yet we must.
And therefore do them good, overcoming your feelings, holding
your nose and shutting your eyes (the latter's essential). Endure
evil from them as far as may be without anger, 'mindful that
you too are a man,' Of course you'll be disposed to be severe
with them if it has been vouchsafed to you to be ever so little
more intelligent than the average. Men are naturally base and
like to love from fear. Don't give in to such love, and never
cease to despise it. Somewhere in the Koran Allah bids the
prophet look upon the 'forward' as upon mice, do them good,
and pass them by-a little haughty, but right. Know how to
despise them even when they are good, for most often it is in
that they are base. Oh, my dear, it's judging by myself I say
that. Anyone who's not quite stupid can't live without despising
himself, whether he's honest or dishonest-it makes no difference.
To love one's neighbour and not despise him-is impossible.
I believe that man has been created physically incapable of
loving his neighbour. There has been some mistake in language
here from the very first, and 'love for humanity' must be
understood as love for that humanity which you have yourself
created in your soul (in other words, you have created yourself
and your love is for yourself)-and which, therefore, never will
be in reality."


KORAN
TRANSLATED BY MAULIVI SHER ALI

3: 8. HE it is who has sent down to thee the Book; in it there are verses
that are firm and decisive in meaning - they are the basis of the Book - and
there are others that are susceptible of different interpretations. But
those in whose hearts is perversity pursue such thereof as are susceptible
of different interpretations, seeking to cause discord and seeking wrong
interpretations of it. And none knows it except ALLAH and those who are
firmly grounded in knowledge; they say, `We believe in it; the whole is from
our Lord.' - And none take heed except those gifted with understanding -

17:111. Say, `Call upon ALLAH or call upon Al-Rahm, by whichever name you
call on HIM, HIS are the most beautiful names.' And utter not thy Prayer
aloud, nor utter it too low, but seek a way between.


THE GRAPES OF WRATH
BY STEINBECK

Tom sat down in the fire light. He squinted his eyes in con-
centration, and at last wrote slowly and carefully on the end
paper in big clear letters:"This here is William James Joad,
dyed of a stroke, old old man. His fokes buried him becaws
they got no money to pay for funerls. Nobody kilt him. Jus
a stroke an he dyed. "He stopped. "Ma, listen to this here."
He read it slowly to her
"Why, that soun's nice, " She said. "Can't you stick on
somepin from scripture so it'll be religious? Open up an'git
a-say in' somepin outa Scripture."
"Got to be short," said Tom." I ain't got much room left'
on the page."
Sairy said, "How' bout 'Got have mercy on his soul'?"
"No," said Tom. "Sounds too much like he was hung." I'll
copy somepin." He turned the pages and read, mumbling his
lips saying the words under his breath. "Here's a good short
one," he said. "'An' Lot said unto them, Oh, not so, my
Lord."
"Don't mean nothin'," said Ma. "Long's you're gonna put
one down, it might's well mean somepin."
Sairy said, "Turn to Psalm, ever further. You kin always
get somepin outa Psalm."
Tom flipped the pages and looked down the verses. "Now
here is one," he said. "This here's a nice one, just blowed full
are ligion: 'Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven,
whose sin is covered.' How's that?"
"That's real nice," said Ma. "Put that one in."