 Bertrand Russell Quotes 366 |
I asked the grown-ups whether Shelley was not considered a great poet, but found that they thought ill of him. This, however, did not deter me, and I spent all my spare time reading him, and learning him by heart. Knowing no one to whom I could speak of what I thought or felt, I used to reflect how wonderful it would have been to know Shelley, and to wonder whether I should ever meet any live human being with whom I should feel so much in sympathy.
Source: Bertrand Russell: The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell, v.１, chap. 2, 1967
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P. B. Shelley (1792-1822) was an aristocrat like the Russells, but he was an atheist and a free-lover, so it is easy to imagine that Russell's family would have ill feelings towards Shelley.
Shelley was a sceptic, rebellious, atheist and free-lover, so shelley had an awful lot in common with Russell. It is natural that as a young man Russell wondered if he would ever meet anyone alive today with whom he could relate so well.
As a philosopher and mathematician, one might think that Russell would have read the most books on philosophy and mathematics, but as he states in his autobiography, he read the most books on history and literature throughout his life. This is why Russell was able to make so many interesting quotations in his writings.
The verse of Yosano Tekkan's 'Hito wo koiuru uta', in which Byron appears, contains the phrese 'Basho no sabi wo yorokobazu'(I can't enjoy his attentive melancholy), but I thought‘yorokobazu' might be a misnomer.
The answer in Yahoo Chiebukuro says: ‘[Yorokobazu] is fine. The theory that 'zu' is not a strike-through is incorrect. It says: 'I do not share Basho's sabi.' If we translate it mean, 'I don't mean to say that I have as much passion as Byron or Heine, I don't mean to say that I have the same passion as Byron or Heine, but something like Basho's rust doesn't suit me.’ That's what I mean. The first part is a humble statement, but I really do have a passion for it.
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)