Milan Kundera | Immortality

“Just imagine living in a world without mirrors. You'd dream about your face and imagine it as an outer reflection of what is inside you. And then, when you reached forty, someone put a mirror before you for the first time in your life. Imagine your fright! You'd see the face of a stranger. And [...]

Igor Stravinsky | Le Sacre du Printemps

YARILA BY SERGEY GORODETSKY First to sharpen the ax-flint they bent, On the green they had gathered, unpent, They had gathered beneath the green tent. There where whitens a pale tree-trunk, naked, There where whitens a pale linden trunk. By the linden tree, by the young linden, By the linden tree, by the young linden, [...]

Letters of Note | Love

As a continuity with last week's post about the book Letters of Note, here is a much smaller book, without images this one, Letters of Note : Love, a collection of love letters compiled by Shaun Usher. "First published in 2020, Letters of Note: Love is a compulsive collection of the world's most entertaining, inspiring and powerful letters with [...]

Andrei Tarkovsky | Mirror

“when i sleep, i know no fear, no, trouble no bliss. blessing on him who invented sleep. the common coin that purchases all things, the balance that levels shepherd and king, fool and wise man. there is only one bad thing about sound sleep. they say it closely resembles death.” Mirror  is a 1975 art film directed by Andrei [...]

Orpheus and Eurydice in Art

"'Where does our story take place, and when?' asked Cocteau at the start of Orphée. 'It's the privilege of legends to be ageless. Comme il vous plaira. As you please.” Ann Wroe, Orpheus: The Song of Life (Painting : Edward John Poynter, Orpheus and Eurydice) In the upcoming weeks, I will be studying the myth of Orpheus [...]

Sergei Parajanov | The Color of Pomegranates

“I am the man whose life and soul are torment” The Color of Pomegranates is a 1969 Soviet Armenian art film written and directed by Sergei Parajanov. The film is a breathtaking fusion of poetry, ethnography, and cinema that tells of the life of 18th-century Armenian poet and troubadour Sayat-Nova. Sergei Parajanov’s masterwork overflows with [...]

Richard Strauss | Metamorphosen

 « Rien ne se crée, rien ne se perd, tout se transforme. » (Lavoisier) Metamorphosen  is a composition by Richard Strauss for 23 solo strings : ten violins, five violas, five cellos, and three double basses, typically lasting 25 to 30 minutes. It was composed in the last days of WWII. Strauss saw the world he knew in ruins around him. Germany was occupied by [...]

The Second Coming | H. B. Yeats

The Second Coming is a poem written by Irish poet W. B. Yeats in 1919, first printed in The Dial in November 1920, and afterwards included in his 1921 collection of verses Michael Robartes and the Dancer. The poem uses Christian imagery regarding the Apocalypse and Second Coming to allegorically describe the atmosphere of post-war Europe. It is considered a major work of modernist poetry and has been reprinted in several collections. The [...]

Modus Operandi

I made an Instagram post yesterday explaining the reasons and motivations behind Le nouveau Zèbre. If you have not seen it, you can read it here. Now I have been thinking and this is how I'll be organizing this magazine. On Mondays, I'll publish a post concerning classical music. What I'm listening to, an album [...]

Cy Twombly

I purchased this beautiful book showcasing some of Cy Twombly’s work (paintings, photographs, sculptures...). Twombly moves me, in a poetic way. I am very sensible to the chaos he creates on his canvases, to the blurred settings of his photographs, not to mention that his subject of choice is very often the rose, and if [...]

Even Because

Because it all just breaks apart, and the pieces scatter andrearrange without much fanfare or notice. Because you can’t and don’t remember the step that kicked updust and left this planet—you’d give up even more now. Because the body itself—the heart’s not dead but deeper, wrapped up in curtains, a different color,among the railings and [...]

Le langage des fleurs

Élévation Au-dessus des étangs, au-dessus des vallées,Des montagnes, des bois, des nuages, des mers,Par delà le soleil, par delà les éthers,Par delà les confins des sphères étoilées, Mon esprit, tu te meus avec agilité,Et, comme un bon nageur qui se pâme dans l'onde,Tu sillonnes gaiement l'immensité profondeAvec une indicible et mâle volupté. Envole-toi bien loin [...]

La forêt dans la hache

On vient de mourir mais je suis vivant et cependant je n’ai plus d’âme. Je n’ai plus qu’un corps transparent à l’intérieur duquel des colombes transparentes se jettent sur un poignard transparent tenu par une main transparente. Je vois l’effort dans toute sa beauté, l’effort réel qui ne se chiffre par rien, peu avant la [...]