Content source: Phoenix Network Reading
Qingming Festival is coming, and this day is a day for people to visit the graves and commemorate the deceased.
When you walk through the cemetery, do you consciously or unconsciously look at the tombstones and epitaphs that condensed the life of the deceased?
Today, let's read the different epitaphs of writers and scientists to see how they describe their lives.
Earnestly understated
A simple epitaph
Shen Congwen
writer
"Think according to me, you can understand me, and according to my thinking, you can know people."
Shen Congwen's tomb is on the banks of the Tuo River in western Hunan Province. The epitaph is a sentence he said during his lifetime, engraved on a five-colored stone tombstone.
Lao She
"A conscientious pawn in the literary world, sleeping here."
In 1938, when Lao She joined the "Anti-Japanese War Literary Association", he said: "I am a pawn in the literary and art circles, and for more than ten years I have been practicing day and day between desks and small stools, pens are guns, and I sprinkle hot blood on paper... On the day I enter the tomb, I would like someone to give me a short stele inscribed: A conscientious pawn in the literary and artistic circles, sleeping here. ”
Zhang Dai
Ming Dynasty writer
"Good house, good maid, good child, good fresh clothes, good food, good horse, good lantern, good fireworks, good pear garden, good trumpet, good antique, good flowers and birds..."
This "Versailles" quotation appeared in the Ming Dynasty writer Zhang Dai's "Self-made Epitaph", which also shows the relatively open ideological atmosphere of the late Ming Dynasty.
Smile at death
As an epitaph of human comedy
Winston churchill
Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
"I'm ready to see God, but whether God is ready to endure the torture of seeing me is another matter."
God may not be better than Churchill in toughness.
Alfred Hitchcock
Hollywood director
"I was involved in a conspiracy."
Hitchcock-esque answer.
Spike Milligan
British comedy writer
"Didn't I tell you I was sick?"
The original text was written in Irish. Honestly, the average person can't see it?
Charlie Bukowski
American writer
"Don't try. （Don't Try）」
Bukowski, the most famous "migrant writer" and "representative of dirty realism" in the United States, is known for his alcoholism, cursing, hard work, and a large number of sexual depictions in his works.
This quote comes from a letter he wrote to a friend. Although it looks serious, combined with his own experience, this epitaph still can't help but be reminiscent of anti-smoking advertisements.
Harry Hershfield
American cartoonist and writer
"Here lies Harry Hershfield, if you find something wrong, please notify the undertaker immediately."
As a well-known cartoonist, he has always "carried through" American humor.
He also said, "Every morning, I usually wake up at 9 o'clock, pick up the morning newspaper, and look at the obituary on it." If it doesn't have my name on it, I'll get up. ”
Stan Lowe
British comedian and Chaplin's stand-in
"Whoever has a bitter face at my funeral, I will never pay any attention to him."
This phrase with "British humor" was his dying message, but it was not written on the tombstone.
It's been my life
As a summary epitaph
Stendhal
French writer
"Arigo Bell (Stendhal's original name) of Milan slept here. He's lived, loved, and written."
The author of "The Red and the Black" has only used three words to encompass his illustrious life: to live, to love, and to write.
Enlightenment
calligrapher
"Middle School Student, Associate Professor. Bo is not refined, not thorough. Although the name is famous, it is not enough. High is not enough, low is not enough. Paralyzed to the left, Pai zeng right. The surface is slightly rounded and the skin is not thick. The wife is dead, and there is no queen. The mourning is still new, and the illness is the same. Sixty-six, not unsound. Eight treasure mountains, gradually together. Counting life, ugly. Body and name, all stink. 」
Mr. Qi Gong's "Self-written Epitaph" now stands quietly in front of his tomb.
Arthur Clark
American science fiction writer
"I never grew up, but I never stopped growing."
Clark is Liu Cixin's idol and an outstanding science fiction writer. This sentence is also written to all readers who love him.
John Guy
British playwright
"Life is a joke, everything has been proven; I thought so, and now I know it."
This inscription was used on his tombstone in Westminster Abbey. Sleeping with him here were Newton, Darwin, Shakespeare...
That's all I have to say
As an epitaph of Proverbs
Immanuel Kant
philosopher
"There are two things in the world that can deeply shake people's hearts, one is the lofty moral code in our hearts, and the other is the brilliant starry sky above our heads."
There is another translation of this passage: "He who is above me, the starry sky, the moral law, in my heart."
Ellen Poe
Pioneer of detective fiction and horror fiction
"The crow said, 'This man will not come again.'"
"The Crow" is Poe's masterpiece. Maybe the crow is right, he is indeed unique.
Mark twain
"He observes the changes in the world, but he speaks of the truth of the world."
Lu Xun once commented: "Humor is also tinged with grief and irony, and Mark Twain is a great humorist. ”
Li Xingzhi
An official during the Northern Dynasty of China
"If life is sent, death is like a homecoming." In the vast night, what is wrong?"
Li Xingzhi lived in the Southern and Northern Dynasties era, he is not very famous in history, and his epitaphs are remembered by many people.
They changed the world
A well-deserved epitaph
Edward Chenna
Inventor of vaccinia vaccination
"This is the resting place of the greatest doctor of mankind, and with his wisdom Chenna brought health and life to more than half of the world's people."
Today, thanks to The Vaccinia inoculation method invented by Chenna, smallpox viruses in the natural environment have become extinct on the planet.
Karl marx
Thinker, philosopher
"Philosophers of the past only explained the world, and the problem was to transform the world."
This sentence is a rhetorical statement to others, and in his case, he has done it.
Isaac newton
Mathematician, physicist
"Nature and the laws of nature are hidden in the darkness of the night. God said, "Let Newton be born!" "Then there was light."
Written by the poet Alexander Pope for Newton. This sentence also corresponds to Newton's later years—the reconciliation of science and theology.
Johannes Kepler
Mathematician, astronomer
"I measured the sky, and now I measure the underworld, and the spirit returns to heaven, and the body rests on the earth."
The original text of this passage is Latin, looking up at the stars before death, exploring the nine springs after death, and a wonderful life.
Their sentences shine brightly
Literary epitaphs
Emily dickinson
American poet
"I've never seen the wasteland, I've never seen the ocean, but I know the heather's face and the rough waves. I've never spoken to God or visited heaven, but it seems like I've passed the check and will definitely get to that place."
As a female poet who led the times, Dickinson lived a lonely life, and it was nearly a hundred years before he was recognized as one of the most important poets in the United States. This sentence is a summary of the life before the death, and it also predicts the events after the death.
Luo Yihe
poet
"My heart is simple, my heart does not occupy the land."
Luo Yihe was only 28 years old when he died, and the verses on his tombstone came from his work "Born weak".
T.S. Elliott
English-American poet
"In my beginning is my end. In my end is my beginning."
Eliot was one of the pioneers of modernist poetry and won the Nobel Prize in Literature for His Quartet of Four. This epitaph also comes from this work.
John Keats
English poet
"The long-sleeping people in this place are famous for their water books."
Fame and prestige are like words written on the water, swaying and flowing, and eventually disappearing. However, only the flowing water is not corrupt.
Loved Flower City
Just add a star to "Flower City" to receive pushes
Literature and art are no longer lost
Reprint source: Phoenix Network Reading
Editor: Li Jiaping
Review: Du Xiaoye
Welcome to click "Watching"