I’ve been absent. In the meantime I've somehow lost the capacity to post links.

I read the most beautiful sentence yesterday in James Woods' review (1) of Pevear and Volokhonsky's translation of War and Peace that I've been looking forward to since 2005 (2).

To live is to build a ship and aharbor at the same time.

It's as lovely when the phrase is completed: To live is to build a ship and a harbor / at the same time. And to complete the harbor / long after the ship was drowned.

I think the whole text is here (3), though I'm not sure yet.

Sending out all my love.

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2007/11/26/071126crat_atlarge_wood?currentPage=1
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/11/07/051107fa_fact_remnick
http://medusaskitchen.blogspot.com/2006/10/ship-and-harbor.html