Hannah Arendt (born October 14, 1906) German-U.S. philosopher and political theorist – The Origins of Totalitarianism (1950)
Read more about Hannah Arendt here
"She was a brilliant political philosopher, who refused to call herself a philosopher. She was a woman who never considered her sex to be an obstacle in her life. And she was a Jew who was called anti-Semitic for her controversial portrait of Adolf Eichmann as a “thoughtless,” “terrifyingly normal” person.
Born in 1906 into a German-Jewish family, she studied philosophy in the 1920s with Martin Heidegger in Marburg and continued her research with Karl Jaspers in Heidelberg, writing a doctoral dissertation on the concept of love in the writings of St. Augustine. But it was her personal experience of the rise of Nazism in Germany combined with her years of statelessness, which turned her away from philosophy to politics."
Watch a 1964 interview with Hannah Arendt
here
Erik Johan Stagnelius (born October 14, 1793) Swedish poet
"Amanda" by Erik Johan Stagnelius
I blomman, i Solen
Amanda jag ser.
Kring jorden, kring polen
Hon strålar, hon ler.
I rosornas anda,
I vårvindens pust,
I druvornas must
Jag känner Amanda.
När gullharpan klingar,
När Västan sig rör
Med susande vingar,
Amanda jag hör.
Allt, Ängel, bestrålar
Din himlagestalt,
Lik Skaparns i allt
Din gudom sig målar.
Se! själarne ila,
Vid dödängelns bud,
Till gyllene vila
I famnen av Gud.
Se! floderna hasta
Med skummande fart.
I havet de snart
Sig dånande kasta.
Men aldrig min trånad
Till målet skall nå.
Blek, suckande, hånad,
Jag enslig skall gå,
Skall evigt, Gudinna!
Lik stjärnan dig se
Högt över mig le
Och aldrig dig hinna.
Amanda I see.
Around Earth, around the poles
She smiles, she beams
Within roses' essence,
Within spring wind's breath,
Within grape's must
Amanda I sense.
When the golden harp rings,
And it moves to the West
With fluttering wings,
Amanda I hear.
Everything, Angel, shines
Your heavenly form,
Like the Creator in all things
Painting your divinity.
See! By the behest,
Of the angel of death,
Souls fly to golden rest
Into the arms of God.
See! the rivers haste
With foaming speed.
Soon cast to the sea
By their thunderous pace.
But 'twas never my wish
That goal to reach.
Pale, sighing, taunted,
Alone I shall go,
Forever, you will, Goddess!
Like the star seen
High above me, smile
And I never shall meet it.
Listen to a reading of
"Amanda"
Edward Estlin Cummings (born October 14, 1894) U.S. poet, artist
