Ryszard Kapuscinski

p 1 The Resonance of Croesus F whatever in Kapuscinski s Travels with HerodotusThe compulsion of Croesus , according to Herodotus - as told by in his book , Travels with Herodotus - is to adorn at least one historical maxim : bounteous male happiness never remains long in the very(prenominal) place This principle is reiterated in various ways by dint of come start of the closet the book , which is based on the author s locomote as a Polish contrasted correspondent , as healthy as on his knowing knowledge of Herodotus HistoriesWhile still a young journalist , and in the wake of Stalin s death and the incidental thaw in governmental control within the east Bloc nations , Kapuscinski goes abroad . He departs for India at the behest of his Warsaw editor program , to accomplish - he hopes - the simple fact of cross ing the b (Kapuscinski 9 . As a bon voyage present , the editor presents him with a likeness of Herodotus Histories , newly translated into Polish . Thus the undulate of his hazards is set in motion - a pattern of events the strike to whose interpretation and entailment will be consistently , and uncannily , offered by the antiquated Greek writer , whose text never leaves the author s sideSo , to a tumescent degree , Travels with Herodotus is book more or little a book - Herodotus Histories - and about the principles , rules , perceptions it enunciates . How Kapuscinski applies them to his own experience all over a long and eventful journalistic career is whimsical . But by the end of the book this uniqueness takes on an opposite coloring : that of a venerable indifferent and intrinsic wisdom applicable to some(prenominal) period , or to any regional history , regardless of its actors2distance from familiar cultural norms . In the episode of Croesus triumph and f all , Herodotus has King Solon of peachy of! Greece state the matter as follows .No two days hail events which are exactly the same .

It follows Croesus , that human life is exclusively a matter of chance .Now , I can flare-up that you are extremely rich and that you rule over giving numbers of people , but I won t be in a position to [judge of your happiness] until I find out that you died well .Until [a man] is dead , you had better refrain from calling him surfeit , and just call him fortunateIt is necessary to consider the end of anything . and to time how it will turn out , because the god often offers prosperity to men , but them destroys t hem utterly and completely . (86Human happiness is vapourisable - indeed it may not be happiness at all , but merely temporary good muckle . Only subsequent events can determine to what degree a felicitous current of inscrutable destiny has deflected mischance and debauch . Until a man has reached the end of his life it cannot be lecture of him that his fate has been a happy oneAs it happens , Croesus is soon to discover that he has not been as happy as he has wished to think , with his great piles of treasure and absolute power in Lydia . In...If you want to get a full essay, order it on our website: BestEssayCheap.com

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