An Unprecendented Archive



Hard Times for Socrates’ Footsteps

Govinda Raj Bhattarai’s masterpiece Sukaratka Paila has recently been translated into English, and published as Socrates’ Footsteps. In this sense, the content is not new, though a review of the translated version is pertinent for a few reasons. First, the author claims in foreword that the book "has been rendered into English with a view to promoting Nepali literature."


ACT I - Scene III

Act 1, Scene 3




SHYLOCK: Three thousand ducats; well.


BASSANIO: Ay, sir, for three months.


SHYLOCK: For three months; well.




SHYLOCK: Antonio shall become bound; well.     [5]



know your answer?


SHYLOCK: Three thousand ducats for three months and Antonio bound.



ACT I - Scene II

PORTIA: By my troth, Nerissa, my little body is aweary of
this great world.
NERISSA: You would be, sweet madam, if your miseries were in
the same abundance as your good fortunes are: and
yet, for aught I see, they are as sick that surfeit     [5]
with too much as they that starve with nothing.

ACT I - Scene I

[Enter Antonio, Solanio, and Salerio]


In sooth, I know not why I am so sad: 

It wearies me; you say it wearies you; 


What stuff ’tis made of, whereof it is born,

I am to learn; 

And such a want-wit sadness makes of me, 

That I have much ado to know myself.



Your mind is tossing on the ocean;

There, where your argosies with portly sail, 


The Merchant of Venice / Shakespeare

The Merchant of Venice is a comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1596 and 1598. Though classified as a comedy in the First Folio and sharing certain aspects with Shakespeare's other romantic comedies, the play is perhaps most remembered for its dramatic scenes, and is best known for Shylock and the famous 'pound of flesh' speech. The title character is the merchant Antonio, not the Jewish moneylender Shylock, who is the play's most prominent and most famous character.

World Classics

Ram Kumari Sister

...then sister Ram Kumari was seen as a mystifying enigma. I never knew what were hidden inside her. She used to remain quiet as if she was plunged into a deep thought or suffering from an inexpressible awful mourning.