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There is no agony like bearing an untold story inside you.

Zora Neale Hurston, Dust Tracks on a Road (1942); often credited to Maya Angelou

Literature

The story behind the card

The line is usually credited to Maya Angelou and her 1969 memoir I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, often as 'no greater agony than'. It actually comes from Dust Tracks on a Road (1942), the autobiography of Zora Neale Hurston, the novelist and folklorist of the Harlem Renaissance best known for Their Eyes Were Watching God. The mix-up is easy to understand: Angelou's memoir tells how, after a childhood trauma, she barely spoke for about five years, until Bertha Flowers, a woman in her town, drew her back into speech by having her read poetry aloud.

Türkçe oku
İçinde anlatılmamış bir hikâye taşımak gibi bir ıstırap yoktur.
Zora Neale Hurston, Dust Tracks on a Road (1942); çoğu zaman Maya Angelou'ya atfedilir

Söz genellikle Maya Angelou'ya ve 1969 tarihli anı kitabı I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings'e atfedilir, çoğu zaman da “bundan büyük ıstırap yoktur” biçiminde aktarılır. Oysa kaynağı, Harlem Rönesansı'nın romancısı ve halkbilimcisi, en çok Gözleri Tanrı'yı İzliyordu ile tanınan Zora Neale Hurston'ın 1942 tarihli özyaşamöyküsü Dust Tracks on a Road'dur. Karışıklık anlaşılır: Angelou kitabında, çocukken yaşadığı bir travmanın ardından yaklaşık beş yıl neredeyse hiç konuşmadığını, sonunda kasabasından Bertha Flowers'ın ona yüksek sesle şiir okutarak sesini geri kazandırdığını anlatır.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Dust Tracks on a Road
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