Sublime

Ptolemaic

sie hörte die Ankommenszeiten und die Abfahrtszeiten und die Verspätungen über die Lautsprecheranlage: das Italienisch immer perfekt, das Deutsche lächerlich verstümmelt.

Later, after our family was dispersed in all directions and my grandmother and I were living in that dugout hut on the other side of the Tumen River, she told me a story she’d heard long, long ago from her great-grandmother. It was the story of Princess Bari, whose name meant “Abandoned”. She would always finish the story by singing the last lines

As if it were a fait accompli,

be noticed from afar.

acuity

In other words, he had finally worked his way up to the lowest spot on the totem pole.