Nightingale

"A nightingale, the nearest one of a band which day and night offered themselves up in song around their well-stocked nests, drowned all the other voices, and Michel began to follow the pattern of the arabesque he was singing, waiting for the return of the long identical notes, each one reinforcing the other. He noted the "tz-tz-tz", which he compared to the sound of rings slipping down over a copper rod, the "coti-coti-coti" repeated as many as twenty times without a rest or a pause for breath... The waxing moon filled the long uncurtained window with powdery blue light, while the pink glow from the lamp reached the nearest stars on the syrings... In the silent countryside the loud-voiced nightingale was embarking once more on his night of trills, full fluted notes, variations of infinite range and isolated sounds which imitated the fallen pearl of some amorous toad." 

Colette: Duo

Balint Zsako

Stravinsky: Nightingale

Crisis

"...catching the midday sunshine that was starry with floating dust... a bunch of purple orchids stood in the thick little troughlike vase in front of her... the light from it was reflected onto her face, disturbing the grey-green colour of her eyes, which he used to compare to willow leaves.

A springtime upsurge of new leaves, unpruned shoots and long rose suckers, flushed by the apoplectic sap, brought the neglected groups of shrubs closer... on the poplars the gold and bronze of the new leaves still wrongfully occupied the place of the green. A crabapple tree, its white petals lined with bright red, had defeated the somewhat sickly Judas tree, and the syringas, in their attempt to escape the destructive shade of the shiny aucubas, extended their slender branches and their butter-white stars through the broad grasping leaves, which were mottled like snakes."

Colette: Duo