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In a 1961 essay, "Rubies from the Orient," about Emil Cioran, whose centenary was commemorated in 2011, the Polish author Jerzy Stempowski wrote that Cioran is an "unmatched master of speech. Not for a long time have we encountered such prose which is simultaneously as concise as it is intelligent... Decked out in superb French, Cioran transmits to the West certain elements of ancient wisdom from his homeland." Stempowski likened Cioran's aphorisms, published in a series of books from Les éditions Gallimard in Paris, to gems which retain their value and are easily portable, "so that we can take them with us when the catastrophe hits." Indeed, Cioran's concise observations manage to follow the ancient Greek exhortation , "Know thyself as well as Alexander Pope 's oft-quoted line, "The proper study of Mankind is Man." By doing so, Cioran's best writings acquire lasting value through advice to readers who are trying to survive bad situations:
There's no point in killing yourself, because you always kill yourself too late.
A physical need for dishonor; I would love to have been an executioner's son.
A book is a postponed suicide.
In ancient China, women suffering from grief or rage climbed on to platforms built for them in the street to give free rein to their fury and lamentations. Such confessionals should be adopted the world over to replace the obsolete ones of the Church, or the useless ones of various therapeutics.
Born in Romania in 191 1 , Cioran moved permanently to France in 1 937 , and eventually adopted that country 's language for literary expression. Although other writers have excelled in their non-native languages, such as Vladimir Nabokov or Cioran's friend Samuel Beckett, neither of these authors turned his back on his native tongue the way Cioran did. While retaining ties to family and friends, as well as to his homeland in an abstract sense, Cioran often declared his preference to be "stateless" (apatride), without national allegiance, as an advantageous status for a writer. This despite the evident practical disadvantages of being without a resident visa in France, where he lived for over half a century. This meant lining up in all weather along with the masses of refugees and asylum seekers on an...