Alexander I. Solzhenitsyn: The Line Dividing Good and Evil Cuts Through the Heart of Every Human Being
Alexander I. Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008), Russian novelist and historian
[Scroll down for the English]
KISWAHILI
"Laiti yote yangekuwa rahisi sana! Laiti kungekuwa na watu waovu wako mahali fulani wakifanya vitendo viovu kwa kisiri, na ingehitajika tu kuwatenganisha na sisi wengine na kuwaangamiza. Lakini mstari unaogawanya mema na mabaya unapita katikati ya moyo wa kila mwanadamu. Na ni nani aliye tayari kuharibu kipande cha moyo wake mwenyewe?"
- Alexander I. Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008), mwandishi wa Kirusi na mwanahistoria.
ENGLISH TRANSLATION
“If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?”
- Alexander I. Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008), Russian novelist and historian.
Chanzo (source): Solzhenitsyn, Alexander I. In his "Introduction to the Abridgement" of The Gulag Archipelago: 1918-1956—The Authorized Abridgement. HarperCollins, 1985, pages 123-124. Reissued in Harper Perennial Modern Classics with a Foreword by Anne Appelbaum, 2007. Digital edition, 2020. Kindle Edition. This work was originally published in three separate volumes in Russian in from 1973 to 1976, with English translations in 1974, 1975, and 1978 from Harper & Row Publishers.