Under The sycamore Tree

 Slowly, silently we wandered
     From the open cottage door,
     Underneath the elm's long branches
     To the pavement bending o'er;
     Underneath the mossy willow
     And the dying sycamore.

-Edgar Allan Poe

Around Umm al-Tut

 Nothing is more curious and awkward than the relationship of people who only know each other with their eyes — who meet and observe each other daily, even hourly and who keep up the impression of disinterest either because of morals or because of a mental abnormality. Between them there is listlessness and pent-up curiosity, the hysteria of an unsatisfied, unnaturally suppressed need for communion and also a kind of tense respect. Because man loves and honors man as long as he is not able to judge him, and desire is a product of lacking knowledge.

-Thomas Mann