One afternoon I was sitting outside the Café de la Paix, watching the splendour and shabbiness of Parisian life, and wondering over my vermouth at the strange panorama of pride and poverty that was passing before me, when I heard some one call my name.

OSCAR WILDE, Irlanda,
in "The Sphinx Without a Secret", 1894



Uma tarde, estava eu sentado na esplanada do Café de la Paix, a observar o esplendor e miséria da vida parisiense e a pensar, enquanto bebia o meu vermute, na estranha paisagem de orgulho e pobreza que me passava diante dos olhos, quando ouvi chamar o meu nome.