Reading this section of Patrick McGuinness's first novel, I recalled the Nadas essay and admired the skill with which McGuinness inspires in the reader something like the complex responses Nadas observes in himself: an almost giddy triumph tempered by the sobering realization that the brutality of these summary executions will only prolong the country's history of violence and oppression.
In some ways, Bonds's professional triumph was tempered by tragedy, given the events of the last few weeks.
Yet even after acing the exam, the students' moments of triumph were tempered by fears about being one of the few black or Hispanic students at Stuyvesant.
Even in Nehru's most famous speech, marking the "tryst with destiny", of India's independence from Britain in 1947, triumph is tempered with an almost pedantic disappointment: "We shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially".
However, the Greens' triumph was tempered by a slight drop in their share of the national poll, at about 1%, something the party put down to left-leaning voters switching to Labour or the Liberal Democrats to try to prevent a Tory government.
But that triumph was somewhat tempered by the revelation that the memefather himself, Richard Dawkins, who coined the term, has rather serious reservations about the medium.
These decorations, which interweave various illusions of reality in a way that was more complex even than Raphael's famous paintings in the Vatican loggia, were a triumph of classicism tempered with humanity.
Happy memories of the triumph will inevitably be tempered by concerns about the former president's health.
Even his apparent triumph at Canossa was tempered by his loss of status as a divinely appointed ruler.
Kennedy's feeling of triumph and vindication is tempered by the fact they got away with it for so long.
Still, her professional triumphs continued to be tempered by personal distress.
