Head of Prometheus, 1951 by Henry Spencer Moore (1898 – 1986)
Daddy’s Gone, Girl, 2017 by Eric Fischl (b. 1948)
“Life”
by
Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis
Translated by Isaac Goldberg
End of time. Ahasverus, seated upon a rock, gazes for a long while upon the horizon, athwart which wing two eagles, crossing each other in their path. He meditates, then falls into a doze. The day wanes.
Ahasverus. I have come to the end of time; this is the threshold of eternity. The earth is deserted; no other man breathes the air of life. I am the last; I can die. Die! Precious thought! For centuries of centuries I have lived, wearied, mortified, wandering ever, but now the centuries are coming to an end, and I shall die with them. Ancient nature, farewell! Azure sky, clouds ever reborn, roses of a day and of every day, perennial waters, hostile earth that never would devour my bones, farewell! The eternal wanderer will wander no longer. God may pardon me if He wishes, but death will console me. That mountain is as unyielding as my grief; those eagles that fly yonder must be as famished as my despair. Shall you, too, die, divine eagles?
Prometheus. Of a surety the race of man is perished; the earth is bare of them.
Ahasverus. I hear a voice…. The voice of a human being? Implacable heavens, am I not then the last? He approaches…. Who are you? There shines in your large eyes something like the mysterious light of the archangels of Israel; you are not a human being?…
Prometheus. No.
Ahasverus. Of a race divine, then?
Prometheus. You have said it. Continue reading “Read “Life,” a dialogue by Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis”
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