Sunday, September 20, 2009

La Tendre Indifférence du Monde

Comme si cette grande colère m'avait purgé du mal, vidé d'éspoir, devant cette nuit chargée de signes et d'étoiles, je m'ouvrais pour la première fois à la tendre indifférence du monde.

"It was as if that great rush of anger had washed me clean, emptied me of hope, and, gazing up at the dark sky spangled with its signs and stars, for the first time, the first, I laid my heart open to the benign indifference of the universe."

Saturday, September 19, 2009

La Porte du Malheur

J’ai secoué la sueur et le soleil. J’ai compris que j’avais détruit l’équilibre du jour, le silence exceptionnel d’une plage où j’avais été heureux. Alors, j’ai tiré encore quatre fois sur un corps inerte où les balles s’enfonçaient sans qu’il y parût. Et c’était comme quatre coups brefs que je frappais sur la porte du malheur.

"I shook off the sweat and sun. I knew that I had shattered the harmony of the day, the exceptional silence of a beach where I’d been happy. Then I fired four more times at the motionless body where the bullets lodged without leaving a trace. And it was like knocking four quick times on the door of unhappiness."

Sunday, September 13, 2009

The Inferno, Canto XXXIV


E quindi uscimmo a riveder le stelle.

And so we came forth, and once again beheld the stars.


(Italian audio file)

Saturday, September 12, 2009

The Inferno, Canto XI

D'ogne malizia, ch'odio in cielo acquista,
ingiuria è 'l fine, ed ogne fin cotale
o con forza o con frode altrui contrista.

Every evil deed despised in Heaven
has as its end injustice. Each such end
harms someone else through either force or fraud.

Friday, September 11, 2009

The Inferno, Canto I


Nel mezzo del camin di nostra vita
mi ritrovai per una selva oscura
che la diritta via era smarrita.


In the middle of the journey of our life
I found myself in a dark wood
For I had lost the right path.

(Italian audio file)

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

The One True Problem of Philosophy

Il n'y a qu'un problème philosophique vraiment sérieux : c'est le suicide. Juger que la vie vaut ou ne vaut pas la peine d'être vécue, c'est répondre à la question fondamentale de la philosophie. Le reste, si le monde a trois dimensions, si l'esprit a neuf ou douze catégories, vient ensuite. Ce sont des jeux ; il faut d'abord répondre.

"There is but one truly serious philosophical problem and that is suicide. Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy. All the rest — whether or not the world has three dimensions, whether the mind has nine or twelve categories — comes afterwards. These are games; one must first answer."

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Queerer Than We Can Suppose


"My own suspicion is that the universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose. I suspect that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of or can be dreamed of in any philosophy."

J. B. S. Haldane, 1892 - 1964