Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
"-Dear Sir, confident of your eloquence and wisdom,
we cordially invite you to write us a treatise
about the foundations of communication and dialogue."
If the great theorists of communication
were in practice lousy communicators,
what hope can I have of saying anything new?
What presumption can I have of adding anything?
I am only a writer
who breathes the wisdom set on this library.
Long, long ago,
philosophical thinking was merely myths,
poems, fragments, elements
which carried in their very fragmented format
its fragmentary content.
Then Socrates, with his maieutics,
and Plato, his follower and writer,
transcriber of such great dialogues
who ended up lonely, solitary,
in his defense that everything in the word is One.
After Plato, Aristotle,
with his scientific, impersonal treatises.
Dialogues like Plato´s, never again!
though many have tried...
Only the Saint Augustine's ones outstand,
his harassments against skeptical academics,
his philosophical discoveries with his son.
With all their theories of communication,
philosophers tend to be misunderstood.
Said Hegel:
"Philosophy is a lonely business."
If the great theorists of communication
were in practice lousy communicators,
what hope can I have of saying anything new?
What presumption can I have of adding anything?
Truths! Facts!
That is what moves the world,
that is what moves me,
that is the world!
And each and every problem of the world
begins with not knowing the truth,
Facts are facts, sure and certain!
To ignore this fact is to walk in circles.
Said Plato: the Truth is like the Sun.
Said Jesus:
The Truth will set you free.
This is why I’ll become a judge:
to separate the true from the false,
to judge what seems but is not,
to accept whatever is true and real,
to make the Sun of the Truth set all free
This is why I’ll become a judge!
But this library reminds me
that I ought to accept this truth:
I still have to study so many books
books upon books!
Look at how many books such a beauty leans!
She should not interact with others;
much time should not have,
Nor interest, nor patience…
For those who converse with books,
with people loose the capacity to talk
Dialogue with books, but don't know how to read persons.
They live in the world of ideas,
a perfect world faraway.
Look, what a handsome man:
Well dressed, well groomed!
He is alone, waiting for something or somebody.
So many books to be read, and none delights him.
Look, what a handsome man:
Well dressed, well groomed!
He must be super superficial.
the handsome always are… beautiful outside, hollow inside.
He doesn’t know that true beauty lives within the soul
and like fool’s gold win the fools
with their surface shiny and false.
False.
Look at how many books such a beauty leans!
Very knowledgeable and educated must she be…
Much time should not have, but interest,
but patience.
Look, what a handsome man!
I bet he has millions of foolish eager admirers.
Though he is alone, solitary.
Look, what a handsome man:
well dressed, well groomed,
waiting for something or somebody.
Look at those eyes,
at his gaze so deep,
so serious,
so lone.
Look at those eyes,
at his gaze
so deep,
so serious,
so lone.
Such a serious, solitary look,
Such a magnetic hypnotic seriousness,
Looking at those eyes, I seem to see her soul.
Looking at those eyes, I seem to see my soul.
It’s myself that I see, that I want,
It's myself that I admire, that I desire
It’s myself that I see in those serious eyes
But, stronger reflection than an idle mirror,
what I now see,
what I now desire,
upon which I now reflect is
- magnetism, complicity, hypnotism; - hypnotism, magnetism, complicity;
- is passion! - is passion!
- "Love is fire that burns unseen."
- "Beareth, believeth, hopeth all things," - That is what moves the world,
- "endureth all things." - that is what moves me!
- "If I speak in the tongues of men" - Love does not rejoice at wrongdoing,
- "and of angels" - but in the truth.
- "but have not love, I am nothing." - "Love is fire that burns unseen."
- "Beareth, believeth, hopeth all things," - That is what moves the world,
- "endureth all things." - that is what moves me!
- "Love is fire that burns unseen."
- Love!
What am I doing?
Staring at a complete stranger!
What am I doing?
I lost sense of time and space!
Shame on you,
future judge, daydreaming like that. (- …Shame on you!…)
- Shame on you, my dear philosopher, (- …daydreaming…)
she must be so upset!
Openly flirting
as if you were at a night club! (- …flirting…)
Adolescently flirting
in the middle of the library! (- …flirting…)
A young man who must be as foolish as he is handsome!
Only a nescient to come here to flirt!
Such a serious young woman who…
but…
books must be heavy in her thinking.
Foolish!
Though, it wasn’t just me‚Ķ
Though, he also seemed to gaze at me,
But then he pretended not to see me.
Although it wasn’t just me‚Ķ
Though, she seemed to correspond;
Though, she also seemed to gaze at me.
- Although it wasn’t just me‚Ķ (- Although it wasn’t just me‚Ķ)
- Though, he also seemed to gaze at me, (- Though, she seemed to correspond;)
- …but then he pretended not to see me. (- …though, she also seemed to gaze at me)
Look at that! For a minute, I was distracted by a bozo.
Look at that! All confounded by a dissimulating girl.
A fool so confident about his beauty.
An actress so steeped in falsity…
What anger I feel!
I am leaving here!
My study has become conflict,
boils my blood and my heart,
my head bubbles,
my thoughts have evaporated.
I am going home
to unwind,
to forget.
Tomorrow is another day.
Tomorrow I’ll shut myself in my study
away from all distraction and commotion.
Let me calm down,
let me overcome,
let me endeavor,
let me focus,
let me hide,
let me isolate!
My study has become conflict.
boils my blood and my heart,
my head bubbles,
my thoughts have evaporated.
I am going home.
What a relief!
The fool's gone.
What a relief!
It was about time:
I could no longer bear his unbearable presence.
But look:
The paper he read so intensely Was left behind without a thought.
Not my problem.
None of my business.
But…
what if it’s important?
It did look so important.
Let's see.
-"Dear Sir, confident of your eloquence and wisdom…"
Olha só!
T√£o longe da verdade foi meu julgamento!
"…we cordially invite you to write us a treatise…"
"…about the foundations of communication and dialogue."
I was foolish and unfair!
Such an important project!
Could he have discarded such an interesting proposal?
Sir, wait for me! Listen to me a minute!
Knowledge of communication is a gift of few:
the world needs to know a lot more about dialogue
starting with the two of us!