Image: Why didn’t you wake me? (2013) Installation by Latvian artist Ginters Krumholcs.Hamlet’s Mono
Image: Why didn’t you wake me? (2013) Installation by Latvian artist Ginters Krumholcs.Hamlet’s MonologueWhen the ground is covered with shimmering autumn vapoursAnd has swallowed up the last leaves of the trees,The moon shines wanly in the sky,Like a corpse,Then the sorrowful times begin again,As Hamlet rises once more from the graveAnd, wrapped in a black toga,Holds forth his monologue:“Has life improved after me?With fewer tragedies? Less crime?It seems better to be suffocated in elemental sleep!Or hang unseen like a foggy patchOver the world’s inhabitants,Filled with the new seeds of stars, -Or to be formed in marble,So smooth and white,Laid in a mountain bed untouched, unwrinkled,Not under the sculptor, nor chipped by his hand,Where the chisel splits, and the sparks fly?Who thirsts for a hot-bodied life?Who would climb the tower of beauty?Or yet reach the pinnacle of perfection,When earthly life is filled with such struggle? “It is hard for who has not been, to be,But much harder for who has been, to not be!”- Aspazija (Prologue to her collection: In The Time Of Asters - Autumn Poems, 1928)(my translation from the Latvian - see read more for the Latvian original)HAMLETA MONOLOGSKad zemi pārklāj gluzdošs rudens tvaiksUn rīst vispēdējā no kokiem lapa,Pie debess palsi atspīd mēnesisKā miroņģindenis,Tad sākas atkal grūtsirdības laiks,Kur Hamlets pieceļas ikreiz no kapaUn, aptērpies ar melnu togu,Tur monologu:«Vai dzīve labāka pēc manis tapa?Vai mazāk traģikas? vai mazāk ziegu?Šķiet, labāk dusēt elementu miegu!Vai karāties kā miglas plankumamVirs zemes dzimtām nesaredzamām,Ar jaunu zvaigžņu sēklu pildītām, —Vai būt kā marmoram, kas gluds un baltsDus kalnu gultā neaizskarts, bez krokām,Ne nākt zem tēlnieka un viņu roku kalts,Kur, dzirkstēm šķiestot, šķeļ to asais kalts?Kam karstas dzīvības slāpt?Kam daiļumu tornī kāptUn pilnības kalnā jau būt,Kad zemē ar joni grūt?——Gan grūti ir nebijušam būt,Bet grūtāk par grūt’Ir jau reiz bijušam ne vairs būt!——»- Aspazija (1865-1943) -- source link
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