chubbyfacemeow

[chubbyfacemeow]

Overture

In you, along eternal in the world, to whom

Turns every created thing,

Rests, O Death,

Our shorn being,

Not happy, but safe

From old Griefs. Deep night

Dims the sober thought

Of our confused mind;

Our barren spirit feels itself

Too weak to hope, to wish.

Thus, free of sorrow and of fear,

It consumes the slow and empty

Ages without ennui.

We lived; and as the confused memory

Of a hideous ghost

Or of a feverish nightmare

Wanders in the suckling infant’s soul,

So lingers the memory

Of our life; but the memory

Is remote from fear. What were we?

What was that bitter point?

Which had the name of life?

A secrete and stupefying thing

Is life now to our thoughts, and such as 

Unknown death seems

To the thought of the living. As from death

Our live being flees, so flees

From the vital flame

Our shorn being,

Not happy, but safe.

However, to be blessed

Is denied by Fate to mortals and to the dead.

----This translation of Leopardi's Dialogo di Federico Ruysch e delle sue mummie is by Rufus Suter (deceased, February 29, 1968). The dialogue appeared originally in 1827. The text used for this translation is in Leopardi's Operette morali, Rizzoli‐Editore, Milan (Biblioteca Universale Rizzoli, 327–329), first ed., 1951, pp. 130–136. The following notes, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the text.

[chubbyfacemeow]

Prologue

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to our show! You are to enjoy an exciting single-act documentary play at our wonderful immersive theater. In no more than several minutes, you will have an unforgettable adventure at one of our most famous 17th-century Dutch anatomists and artist’s cabinets. Please be really aware that you are supposed to encounter some “strange” things, such as a talking skeleton. But don’t be afraid, they are friendly and inoffensive. Please try to genuinely feel yourself and the extremely tranquil serenity at the show. I promise, this show will be the most quiet one in the world--you are not even supposed to hear a single heartbeat. 

I would say, some (probably, many) of our audience felt uncomfortable when first seeing the show. They would describe our “actors” and “actresses” as “nightmarish and bizarre”--this is absolutely not true. 

Spoiler Alert: most of our casts are babies. 

Finally, before we start, please let me tell you the most important point to fully engage the show. Please kindly keep a sentence in mind, memento mori; in other words, remember you are to die. Ladies and gentlemen, it’s such a melancholy reality to admit that we are simply the morsels in transience. As one of our previous (hundreds of years ago) visitors concluded, “Why should I long for the things for this world? The death spares no man, not even the defenseless infant” (Luyendijk-Elshout, 125). When you have this theme in mind, the show might turn out to be more pacifying and invaluable. 

C’mon. The show is about to begin!

(Photo: The Anatomical Theater, Wikipedia)