Six
(专辑: Here, Hear II - 2008)
The
gods had condemned Sisyphus to ceaselessly rolling a
rock to the
top of a
mountain, Whence the
stone would fall back of its own weight. They had thought with some reason that there is no more dreadful punishment than futile and hopeless labor. Nothing is told us about Sisyphus in the
underworld. Myths are made for the
imagination. As for this myth, one sees merely the
whole effort of a
body straining to raise the
huge stone To roll it and push it up a
slope a
hundred times over; One sees the
face screwed up, the
cheek tight against the
stone, The
wholly human security of two earth-clotted hands. At the
very end of his long effort, the
purpose is achieved. Then Sisyphus watches the
stone rush down in a
few moments Toward the
lower world whence he will have to push it up again toward the
summit. He goes back down to the
plain. It is during that return, that pause, that Sisyphus interests me. A
face that toils so close to stones is already stone itself. I
see that man going back down with a
heavy yet measured step Toward the
torment of which he will never know the
end. That hour like a
breathing-space which returns as surely as his suffering, That is the
hour of consciousness. At each of those moments when he leaves the
heights And gradually sinks toward the
lairs of the
gods, He is superior to his fate. He is stronger than his rock. The
workman of today works everyday in his life at the
same tasks, And his fate is no less absurd. But it is tragic only at the
rare moments when it becomes conscious. Sisyphus knows the
whole extent of his wretched condition: It is what he thinks of during his descent. There is no fate that can not be surmounted by scorn. If the
descent is thus sometimes performed in sorrow, It can also take place in joy. When the
images of earth cling too tightly to memory, It happens that melancholy arises in man's heart: This is the
rock's victory. But crushing truths perish from being acknowledged. Thus, Edipus at the
outset obeys fate without knowing it. But from the
moment he knows, his tragedy begins. Yet at the
same moment, he realizes that the
only bond linking him to the
world is the
cool hand of a
girl. Then a
tremendous remark rings out: "Despite so many ordeals, my advanced age And the
nobility of my soul make me conclude that all is well." "I conclude that all is well," says Edipus. And that remark is sacred. It echoes in the
wild and limited universe of man. It teaches that all is not, has not been, exhausted. All Sisyphus' silent joy is contained therein. His fate belongs to him. The
rock is still rolling.