There are no words to describe the feeling we experience when, appreciating the peace that emanates from a Hindu text, we remember the barbarities described by Oliveira Martins committed on Indian soil. It is astonishing. To imagine the Portuguese, precisely in this land where peace is sacred, arriving like demons, robbing and ravaging, setting fires, stealing, murdering and subjugating. And, even in the less violent landings, corrupting by the unbridled exercise of the grossest vices, of the most radical materialism. The thought of Indian cities being transformed into the receptacle of those astonishing perversions, the destination of the greatest earthly ambitions, the paradise of depravity… it is best not to continue.
Category: Notes
In Order to Know How to Respect…
If I am not mistaken, it was Nietzsche who said that in order to know how to respect, one must know how to despise. And that is why iterated praise seems hollow. Although it is much more pleasant, it is also necessary to exercise criticism, so that praise, when it comes, is valued. Rejection and appreciation are, in short, complementary and inseparable manifestations.
It Is Really Difficult to Reconcile…
It is really difficult to reconcile inner peace with the unpredictable daily demands that sometimes seem to aim to destroy it. That is why it is necessary to come up with a conscious plan to sustain it, the primary action of which is to continually remind oneself of one’s need for it. That is exactly what refuge and inner peace are: necessities. Otherwise, one cannot achieve sobriety in one’s thinking, much less the tranquillity necessary for fair reflection.
It Is Incredible to See How Poetry…
It is incredible to see how poetry, from the middle of the last century onwards, has become practically unreadable. Unreadable and bad, with very few exceptions that seem to belong to another time. It is no use, not even with the utmost goodwill can the problem be overcome: contemporary poetry, at best, looks interesting, it deceives when endowed with an obscurity that seems to hold some treasure. In short, the effort to understand it never pays off. It is a shame.