They say that nature is agitated. Animals and plants sense and get scared when an eclipse is about to occur. There is fear in breaking the routine, which is out of what you do every day, the ability to laugh and suffer. The only animal that laughs and suffers is the human being. The only one that moans, looking towards the future. Nobody else, neither mineral, nor plant, nor animal. Fear is the vision of the future, and nobody else thinks about the future, only the man. He calculates his future. The animal does not figure out the future; in the end, the fear of the future is the root of all suffering. In documentaries, you see how as soon as the siren announcing the bombing goes off, panic seizes the whole world. Even though no plane is yet in the sky. Everyone runs terrified, screams, seeks refuge, although the sky is just as calm and blue.
From “Crematory” by Rafael Chirbes
Translated from Spanish by Louis Villalba
Chirbes is a great Spanish writer. His prose is intense and engages the readers. The author enjoys insights about human nature that surpass most of us. It is a delight to read his novel. This snippet teaches us a fact we might sense but cannot express as he has done, “The only animal that laughs and suffers is the human being. The only one that moans, looking towards the future. Nobody else, neither mineral, nor plant, nor animal. Fear is the vision of the future, and nobody else thinks about the future, only the man. He calculates his future. The animal does not calculate the future, and the future, the fear of the future, is the root of all suffering.”
Original:
Dicen que la naturaleza se agita, que los animales y las plantas presienten y se asustan cuando va a haber un eclipse, ahí está el miedo, en romper la rutina, algo que se sale de lo que haces todos los días, la capacidad para reír, para sufrir. El único animal que ríe y sufre es el ser humano, el único que gime mirando hacia el futuro, nadie más, ni mineral, ni planta, ni animal, el miedo es la visión del futuro y nadie más piensa en el futuro, sólo el hombre, calcular su futuro, el animal no calcula el futuro, y el futuro, el miedo al futuro, es la raíz de todo sufrimiento. En los documentales ves cómo en cuanto suena la sirena que anuncia el bombardeo, se apodera de todo el mundo el pánico, a pesar de que aún no se ve ningún avión en el cielo. Todo el mundo corre despavorido, grita, busca refugio, aunque el cielo está lo mismo de tranquilo y azul.
Chirbes, Rafael/ Crematorio
