Droll thing life is—that mysterious arrangement of merciless logic for a futile purpose. The most you can hope from it is some knowledge of yourself—that comes too late—a crop of unextinguishable regrets. I have wrestled with death. It is the most unexciting contest you can imagine. It takes place in an impalpable greyness, with nothing underfoot, with nothing around, without spectators, without clamour, without glory, without the great desire of victory, without the great fear of defeat, in a sickly atmosphere of tepid scepticism, without much belief in your own right, and still less in that of your adversary. If such is the form of ultimate wisdom, then life is a greater riddle than some of us think it to be.

From “Heart of Darkness” by Joseph Conrad

“Droll thing life is.”  I have over and over heard these words since I was a child. In Spanish, we call it ‘cachondeo’( ca-shon-de-o), which has a stronger sound and a sharper meaning than in English. This word has to do with a brief period of fun when we forget all our stresses and worries.  For example, you might go to the running of the bulls in Pamplona and watch the animals from a safe area. If you later celebrate your intact anatomy with the right combination of drinking, dancing and singing, this merriment is called a ‘cachondeo.’ Joseph Conrad uses the term as life being something inexplicably odd “a greater riddle than some of us think it to be.”  Droll also means ‘whimsically humorous,’ which comes close to the Spanish translation.  Regardless of the meaning, just enjoy Conrad’s majestic prose: “Life—that mysterious arrangement of merciless logic for a futile purpose.”

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