A
LETTER TO AN ELEPHANT
English
translation of a french article which appeared today (11.9.08) in the
blog: http://maboheme.space-blogs.com/ of Mr Jacques Petit 23 March
1997, Tanzania,
Translated
into English by Mario Perera Kadawata
An
agitated night. How to find sleep in the midst of felines and buffaloes?
A hyena weeps. What is that sustained noise of crushed leaves? Something
massive is constantly beating against the wall of the hotel. We get
up and peer into the scrubland.
An
enormous hippopotamus is grazing under our window. Bulldozer like he
pushes puffs, grunts, and foams. Going back to bed my eyes fall on these
lines written by Romain Garry in 1968.
Dear
Mr.Elephant, There is no doubt that your extinction will be the beginning
of a world entirely made for man. But permit me to say this, my old
friend; in a world entirely made for man it could well happen that there
be no more place for man himself. Thus you and I my dear Mr.Elephant
we find ourself in the same boat, pushed into oblivion by the same powerful
wind of absolute rationalism. In this society so materialistic and unimaginative,
poets, writers, artists, dreamers and elephants are mere stumbling blocks.”
I cannot sleep anymore. But as long as hippopotamuses and elephants
come to graze under my window. I will still have the immense joy of
pretending to be human.
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