Condemned to a Life on a Bookshelf
In this passage from Three Horses by Erri De Luca, the narrator explains why he reads used books and the kind of life and death he believes books should have.
Ultimately, he sees books as reflecting our very own existence and as such, he wishes them to be able to die together with their readers and of the same ailment. This in order to avoid them being “condemned to a life on a bookshelf.”
Alberico Collina
“I read used books because the much-thumbed pages soiled by greasy fingers weigh more on the eyes, because every copy of a book can belong to many lives and books should be left unattended in public places and move together with passersby, and should die like those who take them for a little while, consumed by illnesses, infected, drowned together with those committing suicide, stuffed in a stove in winter, torn from the hands of children in order to be turned into tiny boats, in other words, they should die of everything but boredom and private property, condemned to a life on a bookshelf.”
From Three Horses by Erri De Luca (my translation)
(in the original Italian)
“Leggo gli usati perché le pagine molto sfogliate e unte dalle dita pesano di più negli occhi, perché ogni copia di libro può appartenere a molte vite e i libri dovrebbero stare incustoditi nei posti pubblici e spostarsi insieme ai passanti che se li portano dietro per un poco e dovrebbero morire come loro, consumati dai malanni, infetti, affogati giù da un ponte insieme ai suicidi, ficcati in una stufa d'inverno, strappati dai bambini per farne barchette, insomma ovunque dovrebbero morire tranne che di noia e di proprietà privata, condannati a vita in uno scaffale.”
da Tre Cavalli di Erri De Luca
In this passage from Three Horses by Erri De Luca, the narrator explains why he reads used books and the kind of life and death he believes books should have.
Ultimately, he sees books as reflecting our very own existence and as such, he wishes them to be able to die together with their readers and of the same ailment. This in order to avoid them being “condemned to a life on a bookshelf.”
Alberico Collina
“I read used books because the much-thumbed pages soiled by greasy fingers weigh more on the eyes, because every copy of a book can belong to many lives and books should be left unattended in public places and move together with passersby, and should die like those who take them for a little while, consumed by illnesses, infected, drowned together with those committing suicide, stuffed in a stove in winter, torn from the hands of children in order to be turned into tiny boats, in other words, they should die of everything but boredom and private property, condemned to a life on a bookshelf.”
From Three Horses by Erri De Luca (my translation)
(in the original Italian)
“Leggo gli usati perché le pagine molto sfogliate e unte dalle dita pesano di più negli occhi, perché ogni copia di libro può appartenere a molte vite e i libri dovrebbero stare incustoditi nei posti pubblici e spostarsi insieme ai passanti che se li portano dietro per un poco e dovrebbero morire come loro, consumati dai malanni, infetti, affogati giù da un ponte insieme ai suicidi, ficcati in una stufa d'inverno, strappati dai bambini per farne barchette, insomma ovunque dovrebbero morire tranne che di noia e di proprietà privata, condannati a vita in uno scaffale.”
da Tre Cavalli di Erri De Luca
RSS Feed
