FATHER [Almost soundlessly, with mellifluous modesty]: All I wanted to know sir, is if you, as you are now, can truly see yourself... as you see, for example, in the distance of time, what you were at one time, with all the illusions you had back then, with all those things in and around you as they seemed to you then - and which were actually real to you - well then, sir, if you think back to those illusions which now you no longer have, to all those things which now no longer 'seem' to be for you what they 'were' at one time, don't you feel - not necessarily the boards on this stage - but the ground, the very ground beneath your feet give way - when you deduce that in the same way 'this', the way you feel right now, all the reality of today, the way it is, is destined to seem an illusion to you tomorrow?
DIRECTOR [not having understood well and astounded by the specious argument]: And so what? And what are we supposed to conclude from all this?
FATHER: Oh, not a thing, sir.
from Six Characters in Search of an Author by Luigi Pirandello (1921)
No comments:
Post a Comment