Disappearing Animals: A Melancholy Elegy for Beautiful Creatures

Author: [French] Simon, translated by Zhang Xiaoming
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-11-01
Features: Animals open their eyes wide, gazing at the void. Only our eyes seem to invert, encircling it like a trap, surrounding its free exit and everything beyond. We only understand this through the animal's face, because we turn infants over and over, forcing them to gaze backward, at form, rather than the profound void that appears so deep in the animal's eyes, free from death. Only we can see it; the free animal, with death behind and God before, steps into eternity as it walks. Animals open their eyes wide, gazing at the void. Only our eyes seem to invert, encircling it like a trap, surrounding its free exit and everything beyond. We only understand this through the animal's face, because we turn infants over and over, forcing them to gaze backward, at form, rather than the profound void that appears so deep in the animal's eyes, free from death. Only we can see it; the free animal, with death behind and God before, steps into eternity as it walks.