From Rilke, 'Black Cat':
But all at once,
As if awakened, she turns her face to yours;
And with a shock, you see yourself, tiny,
Inside the golden amber of her eyeballs
Suspended, like a prehistoric insect.
(if anyone has the Paul Muldoon translation, I would be grateful if you could post it in the comments)
Whereas an animal is non-human rather than inhuman, the look of an animal might well be described as inhuman. No? Is it because in it ‘the human’ is estranged, rendered unrecognisable? In the animal's eye you sense an outside that can never be recuperated or made familiar.
No comments:
Post a Comment