As usual, the poem is superior …
Romano Guardini:
One readily sees how little man today is prepared to take charge of this awful inheritance of power acquired up to the present moment, when one adds to these dangers the lulling sense of security for all with which man now accepts the current power culture. […]
Nature is rising up in that very form which subdued the wilderness—in the form of power itself. All the abysses of primeval ages yawn before man, all the wild choking growth of the long-dead forests press forward from this second wilderness, all the monsters of the desert wastes, all the horrors of darkness are once more upon man. He stands again before chaos, a chaos more dreadful than the first because most men go their own complacent ways without seeing, because scientifically-educated gentlemen everywhere deliver their speeches as always, because the machines are running on schedule and because the authorities function as usual.
FACE THE ANIMAL
It’s not always easy
to face the animal
even if it looks at you
without fear or hate
it does so fixedly
and seems to disdain
the subtle secret it carries
it seems better to feel
the obviousness of the world
that noisily day and night
drills and damages
the silence of the soul.Translated from the French by Heather McHugh