Excerpts from The Lectern of a Firefly

Dante created a language to write his poem. This reveals the essential aspiration to achieve lofty heights. In true art, all is Babel.

*

Death caresses us, in our wrinkles its fingerprints are seen.

*

To cross a bridge. To be with someone. And to realise that the only thing that united us was the bridge.

*

When fighting a dwarf, beware of low punches.

*

No flower survives two springs.

*

This afternoon I began to look for the meaning of life, then for the meaning of reflection. What I finally discovered was that I had squandered the meaning of the afternoon.

*

The ghosts have gone from my heart. Now the silence is terrifying.

*

When someone says they have a good opinion of me, I am left wondering who was trying to fool whom.

*

Only hell proves the existence of the soul.

*

I recommend the devil’s advocate – some of his clients have been canonized.

*

You can laugh in the face of the Devil only if you do not realise you are in front of a mirror.

*

He never managed to find out which of his two lives wasn’t the false one.

*

There are people who never mature; instead they yield to the weaknesses of old age just as they did to those of youth.

*

When I think about that man, I realise there is nothing more bloodthirsty than a flea.

*

For him, truth is a way of hurting. The more it hurts, the truer it seems to him.

*

The teeth I lose over time…the bite of the passing years.

*

Only a heart loaded with riches can be given away for nothing.

*

Youth is only long enough for three or four eternal loves.

*

The first thing for those whose life has no value, is to try to share it with someone else.

*

In love, the best defence is retreat.

*

Simplicity is the luxury of the great.

*

If you light a candle, you create a gathering of shadows.

*

To avoid committing suicide, one must go from one death to the next.

*

Naivety is a certain Midas touch of the spirit.

*

At times I believe in eternity. But only for an instant.

*

My misery is so tiny. I think that is why I feel so miserable.

*

We are only our own version of the other.

*

For some, the only way to leave their mark is by stepping on people.

*

Some are so made for moderation that in them any talent is an extravagance.

*

He didn’t kill time. He tortured it.

*

At the end of his journey, Columbus found himself used, old, and alone: “The saddest fate of a man is to become a fool because of his dreams.”

*

There are mistakes that you pay for with your own life. Being born, for example.

*

The Oligarchy plays chess: “Checkmate to the pawn.”

*

Before Plato, the myth was told of a cave in which a man, who had managed to leave, dreamed of not having done so.

*

He was a supergenius: he invented invincible questions.

*

The clown came to Babel and revealed the truth: “Our work is an attack on what is divine.” When they heard what he said, everyone burst into fits of laughter. The clown explained why. Everyone dissolved into laughter again. When they saw that he was in tears, they laughed even more. Then they saw each other laughing and this made them laugh even louder…
………….It was unnecessary to muddle up the language.

*

He invented formidable enemies. The best thing in his life was his enemies.

*

Unlike the great people of Antiquity, the English, for climatic reasons, have no gift for contemplative thought about the sky and the harmony of its systems. That explains their pedestrian practical sense: those who cannot get lost in the heights are only interested in controlling their feet.

Bios

Marco Aurelio Ángel-Lara

Marco Aurelio Ángel-Lara (Mexico, 1970) is a Mexican writer whose book of aphorisms, El atril de la luciérnaga, was published in 2011 by Arlequín. Marco has been anthologized in collections of Hispanoamerican poetry and awarded with poetry, essay, and short script international prizes. He obtained a Ph.D. in Critical and Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. He has taught philosophy and Latin American literature for several years at different universities in Mexico and Europe.

Marco Aurelio Ángel-Lara

Marco Aurelio Ángel-Lara is both author and translator of El atril de la luciérnaga (The Lectern of a Firefly).

El atril de la luciérnaga. Copyright (c) Marco Aurelio Ángel-Lara, 2011. English translation copyright (c) Marco Aurelio Ángel-Lara, 2012.