The lecturer was speaking: "The only way to go beyond work is
through work. It is not that work itself is valuable; we surmount work
by work. The real value of work lies in the strength of self-denial."
Once he had seen a reproduction
of an engraving called "Hell of Loneliness" and had thought it curious. In
it a man was floating unsteadily in the air, his eyes wide with fright, and
the space around him, far from being empty, was so filled with the
semi-transparent shadows of dead persons that he could scarcely
move. The dead, each with a different expression, were trying to push
one another away, talking ceaselessly to the man. What was this "Hell
of Loneliness"? he wondered. Perhaps they had misnamed it, he had
thought then, but now he could understand it very well. Loneliness was
an unsatisfied thirst for illusion.
یک بار تصویری حکاکی به نام "جهنم تنهایی" دید و به نظرش عجیب آمد.
در آن مردی در هوا معلق بود، با چشمان باز و وحشتزده و فضای اطراف او
به جای خالی شدن، چنان از سایه‌های تقریبا نامرئی از افراد مرده پر شده بود
که به سختی می‌توانست تکان بخورد.
مردگان، هر یک با حالتی متفاوت تلاش می‌کردند تا دیگری را از سر راه خود
کنار بزنند و یک‌ریز با مرد حرف می‌زدند.
تعجب کرد چه چیز این "جهنم تنهایی" است؟ فکر کرد شاید اشتباهی اسمش را این
گذاشته بودند ولی حالا به خوبی توانست درک کند. تنهایی تشنگی برطرف نشده توهم بود.
Woman in the Dunes
زن در ریگ روان
Suna no onna / Kōbō Abe