216 chapter five
«Five: Of My Intimate Experience of Things»
«Six: Of Fighting, Tearing and Biting, and Death»
«Seven: Of the Appearance of Truth»
«Eight: Of My Meaningless Life»
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ljѠǃ݇Ѣᄸ⣀ेc/uᳯᕫϡ(ࠄz)䎇NJ
ljϝǃ݇Ѣ咥ᱫ᠓䯈䞠ⱘ؛ᵰⳳي✊NJ
ljಯǃ݇Ѣਚ༈ਚ㛥ⱘϢᛍᰃ⫳䴲ⱘᙊNJ
ljѨǃ݇Ѣ៥ᇍџ⠽ⱘ҆ᆚᛳফNJ
lj݁ǃ݇ѢḐ᭫ǃᩩ⅏ѵNJ
ljϗǃ݇Ѣⳳᅲⱘਜ⦄NJ
ljܿǃ݇Ѣ៥ⱘ᮴ᛣНⱘ⫳⌏NJ«What the Eagle Says» contains many moment of metamorphosis.
Take this stanza in «Of My Intimate Experience of Things»:
56/ Thereupon I shun my flesh and turn into a drop of perfume, actually
drowning an ant. Thereupon I turn into an ant drilling my way into an elephant’s
brain, upsetting it so that it stamps all four of its legs. Thereupon I turn into an
elephant, my entire body exuding a great stench. Thereupon I turn into a great
stench, and those who cover their noses when they smell me are men. Thereupon
I turn into a man, and a plaything of fate.But metamorphosis doesn’t quite cover what is going on here. I appears
to be a mental-linguistic agency, autonomous but without a home of
its own. Roaming from one body to another, animate or inanimate,
I can occupy divergent points of view:
58/ Thereupon I turn into my posterity and let the rain test if I am waterproof.
Thereupon I turn into rain, and splash upon the bald head of an intellectual.
Thereupon I turn into the intellectual, detesting the world and its ways, and
I pick up a stone from the ground and hurl it at the oppressor. Thereupon I turn
into stone and oppressor at the same time: when I am hit by me, that sets both
of my brains roaring.In addition to metamorphosis, then, we may speak of metaphor, in its
literal meaning of transfer. Apparently, it is not just I that is capable of
transfer, but others as well. In «Of Fighting, Tearing and Biting, and
Death», we read:
64/... I need but feign to be an eagle, and a man will feign to be me.