José Martí

THOUGHTS

Carlos Ripoll

ON ART

141.- Whenever the word "art" is spoken, the will feels chained to a strange and powerful force, inspiration is heightened, there is a sensation akin to the fulfillment of happiness, and a grateful rejoicing for a blessing. Art means flight from vulgarity, holding fast to greatness, forgetting ourselves, ennobling ourselves, and living. The only way to forgive our Creator is to forget the burdensome, incomprehensible and mad gift of life.

142.- Art affirms the feelings it expresses. They grow in our spirit by being held at all times before our eyes in a beautiful form. And the artist performs still another service: by showing the beauty of a certain feeling, he accustoms our spirit to see it that way and prepares us to reject all things blemished and false in those times of frenzy when thought is difficult.

143.- What is art if not the quickest way to arrive at the triumph of truth and simultaneously to express it in a way that will endure and sparkle in minds and hearts?

144.- Truth should be given to people covered with honey. It should be made cheerful and pleasant, so that, seduced by its external appearance, people will approach it and listen to it without realizing they are hearing it.

145.- There is still one salvation for immoral peoples: art. Art is the shape of the divine, the revelation of the extraordinary. It is the revenge that man took on heaven for having made him man, by stealing the notes of heaven's harp and unraveling the golden light in the bosom of its clouds. The rhythm of poetry, the echoes of music, the beatific ecstasy that the contemplation of a beautiful painting brings to the soul, and the soft melancholy that overtakes the spirit after these superhuman contacts are mystical raiments, gentle prophecies of a time when all will be light.

146.- Beauty is a natural right. Where it appears, light, strength, and happiness arise. A beautiful being is a benefactor. Beauty is a kind of divine ministry.

147.- Art is a form of respect, but when it is exaggerated, it is disrespect.

148.- Beauty must be cared for, like liberty, because truth itself travels faster on well-kept paths.

149.- In literature one should not be Narcissus but a missionary. One should not write to show off and, like a peacock, fan a huge tail, but rather to better one's fellow man.

150.- Who is the ignoramus who says that poetry is not indispensable to nations? There are peoples so shortsighted that they think there's nothing to the fruit beyond the skin. Poetry that unites and drives apart, that fortifies or distresses, that sustains or destroys spirits, that gives faith and encouragement or takes them away is more necessary to nations than industry itself. The latter gives people the means to subsist, while the former gives them the desire and strength to live.

151.- We should not talk of writers but of thinkers, in just punishment for having given a destructive preference to the art of writing over the art of thinking. Good writers must be something more than tailors or daubers of façades. Every sentence that does not contain a thought worthy of being preserved, and every word that does not contribute to it, should be erased from the paper.

152.- What the poet of today must do is counsel people to love one another, show the beauty of the world in such a way that it appears in his verses as if he were painting it with colors, and punish with his poetry, as with a whip, those who want to deprive people of their freedom, who steal the money of their people with roguish laws, or who want the people of their countries to obey them like sheep and lick their hands like dogs.

153.- I love form. I revere literature as the gold in which beautiful thought abides, just as for Catholics the body of Christ abides in the chalice.

154.- A writer who fits thought to form like a blade to the scabbard has style. Covering the scabbard with paper or gold braid will not improve the temper of the blade.

155.- In a country without freedom literature can only be a mourner or a courtesan.

156.- To be familiar with many literatures is the best means of freeing oneself from the tyranny of some, just as there is no way to save oneself from the danger of blindly following one philosophic system other than to take nourishment from all, being aware that a single spirit pulses in all.

157.- Poetry is suffering... The poet is devoured by the fire he irradiates. There is not one verse that does not burn him. The most brilliant glow comes from the most barbarous suffering.

158.- When language does not clothe a generous thought or an eternal idea it is nothing but smoke.

159.- Poets and painters, like birds, make nests of the straws which they find. With them to see is to know. A man's true birthday is the day when, after having examined others, he begins to live by himself. (Original in English by Martí)

160.- Perhaps a superiority of painting over literature is that it compels reflection, study, amelioration, and changes. The pen has wings, and travels too rapidly; the brush has weight, and does not fly so swiftly. (Original in English by Martí.)

161.- Unhappy indeed is the man who has not felt a powerful force growing within him when looking at a beautiful painting, and inexpressible words crowding at his throat out of joy and emotion. Such are the eternal laws of art that escape the legislators of the physical world.

162.- Sometimes irregularity is artistic, but in painting there should be logic in the accidents of such irregularity, just as the whims of poetic fancy should be consequential and unified. Monotony is fierce because it crushes everything, even the sanctity and usages of love.

163.- Music is the most beautiful form of beauty... Music is man escaped from himself; it is a longing for what has no limits born from what is limited and narrow; it is the necessary harmony that announces the perfect harmony to come.

164.- Beauty soothes. A beautiful song is a good deed. He who brings guests to the heart brings it companionship in this bitter life. A good song is a good guest.

165.- Human nature is noble and inclined to what is best. After knowing beauty and the morality that comes from it, people can never after live without morality and beauty.