虫の餌

解説

付記

野心の愚か者よ！　見世物になろうと狂うか。 どれほど壮麗な墓を築こうとも、 そこに住む「住人」は、それを理解も賞美もできぬ。 深く築け、高く築け、石を重ねよ。 だが草の根はあっさりとそれを押し広げ、砕く。 死者にとって時は一瞬―― 墓が塵となったのちに目覚めても、 眠りに就いたばかりだと思うだろう。 たとえ人類の営為の中で お前の墓だけが時の果てまで残ったとしても―― 何の益があろう。 石にこびりついた汚れとして永遠に残るだけだ。 ―― ジョエル・ハック

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Original

The finished product of which we are the raw material. The contents of the Taj Mahal, the Tombeau Napoleon and the Grantarium. Worms'-meat is usually outlasted by the structure that houses it, but "this too must pass away." Probably the silliest work in which a human being can engage is construction of a tomb for himself. The solemn purpose cannot dignify, but only accentuates by contrast the foreknown futility.

Additional notes

Ambitious fool! so mad to be a show! How profitless the labor you bestow Upon a dwelling whose magnificence The tenant neither can admire nor know. Build deep, build high, build massive as you can, The wanton grass-roots will defeat the plan By shouldering asunder all the stones In what to you would be a moment's span. Time to the dead so all unreckoned flies That when your marble is all dust, arise, If wakened, stretch your limbs and yawn— You'll think you scarcely can have closed your eyes. What though of all man's works your tomb alone Should stand till Time himself be overthrown? Would it advantage you to dwell therein Forever as a stain upon a stone? Joel Huck