Why, oh, why is it, that for three years R-, O-, and I were so
friendly together and now suddenly--one word only about that other
female, about I-330, and.... Is it possible that that insanity
called love and jealousy does exist not only in the idiotic books of
the ancients? What seems most strange is that I, I!... Equations,
formulae, figures, and suddenly this! I can't understand it, I
can't! Tomorrow I shall go to R- and tell him.... No, it isn't
true; I shall not go; neither tomorrow nor day after tomorrow, nor
ever.... I can't, I do not want to see him. This is the end. Our
triangle is broken up.
I am alone. It is evening. There is a light fog. The sky is covered
by a thin milky-golden tissue. If I only knew what is there--higher.
If I only knew who I am. Which I am I?
RECORD TWELVE
The Delimitation of the Infinite
Angel
Meditations on Poetry
I continue to believe that I shall recover, that I may recover.
I slept very well. No dreams or any other symptoms of disease.
Dear O-90 will come tomorrow. Everything will again be simple,
regular and limited like a circle. I am not afraid of this word
"limited." The work of the highest faculty of man, judgment, is
always directed toward the constant limiting of the infinite,
toward the breaking up of the infinite into comfortably digestible
portions,--differentials. This is what gives divine beauty to my
element, mathematics. And it is exactly this beauty that that other
female lacks. But this last thought of mine is only an accidental
mental association.
These thoughts swarmed in my mind while I was listening to the
regular, rhythmic sounds of the underground railway. Silently I
followed the rhythm of its wheels and recited to myself R-'s verses
(from the book which he gave me yesterday), and I felt that behind
me some one was leaning over my shoulder and looking at the open
pages. I did not turn around but with the corner of my eye I noticed
pink ears, spread like wings, the double-curved ... like the
letter.... It was he, but I did not want to disturb him. I feigned
not to have noticed him. How he came in, I do not know. I did not
see him when I got into the car.
This incident, insignificant in itself, had an especially good
effect upon me; it invigorated me, I should say. It is pleasant to
feel that somebody's penetrating eye is watching you from behind
your shoulder, lovingly guarding you from making the most minute
mistake, from the most minute incorrect step. It may seem to you too
sentimental but I see in all this the materialization of the dream
of the ancients about a Guardian-Angel. How many things about which
the ancients had only dreams, are materialized in our life!
At the moment when I became aware of the presence of the
Guardian-Angel behind me I was enjoying a poem entitled "Happiness."
I think I am not mistaken when I say that it is a piece of rare
beauty and depth of thought. Here are the first four lines:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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