{"id":33016,"date":"2021-01-02T05:00:41","date_gmt":"2021-01-02T04:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eden-saga.com\/en\/?p=33016"},"modified":"2024-12-14T21:20:11","modified_gmt":"2024-12-14T20:20:11","slug":"miguel-de-unamuno","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eden-saga.com\/en\/miguel-de-unamuno.html","title":{"rendered":"Miguel de Unamuno"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

For the classical period, Spain has Cervantes. But for modern times, Miguel de Unamuno is surely the greatest Spanish writer. An ardent defender of beautiful letters and just causes, he was at the same time poet, playwright, novelist and philosopher, combining a love of truth with a passion for the purest language.<\/span><\/p>\n

For all these qualities, Unamuno has forced the admiration of its readers beyond the borders, and every Spaniard is grateful to him. A vast and generous thought, a meticulous concern for the right word and the perfect expression, a desire to unite and bring together what the time has separated, Unamuno seduces by his righteousness, even if his opponents reproach him a quick change of ideas. For him, this so-called defect<\/span> only applies to little things, such as ideologies, such as politics<\/a>, such as the clans<\/a>, such as the parties he cursed.<\/p>\n

A great humanist<\/h4>\n

More a wise man than a philosopher, he always sided with common sense, cursing liars, braggarts and hairstylists. He tended to never hold his tongue when the cause seemed right. As soon as he opened his mouth, in defiance of the danger, nothing and no one could stop him. Not even him. We blamed him for that.<\/p>\n

I discovered him thirty years after his death, while I was studying philosophy at university. Not speaking Spanish to my chagrin, I read it in French. Traduttore traditore, say the Italians. To translate is to betray. Any translation struggles to capture the beauties of the original. I loved it anyway. The ideas are strong and unambiguous. The prose is beautiful which testifies to a deep intelligence as well as to the keenest sensitivity.<\/p>\n

Politically, he found himself embroiled in the nascent Francoism in spite of himself. In 1936, the civil war broke out, which can be seen as a dress rehearsal, on a reduced scale, of the Second World War. Franco is not Hitler, but there is a familiar scent …<\/p>\n

This year 1936 is also that of the death of Unamuno. From the start of the Spanish Civil War, the great man, in love with justice and freedom, spoke out in favor of the nationalists. But he quickly changed his mind. He condemns their exactions, tortures, and other bloody facts. He finds their war cry “Viva la muerte!” Abominable! Long live death? What next ? Unamuno is in the camp of life.<\/p>\n

Very quickly, Francisco Franco and the generals of the fascist junta did everything to bring him, at least in appearance, into their repugnant spider’s web. He made a decision and made it clear.<\/p>\n

\"\"Neither the nationalists nor the fascists found favor in his eyes. Unamuno reproaches both camps for their violence and their contempt for existences. It will cost him his job as university dean, but given the lads across the way, he’s getting away with it.<\/p>\n

Basque by origin, Miguel de Unamuno places himself resolutely above regions, provinces and even nations. His side, the only one he has always respected, is the human side. His family, humanity. His school, humanism. He belongs to an extinct race.<\/p>\n

Right now, other writers – and I’m not just thinking of the one speaking to you – are picking up on this torch of love for beauty and fairness. I didn’t say justice – is it even fair?<\/p>\n

I did not say right either, it has been the object of a cult that blinds. Descartes<\/a> played. I never miss the opportunity to throw banana peels under the too assured footsteps of all-rational defenders.<\/p>\n

You offend human nature, stuck robot ladies. Leave pure reason<\/a> and formal logic<\/a> to computers, since that’s all they can handle.<\/p>\n

Feeling and reason<\/h4>\n

On this question of the primacy of reason, Unamuno has his say, and as always he says it well.<\/p>\n

“Man, they say, is a reasonable animal. I do not know why he was not said to be an emotional or sentimental animal. It could be that what sets him apart from other animals is more the feeling than reason. I have more often seen a cat reason than I have seen him laugh or cry. Perhaps he is crying or laughing to himself, but on that account, -being that a crayfish solves quadratic equations in itself.”<\/em> (source)<\/a>Miguel de Unamuno, Le sentiment tragique de la vie, traduit de l’espagnol par Olivier Gaiffe<\/span><\/p>\n

The humanism of the 18th century defined human being far too narrowly: it defined him as being thinking instead of being alive.<\/p>