D'ali e D'aqui: Thomas Edward Lawrence ~ Os Sete Pilares da Sabedoria

sábado, 17 de dezembro de 2011

Thomas Edward Lawrence ~ Os Sete Pilares da Sabedoria

Todos os homens sonham, mas não da mesma forma. Os que sonham de noite, nos recessos poeirentos das suas mentes, acordam de manhã para verem que tudo, afinal, não passava de vaidade. Mas os que sonham acordados, esses são homens perigosos, pois realizam os seus sonhos de olhos abertos, tornando-os possíveis. — T.E. Lawrence, Os Sete Pilares da Sabedoria.

Seven Pillars of Wisdom (em português, Os Sete Pilares da Sabedoria) é um clássico da literatura mundial, designado por Winston Churchill como "um dos maiores livros já escritos na língua inglesa". Narra a participação de seu autor, Thomas Edward Lawrence, conhecido universalmente como Lawrence da Arábia, no movimento nacionalista árabe contra a dominação turca, como parte do esforço britânico na Primeira Guerra Mundial para derrotar a Alemanha, da qual a Turquia era aliada.

Seu título é uma alusão a uma frase da Bíblia, no Livro dos Provérbios (IX,1).

Escrito originalmente em 1919, Lawrence perde os manuscritos na Estação ferroviária de Reading. Uma segunda versão é finalizada no ano seguinte, mas, insatisfeito com o resultado, o autor a destrói. Finalmente em 1926, Lawrence escreve uma terceira versão, revisada por George Bernard Shaw e distribuído em uma edição artesanal restrita a amigos e escritores. Foi publicado pela primeira vez em 1935.

O escritor britânico E.M. Forster assim resume seu conteúdo: "Descreve a revolta na Arábia contra os turcos, vista por um inglês que nela tomou parte. No que seria aparentemente uma simples crônica militar, Lawrence da Arábia teceu um painel inusitado de retratos, descrições, filosofias, emoções, aventuras e sonhos. Para levar a cabo sua missão, serviu-se de uma extraordinária erudição, uma memória impecável, um estilo que ele próprio inventou...uma total desconfiança em si mesmo e uma fé ainda maior".

Em 1962 o épico do deserto é levado às telas de cinema. Sob a direção de David Lean, o filme Lawrence of Arabia ganhou sete oscars e a consagração do American Film Institute como um dos dez melhores filmes de todos os tempos.

Title

The title comes from the Book of Proverbs, 9:1: "Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars" (KJV). Prior to the First World War, Lawrence had begun work on a scholarly book about seven great cities of the Middle East,^[2] to be titled Seven Pillars of Wisdom. When war broke out, it was still incomplete and Lawrence stated that he ultimately destroyed the manuscript.

The Seven Pillars of Wisdom rock formation inWadi Rum

Later, during the Arab Revolt of 1917–18, Lawrence based his operations in Wadi Rum (now a part of Jordan), and one of the more impressive rock formations in the area was named by Lawrence "The Seven Pillars of Wisdom".^{[citation needed]} In the end, Lawrence decided to use this evocative title for the memoirs he penned in the aftermath of the war.

While the title might seem better suited to the former book than the latter, a line from the dedicatory poem (to "S.A.", possibly Selim Ahmed) at the start of the book helps explain Lawrence's interpretation of the Biblical "seven pillars" and their relevance to the Arab Revolt:

I loved you, so I drew these tides of

Men into my hands

And wrote my will across the

Sky and stars

To earn you freedom, the seven

Pillared worthy house,

That your eyes might be

Shining for me

When we came

Death seemed my servant on the

Road, 'til we were near

And saw you waiting:

When you smiled and in sorrowful

Envy he outran me

And took you apart:

Into his quietness

Love, the way-weary, groped to your body,

Our brief wage

Ours for the moment

Before Earth's soft hand explored your shape

And the blind

Worms grew fat upon

Your substance

Men prayed me that I set our work,

The inviolate house,

As a memory of you

But for fit monument I shattered it,

Unfinished: and now

The little things creep out to patch

Themselves hovels

In the marred shadow

Of your gift.

A variant last line of that first stanza—reading "When we came"—appears in some editions; however, the 1922 Oxford text (considered the definitive version; see below) has "When I came". The poem originated as prose, submitted by letter to Robert Graves, who edited the work heavily into its current form, rewriting an entire stanza and correcting the others.

External links

Project Gutenberg Australia hosts a free eBook of Seven Pillars of Wisdom (1926); note that copyright may apply in countries other than Australia - Zip file, Text file
Seven Pillars of Wisdom (1926) in HTML, the Project Gutenberg Australia text converted by Wes Jones (copyright caution still applies)
Seven Pillars of Wisdom

Obras

Seven Pillars of Wisdom, um relato da contribuição de Lawrence na Revolta Árabe. (ISBN 0-8488-0562-3)
Revolt in the Desert, uma versão abreviada Seven Pillars of Wisdom. (ISBN 1-56619-275-7)
The Mint, um relato da recruta de Lawrence na Royal Air Force. (ISBN 0-393-00196-2)
Crusader Castles, tese de Oxford de Lawrence. (ISBN 0-19-822964-X)
The Odyssey of Homer, tradução do original grego por Lawrence. (ISBN 0-19-506818-1)
The Forest Giant, por Adrien Le Corbeau, novela, traduzida do francês por Lawrence, 1924.
The Letters of T.E. Lawrence, escolhidas e organizadas por Malcolm Brown. (ISBN 0-460-04733-7)
The Letters of T.E. Lawrence, organizadas por David Garnett. (ISBN 0-88355-856-4)

To S.A.

I loved you, so I drew these tides of men into my hands and wrote my will across the sky in stars
To earn you Freedom, the seven-pillared worthy house, that your eyes might be shining for me
                                              When we came.

Death seemed my servant on the road, till we were near and saw you waiting:
When you smiled, and in sorrowful envy he outran me and took you apart:
                                        Into his quietness.

Love, the way-weary, groped to your body, our brief wage ours for the moment
Before earth's soft hand explored your shape, and the blind worms grew fat upon
                                            Your substance.

Men prayed me that I set our work, the inviolate house, as a menory of you.
But for fit monument I shattered it, unfinished: and now
The little things creep out to patch themselves hovels in the marred shadow
                                              Of your gift.

Mr Geoffrey Dawson persuaded All Souls College to give me leisure, in 1919-1920, to write about the Arab Revolt. Sir Herbert Baker let me live and work in his Westminster houses.

The book so written passed in 1921 into proof; where it was fortunate in the friends who criticized it. Particularly it owes its thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Bernard Shaw for countless suggestions of great value and diversity: and for all the present semicolons.

It does not pretend to be impartial. I was fighting for my hand, upon my own midden. Please take it as a personal narrative piece out of memory. I could not make proper notes: indeed it would have been a breach of my duty to the Arabs if I had picked such flowers while they fought. My superior officers, Wilson, Joyce, Dawnay, Newcombe and Davenport could each tell a like tale. The same is true of Stirling, Young, Lloyd and Maynard: of Buxton and Winterton: of Ross, Stent and Siddons: of Peake, Homby, Scott-Higgins and Garland: of Wordie, Bennett and MacIndoe: of Bassett, Scott, Goslett, Wood and Gray: of Hinde, Spence and Bright: of Brodie and Pascoe, Gilman and Grisenthwaite, Greenhill, Dowsett and Wade: of Henderson, Leeson, Makins and Nunan.

And there were many other leaders or lonely fighters to whom this self-regardant picture is not fair. It is still less fair, of course, like all war-stories, to the un-named rank and file: who miss their share of credit, as they must do, until they can write the despatches.

T. E. S.

Cranwell, 15.8.1926