The End of Everything. Unamuno, Life 6.18
Unamuno
quotes Leopardi's description of the heat-death of the universe,
which becomes visible in starkly rational terms after modern
scientists formulate the second law of thermodynamics. In imaginative
terms, many ancients also contemplated the end of everything solid we
know, a moment in which the world must suffer that which we call
death, when it happens to us.
¿Recordáis
el fin de aquel
Cántico
del gallo salvaje,
que en prosa escribiera el desesperado Leopardi, el víctima de la
razón, que no logró llegar a creer? «Tiempo llegará —dice— en
que este Universo y la Naturaleza misma se habrán extinguido. Y al
modo que de grandísimos reinos e imperios humanos y sus maravillosas
acciones que fueron en otra edad famosísimas, no queda hoy ni señal
ni fama alguna, así igualmente del mundo entero y de las infinitas
vicisitudes y calamidades de las cosas creadas no quedará ni un solo
vestigio, sino un silencio desnudo y una quietud profundísima
llenarán el espacio inmenso. Así este arcano admirable y espantoso
de la existencia universal, antes de haberse declarado o dado a
entender, se extinguirá y perderáse.» A lo cual llaman ahora, con
un término científico y muy racionalista, la
entropía.
Muy
bonito, ¿no? Spencer inventó aquello del homogéneo primitivo, del
cual no se sabe cómo pudo brotar heterogeneidad alguna. Pues bien;
esto de la entropía es una especie de homogéneo último, de estado
de perfecto equilibrio. Para un alma ansiosa de vida, lo más
parecido a la nada que puede darse.
Do
you recall the end of the Song of the Savage Rooster,
that fable written by Leopardi, another desperate victim of reason
who could not contrive to believe? “Time will come,” the rooster
says, “in which this universe, and nature herself, will have ended,
quenching their long fires. And even as there remains today no mark
nor memory of certain great kingdoms and empires from the past,
though their works were marvelous and in other ages most renowned, so
in the end of all ages shall there remain no trace whatsoever of all
this world, with its infinite orders and calamities—the
life and being of created things.
Then there will be only naked silence, a rest and quiet so deep that
it fills the entire void of empty space. This will be the end of the
wonderful and awful mystery of all existence: before it can be
declared or understood, its fires will be
scattered, and go out” (†).
This is what we call entropy
today, speaking scientifically and very rationally. Very nice, isn't
it? Herbert Spencer imagined a primitive homogeneity at the origins
of the universe, a primordial unity from which it remains unknown how
any heterogeneity or diversity might develop. Very good! Entropy
is a species of final
homogeneity, a terminal
state of perfect and permanent equilibrium. For
the soul worn ragged and anxious by life, it is the nearest
approximation to nothing
that can be found.
---
(†)
In this fable (composed
in 1824 in Recanati), the
Italian philosopher Leopardi puts a speech on the vanity of mortality
into the mouth of a giant rooster. Unamuno translates the last lines
of that speech: «Tempo verrà, che esso universo, e
la natura medesima, sarà spenta. E nel modo che di grandissimi regni
ed imperi umani, e loro maravigliosi moti, che furono famosissimi in
altre età, non resta oggi segno né fama alcuna; parimente del mondo
intero, e delle infinite vicende e calamità delle cose create, non
rimarrà pure un vestigio; ma un silenzio nudo, e una quiete
altissima, empieranno lo spazio immenso. Così questo arcano mirabile
e spaventoso dell'esistenza universale, innanzi di essere dichiarato
né inteso, si dileguerà e perderassi».