 |
| Giulio Bargellini Ulysses ca. 1895 oil on canvas (sketch) private collection |
 |
| Viscardo Carton Académie ca. 1883-86 oil on canvas Galleria d'Arte Moderna Achille Forti, Verona |
 |
| Angelo Dall'Oca Bianca Académie 1876 oil on canvas Galleria d'Arte Moderna Achille Forti, Verona |
 |
| Annunziato Vitrioli Académie ca. 1850-70 oil on canvas Pinacoteca Civica di Reggio Calabria |
 |
| Hippolyte Flandrin Youth by the Sea 1836 oil on canvas Musée du Louvre |
 |
| Théodore Géricault Shipwreck Survivor (detail) ca. 1817-18 oil on canvas National Gallery, London |
 |
| Pieter Christoffel Wonder Personification of Time ca. 1810 oil on canvas Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
 |
| Pierre-Paul Prud'hon Young God Zephyr dropping into a Pool ca. 1814 oil on canvas Musée du Louvre |
 |
| Jacques-Louis David Cupid and Psyche (detail) 1817 oil on canvas Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio |
 |
| François-Édouard Picot Cupid and Psyche (detail) 1817 oil on canvas Musée du Louvre |
 |
| Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot St Sebastian ca. 1850-55 oil on canvas Musée du Louvre |
 |
| Edward Burne-Jones The Wheel of Fortune (detail) 1883 oil on canvas Musée d'Orsay, Paris |
 |
| Edward Burne-Jones The Wheel of Fortune (detail) 1883 oil on canvas Musée d'Orsay, Paris |
 |
| William-Adolphe Bouguereau Dante and Virgil in Hell with Capocchio and Gianni Schicchi 1850 oil on canvas Musée d'Orsay, Paris |
 |
| William-Adolphe Bouguereau Dante and Virgil in Hell with Capocchio and Gianni Schicchi (detail) 1850 oil on canvas Musée d'Orsay, Paris |
from To the One Who is Reading Me
You are invulnerable. Didn't they deliver
(those forces that control your destiny)
the certainty of dust? Couldn't it be
your irreversible time is that river
in whose bright mirror Heraclitus read
his brevity? A marble slab is saved
for you, one you won't read, already graved
with city, epitaph, dates of the dead.
And other men are also dreams of time,
not hardened bronze, purified gold. They're dust
like you . . .
the certainty of dust? Couldn't it be
your irreversible time is that river
in whose bright mirror Heraclitus read
his brevity? A marble slab is saved
for you, one you won't read, already graved
with city, epitaph, dates of the dead.
And other men are also dreams of time,
not hardened bronze, purified gold. They're dust
like you . . .
– Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986), translated by Tony Barnstone (2012)