José Martí: Oscar Wilde on war and aesthetics
Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts
José Martí
From Oscar Wilde (1882)
Translated by Elinor Randall
…Wilde addressed the North American:
“…Beauty is the only thing that time cannot kill. Philosophies die, religious creeds vanish, but the beautiful lives forever. It is the gift of all the ages, the sustenance of all peoples everywhere, and an eternal treasure. Wars will be of little account when all men love the same things with equal intensity, when a common intellectual climate unites them.
“England is still a powerful sovereign by virtue of her military might; and our renaissance would give her a sovereignty to endure long after her yellow leopards tire of the roar of battle, and the rose upon her shield is no longer tinged with the blood of combat…”
” and the rose upon her shield is no longer tinged with the blood of combat…”
‘Wars will be of little account when all men love the same things with equal intensity, when a common intellectual climate unites them.’ That is true. I will use this statement in my publications.