C’è Specchio e specchio: There’s Mirror and Mirror

C’è Specchio e specchio:

There’s Mirror and Mirror

The text explores the contrast between appearance and reality, between surface and depth, between outer image and inner substance. The initial comparison between a calm sea and nighttime silence draws the reader into the core of the reflection: what appears quiet may conceal underground turbulence. This literary topos is then transferred to human interiority: what invisible current stirs the human heart?

The analogy continues with the mirror, which becomes a symbol of confrontation with oneself, but also with the divine image. The text reveals a tension between the superficial reflection of the Ego and the depth of the Mirror of Deeds, that is, an ethical-existential judgment that goes beyond physical appearance. The biblical reference to “Image and Likeness” is evident, concluding the composition with a powerful theological question: Who should reflect in us?

There’s Mirror and Mirror

The appearance of a calm sea
when the water,
in the absence of wind,
settles down
and takes on the shape
of a flat board,
has the same value
as the pseudo nighttime silence.
Everyone, or almost everyone, sleeps,
yet beneath the surface of night,
there is always a sound,
even if sporadic, it is there.
Submarine currents
move hidden in the depths,
yet the sea appears still.
And in the depth of ourselves,
what current stirs
our heart?
What noise disrupts
our thoughts?
Or is it perhaps they themselves
the cause of everything
that disturbs and agitates us?
And if we were meant to be
the smooth surface
upon which God,
reflecting and mirroring Himself,
must see Himself?
Before a mirror,
the image always appears
of that cumbersome Ego
which shows itself in form,
physical, external,
a moving vehicle,
for as long as
we are allowed to move
and act
in this earthly life
which is not eternal,
but before the Mirror,
the true one,
the Mirror of Deeds,
what do we see?
Or rather:
how do we wish to reflect ourselves?
And above all,
which Image and Likeness
is meant to be reflected?

Florence, June 15, 2023 – 3:20 a.m.

Original photo: Tiziana Nardini

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