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GIORGIO AGAMBEN — SEVEN STAGES OF THE NIGHT
GIORGIO AGAMBEN Sept. 16, 2022, Quodlibet
MY TRANSLATION OF THE ORIGINAL IN ITALIAN
“There are seven parts of the night: the Vespers, the twilight, Conticinium, Intempest, Gallicinium, Matins, and Diluculus.”
Isidore, Etymologies
I. Vespers.
“Vespers is so called from the western star, which immediately follows sunset and precedes the darkness that follows.”
Vespers is the sunset of the West, announced more than a century ago and therefore now definitely accomplished. We are thus in the darkness that follows the sunset, of which twilight is the first figure. It is remarkable that since Spengler penned his irrefutable diagnosis no one among the most intelligent readers has disputed its validity. That the West was ripe for the sunset was then as now a widespread feeling, even if, then as now, we pretend that everything continues as before. Thinking about the end, even just managing to represent it, is indeed a daunting task, for which we lack adequate terms. The ancients and Christians of the first centuries, who expected the end of the world…
