Translator’s Foreword

Abstract

Roberto Marchesini’s first published work is a lyric prose poem fable about the god Pan that is highly inflected with biological knowledge and observation. Following on his ethological and entomological studies with Giorgio Celli and many hours of field observations, Marchesini was moved to write this work which is equal parts scientific investigation and romantic praise of the natural world. Fitting into the ancient literary form of the fable, in which animals bear subjectivity, will, and personality, he writes an account that pays heed to the actions and interactions of a plethora of creatures. We might say that the fable is a form of natural history or natural literature. While it undoubtedly fits into a defined literary tradition, it also requires, and indeed centers upon, careful naturalistic observation. The figure Pan, often associated with Dionysus, is an important one that sheds light on much of Marchesini’s work and thought. Figures and concepts from Nietzsche’s work, from the tightrope walker to twilight to Zarathustra, recur in Marchesini’s work. Pan is decisive, or more accurately interstitial and ambivalent, because he is the god of the wild and of nature. Like Shiva he is more at home in the wilds and among animals than with humans and other gods. Pan represents the interface, the interchange, the indissolubility of humans and nature. He allows an intimate, immersed view of animal interactions. Likewise, Pan stands in for humans’ relationship to nature: when Pan feels that nature is too saturated with himself it is a meditation on excessive human modification and despoiling of the natural world. It is also important to note the style of this work. Following his studies in biology and veterinary medicine, and work as a veterinary surgeon, Marchesini turned to poetic form for this book. He describes the work as one that is deeply empirical, grounded in empirical observation, yet that calls upon the techniques of poetry and lyric to figure that experience. Indeed, he believes that such a style can better describe the ties and processes of the natural world without falling into a mechanistic view that squeezes the life out of it.