By Dario Rivarossa.

SING-SING TO SINGING

“Contraries are equally true” William Blake used to say.
We can hardly imagine two characters to be more opposite than the 19th century Italian poet Giacomo Leopardi and the current Pope Joseph Ratzinger. The former being a follower of the radical materialistic philosophies dating back to the 18th century, considered any kind of religion as a delusion: the only truths are universal changing, suffering and death – in fact, the first noble truth of Buddha’s.
But, now let’s picture them while looking out of a window together some morning in spring, their thoughts wandering freely. Without minding, they start to chante the inner melodies the feel in their hearts.

RATZINGER. When, about saints in heaven, we are told that they sing, this is no more than a symbol showing that the whole of their being is soaked with joy. The fact of singing actually means that man leaves the boundaries of rationality, and accesses some sort of ecstasy… This one is the Seraph-like man, thanks to which the creation learns to fly and to sing.

LEOPARDI. The way the birds remind of human boys as for their exterior liveliness, so can we infer that they likely share the same inner properties… So I would like, just a bit of time, to be changed into a bird, and be able to feel their own joy and happiness.