The eye is the most autonomous of your organs. It is so because the objects of its attention are inevitably situated on the outside. Except in a mirror, the eye never sees itself. It is the last to shut down when the body is falling asleep.It stays open when the body is stricken with paralysis or dead. The eye keeps registering reality even when there is no apparent reason for doing this, and under all circumstances. The question is: Why? And the answer is: Because the environment is hostile. Eyesight is the instrument of adjustment to an environment which remains hostile no matter how well you have adjusted to it. The hostility of the environment grows proportionately to the length of your presence in it, and I am speaking not of old age only. In short, the eye is looking for safety. That explains the eye's predilection for art in general and Venetian art in particular. That explains the eye's appetite for beauty, as well as beauty's own existence. For beauty is solace, since beauty is safe. It doesn't threaten you with murder or make you sick.
以上の引用はJoseph Brodskyの"WATERMARK"からのものである。彼はつづけて「美は眼が休息する場所」であり、倫理学より審美的な感覚のほうが、自己保存のために頼りなるものだとも書いている。
「環境は年をとればとるほど自分に対して敵対的になる」とあるが、そういうことを実感していた昨今なので、この文章が眼に入ったのであろう。それを調整する器官が眼という自律的な器官であり、その眼が美を求めるというのも至極わかりやすい。ということでJoseph Brodskyはベネチアに避難したのであるが、そういう場所のない私にとっては、この文章が「休息」の場所である。
