El vértigo de la decadencia / José Antonio Ramos Sucre

The Vertigo of Decadence

I assist in the Roman coliseum the sacrifice of the sublime martyrs. They have gathered in the center of the stadium and suggest the case of a decimated cohort, sensible to the commandment of honor.
     The wild animals loosed from their jail surround the pitiful mob, speeding up for the assault. The flexible spines undulate voluptuously and the sharp claws, planted in the ground, throw up sleeves of dust.
     The crowd of spectators, animated by a festive cruelty, breaks into a savage clamor. It reproduces the roar of the ovation.
     The sovereign of the domesticated orb notes the accidents and details of the party, watching it through an emerald, the stone best qualified for the adornment of divinities.
     The wild animals fatigue themselves dilacerating the unarmed group and respect the inanimate remains and a virgin of prophetic gesture.
     A voice condemns her to the torture of fire and provokes unanimous assent. The crowd assumes an indivisible responsibility and loses itself in the delirium of its evil, wounding innocence.
     The bonfire gives off a fatidic light and draws, on the most restless ones, the face of a cadaver.




El cielo de esmalte (1929)




{ José Antonio Ramos Sucre, Obra completa, Caracas: Biblioteca Ayacucho, 1989 }