A friend sent me a gift in the mail a while back with a note that said “I took an intensive, week-long letterpress workshop last week, […] and our second assignment was setting and printing a ‘broadside.’ I loved the quote you posted on Facebook […] from your translation of Miljenko Jergović, so I hope it’s ok that I decided to use it for my project…” What a nice surprise and what a lovely gesture! (I haven’t asked her if I can say she did this, so I’m leaving it anonymous for now.)
Here it is pictured to the right. The colophon says “2 of 15, Onyx 24/36/18 pt, printed at … by ….”
And the words, in non-letterpress form, are “Every instance of cleaning, or dusting, or purging of old things is an act of violence on a person’s being and life. Every instance of cleaning is an accounting with one’s own biography and the biographies of those close to us. A moment of our death and a reminder than nothing is lasting and everything will be forgotten. Dusting requires either courage or a complete absence of soul.”
I have to say that the context for the quote is pretty important. When he writes this, the narrator is reflecting on cleaning an old house where multiple generations have lived and died. It is filled with old things covered in dust. I don’t think, for instance, that this quite applies to cleaning out one’s car, unless you’ve been living in it for a couple of generations.
Russell Scott Valentino 