Peace and quiet seem to be very valuable to Plato. Epictetus will similarly value calm and stillness. In fact, Epictetus will say that the goal in life is to be calm and serene. In this song, the narrator talks about her efforts to bring herself that quietude and peace. Unfortunately, her efforts to understand the world in a logical way are unsuccessful. The song text, originally in German, is translated (by me) below:
Prologue: "Daily I talk to myself about my life as if it were a subway
system map. Out of above without no
floor, without silence, restless, never without advice, never speechless. I only lack the words...
"I try to explain to myself the world as if it were between two points
on a line, as if words divided the world into stripes. I grasp but I do not apprehend. What use are my hands to me when what they touch
disappears just as things become mute and silence is wrested from them when words are found?
I am no stiller. I
only fail to have the words. I am no
stiller, only the words fail to reach their goal. I am no stiller. I would enjoy so much to be silent, and
still, so much stiller and only to show things and to be shown, still and
dazzling.
I try to explain to myself the world as if it were between two
cable lines, as if the words could only be stripes according to which I grasp
and yet cannot apprehend.
What use are beautiful thoughts which sink between everything
else? Because the heart is the sinker of
all thoughts. Because everything that
you find is gone."
Whereas the narrator in this song is unable to find an underlying logical structure in her world, Epictetus is able to find his peace and quiet because he believes that the world is ordered in a just way. The narrator expresses a desire for "stripes according to which I grasp and yet cannot apprehend". When reading Epictetus, consider how he might use a simile like this to explain the universe. Does he think that the world is divided up into neat little stripes which although we may grasp, we do not apprehend?
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