A leap into gloomy death

Today we preach a methodical and everyday heroism; a taste for despair that encourages the heart to give up all its fruits, a habit for enthusiasm; intoxicating madness… We preach a leap into gloomy death under the watchful and clear gaze of the Ideal! We preach by example, giving ourselves to the fierce dressmaker that is War, who carved out for us a fitting scarlet uniform. Brand new beneath the sun, it will put light in our hair, which was combed by bombs.



Thus the heat of the summer evening paints the fields with the flickering lights of fireflies. It is necessary that people electrify their nerves with insane pride every day!.. It is necessary that people be ready to bet their own lives in an instant, not paying attention to the roguish dealer, nor controlling the balance of the roulette that had sprawled over the vast green carpets of war, so cherished by the dubious lamp that is the sun… It is necessary – understand this! – for the soul to cast the body into the fire, like a fire-ship is cast against the foe… an eternal foe, one that ought to have been invented, had he not already existed!

~ Tommaso Marinetti