2 ?b90

68
It is interesting to note that Orpheus fails to conquer historical
Time because he looks back. Lezama seems to be suggesting that the
Orphic rite is not entirely suitable for his purpose, as he has done
at intervals throughout these pages. Nubes Precipitadas seems to be
the Heavens, Being, Creative possibility, and upon meeting with the
tree, a growth upwards from the earth, Time is reversed, as is shown
by the tree desanillAndose, cancelling out the rings in its trunk which
denote its historical age. Time is Apresurado Lento, and here it is
sacred Time, or eternitywhich is strongest. For this reason, the tree
must represent man's upward striving towards higher reality and the
Heavens, which move to accomodate him. This is also why the two to-
gether (Apresurado Lento and Nubes Precipitadas) have an influence on
the white falcon or soul. The Chinaman continues his speech by saying:
"Existe la reproducci6n por la mirada y por el grito" (1,69-70); re-
production means here any act of creation and speech and writing have
the capacity to create, as does the look or gaze which is empowered to
observe and interpret visual signs of reality. The coconut tree has
"la mirada espejo" (1,70), that is, a double existence or image as in
"Preludio a las eras imaginarias":
Al convertirse el germen en acto, lo incondicionado
en causalidad, no como en los griegos colocando las
pausas del sueiio en las metamorfosis, sino por medio
del
' umbravit de la sombra que avanza hacia nosotros,
se lograba un perfecto doble de lo incondicionado
sobre la causglidad y de la causalidad sobre lo incondicionado,
por medio de la poesia que se apoderaba de
esa imagen, formändose las siguientes parejas donde
encarnaba esa relaci6n: imagen-espejo, identidad-
mddula de sauco, extensidn-ärbol, unidad-el uno, esse
sustancialis-ser causal encarnaci6n-resurreccidn
(11,817-8).
The tree is a sign that the age in which men despaired is past, and
that they need no longer rely entirely on their own efforts to save