MATHEW ARNOLD

The Function of Criticism at the Present Time


Still, in full measure, the sense of creative activity belongs only to genuine creation; in literature we must never forget that. But what true man of letters ever can forget it? It is no such common matter for a gifted nature to come into possession of a current of true and living ideas, and to produce amidst the inspiration of them, that we are likely to underrate it. The epochs of Æschylus and Shakespeare make us feel their preëminence. In an epoch like those is, no doubt, the true life of literature; there is the promised land, towards which criticism can only beckon. That promised land it will not be ours to enter, and we shall die in the wilderness: but to have desired to enter it, to have saluted it from afar, is already, perhaps, the best distinction among contemporaries; it will certainly be the best title to esteem with posterity.

Elena Cigareanu

Mathew Arnold
 

Functia Criticii în Prezent

Cu toate aceste, in totalitate, simtul activitatii creative tine doar de creatia pura; nu trebuie sa uitam niciodata acest lucru in literatura. Dar ce poate uita vreodata un adevarat om al literelor? Nu este un lucru atat de comun pentru o fire dedicata sa intre in posesia unor idei adevarate şi pline de viata, si pe langa a se inspira din ele, sa le si subestimeze. Epoca lui Eschil şi Shakespeare ne face sa le simtim importanta. In epoci ca acelea, nu se pune la indoiala conditia reala a literaturii; exista tara fagaduintei, fata de care critica nu poate fi decat atrasa. Această tara a fagaduintei nu o vom putea calca niciodată si vom muri in pustietate: insa dorinta de a accede la ea, de a o contempla de la distanta este deja poate cea mai buna distinctie in randul contemporanilor; si va fi probabil cel mai bun titlu pe care-l vom aprecia in viitor.