The proverbs of Shlomo the son of David,
king of Isra’el,
2 are for learning about wisdom and discipline;
for understanding words expressing deep insight;
3 for gaining an intelligently disciplined life,
doing what is right, just and fair;
4 for endowing with caution those who don’t think
and the young person with knowledge and discretion.
5 Someone who is already wise
will hear and learn still more;
someone who already understands
will gain the ability to counsel well;
6 he will understand proverbs, obscure expressions,
the sayings and riddles of the wise. (Proverbs)
What is getting archived!
That is not a question. It is once again an exclamation, with a somewhat suspended exclamation point because it is always difficult to know if it is getting archived, what is getting archived, how it is getting archived — the trace that arrives only to efface itself / only by effacing itself, beyond the alternative of presence and absence. (Derrida)
Wisdom has built her house;
she has set up[a] its seven pillars.
2 She has prepared her meat and mixed her wine;
she has also set her table.
(Proverbs)
It is not merely difficult to know this; it is strictly impossible, no doubt not because there is always more to be known but because it is not of the order of knowledge.
This is never a sufficient reason not to seek to know, as an Aufklarer — to know that it is getting archived, within what limits, and how, according to what detoured, surprising, or overdetermined paths. (Derrida)
Wisdom calls aloud in the open air
and raises her voice in the public places;
21 she calls out at streetcorners
and speaks out at entrances to city gates:
22 “How long, you whose lives have no purpose,
will you love thoughtless living?
How long will scorners find pleasure in mocking?
How long will fools hate knowledge?
(Proverbs)
The king has indeed a body (and it is not here the original text but that which constitutes the tenor of the translated text), but this body is only promised, announced and dissimulated by the translation. The clothes fit but do not cling strictly enough to the royal person. This is not a weakness; the best translation resembles this royal cape. (Derrida)
Light in a messenger’s eyes brings joy to the heart,
and good news gives health to the bones.
(Proverbs)
This deconstruction in progress concerns, as always, the institution of limits declared to be insurmountable,’ whether they involve family or state law, the relations between the secret and the nonsecret, or, and this is not the same thing, between the private and the public. (Derrida)
For Adonai gives wisdom;
from his mouth comes knowledge and understanding.
(Proverbs)
in his or her culture and discipline, whatever it may be, in particular philosophy, medicine, psychiatry, and more precisely here, because we are speaking of memory and of archive, the history of texts and of discourses, political history, legal history, the history of ideas or of culture, the history of religion and religion itself …
(Derrida)
Those who are kind benefit themselves
(Proverbs)
The trace is in fact the absolute origin of sense in general.
Which amounts to saying once again that there is no absolute origin of
sense in general. The trace is the differance which opens appearance
[1′ apparaUre] and signification. Articulating the living upon the nonliving
in general, origin of all repetition, origin of ideality … (Derrida)
Then you will understand righteousness, justice,
fairness and every good path.
10 For wisdom will enter your heart,
knowledge will be enjoyable for you,
11 discretion will watch over you,
and discernment will guard you.
Origin of the experience of space and time, this writing of difference,
this fabric of the trace, permits the difference between space and time to be
articulated, to appear as such, in the unity of an experience …
(Derrida)
A heart at peace gives life to the body
(Proverbs)
He piles up hypotheses: the child throws his bobbin. he brings it back in order to say this or that to his mother, and so forth. I won’t attempt to reconstitute here this whole very complicated scene. To be sure, the theme of play is there.
(Derrida)
Do not let grace and truth leave you —
bind them around your neck;
write them on the tablet of your heart.
Then you will win favor and esteem
in the sight of God and of people.
However, if one understands the fort/da beyond what it seems Freud intends to say, then one may exceed the limits of the game toward the play of the world where the fort/da is no longer simply the relation of subject to object. It is. instead, that which has absolute command over all experience in general.
(Derrida)
Gracious words are a honeycomb,
sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.
(Proverbs)
He himself (Freud) is doing fort/da with his own interpretations, and it never stops. His own writing,his own deportment in this text is doing fort/da.
(Derrida)
Trust in Adonai with all your heart;
do not rely on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him;
then he will level your paths.
Perhaps the performative is in play as well, in a very serious manner. but the game is also very serious and demands great concentration. He (Freud) plays with this fort/da in his writing: he doesn’t “comprehend” it. He writes himself this scene, which is descriptive
or theoretical but also very profoundly autobiographical and performative to the degree that it concerns him in his relation with his heirs
(Derrida)
Anxiety weighs down the heart,
but a kind word cheers it up.
(Proverbs)
What one calls life-the thing or object of biology and biography-does
not stand face to face with something that would be its opposable ob-ject: death, the thanatological or thanatographical.
(Derrida)
Happy the person who finds wisdom,
the person who acquires understanding;
14 for her profit exceeds that of silver,
gaining her is better than gold,
15 she is more precious than pearls —
nothing you want can compare with her.
16 Long life is in her right hand,
riches and honor in her left.
17 Her ways are pleasant ways,
and all her paths are peace.
18 She is a tree of life to those who grasp her;
whoever holds fast to her will be made happy.
(Proverbs)
In the first place, a phoenix motif. Once again, the destruction
of life is only an appearance: it is the destruction of the appearance of life.
(Derrida)
Adonai by wisdom founded the earth,
by understanding he established the heavens,
20 by his knowledge the deep [springs] burst open
and the dew condenses from the sky.
21 My son, don’t let these slip from your sight;
preserve common sense and discretion;
22 they will be life for your being
and grace for your neck.
23 Then you will walk your way securely,
without hurting your foot.
24 When you lie down, you will not be afraid;
when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.
(Proverbs)
One buries or burns what is already dead so that life, the living feminine, will be reborn and regenerated from these ashes. (Derrida)
First comes pride, then disgrace;
but with the humble is wisdom.
The vitalist theme degeneration/regeneration is active and central throughout the argument. This revitalization, as we have already seen, must first of all pass by way of the tongue, that is, by way of the exercise of the tongue or language, the treatment of its body, the mouth and the ear …
(Derrida)
The integrity of the upright guides them,
but the duplicity of the treacherous destroys them.
(Proverbs)
That which returns is the constant affirmation, the “yes, yes” on which I insisted yesterday. That which signs here is in the form of a return, which is to say it has the form of something that cannot be simple.
(Derrida)
He who belittles another lacks good sense,
whereas a person of discernment stays silent.
(Proverbs)
It is a selective return without negativity, or which reduces negativity through affirmation, through alliance or marriage (hymen), that is, through an affirmation that is also binding on the other or that enters into a pact with itself as other.
(Derrida)
A gossip goes around revealing secrets,
but a trustworthy person keeps a confidence.
(Proverbs)
(A deconstructionist reading) would mean respect for that which cannot be eaten—respect for that in a text which cannot be assimilated.
(Derrida)
A man who is kind does himself good,
but the cruel does harm to himself.
(Proverbs)
There is always a remainder that cannot be read, that must remain alien. This residue can never be interrogated as the same, but must be constantly sought out anew, and must continue to be written.
(Derrida)
The crooked-hearted are an abomination to Adonai,
but those sincere in their ways are his delight.
(Proverbs)
Narcissism! There is not narcissism and non-narcissism; there are narcissisms that are more or less comprehensive, generous, open, extended. What is called non-narcissism is in general but the economy of a much more welcoming, hospitable narcissism, one that is much more open to the experience of the other as other. (Derrida)
Idle talk can pierce like a sword,
but the tongue of the wise can heal.
(Proverbs)
The eternal return always involves differences of forces that perhaps cannot be thought in terms of being, of the pair essence-existence, or any of the great metaphysical structures to which Heidegger would like to relate them.
(Derrida)
Truthful words will stand forever,
lying speech but a moment.
(Proverbs)
Without writing, un-writing, the unwritten switches over to a question of reading on a board or tablet which you perhaps are. You are a board or a door; we will see much later how a word can address itself, indeed confide itself to a door, count on a door open to the other.
(Derrida)
Anxiety in a person’s heart weighs him down,
but a kind word cheers him up.
(Proverbs)
With a confident obedience, with a certain abandon that l fed here in it, the plural seems to follow: an order, after the beginning of an inaudible sentence, like an interrupted silence. It follows an order and, notice, it even obeys; it lets itself be dictated. It asks (for) itself.
(Derrida)
The teaching of a wise man is a fountain of life,
enabling one to avoid deadly traps.
(Proverbs)
This concept of a ghost is as scarcely graspable in its self as the ghost of a concept. Neither life nor death, but the haunting of the one by the other. The “versus” of the conceptual opposition is as unsubstantial as a camera’s click. Ghosts: the concept of the other in the same, the completely other, dead, living in me.
(Derrida)
In the fear of Adonai is powerful security;
for his children there will be a place of refuge.
(Proverbs)
Without either showing or hiding herself. This is what took place. She had
already taken her place “docilely,” without initiating the slightest activity,
according to the most gentle passivity, and she neither shows nor hides herself.
The possibility of this impossibility derails and shatters all unity, and
this is love; it disorganizes all studied discourses, all theoretical systems
and philosophies. They must decide between presence and absence, here
and there, what reveals and what conceals itself.
(Derrida)
The fear of Adonai is a fountain of life
enabling one to avoid deadly traps.
(Proverbs)
Yes, to whom and of what would we be making a gift? What are
we doing when we exchange these discourses? Over what are we keeping
watch? Are we trying to negate death or retain it?
(Derrida)
Being slow to anger goes with great understanding,
being quick-tempered makes folly still worse.
(Proverbs)
Are we trying to put
things in order, make amends, or settle our accounts, to finish unfinished
business? With the other? With the others outside and inside ourselves?
(Derrida)
A tranquil mind gives health to the body,
but envy rots the bones.
(Proverbs)
Forgetting and gift would therefore be each in the condition of the
other. This already puts us on the path to be followed.
(Derrida)
The oppressor of the poor insults his maker,
but he who is kind to the needy honors him.
(Proverbs)
Not a particular
path leading here or there, but on the path, on the Weg or Bewegen
(path, to move along a path, to cut a path), which, leading nowhere,
marks the step that Heidegger does not distinguish from thought.
(Derrida)
Hot-tempered people stir up strife,
but patient people quiet quarrels.
(Proverbs)
The thought on whose path we are, the thought as path or as movement
along a path is precisely what is related to that forgetting that
Heidegger does not name as a psychological or psychoanalytic category
but as the condition of Being and of the truth of Being.
(Derrida)
A cheerful glance brings joy to the heart,
and good news invigorates the bones.
(Proverbs)
To be just: beyond the living present in general-and beyond its simple negative reversal. A spectral moment, a moment that no longer belongs to time, if one understands by this word the linking of modalized presents (past present, actual present: “now,” future present). (Derrida)
The discipline of wisdom is fear of Adonai,
so before being honored, a person must be humble.
(Proverbs)
We are questioning in this instant, we
are asking ourselves about this instant that is not docile to time,
at least to what we call time. Furtive and untimely, the apparition
of the specter does not belong to that time, it does not give time,
not that one: “Enter the ghost, exit the ghost, re-enter the ghost”
(Hamlet). (Derrida)
A person is responsible to prepare his heart,
but how the tongue speaks is from Adonai.
(Proverbs)
A person may plan his path,
but Adonai directs his steps
(Proverbs)
the future has the form of a past which I will never have witnessed and which for this reason remains always promised – and moreover also multiple.
(Derrida)
The name of Adonai is a strong tower;
a righteous person runs to it and is raised high [above danger].
(Proverbs)
Repetition and first time: this is perhaps the question of the event
as question of the ghost. What is a ghost?
(Derrida)
Before being ruined, a person’s heart is proud;
before being honored, a person must be humble.
(Proverbs)
Repetition and first time, but also repetition and last time, since the Singularity of any first time, makes of it also a last time. Each time it is the event itself, a first time is a last time. Altogether other. Staging for the end of history. Let us call it a hauntology. (Derrida)
A person’s spirit can sustain him when ill,
but a crushed spirit — who can bear it?
(Proverbs)
If I had invented a writing it would have been as an endless revolution. Each situation demands the creation
of a suitable mode of exposition, the invention of a law of the singular event, take into account the
recipient, imagined or desired; and at the same time it demands the belief that this writing will determine
the reader, who will learn to read (or to “live”) this writing, which he is not used to finding elsewhere. (Derrida)
A person’s belly will be filled with the fruit of his mouth;
with what his lips produce he will be filled.
(Proverbs)
The tongue has power over life and death;
those who indulge it must eat its fruit.
(Proverbs)
The configurative unity of these significations-the power of speech, the
creation of being and life, the sun (which is also, as we shall see, the eye),
rhe self-concealment-is conjugated in what could be called the history of
the egg or the egg of history. (Derrida)
He who finds a wife finds a great good;
he has won the favor of Adonai.
(Proverbs)
not toward death but toward a living-on [sur-vie], namely, a trace of which life and death would themselves be but traces and traces of traces, a survival whose possibility in advance comes to disjoin or dis-adjust the identity to itself of the living present as well as of any effectivity. There is then some spirit.
(Derrida)
People with good sense are slow to anger,
and it is their glory to overlook an offense.
(Proverbs)
There is a power of language, therefore, at once a dynamis, an enveloped virtuality, a potentiality that can be brought or not to actuality; it is hidden, buried, dormant. (Derrida)
He who is kind to the poor is lending to Adonai;
and he will repay him for his good deed.
(Proverbs)
This potentiality is also a power (Macht), a particular efficacy that acts on its own, in a quasi-autonomous manner (facon) without the initiative and beyond the control of speaking subjects. (Derrida)
One can devise many plans in one’s mind,
but Adonai’s plan will prevail.
(Proverbs)
There would be more to say on the figure of the circle in Heidegger.
His treatment is not simple. It also implies a certain affirmation of the
circle, which is assumed. (Derrida)
The fear of Adonai leads to life;
one who has it is satisfied and rests untouched by evil.
(Proverbs)
One should not necessarily flee or condemn
circularity as one would a bad repetition, a vicious circle, a regressive
or sterile process. One must, in a certain way of course, inhabit the
circle, turn around in it, live there a feast of thinking, and the gift, the
gift of thinking, would be no stranger there. (Derrida)
Avoiding quarrels brings a person honor;
for any fool can explode in anger.
(Proverbs)
analysis as untangling, untying, detaching, freeing, even liberation — and thus also, let us not forget, as solution.
(Derrida)
The heart’s real intentions are like deep water;
but a person with discernment draws them out.
(Proverbs)
The Greek word analuein, as is well known, means to untie and thus to dissolve the link. It can thus be rigorously approached, if not translated, by the Latin solvere (to detach, deliver, absolve, or acquit). Both solutio and resolutio have the sense of dissolution, dissolved tie, extrication, disengagement, or acquittal (for example, from debt) and that of solution of a problem: explanation or unveiling. The solutio linguae is also the tongue untied.
(Derrida)
Most people announce that they show kindness,
but who can find someone faithful [enough to do it]?
(Proverbs)
But this question is such, and such the nature of
my answer, that the place of the one and of the other must constantly be
in movement. If words and concepts receive meaning only in sequences of
differences, one can justify one’s language, and one’s choice of terms, only
within a topic [an orientation in space] and an historical strategy. The
justification can therefore never be absolute and definitive.
(Derrida)
The hearing ear and the seeing eye —
Adonai made them both.
(Proverbs)
Still on a preliminary level, let’s not forget Nietzsche’s precautions regarding what might link metaphysics and grammar. These precautions need to be duly adjusted and problematized, but they remain necessary. What we are seeking with the question “who?” perhaps no longer stems from grammar, from a relative or interrogative pronoun which always refers back to the grammatical function of subject. (Derrida)
Don’t say, “I’ll pay back evil for evil”;
wait for Adonai to save you.
(Proverbs)
How can we get away from this contract between the grammar of the subject or the substantive and the ontology of substance or the subject?
(Derrida)
A man’s steps are ordered by Adonai,
so how can a person understand his own ways?
(Proverbs)
The different singularity which I named perhaps does not even correspond to the grammatical form “who” in a sentence where in “who” is the subject of a verb coming after the subject, etc.
(Derrida)
No wisdom, discernment or counsel
succeeds against Adonai.
(Proverbs)
if Freudian thought has been consequential in the decentering of the subject we have been talking about so much these last years, is the “ego”, in the elements of the topic or in the distribution of the positions of the unconscious, the only answer to the question “who”? And if so, what would be the consequences of this? (Derrida)
A horse may be prepared for the day of battle,
but victory comes from Adonai.
(Proverbs)
Let’s go back a little and start out again from the question “who?” (I note first of all in passing that to substitute a very indeterminate “who” for a “subject” overburdened with metaphysical determinations is perhaps not enough to bring about any decisive displacement. (Derrida)
Rich and poor have this in common —
Adonai made them both.
(Proverbs)
I don’t yet know who can ask himself this nor how. But one can already see several possibilities opening up: the “who” might be there before and as the power to ask questions (this, in the end, is how Heidegger identifies the Dasein and comes to choose it as the exemplary guiding thread in the question of Being) or else it might be, and this comes down to the same thing, that which is made possible by the power (by being able to) ask questions about itself (who is who? who is it?). (Derrida)
The reward for humility is fear of Adonai,
along with wealth, honor and life.
(Proverbs)
He who is generous is blessed,
because he shares his food with the poor.
Throw the scoffer out, and quarreling goes too;
strife and insults cease.
The eyes of Adonai protect [the man with] knowledge,
but he overturns the plans of a traitor.
Pay attention, and listen to the words of the wise;
apply your heart to my knowledge;
for it is pleasant to keep them deep within you;
have all of them ready on your lips.
I want your trust to be in Adonai;
this is why I’m instructing you about them today.
I have written you worthwhile things
full of good counsel and knowledge,
so you will know that these sayings are certainly true
and bring back true sayings to him who sent you.
My son, if your heart is wise,
then my own heart too is glad;
my inmost being rejoices
when your lips say what is right.
By wisdom a house is built,
by understanding it is made secure,
and by knowledge its rooms are filled
with all kinds of costly and pleasant possessions
My son, eat honey, for it is good;
honeycomb drippings are sweet to your taste.
Know that wisdom is similar[ly sweet] to your soul;
if you find it, then you will have a future,
what you hope for will not be cut off.
Giving an honest answer
is like giving a kiss.
Prepare your outside work,
and get things ready for yourself on the land;
after that, build your house.
God gets glory from concealing things
Like apples of gold in settings of silver
is a word appropriately spoken.
Like a gold earring, like a fine gold necklace
is a wise reprover to a receptive ear.
Like the coldness of snow in the heat of the harvest
is a faithful messenger to the one who sends him;
he refreshes his master’s spirit.
Like clouds and wind that bring no rain
is he who boasts of gifts he never gives.
With patience a ruler may be won over,
and a gentle tongue can break bones.
Don’t boast about tomorrow,
for you don’t know what the day may bring.
Let someone else praise you, not your own mouth,
a stranger and not your own lips.
Don’t boast about tomorrow,
for you don’t know what the day may bring.
A person who is full loathes a honeycomb;
but to the hungry, any bitter thing is sweet.
Perfume and incense make the heart glad,
[also] friendship sweet with advice from the heart.
Just as iron sharpens iron,
a person sharpens the character of his friend.
Just as water reflects the face,
so one human heart reflects another.
Evil people don’t understand justice,
but those who seek Adonai understand everything.
Happy the person who is never without fear,
but he who hardens his heart will fall into misfortune.
He who is greedy rushes after riches,
not knowing that want will overtake him.
he who trusts in Adonai will prosper.
He who trusts in himself is a fool,
but he who lives by wisdom will escape.
Scoffers can inflame a city,
but the wise can calm the fury.
The poor and the oppressor have this in common:
Adonai gives light to the eyes of both.
The proud will be humbled,
but the humble will be honored.
Fearing human beings is a snare;
but he who trusts in Adonai will be raised high [above danger].
Many seek the ruler’s favor,
but it is from Adonai that each gets justice.
Who has gone up to heaven and come down?
Who has cupped the wind in the palms of his hands?
Who has wrapped up the waters in his cloak?
Who established all the ends of the earth?
What is his name, and what is his son’s name?
Surely you know!
Speak up for those who can’t speak for themselves,
for the rights of all who need an advocate.
Speak up, judge righteously,
defend the cause of the poor and the needy
ז She considers a field, then buys it,
and from her earnings she plants a vineyard.
ח She gathers her strength around her
and throws herself into her work.
ט She sees that her business affairs go well;
her lamp stays lit at night.
mark forshee 