Saturday, May 15, 2010

“At the Gates of the Bureau of Culture and Refinement”: a fragment


Please ignore the sign over the gate. That is a joke. Every time we scrub it off, some wit spraypaints it up there again.

The last thing we want you to do is abandon hope. 

We have never needed to advertise, but if we were going to put up a sign, it would be in Dutch, not Latin, and it would say:

Wie mooi wil zijn moet pijn leiden.

Which is best translated as: "Those who wish to be beautiful must suffer."

You want to be pretty, don't you?