Diário de Lisboa
- Two countries
- We have received the following little letter
- José Maria da Cruz Valé
The main essay contrasts vengeful war memorials in France and Germany with a youth devoted to science and cooperation. A mock school complaint and a police anecdote about quartz mistaken for diamonds add two different forms of irony.
Selected, image-checked first-page passages; partial reading, not complete articles or the whole page.
Translation
Two countries
TWO COUNTRIES
Some time ago, students at Berlin University enthusiastically erected a monument in tribute to their comrades killed in the war.
[…] France too has monuments like that of the Berlin students: relentless, arrogant, threatening.
[…] Those two monuments embody the most disturbing, most ferocious tendencies of nationalism in the two countries.
[…] Fortunately, there is another France and another Germany. Fortunately, on both sides of the Rhine there is a different, more generous youth.
It is the illustrious, dreaming Germany of Leibniz and Goethe; the generous, redeemed France of Descartes, Lamartine and Victor Hugo.
It is the youth that thinks chiefly of science in the laboratories, learns fellowship through work in the workshops, and embraces progress in the schools—the free youth of Bierville.
It is the Germany of Koch and the France of Pasteur; the Germany of Stresemann and the France of Briand.
That free and generous youth deplores those monuments.
We have received the following little letter
We have received the following little letter:
Sir,
I am a fifth-year secondary-school student. I study a great deal, but know nothing.
[…] Unless the Minister of Education shortens the syllabuses and reduces the number of daily classes, I am determined not to study another comma, so as not to jeopardize altogether my future as an illiterate in full bloom.
Yours, etc.,
José the Lazy
José Maria da Cruz Valé
José Maria da Cruz Valé was caught at Barca de Alva and brought back to Lisbon on suspicion of carrying half a kilo of diamonds.
Could they be among those stolen in Lunda?
Taken to the Mónicas police station, meticulously questioned and his whole life searched through, he turned out to be a man… of no means, for the diamonds were merely pieces of quartz.
Context
Two ways of remembering a war
The essay places aggressive monuments against the achievements of philosophers, writers and scientists. It does not abandon national traditions; it selects different traditions within each nation to make reconciliation imaginable. Pairing Koch with Pasteur and Stresemann with Briand creates a symmetry across the Rhine. The political argument is that memory can cultivate either renewed antagonism or a shared future, depending on which figures and ideals a society honours.
An overworked pupil with an impossible ambition
The signature “José the Lazy” and the wish to become a flourishing illiterate make the letter a comic performance. Its reversal turns a complaint about overloaded courses into an attack on schooling that demands effort without producing understanding. The joke depends on the gap between studying much and knowing little. A fictive or playful pupil’s voice can make that criticism sharper than a formal request for a smaller timetable.
A crime story punctured by worthless stones
The report builds the expectation of a large theft through the weight of the supposed diamonds, the reference to Lunda and the thorough police questioning. Its ending then collapses that expectation into quartz and poverty. The humour exposes the distance between a valuable-looking object and demonstrated value, while allowing the paper to turn an arrest without the expected treasure into a memorable short story.
Original
DOIS PAIZES
DOIS PAIZES
Ha tempos, alguns estudantes da universidade de Berlim ergueram entusiasticamente um monumento em homenagem aos seus camaradas mortos na guerra.
[…] Em França existem tambem monumentos, como esse dos estudantes de Berlim, implacaveis, arrogantes, ameaçadores.
[…] Esses dois monumentos correspondem ás mais inquietadoras, ás mais ferozes tendencias dos nacionalismos dos dois paizes.
[…] Felizmente, ha uma outra França e ha uma outra Alemanha. Felizmente, ha, áquem e além do Rheno, uma outra e mais generosa mocidade.
E’ a Alemanha prestigiosa e sonhadora de Leibniz e de Gœthe; é a França generosa e resgatada de Descartes, de Lamartine, de Vitor Hugo.
E’ a mocidade que nos laboratorios pensa principalmente na sciencia, é a mocidade que nas oficinas aprende a fraternidade no trabalho, é a mocidade que nas escolas se apaixona pelo progresso — é a livre mocidade de Bierville.
E’ a Alemanha de Koch e a França de Pasteur; é a Alemanha de Stresemann, é a França de Briand.
Essa mocidade livre e generosa deplora esses monumentos.
Recebemos a seguinte cartinha
Recebemos a seguinte cartinha:
Sr. director:
Sou estudante do 5.º ano do liceu. Estudo muito, mas não sei nada.
[…] Se o sr. ministro da Instrução não encurtar os programas, reduzindo tambem o numero das aulas diarias, eu acho-me decidido a não estudar nem mais uma virgula, para não comprometer, de todo, o meu futuro de analfabeto em flôr.
De v., etc.
José Preguiçoso
José Maria da Cruz Valé
José Maria da Cruz Valé foi apanhado em Barca de Alva e reconduzido para Lisboa, como suspeito de transportar consigo meio quilo de diamantes.
Pertenceriam estes aos que foram roubados na Lunda?
Metido na esquadra das Monicas, meticulosamente interrogado, vasculhada toda a sua vida, apurou-se que ele era um homem... sem bens, pois que os diamantes não passavam de bocados de quartzo.