“I have had a dream. I have seen a great city whose fame will reach the stars,” prophesied the beautiful Libuše. She then rode to the place of the vision and found an old man carving out the threshold of his home. “Here the greatest castle in the world will stand,” she told the man, “and you will be the one to build it.”
Czech Legend
“Who will tell us the things God
felt when he looked at his rabbi in Prague?”
El golem, J. L. Borges
Where the power of silence conjures ancient presences at each corner of every street.
Where a river exists in which a thousand long-and-silver-haired sirens wake up under the vast night sky and dance around in a perfect circle, summoning on the horizon their mother Selene, her voice and her manna.
Where in the lucid instant of an unexpected sunrise I knew three certainties: that I am eternal because the substance of my bones is no different from that of the stars, that each body is a necessary chord in the universal score and that there is a music that can be intuited eternal enigma or fervent enthusiasm.
Where I was fortunate to print on my skin the scent of a deep rose, which inevitably encompassed all the others in itself, and expanded to infinity to become one with my festive heart, docile and irreplaceable.
The city of chiaroscuro beauty that Rilke still inhabits to create his god and recover his childhood, where Kafka keeps shyly looking for the face of her beloved in the transfigured light of a high castle with infinite twists and fantastic gargoyles.
Prague, which will always cherish in the shiny syllables of its name the supreme and arcane moments of creation and revelation: when a humble rabbi infuses divine breath into a piece of mud while Kepler uncovers a miniscule snatch of the Mystery, with new and mystical eyes.
Tips:
- Walking around the city before sunrise, when it is almost empty and unhesitant shows itself naked to our eyes.
- Enjoying an afternoon in Mount Petřín, which rises near the Vltava river, and from where you can appreciate one of the best panoramic views of the city.
- Visiting Johannes Kepler’s house-museum.
- Reading, before visiting the city, at least one short story by Franz Kafka. Listening to the second poem of Smetana’s Má vlast or the Largo from Dvořák’s Symphony N.o
- Basking in a poem by Raíner María Rilke.
- Trying to visit the city at the time of a Full Moon. Seeing it rise over the Prague horizon is one of the most beautiful sights you will surely enjoy in life.
To read about my first visit to Prague, ten years ago, click here.
The Ways of Infinity 