Praise of friendship, defense of hedonism
Kapitál
How can a pomegranate symbolize excess, gluttony, and superficiality? What does its metaphorical depiction in the poem reveal to us, and what message does it carry about our relationship with life, consumption, and friendship? The answers may uncover deeper layers of our existence.
our friendship, for that shameful, greedy moment
forgotten and insignificant, from the crimson mud
subtly sent to our feet
a creeping snake, the seed of an escape.from the poem Pomegranate
When Peter Zajac wrote that the genre of ode is a “principle of value surplus (superficiality)”, he did so against the backdrop of Ivan Štrpka's poem Fruit. And is there perhaps any other fruit that embodies the idea of excess better than the pomegranate? This very fruit forms the space of the eponymous poem by Eva Luka, literally – the opening image reads: “I entered the pomegranate.” However, the lyrical protagonist here is not alone – she is accompanied by a friend.
The text offers a vivid metaphorical description of the titular fruit, with several images deliberately taken to absurdity, which functionally amplifies the effect of superficiality. The full handful of small edible rubies of the pomegranate thus has its equivalent in full handfuls of shimmering poetic images. The staged situation then leads to greed and gluttony: “but sometimes we glimpsed each other, / as we greedily stuffed / bloodily recounted mouths.”
Gluttony in the poem is embodied by an important biblical context, not only as a mortal sin but also in connection with the apple as a symbol of Eve's transgression against divine authority (an act that we do not necessarily have to perceive negatively). And by disrupting friendship, it also becomes the “apple of discord” from Greek mythology. However, gluttony implicitly also refers to a consumerist way of life, which is inherent to us and can be very destructive: to our surroundings, to the planet, to ourselves.
It might therefore seem that the poem is about how superficiality inevitably leads to gluttony, that its theme is the pitfalls of hedonism. However, I believe Luka works with the philosophy of hedonism, but in the opposite sense. Superficial perception of hedonism truly leads us to cram as many sensory impressions as possible into ourselves. But from a deeper perspective, it is more about an existential experience of the most diverse external stimuli leading to a fulfilled life.
In the quoted conclusion, the poem shows what we can truly satiate ourselves with, if not with food or consumer goods. And with minimal risk of “damnation”, that is, wasting life on superficial consumer “hedonism”. The text shifts from atomized experience to a more communal way of living. It is precisely “our friendship” that, as “the seed of an escape”, can show us the way out of the prisons of formless consumption.
Eva Luka: Necromantic. Ropes, Skalná Ruža, 2025.