"Cuanto mas escribo, mas me queda por decir": Memory, Trauma, and Writing in the Work of Jorge Semprun

Abstract

In On Oratory and Orators, Cicero explains the importance of good memory in rhetoric. To this purpose, he tells the story of the poet Simonides of Ceos, who first invented an art to perfect memory. Simonides, at a banquet in Thessaly given by the rich patron Scopas, recited a poem in praise of his host. Since the poem also included praise of the twin gods Castor and Pollux, Scopas told Simonides he would pay for only half the poem; the rest of his recompense should come from the twin gods. Shortly afterwards, a messenger arrived to tell the poet that two young men wanted to see him in the garden. Simonides stepped outside and found no one. While he was outside, the roof of the house fell in, killing everyone at the banquet except [End Page 266] him. The invisible callers had been Castor and Pollux, who thus p266aid for their share of the poem by saving the poet's life.