Face as Face

Der Treue Husar
(from a German folk song, ca. 1825)

Es war einmal ein treuer Husar
der liebt sein Mädchen ein ganzes Jahr
ein ganzes Jahr und noch viel mehr
die Liebe nahm kein Ende mehr
Und als man ihm die Botschaft bracht
dass sein Herzliebchen am Sterben lag
da liess er all sein Hab und Gut
und eilte seinem Herzliebchen zu

Translation

There once was a faithful hussar
Who loved his maiden a whole year long,
A whole year long, and even more;
His love would never end.
And when the message came
That his love lay dying
He left behind all he owned
And hastened to his sweetheart dear.

Face as Face
The nakedness of the face extends into the nakedness of the body that is cold and that is ashamed of its nakedness. Existence is, in the world, a destitution. There is here a relation between me and the other beyond rhetoric. This gaze that supplicates and demands, that can supplicate only because it demands, deprived of everything because entitled to everything, and which one recognizes in giving (as one ‘puts the things in question in giving’)—this gaze is precisely the epiphany of the face as a face. The nakedness of the face is destituteness. To recognize the Other is to recognize a hunger. To recognize the Other is to give.  (Emmanuel Levinas, Totality and Infinity).

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