“Tutto passa” is an Italian saying that translates to “Everything passes” in English, and is often used as the abbreviation “TPS” to designate its french translation “Tout passe”, but I will get back at this particular point later on.
This expression is universally used to describe a state of impermanence of a given situation, usually a bad one.
For instance, it would be appropriate to cheer a heartbroken friend about their breakup by saying “It will pass”.
“Tutto passa” serves to express this feeling of life’s ever-changing nature that is ultimately always finite, and implicitly rejoice about it.
On a cosmic scale, we know from quantum physics that the universe has a beginning marked by the “Big Bang”, and would eventually come to an end likely by an increasing universal entropy that would provoke what physicists call the “Heat Death” of the universe dooming the cosmos, and the end of all things we ever knew and will never know would occur from it.
In Carl Sagan’s 1994 book “ A Pale Blue Dot” he meditated on the images of NASA’s Voyager 1 of our solar system and called the Earth — the only home we ever knew “A very small stage in a vast cosmic arena” and expressed how futile and inconsequential all the wars and events of human history were on this cosmic scale, which would eventually end like they never happened in the first place, making a point on how everything we know is fleeting and insignificant in a relative way.
On this note, in 1817 Percy Shelly wrote the classical poem “Ozymandias”, which contains the following verses:
“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.— Percy Shelley, “Ozymandias”, 1819 edition
In this poem, the poet rhymes about the inscription written on the tomb of Ramses II, once a fearful king in ancient Egypt, of which only a decaying tomb amid ruins buried in sand remains, symbolizing how even the most powerful of men eventually perishes and the most successful reign comes to an end, leaving — if at all — only ruins behind.
Amid those statements, and the ultimate realization that life — and everything else — will inevitably end. What is even the point of it all? When even the mightiest king dies, why should we keep going with our lives, full of dull repetitions and Sisyphus-like struggles?
In response of this dilemma my inspiration draws from the most unexpected of places, the Algerian penitentiary system. Indeed, in Algerian prisons there is a common practice of tattooing oneself with all kinds of quotes and symbols, but one particular adage remains almost always present and very used among a number of prisoners, and it is the abbreviation I mentioned earlier “TPS” or “Tout passe”. By tattooing the letters “TPS” on their skin, those prisoners send a statement against their own fate that whatever they are currently enduring will come to an end, and even if they would be sentenced for life, a day will come when even that same prison that is holding them will crumble, and everything would finally end leaving only peaceful silence.
This very particular practice of reminding yourself that everything passes by indelibly marking it on the skin symbolizes well the triumph of the human spirit against adversity, whatever it may be. With those tree simple letters “TPS” shows how the human mind can find meaning and hope even in the darkest circumstances against the most difficult odds and in the harshest places, like the Algerian dungeons of a cruel judiciary system.
Against an unfair and confusing reality, “TPS” is the most stagnant symbol of resilience, because it affirms that even if the horrors are unbearable, they will eventually end, no matter what. And suddenly, the whole idea of death and the end of the universe seems clement — rather than hopeless — in comparison of an unacceptable reality of lifetime imprisonment in inhumane conditions.
So against Kafkaesque tribulations, maybe the answer is to smile contemplating what Camus called the benign indifference of the universe, before it simply ends.
On this thought, the Algerian “TPS” tattoo prison is not so unfamiliar from the tattoo “Tutto passa” in the chest of an old man enjoying his retired life in the Italian south.
Both symbolize that no matter the difficulty encountered, it will pass. But also that for better or worse, no matter how beautiful life can be, this too will pass. Life’s only constant is change with all the moments we go through fleeting, and one must find meaning in that, and cherish them before they pass.
This impermanent nature of life is what can make it beautiful in this perspective, because when embraced it can embolden our determination to seize the day because life is short, and also to have patience during any trials because you will outlive them.
And as the french rockband Noir Désir sang on their 2001 song “Le vent nous portera” :
“Même s’il ne sert à rien va
Le vent l’emportera
Tout disparaîtra mais
Le vent nous portera”.
