The Solitude of Compassion by Jean Giono

Author:Jean Giono
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, azw3
Publisher: Seven Stories Press
Published: 2010-06-17T21:00:00+00:00

Vassili goes to look for tea. I think that in going to the kitchen I will be able to get some from the man who serves it, and mix it with my tobacco.

He comes back and begins playing the accordion again.

Eleven o’clock. Still Vagonitika with some little variations steeped in a heavy gloom like the wind over the swamps. Is it going to go on like last night? It looks that way. Kossiakoff, almost asleep, looks at me; I see his eyes flash in the shadows. I would rather go to sleep out in the corridor: straw mattress, covers, I move out; and Vassili, tireless, stretches his melodymaker like a seller of caramel candy paste.

The music stops. I hear Kossiakoff’s voice scolding, slightly singing with words that blow like whiplashes. Vassili responds—magpies calling on mountain slopes—the light fluting of sharp notes to occupy the fingers during the discussion. Kossiakoff provides the bass. The last sigh of the accordion. The door opens. Kossiakoff. I am in shadow.

“Hep.”

He calls me

“What do you want?”

A step towards me; the light strikes his back. I see his big arms open and close several times, imitating Vassili harnessed to his dream.

“Niett zon, zon, zon, niett.”

And he makes a sign for me to return to the calmed casemate.

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