The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (Penguin Modern Classics) by Giorgio Bassani

Author:Giorgio Bassani [Bassani, Giorgio]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9780241347720
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2017-12-14T05:00:00+00:00

4

Rather than the generic ‘See you soon’ I exchanged with Alberto, whilst taking my leave of him, it was a letter from Micòl, arriving a few days later, which convinced me to return.

This letter was witty, neither too short nor too long, written on the four sides of two sheets of blue paper which her impetuous fluent handwriting had rapidly filled, without hesitations or corrections. Micòl begged me to forgive her: she had left unexpectedly. She hadn’t even said goodbye to me, and this had not been very stylish of her, she was only too willing to admit. She had tried to phone me, however – she added – before she’d left, and in the eventuality that I couldn’t be contacted, she’d asked Alberto to track me down. Since this had happened, had Alberto kept his promise of finding me, ‘at the cost of his life’? Famous as he was for his phlegmatism, he always ended up letting all of his contacts drop, and yet he had such a real need of them, poor thing! The letter went on for another two and a half pages, explaining about her thesis which was by then ‘sailing on towards the finishing-line’, referring to Venice – which in winter ‘simply made one want to weep’ – and coming to an unexpected conclusion with a verse translation of an Emily Dickinson poem.

This:

Morii per la Bellezza; e da poco ero

discesa nell’avello,

che, caduto pel Vero, uno fu messo

nell’attiguo sacello.

«Perché sei morta?», mi chiese sommesso.

Dissi: «Morii pel Bello».

«Io per la Verità: dunque è lo stesso

– disse –, son tuo fratello.»

Da tomba a tomba, come due congiunti

incontratisi a notte,

parlavamo così; finché raggiunti

l’erba ebbe nomi e bocche.1

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