登陆注册
5451600000012

第12章

My favourite waiting-place is near the Via del Paradiso, just where some scarlet pomegranate blossoms hang out over the old brick walls by the canal-side, and where one splendid acanthus reminds me that its leaves inspired some of the most beautiful architecture in the world; where, too, the ceaseless chatter of the small boys cleaning crabs with scrubbing-brushes gives my ear a much-needed familiarity with the language.

Now a girl with a red parasol crosses the Ponte del Paradiso, making a brilliant silhouette against the blue sky. She stops to prattle with the man at the bell-shop just at the corner of the little calle. There are beautiful bells standing in rows in the window, one having a border of finely traced crabs and sea-horses at the base; another has a top like a Doge's cap, while the body of another has a delicately wrought tracery, as if a fish-net had been thrown over it.

Sometimes the children crowd about me as the pigeons in the Piazza San Marco struggle for the corn flung to them by the tourists. If there are only three or four, I sometimes compromise with my conscience and give them something. If one gets a lira put into small coppers, one can give them a couple of centesimi apiece without feeling that one is pauperizing them, but that one is fostering the begging habit in young Italy is a more difficult sin to face.

To-day when the boys took off the tattered hats from their bonny little heads, all black waves and riotous curls, and with disarming dimples and sparkling eyes presented them to me for alms, I looked at them with smiling admiration, thinking how like Raphael's cherubs they were, and then said in my best Italian: "Oh, yes, I see them; they are indeed most beautiful hats. I thank you for showing them to me, and I am pleased to see you courteously take them off to a lady."

This American pleasantry was passed from mouth to mouth gleefully, and so truly enjoyed that they seemed to forget they had been denied. They ran, still laughing and chattering, to the wood-carver's shop near-by and told him the story, or so I judged, for he came to his window and smiled benignly upon me as I sat in the gondola with my writing-pad on my knees. I was pleased at the friendly glance, for he is the hero of a pretty little romance, and I long to make his acquaintance.

It seems that, some years ago, the Queen, with one lady-in-waiting in attendance, came to his shop quite early in the morning. Both were plainly dressed in cotton gowns, and neither made any pretensions. He was carving something that could not be dropped, a cherub's face that had to be finished while his thought of it was fresh. Hurriedly asking pardon, he continued his work, and at end of an hour raised his eyes, breathless and apologetic, to look at his visitors. The taller lady had a familiar appearance. He gazed steadily, and then, to his surprise and embarrassment, recognized the Queen. Far from being offended, she respected his devotion to his art, and before she left the shop she gave him a commission for a royal staircase. I am going to ask the Little Genius to take me to see his work, but, alas! there will be an unsurmountable barrier between us, for I cannot utter in my new Italian anything but the most commonplace and conventional statements.

VI

CASA ROSA, May 28.

Oh, this misery of being dumb, incoherent, unintelligible, foolish, inarticulate in a foreign land, for lack of words! It is unwise, I fear, to have at the outset too high an ideal either in grammar or accent. As our gondola passed one of the hotels this afternoon, we paused long enough to hear an intrepid lady converse with an Italian who carried a mandolin and had apparently come to give a music lesson to her husband. She seemed to be from the Middle West of America, but I am not disposed to insist upon this point, nor to make any particular State in the Union blush for her crudities of speech. She translated immediately everything that she said into her own tongue, as if the hearer might, between French and English, possibly understand something.

"Elle nay pars easy--he ain't here," she remarked, oblivious of gender. "Elle retoorneray ah seas oors et dammi--he'll be back sure by half-past six. Bone swar, I should say Bony naughty--Good-night to you, and I won't let him forget to show up to-morrer."

This was neither so ingenious nor so felicitous as the language-expedient of the man who wished to leave some luggage at a railway station in Rome, and knowing nothing of any foreign tongue but a few Latin phrases, mostly of an obituary character, pointed several times to his effects, saying, "Requiescat in pace," and then, pointing again to himself, uttered the one pregnant word "Resurgam." This at any rate had the merit of tickling his own sense of humour, if it availed nothing with the railway porters, and if any one remarks that he has read the tale in some ancient "Farmers' Almanack," I shall only retort that it is still worth repeating.

My little red book on the "Study of Italian Made Easy for the Traveller" is always in my pocket, but it is extraordinary how little use it is to me. The critics need not assert that individuality is dying out in the human race and that we are all more or less alike. If we were, we should find our daily practical wants met by such little books. Mine gives me a sentence requesting the laundress to return the clothes three days hence, at midnight, at cock-crow, or at the full of the moon, but nowhere can the new arrival find the phrase for the next night or the day after to-morrow. The book implores the washerwoman to use plenty of starch, but the new arrival wishes scarcely any, or only the frills dipped.

同类推荐
  • The Life and Adventures of Santa Clause

    The Life and Adventures of Santa Clause

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 上清修行经诀

    上清修行经诀

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 乙丙之际著议第六

    乙丙之际著议第六

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 徽城竹枝词

    徽城竹枝词

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 尹文子

    尹文子

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 极速天颜

    极速天颜

    她,赛车界女皇,极速中展现她的风华;队友亦是爱人的背叛,使她葬身车祸;重生后的她,轻功绝世,亦追求极速。一袭男装,青龙遮面;一曲清箫,长剑在手;一匹白马,逍遥天下。赛车女皇一袭男装逍遥仗剑行天下天才王爷半生布衣深情执手永相随
  • 影帝先生有点甜

    影帝先生有点甜

    前排提醒:烂尾文,勿入 [占有欲超强影帝vs脑回路清奇的二货女主]两个人未在一起时,有一天,明宛和高中时的男神分手,回去的路上她恰好遇到陆华风,不禁苦恼的问他:“爱和喜欢有差别吗?”那时陆华风沐浴在阳光下,微微一笑:“喜欢仅仅是喜欢,爱却是步步谋划不择手段的占有。”结婚后十多年,两个人抛下一切环游世界,在著名的浪漫之城法国巴黎,明宛突发奇想,人生第一次肉麻了一回:“你会爱我一辈子吗?”陆华风抬手摸了摸她的脑袋:“会。”他爱她,生不休,死不止。陆先生的爱情——初见倾心,别离七年后爱入骨髓,他的爱是占有,是谋划,生时缠绵,死后骨灰不分彼此,直至永远。
  • 巫神鬼之恋Ⅱ:北岸之云

    巫神鬼之恋Ⅱ:北岸之云

    【喜欢本书或者小伊其他作品的朋友们,可以在百度落木伊人吧查看到读者群号码,欢迎大家加入啊!】一条当归河将北云大陆划为生死两界,神魔两岸。南岸光明,北岸黑暗。你问我哪一岸是天堂,哪一岸是地狱。我笑着回答:有你的那一岸,就算是地狱,也是我的天堂。碧落黄泉,生死不离。她本是神,她本是魔,毫无关联的两个女子因一次童年邂逅命运从此改变。神入魔道,魔渡众生,当她们的命运再度交集,北云大陆将会迎来怎样一场地覆天翻?白世卿(男):今生虎啸只为龙腾,哪管他神魔之别,纵用白虎之血,换你青白之意。修寂引(男):鬼族公子绝风华,翻手为云覆手雨。痴情却似无情,宁负天下不负卿。任青瓷(女):我用八千年岁月换君惊鸿一瞥,此生为你而来,跋山涉水,我心磐石。殷皎月(女):命是尊贵之神,身是颠沛之卑,你说我是冷月傲梅,我为你成魔不悔。步南萧(男):天生神力的释梦者,偶然陷进你编织的梦境,泥足深陷,愿长睡不醒。
  • 糟糠之妻

    糟糠之妻

    何倩茹,方宁颜与魏之芸,是类思小学的三个大龄未婚女子。她们渴望爱情,如同严冬里的人们盼望着春天一般。无论失望多少次,她们总还是相信,春天来时,爱情便来了。爱情来了,婚姻也携同而至。漫长的十年婚姻与情感的路途走下来,三个好友身心疲惫。但是,在疲惫的外壳里,还藏着一颗不肯老去的心。零七年的春节,下了这一冬的第一场雪。雪落在枯枝上,仿佛开了一树的花。
  • 宁少,宠妻如命

    宁少,宠妻如命

    她是因为两年前的丑闻初恋男友消失而封闭内心的娇俏少女,他是金戈铁马杀伐果断的第一总裁。缘起,我在人海中一眼就望见你,而我们之间不仅仅是缘起,你看到我后,迈开轻快的步伐快速地向我奔来。她意外负伤,靠在他怀里:“你快走,不要管我。”“不可能!”他阴沉着一张脸。亲妹妹跟她对战。“小墨叔,我不喜欢你妹妹。”“嗯,我也不喜欢。
  • 寻音当铺

    寻音当铺

    我在凡间渡劫时,开了间当铺,名叫“寻音”。很多人来我这儿典当曲子,后来我才知晓,这些曲子里的故事更耐人寻味。我日日枕着这些故事入睡,以前竟忽略了曲子的真意。偶尔关了当铺出门转转,也是收获不少。看遍人间冷暖,尝过苦辣酸甜。方才知道那些曲子也是一样的来之不易。即便渡劫之后我依旧开着那间当铺,来者不拒……
  • 交错时空的爱恋

    交错时空的爱恋

    时常出现在她梦里的黑色水车,在她十六岁的时候,真实的呈现在了她的面前,然后,它有着能够穿越过去和未来的力量,穿过水车的夹缝,她遇见了过去的紫和未来的玄,以及心爱着她的影!也在触手可及之间,她失去了一切。
  • On Sleep and Sleeplessness

    On Sleep and Sleeplessness

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 一拳x龙珠

    一拳x龙珠

    龙珠角色穿越一拳宇宙的故事========================建了个读者群,欢迎来催更/讨论剧情。群号:670374443
  • 吾乃凶兽,生人勿近

    吾乃凶兽,生人勿近

    上古四大凶兽身俱上古之力,传闻他们的脑壳食之能治头疼,眼珠子食之能治失明,鲜血饮之能改头换面,甚至就连指甲盖都能治脚气……封镜作为上古四大凶兽之首,听到这些不靠谱的流言,顿觉背后一凛!她本以为没人回信这种谣言,可谁知这个时候却冒出个人砍了她的护心鳞甲,言之凿凿的说食之可以治心竭……封镜欲哭无泪,修养三百年之后正打算报仇,然而却发现仇人摇身一变成了魔尊……和魔君昼衍打了一场,封镜鼻青脸肿。看来报仇的事情还是缓一缓比较好……