2 ?b90

327
gence; instead these transformed beings require re-identification in their
new roles. Only through an understanding of their presence on the myste-
rious bus can the reader discover something more about the criteria by
which Cemi is Oppiano Licario's "chosen one"; and hence about the charac-
ter and symbolism of Oppiano Licario himself. They cannot be studied in
isolation from Cemi and his new spiritual guide since all encounter both
figures on the bus and forfeit by their attitude the opportunity to benefit
from ancient wisdom. Oppiano Licario could have affected each of these
individuals had they been receptive; each almost grasps the elusive treasu-
I
ie at some stage on the bus journey. They seem to represent all that Cemi
must reject, before he may become one with Oppiano Licario. Mendell makes
a most important point when she states that "una vez realizado el encuentro
y con 61 la mägica transferencia de ese tesoro que salvaguarda Licarioe su
destino se ha completado y puede morir porque ha sido incorporado por Cemi,
que es entonces tambidn Licario. "
4
In the meeting of Oppiano Licario and
Cemi, a process of rediscovery takes place as symbolized in the tale of the
night wanderer and the child of the twelfth chapter. Many aspects of the
life of Oppiano Licario as revealed in the last chapter are reminiscent of
Lezama/Cemi's personal circumstances: he works in a notary's office (IJ, 590);
he is at that oft-mentioned stage of life
- about forty years old - at which
a certain unease is felt ("Al llegar a la desdichada pdgina cuarenta de esa
coleci6n de otoffos, los recuerdos perdian sus afiladuras, las sensaciones
se relan de sus sucesiones y el carrusel dejaba de ser cortado por su mira-
da
...
" (1,589-90). In fact it is most interesting to note that parts of
Lezama's essay collections and chapters of Paradiso, began appearing in
Origenes in the early 1950s, when he himself would have been in his forties
(b. 1910). In particular, the major part of the fourteenth chapter (1,, 589-
633), omitting the final revelation of Ceml, was first published in 1954.5.
Lezama had already published much poetry by then but it seems that the