Journal of Italian Translation

Anne Milano Appel/ Claudio Magris
[Chapter 79]
See how well I get by, with these women of wood that you give
me to model so that I am distracted and don’t get any nasty ideas in
my head? By the way, I heard of someone who cut the head off of his
ship’s figurehead; it must have been a lover’s revenge, but I don’t understand
these things – if two people leave each other, it means they
were meant to leave each other, right? Whether it be women, men,
figureheads, revolutions, when it’s over, it’s over. Even with Maria –
no, with Maria it will never be over, that’s the tragedy. Of course with
figureheads, judging from the tales written in this calendar – yes, catalog,
I know, in a word a book, I already told you that those illustrations
and photographs of women with half-naked breasts remind me
of the calendars in the barbershops of one time – with those wooden
women, as I was saying, you have to be careful, look at what the
caption says about this one, Atalanta, she’s called, she’s in La Spezia,
and at least two men killed themselves for her, a caretaker who spent
hours caressing and kissing her, and then smashed himself by leaping
into the dry dock, and a German official, a certain Kurtz, who actually
brought her into his room before shooting himself. I’m telling you,
the sailors who use them just to find a little release have more common
sense, it’s understandable, all those months at sea, the voyage
down here is long, so one can understand, but at least there are no
tragic scenes, that’s something… Instead these malicious bitches want
to bring about your ruin, your misfortune… accursed figureheads,
sorceresses, even made to burn with living sorceresses, like that Flemish
woman who served as a model, both of them burned at the stake,
while the sculptor got away with both hands lopped off.
You won’t cut mine off, will you? You never know, I’ve seen a lot
things in places like this more or less… I behave well, I don’t do anything
foolish, I’m respectful. How could you not be respectful, with
these beautiful figures? Look at this enchanting mouth, the unreadable
smile, the same smile she wore when she sank that day with her
ship, the Falkland, near the Scilly Isles, the book says. Just think, to
sink into the depths smiling like that – Not that it’s easy to model that
wooden smile… And those Eurydices who return to the shadows…
[Chapter 84]
This is Galatea. She was found on an African beach following
a shipwreck, and was worshipped like a goddess by the aborigines;
other figures ended up adorning inns and taverns, so that the sail-
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