Non è detto che Kublai Kan creda a tutto quel che dice Marco Polo quando gli descrive le città visitate nelle sue ambascerie, ma certo l’imperatore dei tartari continua ad ascoltare il giovane veneziano con più curiosità e attenzione che ogni altro suo messo o esploratore.
Kublai Khan does not necessarily believe everything Macro Polo says when he describes the cities visited on his expeditions, but the emperor of the Tartars does continue listening to the young Venetian with greater attention and curiosity than he shows any other messenger or explorer of his.
(Italo Calvino, Le città invisibile, tr. William Weaver)
A wonderful book by Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities, short, lyrical, both uncanny and earthly. Marco Polo recounts the impossible cities he has seen, and the reader no more believes him than does Kublai Khan; but like Kublai Khan, he pays heed.
When I started reading this post, I felt that there was something weird about it but did not realize immediately what it was…
Calvino is one of the greatest writers ever, I think. He misses once in a while, but his novels and stories are warm, intelligent, profound, hilarious, clever, ironic…I could go on. He is a master of tone – never takes the easy path.
Invisible Cities is wonderful – Leonia is a favorite, so timely given the trash mess in Naples – but Cosmicomix is another I love. Who else could write side-splitting farce about a creature trying to seduce a pretty young mamalian thing, only to watch with horror as she falls for his uncle, a lung fish who hasn’t yet evolved to live on the land? [My Aquatic Uncle]
I wish he were still living and writing.