{"id":9860,"date":"2013-07-30T19:58:54","date_gmt":"2013-07-30T17:58:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/egophobia.ro\/?p=9860"},"modified":"2013-07-30T23:00:53","modified_gmt":"2013-07-30T21:00:53","slug":"giardinieri-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/?p=9860","title":{"rendered":"Giardinieri"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Radu P\u0103rp\u0103u\u0163\u0103
\ntranslation from Romanian by Raisa Lambru [MTTLC student]
\nclick aici<\/a> pentru versiunea rom\u00e2n\u0103<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

Firenze. Via Giambologna \u2013 a calm, shaded street, with colourful, nobby ville<\/i>. Three men are walking slowly from the slopping end of the street: two of them seem to be around 50 years old, while the third isn\u2019t even in his thirties.\u00a0 All three of them are wearing blue overalls, and on their back, written in big, white letters, there\u2019s one word: GIARDINIERI. The younger one idly pushes a plastic, mobile dumpster: it\u2019s small, white and blue, with various wheels, big and small \u2013 it looks like a toy dumpster. The other two move behind him in the torrid weather, talking in a similar manner, as if saying \u201ctake it easy, it\u2019s not like the Huns are after us!\u201d. They\u2019re Romanians. Old man Vasile, a Moldavian from Murgenii Vasluiului, resumes his story:<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd dad\u2019d tell me about gramps, how he had a pair of sorrel horses, big and beautiful. He\u2019d pride himself on them! And when the Russians came, you know, when the front was destroyed, a Russian lady walks in our yard and goes straight to the stable, where the horses were. She takes the horses out and wants to leave with them. But gramps blocks her way with a fork, yelling \u2018Niet! Niet!\u2019. The lady was already riding a horse, with one of those tousled hats on her head, and was holding the rein with her right hand, since the left was cut off right above the elbow. Then she let go of the rein and took her gun from her belt: bang! bang! she fired a few shots in the air. And then she pushes gramps out of her way with the horse. My dad, he was 15 or so, he jumps on gramps and pulls him back: \u2018You\u2019re crazy, dad, do you want to get shot?\u2019 Then their captain comes, shouting at her \u2018Lena, Lena\u2019 and giving her an order. The Russian lady turned around and left, taking gramps\u2019s horses. And people in the village kept saying that she was mad, since the Germans had killed the man she was in love with…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

For a while they went on walking in silence. Then, again, old man Vasile, who seems to be the boss, tells the one in the front, who was handling the dumpster:<\/p>\n

\u201cHere, Fane. Get the goods out!\u201d Fane stops, opens the dumpster and takes out a dirty bag made of raffia. From inside he pulls out a dead, grey cat.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere!\u201d old man Vasile says and points at a luxurious, terra cotta villa, covered in green. Inside the yard, there\u2019s a dog walking around restlessly, with his wrinkled muzzle pointed downwards, seemingly confused. Fane grabs the cat by its tail and, moving his weight from one leg to another, throws the cat over the wired fence and right under the dog\u2019s nose. The animal seems even more puzzled. He smells the cat\u2019s corpse and starts barking like crazy. The three men each light a cigarette and move to hide under the shade.<\/p>\n

After about 10 minutes of rabid barking, a fat lady comes out; she\u2019s not lacking when it comes to fat cheeks and goitre, and she\u2019s wearing a purple turban, as tall as a tower. For a while, one can hear someone pounding and bustling around, exclamations. Then the woman sees the \u201cgiardinieri\u201d, who are sitting aside, but not too far so as not to be seen.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiardinieri! Giardinieri! Aiuto! Aiuto!\u201d and she waves at them to come closer. Old man Panait, a guy from Br\u0103ila, with a thin, sly moustache, immediately responds:<\/p>\n

\u201cSi, signora, vengo subito.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAiut\u0103m, aiut\u0103<\/i>m,<\/i>\u201d old man Vasile says in a sui-generis of Italian and Romanian. Inside the yard, the woman, teary-eyed and with a merciful expression, shows them the cat:<\/p>\n

\u201cEcco! Un gatto!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo problem, seniora, no problem. Subito!\u201d Panait says in a mix of English and Italian, gesturing at her to calm down.<\/p>\n

They take the cat, they slip it inside the raffia bag, which they then throw in the dumpster, they leisurely sweep the yard, which didn\u2019t even need sweeping, they move some pergolas and a vaso da flori<\/i> made out of stone, moresco<\/i> style.<\/p>\n

After 15 minutes, Panaite knocks at the metal door:<\/p>\n

\u201cFinito, seniora.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGrazie, molto grazie! Da dove siete?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRomania, seniora.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA, romeni, molto gentili romeni,\u201d says the woman, nodding with her purple tower.<\/p>\n

\u201cGrazie, seniora.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSubito,\u201d says the woman and hurries inside. They can hear her slamming doors or pulling open drawers. Then she comes back with some money.<\/p>\n

\u201cO, no, no, no, seniora.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSpiccioli, spiccioli,\u201d she offers as an excuse, that is, some change, and she shoves the money in Panait\u2019s hand.<\/p>\n

\u201cMille grazie, seniora.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then the three slowly walk away. Panait counts the money and divides them into three. Following them, there\u2019s the dog with the wrinkled muzzle and watery eyes, just like its master\u2019s. He walks around the dumpster, smells it and whines.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, look here,\u201d Vasile says, \u201cit\u2019s like a cop\u2019s dog.\u201d He kicks it in the ribs, but not hard enough. The dog barely reacts: it looks like it doesn\u2019t know what it\u2019s like to have its ass kicked.<\/p>\n

\u201cFane!\u201d Vasile simply says, his eyes moving to the dog. Fane grabs the broom which he had just hung on the dumpster and hits the dog right on its back. \u201cYelp, yelp, yelp\u201d the dog whines like any other mongrel and runs away with its tail between its legs. It looks like, for the first time, its fur felt the huge distance that stands between Firenze and Ferentari.<\/p>\n

\u201cGo and whine at madam Bardot,\u201d Panait says.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd have her sent us each an otograph<\/i>,\u201d Vasile adds.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Then Panait starts telling another story about horses:<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were two guys at Corbu: Ion and Ilarion. And they both liked horses a bloody hell lot. When they\u2019d met, as they were good friends, they\u2019d only talk about horses. They\u2019d have contests to see who knew more about horses. Sometimes Ion won, other times, Ilarion. They each wanted to win against the other. That\u2019s what they did all their lives. Later, Ion fell ill and was on his deathbed. He called Ilarion over and told him: \u2018I\u2019m about to die, Ilarion. You\u2019ve been my closest friend, so I\u2019ve got a request. When I die, put me down on the ground, in the church\u2019s yard, and jump over me three times while riding a horse\u201d. Okay! And Ion dies. At his funeral, they placed the coffin on the ground, in the yard, and Ilarion was ready, having brought his horses to jump over Ion. Try this, try that, hit the horses. They didn\u2019t want to jump. People started laughing…\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, I know about this.\u201d Vasile cut him off. \u201cThe horse never jumps over the dead. So your old buddy Ion made a fool of himself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then, concerned, Vasile added:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll try again one more time today. Tomorrow we start earlier, around eight. And Fane, get us a new cat, this one stinks. Got it?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGot it,\u201d Fane replies.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The three walk away. On the twilight sky you can see, firm and gloomy, Bruneleschi\u2019s masterpiece \u2013 Santa Maria del Fiore<\/i>, with its famous arch, which Stendhal talked about, saying it makes him surrender to madness as if he were around his beloved woman. But the three giardinieri ignore it. And as for Bruneleschi, they haven\u2019t even heard of him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Radu P\u0103rp\u0103u\u0163\u0103 translation from Romanian by Raisa Lambru [MTTLC student] click aici pentru versiunea rom\u00e2n\u0103     Firenze. Via Giambologna \u2013 a calm, shaded street, with colourful, nobby ville. Three men are walking slowly from the slopping end of the street: two of them seem to be around 50 years old, while the third […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[986,22],"tags":[1164,403,353,897,1116,312],"class_list":["post-9860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-egophobia-38","category-short-story","tag-egophobia-38","tag-mttlc","tag-radu-parpauta","tag-raisa-lambru","tag-short-story","tag-translation"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6DakB-2z2","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9860"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9860\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9861,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9860\/revisions\/9861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}