Castellinaria, and Other Sicilian Diversions Part 8

Questa tavola non e sporca ma e netta.

Enrico! mangia, e non dare a loro retta. {61a}

MYSELF (_obediently taking a pear_._ It was a fine pear with a maggot in it_;_ they wanted me to take another but I knew that those with maggots are usually the best_. _Not seeing why I should not be a poet also_, _I put it thus_):

Animale Non fa male. {61b}

GILDO (_instantly raising his gla.s.s_):

Ora che ho mangiato non sono piu a dieta; Bevo alla salute d'Enrico che e poeta. {61c}

ALESS:

Anch'io voglio brindar, da povero precoce, Ad Enrico che sentir vuole la mia voce; Da un anno non ti vedo, O caro fratello!

Vieni oggi, ti faro sentir l'_Otello_. {61d}

MYSELF (_bowing my acknowledgments_): Thank you very much.

GILDO: What did you say? Does that mean Good night? Is that what you said before?

MYSELF: Very much means Molto, Thank you means Grazie, and Good night means Buona notte.

GILDO: Let me try. Very much thank you good night?

MYSELF: Bravo, Gildo! You are making progress.

(_Nina was not so much preoccupied with her comments as to be unable to take a line of her own when there was nothing particularly inspiring in the conversation and_, _just now_, _she had laid her head down in an empty plate and was unostentatiously putting out her tongue and making faces sideways at me_.)

GILDO (_taking a fig in one hand and raising his gla.s.s with the other_):

Oggi mi voglio mangiare un fico; Bevo alla salute del Signor Enrico. {62}

(_I had to drink each time_, _not much_--_merely to acknowledge the compliment_--_excusing myself by saying I had not the energy to drink more_.)

MYSELF: My dear Buffo, when you have sufficiently got into the habit of being twenty-five to approach the age Gildo says he is, you will not have so much energy as you have now.

ALESS: Yes, I shall.

MYSELF: No, Buffo mio.

ALESS: We will make a bet about it, but you will lose.

GILDO (_to Aless_): By that time Enrico will not be here to pay if he does lose, so you will not win.

MYSELF: Bravo, Gildo.

GILDO (_bowing his acknowledgments_): Thank you very night--Why do you laugh? That is what you say. Why do you laugh?

PAPA (_taking his revenge about the brindisi_): Don't talk so much, Gildo.

ALESS (_taking his about the bet_): You have been talking all the evening, Gildo. You are as bad as a conjurer in the piazza.

(_Gildo proclaimed a general silence and_, _as a guarantee of good faith_, _pretended to skewer his lips together with a tooth-pick_.)

ALESS (_whispering to me_): Argantino is the Prince of the Devils and has commanded them to make the subterranean road from Paris to Montalbano--

PAPA: May I speak one word?

MYSELF (_graciously_): Yes, Papa. You may even speak two words.

PAPA: I--

ALESS and GILDO (_shouting_): One!

PAPA:--have--

ALESS and GILDO: Two! There now, shut up. You've spoken your two words.

Silence.

CARO: Signor Enrico, last year you only stayed in Palermo four days; this year you will, of course, stay at least a month.

MYSELF: I am sorry, my dear young lady, but it is impossible.

ALESS:--and they will all escape and--

MYSELF: Please, Buffo, how many kilometres is it from Paris to Montalbano?

ALESS: I do not remember, but it is a long way.

CARO: Why do you not stay a month?

CARM: Yes, why are you going away?

MYSELF: My dear young ladies, I must go to Calatafimi.

CARO: But why do you go to Calatafimi?

CARM: Yes, why do you not stay with us?

(_Nina did not speak_. _She merely gazed at me as though she could not mind her wheel_, _Mother_.)

MYSELF: I have friends at Calatafimi whom I have promised to go and see and I cannot--

ALESS:--and arrive in safety at Montalbano.

MYSELF: I believe you told me once that Montalbano is Rinaldo's castle in Gascony. Did the devils make a subterranean road right across France?

It is a long way, you know.

ALESS: The devils must do as Argantino commands them.