07 março, 2018

Palavras lidas #369

I've decided to re-read Tabucchi's Pereira, this time in English, who continues to declare/maintain. And so we have the beginning and the end of the first chapter:

ONE

Pereira declares he met him on a summer's day. A fine fresh sunny summer's day and Lisbon was sparkling. It would seem that Pereira was in his office biting his pen, the editor-in-chief was away on holiday while he himself was saddled with getting together the culture page, because the Lisboa was now to have a culture page and he had been given the job. But he, Pereira, was meditating on death. (p. 1)

(...)

It was the twenty-fifth of July Nineteen Hundred and Thirty-Eight, and Lisbon was glittering in the azure purity of an Atlantic breeze, declares Pereira. (p. 4)

Taboucchi, Antonio. Declares Pereira: A True Account. Translated by Patrick Creagh. London: The Harvill Press, 1995.

1 comentário:

Antonio Tabucchi disse...

Sostiene Pereira di averlo conosciuto in un giorno d'estate. Una magnifica giornata d'estate, soleggiata e ventilata, e Lisbona sfavillava. Pare che Pereira stesse in redazione, non sapeva che fare, il direttore era in ferie, lui si trovava nell'imbarazzo di mettere su la pagina culturale, perché il "Lisboa" aveva ormai una pagina culturale, e l'avevano affidata a lui. E lui, Pereira, rifletteva sulla morte.
...
Era il venticinque di luglio del millenovecentotrentotto, e Lisbona scintillava nell'azzurro di una brezza atlantica, sostiene Pereira.