Page 74 - Lanzarotto Malocello from Italy to the Canary Islands

74 from Italy to the Canary Islands

Nessun tribunale.
Niente.
Assassino o innocente,
agli occhi di nessuno un cranio
varrà l’altro come
varrà l’altro un sasso o un nome
perso fra l’erba.
La morte
(il dopo) non privilegia
nessuno.
Non c’è per nessuno,
bruciata ogni ormai inattendibile
mappa, nessuna via regia.

And also, in the poem entitled “Cianfrogna”:

Se ne dicono tante.
Si dice, anche,
che la morte è un trapasso.
(Certo: dal sangue al sasso.)

These two feelings - glory and the end of the dream - therefore run
alongside each other in the life of a nobleman. In fact, through the uncon-
scious working of the mind and soul, that act of accumulating glory, riches
and power would therefore have been necessary precisely to keep at bay
that idea of transition, of death which hunts down man and often makes
him become cruel.
Therefore, our Lanzarotto Malocello, staying true to what we have read
(of course, many narrators can alter the behaviours of a hero and attribute
qualities to him which he did not in actual fact possess), must have been
a young man gifted with wisdom and with the quality (this is a sensation
we have) of keeping at bay the emotional side which can often influence a
person in his acts.
So, to summarise, this is how we see Lanzarotto Malocello at a first
glance: a restless expression, but with that idea of the Absolute which,
softened so as not to digress in a hasty gesture, is studded with wisdom.
This is of course with regard to his inner being; as for his facial features,