Sicilian Stories

by Giovanni Verga

  But on St. Barbara’s night10 he came home at an unusual hour, when all the lights were out on the little street and the city clock was striking midnight. He was coming then because the mare that his master had left out to graze had suddenly fallen ill, and he could see clearly that it was a matter demanding the immediate attention of the veterinarian. It had been a hard job to get her all the way to the village in the rain that was falling in torrents and over roads in which your legs sank in halfway. Nevertheless, he had to keep on knocking and calling Mara as he waited at the door; he had to stand a half-hour under the gutter, until the water was running out at his heels. Finally his wife came to open up, and began to scold him worse than if she had been the one roaming the countryside in that terrible weather. “What’s wrong with you?” he asked.

  “It’s because you frightened me at this time of night! Do you think this is an hour for Christians to be up and about? Tomorrow I’ll be sick!”

  “Go back to bed, I’ll light the fire.”

  “No, I have to go get the firewood.”

  “I’ll go.”

  “No, I tell you!”

  When Mara got back with the firewood in her arms, Jeli said:

  __________

  10. December 4.

  – Perché hai aperto l’uscio del cortile? Non ce n’era più di legna in cucina?

  – No, sono andata a prenderla sotto la tettoja.

  Ella si lasciò baciare, fredda fredda, e volse il capo dall’altra parte.

  – Sua moglie lo lascia a infradiciare dietro l’uscio, dicevano i vicini, quando in casa c’è il tordo!

  Ma Jeli non sapeva nulla, ch’era becco, né gli altri si curavano di dirglielo, perché a lui non gliene importava niente, e s’era accollata la donna col danno, dopo che il figlio di massaro Neri l’aveva piantata per aver saputo la storia di don Alfonso. Jeli invece ci viveva beato e contento nel vituperio, e s’ingrassava come un majale, «ché le corna sono magre, ma mantengono la casa grassa!».

  Una volta infine il ragazzo della mandra glielo disse in faccia, mentre si abbaruffavano per le pezze di formaggio che si trovavano tosate. – Ora che don Alfonso vi ha preso la moglie, vi pare di essere suo cognato, e avete messo superbia che vi par di essere un re di corona con quelle corna che avete in testa.

  Il fattore e il campajo si aspettavano di veder scorrere il sangue a quelle parole; ma invece Jeli rimase istupidito come se non le avesse udite, o come se non fosse stato fatto suo, con una faccia da bue che le corna gli stavano bene davvero.

  Ora si avvicinava la Pasqua e il fattore mandava tutti gli uomini della fattoria a confessarsi, colla speranza che pel timor di Dio non rubassero più. Jeli andò anche lui e all’uscir di chiesa cercò del ragazzo con cui erano corse quelle parole e gli buttò le braccia al collo dicendogli:

  – Il confessore mi ha detto di perdonarti; ma io non sono in collera con te per quelle chiacchiere; e se tu non toserai più il formaggio a me non me ne importa nulla di quello che mi hai detto nella collera.

  Fu da quel momento che lo chiamarono per soprannome Corna d’oro, e il soprannome gli rimase, a lui e tutti i suoi, anche dopo che ei si lavò le corna nel sangue.

  La Mara era andata a confessarsi anche lei, e tornava di chiesa tutta raccolta nella mantellina, e cogli occhi bassi che sembrava una santa Maria Maddalena. Jeli il quale l’aspettava taciturno sul ballatojo, come la vide venire a quel modo, che si vedeva come ci avesse il Signore in corpo, la stava a guardare pallido pallido dai piedi alla testa, come la vedesse per la prima volta, o gliela avessero cambiata la sua Mara, e quasi non osava alzare gli occhi su di lei, mentre ella

  “Why did you open the door to the yard? Wasn’t there any more wood in the kitchen?”

  “No, I went to the shed to get it.”

  She allowed him to kiss her, acting very frigid, and turned her head away.

  “His wife lets him get soaked at the door,” the neighbors said, “when her fancy man is in the house!”

  But Jeli was completely unaware of being a cuckold, and no one else bothered to inform him, because he hadn’t objected to the situation but had taken the woman onto his hands as “damaged goods” after farmer Neri’s son had jilted her because he knew about her affair with Don Alfonso. On the contrary, Jeli was living blissfully and contentedly in his shame (they said) and battening on it like a pig, “because horns are thin, but they keep the household fat!”

  One time his shepherd boy finally said it to his face in the course of a squabble over hunks of cheese that had been secretly pared. “Now that Don Alfonso has taken your wife, you act as if you were his brother-in-law, and you’ve grown so high and mighty that you think those horns on your head are a royal crown.”

  The steward and the chief shepherd expected to see blood flowing after that speech; instead, Jeli remained dazed, as if he hadn’t heard it, or as if the matter didn’t pertain to him; his facial expression was so bovine that his horns really suited him.

  Now Easter was approaching, and the steward was sending all the farmhands to Confession, in hopes that the fear of God would keep them from further pilfering. Jeli went, too, and when he left the church he looked for the boy with whom he had had that argument. He threw his arms around his neck and said:

  “The priest I confessed to told me to forgive you, but I’m not angry with you over that gossip, and if you stop paring the cheese on me, I don’t care at all about what you said to me in the heat of anger.”

  From that time on, he received the nickname “Golden Horns,” a nickname that stuck to him and all his kindred, even after he had washed his horns in blood.

  Mara had gone to Confession also, and she was returning from church all wrapped up in her shoulder cape, with her eyes cast down so that she resembled a Mary Magdalene. Jeli was silently waiting for her on the veranda, and when he saw her arriving that way, looking as if she had the Lord within her, he ran his eyes over her from head to foot (he was all pale), as if he were seeing her for the first time or as if someone had foisted a different Mara on him. He hardly dared raise

  sciorinava la tovaglia, e metteva in tavola le scodelle, tranquilla e pulita al suo solito.

  Poi dopo averci pensato un gran pezzo le domandò:

  – È vero che te la intendi con don Alfonso?

  Mara gli piantò in faccia i suoi occhioni neri neri, e si fece il segno della croce. – Perché volete farmi far peccato in questo giorno! esclamò.

  – Io non ci ho creduto, perché con don Alfonso eravamo sempre insieme, quando eravamo ragazzi, e non passava giorno ch’ei non venisse a Tebidi, quand’era in campagna lì vicino. E poi egli è ricco che i denari li ha a palate, e se volesse delle donne potrebbe maritarsi, né gli mancherebbe la roba, o il pane da mangiare.

  Mara però andavasi riscaldando, e cominciò a strapazzarlo in mal modo, sicché il poveraccio non osava alzare il naso dal piatto.

  Infine perché quella grazia di Dio che stavano mangiando non andasse in tossico Mara cambiò discorso, e gli domandò se ci avesse pensato a far zappare quel po’ di lino che avevano seminato nel campo delle fave.

  – Sì, rispose Jeli, e il lino verrà bene.

  – Se è così, disse Mara, in questo inverno ti farò due camicie nuove che ti terranno caldo.

  Insomma Jeli non lo capiva quello che vuol dire becco, e non sapeva cosa fosse la gelosia; ogni cosa nuova stentava ad entrargli in capo, e questa poi gli riesciva così grossa che addirittura faceva una fatica del diavolo ad entrarci; massime allorché si vedeva dinanzi la sua Mara, tanto bella, e bianca, e pulita, che l’aveva voluto ella stessa, ed alla quale egli aveva pensato tanti anni e tanti anni, fin da quando era ragazzo, che il giorno in cui gli avevano detto com’ella volesse sposarne un altro non aveva avuto più cuore di mangiare o di bere tutto il giorno – ed anche se pensava a don Alfonso, col quale erano stati tante volte insieme, ed ei gli portava ogni volta dei dolci e del pane bianco, gli pareva di averlo tuttora dinanzi agli occhi con quei vestitini nuovi, e i capelli ricciuti, e il viso bianco e liscio come una fanci
ulla, e dacché non lo aveva più visto, perché egli era un povero pecoraio, e stava tutto l’anno in campagna, gli era sempre rimasto in cuore a quel modo. Ma la prima volta che per sua disgrazia rivide don Alfonso, dopo tanti anni, Jeli si sentì dentro come se lo cuocessero. Don Alfonso s’era fatto grande, da non sembrare più quello; ed ora aveva una bella barba ricciuta al pari dei capelli, e una giacchetta di velluto, e una catenella d’oro sul panciotto. Però riconobbe Jeli, e gli batté anche sulle spalle salutandolo. Era venuto

  his eyes to her while she was spreading out the tablecloth and placing their bowls on the table, calmly and neatly as always.

  Then, after a long period of reflection, he asked:

  “Is it true that you’re carrying on with Don Alfonso?”

  Mara looked him in the face with her big, very dark eyes, and crossed herself. “Why do you want to accuse me of a sin on this day of all days?” she exclaimed.

  “I didn’t believe it, because Don Alfonso and I were always together when we were boys, and a day didn’t go by that he didn’t come to Tebidi when he was vacationing in the country nearby. Besides, he’s rich, with bundles of money, and if he wanted women he could get married, and he wouldn’t lack for possessions or bread to eat.”

  But Mara was getting heated and began scolding him severely, so that the poor fellow didn’t dare lift his nose from his plate.

  Finally, so that the food they were eating, a gift from God, wouldn’t turn into poison, Mara changed the topic and asked him whether he had thought about getting someone to hoe the bit of flax they had planted in the beanfield.

  “Yes,” Jeli replied, “and the flax will do well.”

  “If it does,” Mara said, “this winter I’ll make you two new shirts that will keep you warm.”

  In short, Jeli didn’t understand the meaning of the word “cuckold,” and he didn’t know what jealousy was. It was difficult for him to get any new concept into his head, and this one was so enormous for him that it was really the devil’s own job to make him comprehend it, especially when he was face to face with his Mara, who was so beautiful, white-skinned, and tidy, who had chosen him herself, and who had been in his mind all those years, ever since he was a boy, so that on the day he had been told she wanted to marry someone else, he didn’t feel like eating or drinking the rest of the day. It was the same when he thought about Don Alfonso, with whom he had been together so many times, and each time Alfonso would bring him candy or white bread. Alfonso seemed to be in front of him always, with his new little suits, his curly hair, and his face white and smooth as a girl’s; since he hadn’t seen him anymore, because he was just a poor shepherd who remained out in the fields all year long, he had always remembered him that way. But the first time he saw Don Alfonso again (to his misfortune) after all those years, Jeli felt as if he were being burned inside. Don Alfonso had become tall, so that he no longer looked like the same person; now he had a beautiful beard, which curled like his hair, and a velvet jacket, and a gold chain across his vest. But he recognized Jeli, and even

  col padrone della fattoria insieme a una brigata d’amici, a fare una scampagnata nel tempo che si tosavano le pecore; ed era venuta pure Mara all’improvviso col pretesto che era incinta e aveva voglia di ricotta fresca.

  Era una bella giornata calda, nei campi biondi, colle siepi in fiore, e i lunghi filari verdi delle vigne, le pecore saltellavano e belavano dal piacere, al sentirsi spogliate da tutta quella lana, e nella cucina le donne facevano un gran fuoco per cuocere la gran roba che il padrone aveva portato per il desinare. I signori intanto che aspettavano si erano messi all’ombra, sotto i carrubi, e facevano suonare i tamburelli e le cornamuse, e ballavano colle donne della fattoria che parevano tutt’una cosa. Jeli mentre andava tosando le pecore, si sentiva qualcosa dentro di sé, senza sapere perché, come uno spino, come un chiodo, come una forbice che gli lavorasse internamente minuta minuta, come un veleno. Il padrone aveva ordinato che gli sgozzassero due capretti, e il castrato di un anno, e dei polli, e un tacchino. Insomma voleva fare le cose in grande, e senza risparmio, per farsi onore coi suoi amici, e mentre tutte quelle bestie schiamazzavano dal dolore, e i capretti strillavano sotto il coltello, Jeli si sentiva tremare le ginocchia e di tratto in tratto gli pareva che la lana che andava tosando e l’erba in cui le pecore saltellavano avvampassero di sangue.

  – Non andare! disse egli a Mara, come don Alfonso la chiamava perché venisse a ballare cogli altri. Non andare, Mara!

  – Perché?

  – Non voglio che tu vada. Non andare!

  – Lo senti che mi chiamano.

  Egli non profferiva più alcuna parola intelligibile, mentre stava curvo sulle pecore che tosava. Mara si strinse nelle spalle, e se ne andò a ballare. Ella era rossa ed allegra cogli occhi neri che sembravano due stelle, e rideva che le si vedevano i denti bianchi, e tutto l’oro che aveva indosso le sbatteva e le scintillava sulle guancie e sul petto che pareva la Madonna tale e quale. Jeli s’era rizzato sulla vita, colla lunga forbice in pugno, e così bianco in viso, così bianco come aveva visto una volta suo padre il vaccajo, quando tremava di febbre accanto al fuoco, nel casolare. Tutt’a un tratto come vide che don Alfonso, colla bella barba ricciuta, e la giacchetta di velluto e la catenella d’oro sul panciotto, prese Mara per

  thumped him on the back when he said hello. He had come with the owner of the farm and a group of friends for a country outing during sheep-shearing season. Mara had also arrived unexpectedly under the pretext that she was pregnant and had a hankering for fresh ricotta.

  It was a beautiful warm day in the fields that were yellow with grain, with the blossoming hedges and the long green rows of grapevines; the sheep were gamboling and bleating with joy to be relieved of all that wool, and in the kitchen the women were making a big fire to cook all the things the proprietor had brought along for the luncheon. Meanwhile, the gentlemen had sat down to wait in the shade, beneath the carob-trees, and were listening to the music of tambourines and bagpipes, and dancing with the farm women to everyone’s contentment.11 While Jeli was shearing the sheep, he felt something inside him, without knowing why, something like a thorn, like a nail, like a pair of shears digging all the way into his vitals, like poison. The proprietor had ordered his people to slaughter two kids, the yearling wether, some chickens, and a turkey. In short, he wanted to do things on a grand scale, sparing no expense, to do himself proud with his friends; and while all those animals were calling out in pain, and the kids were squealing under the knife, Jeli felt his knees trembling, and at moments he felt as if the wool he was shearing and the grass on which the sheep were gamboling were blazing with blood.

  “Don’t go!” he said to Mara while Don Alfonso was calling her to come and dance with the others. “Don’t go, Mara!”

  “Why not?”

  “I don’t want you to go. Don’t go!”

  “You hear them calling me.”

  He no longer uttered any intelligible word while he leaned over the sheep he was shearing. Mara shrugged her shoulders and went to dance. She was ruddy and merry, with those dark eyes that were like two stars, and laughed so gaily that you could see her white teeth; all the gold jewelry she was wearing flapped and sparkled against her cheeks and her bosom, so that she looked exactly like pictures of the Madonna. Jeli had stood up straight, the long shears in his fist, and very white in the face, as white as his father the cowherd had once been when he was trembling with fever beside the fire in their cottage. All at once, when he saw Don Alfonso, with his curly beard, his velvet jacket, and his gold chain across his vest, take Mara by the hand

  __________

  11. “To everyone’s contentment” is just a guess at the meaning of the odd Italian phrase che parevano tutt’una cosa, which would mean literally “who seemed one and the same thing.” In a previous translation the phrase is simply omitted.

  la mano per ballare, solo allora, come vide che la toccava, si slanciò su di lui, e gli tagliò la gola di un sol colpo, proprio come un capretto.

&
nbsp; Più tardi, mentre lo conducevano dinanzi al giudice, legato, disfatto, senza che avesse osato opporre la menoma resistenza.

  – Come! – diceva – Non dovevo ucciderlo nemmeno? . . . Se mi aveva preso la Mara! . . .

  to dance with her, only then, when he saw him touch her, did he dash over to him and cut his throat with a single slash, just the way you slaughter a kid.

  Later, when he was brought before the judge, his hands tied, disheveled, without having dared to offer the least resistance, he kept saying:

  “What? I shouldn’t even have killed him? But he stole Mara from me! . . .”

  ROSSO MALPELO

  Malpelo si chiamava così perché aveva i capelli rossi; ed aveva i capelli rossi perché era un ragazzo malizioso e cattivo, che prometteva di riescire un fior di birbone. Sicché tutti alla cava della rena rossa lo chiamavano Malpelo; e persino sua madre col sentirgli dir sempre a quel modo aveva quasi dimenticato il suo nome di battesimo.

  Del resto, ella lo vedeva soltanto il sabato sera, quando tornava a casa con quei pochi soldi della settimana; e siccome era malpelo c’era anche a temere che ne sottraesse un paio di quei soldi; e nel dubbio, per non sbagliare, la sorella maggiore gli faceva la ricevuta a scapaccioni.

  Però il padrone della cava aveva confermato che i soldi erano tanti e non più; e in coscienza erano anche troppi per Malpelo, un monel-laccio che nessuno avrebbe voluto vedersi davanti, e che tutti schivavano come un can rognoso, e lo accarezzavano coi piedi, allorché se lo trovavano a tiro.