It did not take long; hardly was adolescence over before the public lectures which he gave on the most varied subjects established him as a speaker of splendid reputation and great ability. Soon all the honours were to come his way, success coming when he was still very young. His activities spread to all fields of learning. No noble cause found him aloof or detached. And in first place was his love of Venice; like his friend, Richard Selvatico, poet and mayor, he felt an infinite tenderness in the depths of his being towards his beloved Venice.
Among my recollections of this exceptional teacher I still more or less remember the words he used in one of the addresses he gave us at the beginning of term : — “You who still have a patrimony of high ideals and whose youthful hearts can still echo the voice that reaches them from peaks of fine achievement, promise yourself this very moment to keep faith all along life’s path. It may not be easy — human destiny being, alas, beset by a need for compromise. But any of you who does manage to save his soul will later experience a thrill of proud joy at finding that his heart has remained young”.
These words, spoken by the Master in a powerful, vibrant voice, went straight to my heart and were inscribed there for ever. They have helped me many a time and certainly they helped to make life a real joy for me.
I too have now reached old age, but my thoughts still turn to my beloved teacher with deep feelings of gratitude.
(free translation into English by D.S.B.) Arturo Alfandari.
OPTIMISM OR PESSIMISM
The cynics of every day, negators of what is finest, impervious to the behest that we love our neighbour, these are the men who deride the optimists. They set up their Aunt Sally as if they needed to avenge themselves on the optimists for enjoying a happiness that is unknown to them themselves.
In an attempt to explain matters, they will tell you that the optimists are just silly folk looking at life beatifically through rose-tinted spectacles ; should one such happen to lose his spectacles, he would fall and break his neck.
But it is not so ; rather it is the contrary that happens; for the true optimist is not bereft of foresight; he has chosen his constructive way of life perfectly rationally, with a full knowledge of life’s shoddy tricks. He does foresee the hidden evil and he does seek to cope with it. The joy he has always known will remain with him to the end of life, and he remains happy at having loved his neighbour and at having spread happiness around him.
ANTONIO FRADELETTO
Mi ir lo canso d’i as profesor Venezye, yo dim seklo, Antonio Fradeletto
Et nam nokonat exe Italyo. E, uske Italye, exe Venezye, nur pokunos servar nok la soven.
Venezye, la nam nok venerat, e so no ye oblar k’il sir lo kreer e Palmer del fama Artos-Bianya, jat depdan un instituo de monda rison, ki adar nok, es eto posibla, al nokomparibla lustro d’et urbo unika mondye.
Fradeletto sir profesor, deputun, senator, ministro. II sir surte lo plu gran itala orator de sa temp.
Dok no a et titlos mi venar uldi oje, mo al vir selfa, al vir admirenda k’il sir.
Fradeletto sir un trovul. Abandonat je sa naso al pordo del Ospital della Piet&, elevat pe zorgo del Publasist, l’infan rivelir sun un exepa talent. Infolge, van lo rimarkenda qalos del adolun atirir atenso on il, la patro ofrir le rikoni e l’elpi forfolgi la studos; mo l’infan, ofendat pluye qam onorat pe un gesto tan tardema, rifuzir fyere amba elpo e nam d’et patro sodene penta, prifande servi sa nam de trovul (venezyale ‘Let Frat’) e it ilustri nur pe sa meritos.
Eto no tardir. Apene exat da adol, il ja eblir lo publo pe sa konferensos pril defesta subjekos, firmande ete sa gran qalos d’orator.
Sun il axedir a tot onoros e toyuna il konir glor. La aktiveso faktir on tot domenos, e nil kauzo nobla le lir indiferenta. Mo il sir pretote, as la amik Riccardo Selvatico,poet e mayor, lo gran inamorat de sa libVenezyo, po keo il sentir, nel ukocos de sa kor, un sarto senenda.
Inte lo sovenos d’et maestro nooblibla, mi servar lo d’un rentrado-diskorso, korse keo il ne dicir proxele eto : “Vu u ki nok intakta lo patrimon de yuno-ideal, e dey kor vibrar po to bela e elevat, ve promu des nun resti fidela a vuself korse lo veo de va viv. Eto no iza, lo destin d’om sande, vey, degeneri da kompromado a kompromado. Mo il ki riusor se salvi konor plu tarde lo joy e lo fyereso de retrovi in sa kor sa yuneso”.
Et vortos, pronuncat pel Maestro kon la bel vok posa e armona, gir rexe a ma kor e ye restir glifat po sem. Zi m’elpir in plul cirkonsos e kontribir certe me fi ami viv.
Oje, miself oldijat, mi adresar a ma lib Maestro un penso greda e emovat.
A. Alfandari.
OPTIMISMO E PESIMISMO
Semtempe lo spirtos cinika, negera de kel beleso e noaxedibla a proxamo mokir l’optimistos. Zi en fir sa kaprocef, as es zi vur se vengi de fakto ke zi vidar l’optimistos godi d’un ix ke ziself ni konor.
Zi eselar pleki eto dicande ke l’optimist sar un duma ki vidar beate viv sub un aspo iluda e ke belidyes il skopror l’absurdeso de viv, kador e se rompor lo kol.
Eh ben, tote lo kontra oxar.
Lo vera optimist no sar un beata noprevidema. Gre an il konar lo turpados de viv, il plenlucide elgar un viv-art konstruifa. II previdar lo mal e tralar ye pargi. II endar sa idos nel joy in keo il sem vivir, ixa aminde sa proxun e spansinde ix um so.
What has happened in the meantime to the cynic ? Often enough it is only by breaking with his natural inclinations from some sense of having to conform and to fit into his environment that he becomes cynical. He joins the ranks of the belittlers and do-lessers perhaps only from some fear of being scorned by his pals. When he does not end up as a suicide
which is really the logical end for him — he slips day by day downhill to ugly brooding and ugly looking ; complaints begin to pour out morning, noon and night as he hunts around in surroundings that are obscene, if not criminal, for a lifebelt to cling to.
Optimism and pessimism are an option. The choice, consciously made in youth, sets the orientation for the future. Pessimism leads to cynicism and on to destruction; optimism is constructive, achieving happiness for self and neighbour. Goethe has said that man’s first duty to his neighbour is himself to achieve inner happiness.
A correspondent reminds us that according to Heraclitus the world is made for the good and bad to coexist — and also, he concludes from this, the pessimist and the optimist; if so, we would surely pity the poor blighter who is doomed to complain and pour out his bile. But we ourselves, as optimists, can get on with the task of doing good and working
work being in itself a cardinal source of happiness. In thus choosing the path leading to Light and Joy, we put ourselves beyond the reach of being splashed by those who can only croak in their gloom and mud. (free translation into English by D.S.B.) A.
WALT WHITMAN
Many authors of the past make a strong appeal to some persons while they repel the attentions of others. But there is one author who has the peculiarity of being attractive or repulsive to the same persons at different periods of life, or condition, or even weather. There can be no consistency in the attitude to Walt Whitman; those who approach his work are thrilled by him today and disgusted by him tomorrow. It depends not so much on him as on themselves ; on whether they are young and eager or weary of life; on whether they are passing through certain moods or have ceased to have a particular experience ; on whether the sun is shining and they are out of doors or whether they sit in an armchair before the fire. Whitman is himself so various within definitely recurrent outlines, so uncompromisingly violent, that, as he stands before the reader in his blank nudity, it depends not on him so much as on the reader whether the aspect of him pleases or annoys, and in consequence we have the phenomenon of careful judges inspecting Whitman to-day and giving him the first prize, when tomorrow they will indignantly eject him from the category of competitors. It all depends on the reader himself — on his mood, on his physical state, on his accidental attitude to life. I know of no other writer who depends so much on our nerves and our digestion for the mode in which we welcome or repulse him.