Ersilia
A
Ersilia, per stabilire i rapporti che reggono la vita della città, gli abitanti
tendono dei fili tra gli spigoli delle case, bianchi o neri o grigi o
bianco-e-neri a seconda se segnano relazioni di parentela, scambio, autorità,
rappresentanza. Quando i fili sono tanti che non ci si può più passare in mezzo,
gli abitanti vanno via: le case vengono smontate; restano solo i fili e i
sostegni dei fili.
Dalla
costa d'un monte, accampati con le masserizie, i profughi di Ersilia guardano
l'intrico di fili tesi e pali che s'innalza nella pianura. È quello ancora la
città di Ersilia, e loro sono niente.
Riedificano
Ersilia altrove. Tessono con i fili una figura simile che vorrebbero più
complicata e insieme più regolare dell'altra. Poi l'abbandonano e trasportano
ancora più lontano sé e le case.
Così
viaggiando nel territorio di Ersilia incontri le rovine delle città abbandonate,
senza le mura che non durano, senza le ossa dei morti che il vento fa rotolare:
ragnatele di rapporti intricati che cercano una forma.
Italo
Calvino, Le città
invisibili
In Ersilia, to establish the relationships that sustain
the city's life, the inhabitants stretch strings from
the corners of the houses, white or black or gray or
black-and-white according to whether they mark a
relationship of blood, of trade, authority, agency.
When the strings become so numerous that you can
no longer pass among them, the inhabitants leave:
the houses are dismantled; only the strings and their
supports remain.
From a mountainside, camping with their household
goods, Ersilia's refugees look at the labyrinth of
taut strings and poles that rise in the plain. That is
the city of Ersilia still, and they are nothing.
They rebuild Ersilia elsewhere. They weave a similar
pattern of strings which they would like to be
more complex and at the same time more regular
than the other. Then they abandon it and take themselves
and their houses still farther away.
Thus, when traveling in the territory of Ersilia,
you come upon the ruins of the abandoned cities,
without the walls which do not last, without the
bones of the dead which the wind rolls away: spiderwebs
of intricate relationships seeking a form.
Italo Calvino. Invisible Cities
the city's life, the inhabitants stretch strings from
the corners of the houses, white or black or gray or
black-and-white according to whether they mark a
relationship of blood, of trade, authority, agency.
When the strings become so numerous that you can
no longer pass among them, the inhabitants leave:
the houses are dismantled; only the strings and their
supports remain.
From a mountainside, camping with their household
goods, Ersilia's refugees look at the labyrinth of
taut strings and poles that rise in the plain. That is
the city of Ersilia still, and they are nothing.
They rebuild Ersilia elsewhere. They weave a similar
pattern of strings which they would like to be
more complex and at the same time more regular
than the other. Then they abandon it and take themselves
and their houses still farther away.
Thus, when traveling in the territory of Ersilia,
you come upon the ruins of the abandoned cities,
without the walls which do not last, without the
bones of the dead which the wind rolls away: spiderwebs
of intricate relationships seeking a form.
Italo Calvino. Invisible Cities
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