page 10

"Kinell, what happened here?" asked Tony
Ien remembers vividly. After a terrible
fight her mother said:
"As you can see I cleaned up the stable.
Not that I've thrown things away definitely."
"You've done the windows."
"Judging by your face, that's
not meant as a compliment."
"No, now my zebra has gone."
"Your zebra? You don't mean that pigeon drop?"
"In the end it had only three legs
but still ..." And from the bathroom:
"My coyote as well! I still remember
how it looked like: staggering away
after a copious meal."



Friday afternoon in the pub 'the Racehorse of Genius'.
"Listen, here I have a notebook, with all the things
we have made so far." Not more than ten pages, but in
the sometimes euphoric mind of Paul, this might turn
out something like ... Onegin. The book Paul this
time was totally in to. But Henk, more down to earth
interrupted him. No, we mustn't be epigones. It's
enough to know that Pushkin could use anything …
song, letter, novel, verse and he could digress or
call it a day, when he wanted. By the way, gushing
about poetry and heroes ... no way. Like those
creeps from Dead Poets Society. But that version
of the preface, that yielded Paul an A, do you
have that in your notebook, Ien?"

page 61

Henk suspected that Fausto and Carlo had
avoided Rome not because of the hangover
but to save the best location for last.
After they spent half a day buying new
black and white films and visiting the
Termini station, Fausto casually proposed
to go and see the EUR. Abbreviation for
Esposizione Universale Roma, the after
the war newly completed exhibition grounds
of the in 1942 cancelled world's fair.
Among the long shadows, particularly one
was notable, the obelisk in the Piazza Marconi.
"Carved from Carrara marble, nota bene."



In the dark they drove home on the autostrada,
the expressway they had avoided until then.
"What now Fausto, still yawning"
"A habit Carlo, ever since dawning"
Moreover, they had no cranberry juice.
Like Onegin and Lensky got at the Larins.
"Could you take the wheel for a moment?"
Henk had already dozed off and only
woke up when Fausto at Carlo's house
in Massa got back behind the wheel.

page 70

But on with the story that we write.
A new character is gonna take off.
Five versts from Nijmegen, no not right
Instead of Pushkin let's go to Goncharov
'A Common Story' it is named.
Everyone in the house of Anna Otten,
the owner of a modest semi-bungalow
in Schijndel, was up by daybreak. Even
André, though he had waited to get up
until he heard voices in the kitchen. By
that time he had opened the curtains,
watching the sun rise. Not that he did
that often, but today was the big day.
His sister and brothers had fried eggs
for breakfast and mother was feeding
the cat 'Mies' in the scullery.



Anna was a little upset but she managed
to hide it well. Yet this was the second
child that left the nest. That day she would
say goodbye to her son Dré. To move him
and some stuff to Nijmegen. "Do you want
an egg too?" "No, are there ripe tomatoes
in the garden?" "Wait a minute ... I forgot
to pick some" "I'll do it myself." "But you
are barefooted. Here is tea." "Thanks ma."

page 82

The 'dopo' in Capriccio sounds slightly better then
the 'e poi' in the title of Salieri's opera, some
150 years earlier. Stefan Zweig provided Strauss
with the libretto, written by a priest called Casti,
but didn't want to adapt it for Strauss, because
Strauss continued working under the Nazi regime.
The first performance was in 1942 'Unter der
Schirmherrschaft (patronage) des Herrn
Reichsministers Dr Joseph Goebbels.'
In 1786 Belgium was the Austrian Netherlands
and emperor Joseph II had organized a feast,
honoring the visit of the governors-general
of the Austrian Netherlands, where both a
piece of Mozart and Salieri were performed.
Salieri's 'Prima la musica e poi le parole'
and Mozart's 'der Schauspieldirector'.


left: Strauss right: Goebbels

Then Carmenita and Marie began a conversation
about the movie 'Amadeus', which Henk hadn't
seen. He could join the conversation again when
they were talking about the cause of the rumor
about the poisoning of Mozart by Salieri, and
Henk picked up the word 'Pushkin'. So he could
bring up 'Onegin'. And that once, together with
two friends, he had been trying to write ... When
suddenly the phone rang and Carmenita sent them
to the kitchen making hand gestures. With her lips
she formed the sentence: "Boet is on the line."