Eva Colombo, Water’s and ink’s women, fourth chapter: Gurù
Gurù ( female protagonist of La pietra lunare [ The moon stone ] novel
written by Tommaso Landolfi, 1937 ) bursts into Giovancarlo’s life in a very
peculiar way. One summer evening the university student is paying a very tedious
visit to some very tedious relatives of his. Very tedious relatives chattering
suddenly change into a fascinating argument: the huge shadow of a black cross
that the uncle swears of having seen one night of waning moon projected on a
laurel grove next to the kitchen. Listening to that, Giovancarlo turns his eyes
toward the laurel grove through the open back door and suddenly he becomes aware
of being watched by two savage black eyes: the eyes of a pale brunette girl who
is coming into the kitchen. Surprisingly, the very ordinary Giovancarlo’s
relatives are familiar with that extraordinary girl and they gives her a homely
welcome. Even more surprisingly, the ordinary relatives seem not at all upset by
the most extraordinary characteristic of that girl: her legs are actually goat’s
legs. Her name is Gurù, she comes from the mountain and she declares that she
has came to go with Giovancarlo. Giovancarlo’s relatives cheerfully encourage
him to follow her. The astonished young man, with a mix of dizzy fascination and
repulsion, follows Gurù on a country road flooded with full moon’s light. << It
seems to me impossible that we sleep in our homes when there is the moon >> says
Gurù, << when there is the moon outside the closed window strange and marvellous
things happen >> she adds. At Gurù’s side, Giovancarlo will experienced these <<
strange and marvellous things >> during moon nights that are steps of an
initiation stair which will bring Giovancarlo at the bottom of a very strange
and marvellous well: the Mothers kingdom. Here three women stand still next to
still water: their dresses and hair are grey as the moon, their eyes are <<
marsh’s eyes >>. They stare at the moon, then they turn their terrible look to
Giovancarlo: bright pleasure and dark pain, cold death and warm life flow
through him as rain. Now the young man knows: the essence of life is elusive,
polymorphous and all – pervading as water. |
