The Double
Autor José Saramago Traducere de Margaret Jull Costaen Limba Engleză Paperback – 2 oct 2005
The
inspiration
for
the
major
motion
picture
"Enemy"
starring
Jake
Gyllenhaal
and
directed
by
Denis
Villeneuve
Tertuliano
Máximo
Afonso
is
a
divorced,
depressed
history
teacher.
To
lift
his
spirits,
a
colleague
suggests
he
rent
a
certain
video.
Tertuliano
watches
the
film,
unimpressed.
But
during
the
night,
when
he
is
awakened
by
noises
in
his
apartment,
he
goes
into
the
living
room
to
find
that
the
VCR
is
replaying
the
video.
He
watches
in
astonishment
as
a
man
who
looks
exactly
like
him-or,
more
specifically,
exactly
like
he
did
five
years
before,
mustachioed
and
fuller
in
the
face-appears
on
the
screen.
He
sleeps
badly.
Against his better judgment, Tertuliano decides to pursue his double. As he roots out the man's identity, what begins as a whimsical story becomes a "wonderfully twisted meditation on identity and individuality" (The Boston Globe). Saramago displays his remarkable talent in this haunting tale of appearance versus reality.
Against his better judgment, Tertuliano decides to pursue his double. As he roots out the man's identity, what begins as a whimsical story becomes a "wonderfully twisted meditation on identity and individuality" (The Boston Globe). Saramago displays his remarkable talent in this haunting tale of appearance versus reality.
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Specificații
ISBN-13: 9780156032582
ISBN-10: 0156032589
Pagini: 336
Dimensiuni: 135 x 203 x 22 mm
Greutate: 0.42 kg
Ediția:First Edition
Editura: HMH Books
Colecția Mariner Books
Locul publicării:United States
ISBN-10: 0156032589
Pagini: 336
Dimensiuni: 135 x 203 x 22 mm
Greutate: 0.42 kg
Ediția:First Edition
Editura: HMH Books
Colecția Mariner Books
Locul publicării:United States
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Recenzii
PRAISE
FOR
THE
DOUBLE
"In varying proportions [Saramago] is melancholy, funny, scary and socially enraged. Such elements have rarely worked better together than inThe Double. It's tempting to think of it as his masterpiece."--The New York Times
"Saramago has the gift of gab. Our impression is of a writer, like Faulkner, so confident of his resources and ultimate destination that he can bring any impossibility to life by hurling words at it."--John Updike,The New Yorker
"In varying proportions [Saramago] is melancholy, funny, scary and socially enraged. Such elements have rarely worked better together than inThe Double. It's tempting to think of it as his masterpiece."--The New York Times
"Saramago has the gift of gab. Our impression is of a writer, like Faulkner, so confident of his resources and ultimate destination that he can bring any impossibility to life by hurling words at it."--John Updike,The New Yorker
"THE
DOUBLE
begins
by
intriguing
us,
proceeds
to
entertain,
charm
and
engage,
and
ultimately
manages
to
disturb."
"[Saramago's]
take
on
the
theme
is
clever,
alarming
and
blackly
funny"
"Saramago's
observations
come
in
small
bursts
that
lift
themselves
up
in
startling
truth
and
beauty."
"THE
DOUBLE
is
another
haunting
book...
from
a
writer
who
seems
to
produce
masterpiece
after
masterpiece"
"[Saramago
is]
a
writer,
like
Faulkner,
so
confident
of
his
resources
and
ultimate
destination
that
he
can
bring
any
improbability
to
life"
"What
satisfying
pleasure
it
is
to
be
told
this
cautionary
tale
by
a
teller
at
the
peak
of
his
wisdom
and
sly
wit."
Extras
THE
MAN
WHO
HAS
JUST
COME
INTO
THE
SHOP
TO
RENT
A
video
bears
on
his
identity
card
a
most
unusual
name,
a
name
with
a
classical
flavor
that
time
has
staled,
neither
more
nor
less
than
Tertuliano
Máximo
Afonso.
The
Máximo
and
the
Afonso,
which
are
in
more
common
usage,
he
can
just
about
tolerate,
depending,
of
course,
on
the
mood
he's
in,
but
the
Tertuliano
weighs
on
him
like
a
gravestone
and
has
done
ever
since
he
first
realized
that
the
wretched
name
lent
itself
to
being
spoken
in
an
ironic,
potentially
offensive
tone.
He
is
a
history
teacher
at
a
secondary
school,
and
a
colleague
had
suggested
the
video
to
him
with
the
warning,
It's
not
exactly
a
masterpiece
of
cinema,
but
it
might
keep
you
amused
for
an
hour
and
a
half.
Tertuliano
Máximo
Afonso
is
greatly
in
need
of
stimuli
to
distract
him,
he
lives
alone
and
gets
bored,
or,
to
speak
with
the
clinical
exactitude
that
the
present
day
requires,
he
has
succumbed
to
the
temporary
weakness
of
spirit
ordinarily
known
as
depression.
To
get
a
clear
idea
of
his
situation,
suffice
it
to
say
that
he
was
married
but
can
no
longer
remember
what
led
him
into
matrimony,
that
he
is
divorced
and
cannot
now
bring
himself
to
ponder
the
reasons
for
the
separation.
On
the
other
hand,
while
the
ill-fated
union
produced
no
children
who
are
now
demanding
to
be
handed,
gratis,
the
world
on
a
silver
platter,
he
has,
for
some
time,
viewed
sweet
History,
the
serious,
educational
subject
which
he
had
felt
called
upon
to
teach
and
which
could
have
been
a
soothing
refuge
for
him,
as
a
chore
without
meaning
and
a
beginning
without
an
end.
For
those
of
a
nostalgic
temperament,
who
tend
to
be
fragile
and
somewhat
inflexible,
living
alone
is
the
harshest
of
punishments,
but,
it
must
be
said,
such
a
situation,
however
painful,
only
rarely
develops
into
a
cataclysmic
drama
of
the
kind
to
make
the
skin
prick
and
the
hair
stand
on
end.
What
one
mostly
sees,
indeed
it
hardly
comes
as
a
surprise
anymore,
are
people
patiently
submitting
to
solitude's
meticulous
scrutiny,
recent
public
examples,
though
not
particularly
well
known
and
two
of
whom
even
met
with
a
happy
ending,
being
the
portrait
painter
whom
we
only
ever
knew
by
his
first
initial,
the
GP
who
returned
from
exile
to
die
in
the
arms
of
the
beloved
fatherland,
the
proofreader
who
drove
out
a
truth
in
order
to
plant
a
lie
in
its
place,
the
lowly
clerk
in
the
Central
Registry
Office
who
made
off
with
certain
death
certificates,
all
of
these,
either
by
chance
or
coincidence,
were
members
of
the
male
sex,
but
none
of
them
had
the
misfortune
to
be
called
Tertuliano,
and
this
was
doubtless
an
inestimable
advantage
to
them
in
their
relations
with
other
people.
The
shop
assistant,
who
had
already
taken
down
from
the
shelf
the
video
requested,
entered
in
the
log
book
the
title
of
the
film
and
the
day's
date,
then
indicated
to
the
customer
the
place
where
he
should
sign.
Written
after
a
moment's
hesitation,
the
signature
revealed
only
the
last
two
names,
Máximo
Afonso,
without
the
Tertuliano,
but
like
someone
determined
to
clarify
in
advance
something
that
might
become
a
cause
of
controversy,
the
customer
murmured
as
he
signed
his
name,
It's
quicker
like
that.
This
precautionary
explanation
proved
of
little
use,
for
the
assistant,
as
he
transferred
the
information
from
the
customer's
ID
onto
an
index
card,
pronounced
the
unfortunate,
antiquated
name
out
loud,
in
a
tone
that
even
an
innocent
child
would
have
recognized
as
deliberate.
No
one,
we
believe,
however
free
of
obstacles
his
or
her
life
may
have
been,
would
dare
to
claim
that
they
had
never
suffered
some
similar
humiliation.
Although,
sooner
or
later,
we
will
all,
inevitably,
be
confronted
by
one
of
those
hearty
types
to
whom
human
frailty,
especially
in
its
most
refined
and
delicate
forms,
is
the
cause
of
mocking
laughter,
the
truth
is
that
the
inarticulate
sounds
which,
quite
against
our
wishes,
occasionally
emerge
from
our
own
mouth,
are
merely
the
irrepressible
moans
from
some
ancient
pain
or
sorrow,
like
a
scar
suddenly
making
its
forgotten
presence
felt
again.
As
he
puts
the
video
away
in
his
battered,
teacher's
briefcase,
Tertuliano
Máximo
Afonso,
with
admirable
brio,
struggles
not
to
reveal
the
displeasure
provoked
by
the
shop
assistant's
gratuitous
sneer,
but
he
cannot
help
thinking,
all
the
while
scolding
himself
for
the
vile
injustice
of
the
thought,
that
the
fault
lay
with
his
colleague
and
with
the
mania
certain
people
have
for
handing
out
unasked-for
advice.
Such
is
our
need
to
shower
blame
on
some
distant
entity
when
it
is
we
who
lack
the
courage
to
face
up
to
what
is
there
before
us.
Tertuliano
Máximo
Afonso
does
not
know,
cannot
imagine
or
even
guess
that
the
assistant
already
regrets
his
gross
impertinence,
indeed,
another
ear,
more
finely
tuned
than
his
and
capable
of
dissecting
the
subtle
vocal
gradations
in
the
assistant's
At
your
service,
sir,
offered
in
response
to
the
brusque
Good
afternoon
thrown
back
at
him,
would
have
told
him
that
a
great
desire
for
peace
had
installed
itself
behind
the
counter.
After
all,
it
is
a
benevolent
commercial
principle,
laid
down
in
antiquity
and
tried
and
tested
over
the
centuries,
that
the
customer
is
always
right,
even
in
the
unlikely,
but
quite
possible,
eventuality
that
the
customer's
name
should
be
Tertuliano.
Sitting now on the bus that will drop him near the building where he has lived for the last six or so years, that is, ever since his divorce, Máximo Afonso, and we use the shortened version of his name here, having been, in our view, authorized to do so by its sole lord and master, but mainly because the word Tertuliano, having appeared so recently, only six lines previously, could do a grave disservice to the fluency of the narrative, anyway, as we were saying, Máximo Afonso found himself wondering, suddenly intrigued, suddenly perplexed, what strange motives, what particular reasons had led his colleague from the Mathematics Department, we forgot to mention that his colleague teaches mathematics, to urge him so insistently to see the film he has just rented, when, up until then, the so-called seventh art had never been a topic of conversation between them. One could understand such a recommendation had it been an indisputably fine film, in which case the pleasure, satisfaction, and enthusiasm of discovering a work of high aesthetic quality might have obliged his colleague, over lunch in the canteen or during a break between classes, to tug anxiously at his sleeve and say, I don't believe we've ever talked about cinema before, but I have to tell you, my friend, that you absolutely must see The Race Is to the Swift, which is the title of the video Tertuliano Máximo Afonso has in his briefcase, something we also neglected to mention. Then the history teacher would ask, Where's it being shown, to which the mathematics teacher would respond, explaining, Oh, it's not being shown anywhere at the moment, it was on four or five years ago, I can't understand how I missed it when it first came out, and then, without a pause, concerned as to the possible futility of the advice he was so fervently offering, But maybe you've already seen it, No, I haven't, I hardly ever go to the cinema, I just make do with what they show on TV, and I don't see very much of that, Well, you should make a point of seeing it then, you'll find it in any video store, you can always rent it if you don't want to buy it. That is how the dialogue might have gone if the film had been worthy of praise, but things happened rather more prosaically, I don't want to stick my nose in where it isn't wanted, the mathematics teacher had said as he peeled an orange, but for a while now you've struck me as being rather down, and Tertuliano Máximo Afonso agreed, You're right, I have been feeling a bit low, Health problems, No, I'm not ill as far as I know, it's just that everything tires me and bores me, the wretched routine, the repetitiveness, the sense of marking time, Go out and have some fun, man, a bit of fun is always the best remedy, If you'll forgive me saying so, having fun is a remedy only for those who don't need one, A good answer, no doubt about it, but meanwhile, you've got to do something to shake off this feeling of apathy, Depression, Depression, apathy, it doesn't really matter, what we call the factors is arbitrary, But the intensity isn't, What do you do when you're not at school, Oh, I read, listen to music, occasionally visit a museum, And what about the cinema, No, I don't go to the cinema much, I make do with what they show on TV, You could buy a few videos, start a collection, a video library if you like, You're right, I could, except that I haven't even got enough space for my books, Well, rent some videos then, that's the best solution, Well, I do own a few videos, science documentaries, nature programs, archaeology, anthropology, the arts in general, and I'm interested in astronomy too, that sort of thing, That's all very well, but you need to distract yourself with stories that don't take up too much space in your head, I mean, given, for example, that you're interested in astronomy, you might well enjoy science fiction, adventures in outer space, star wars, special effects, As I see it, those so-called special effects are the real enemy of the imagination, that mysterious, enigmatic skill it took us human beings so much hard work to invent, Now you're exaggerating, No, I'm not, the people who are exaggerating are the ones who want me to believe that in less than a second, with a click of the fingers, a spaceship can travel a hundred thousand million kilometers, You have to agree, though, that to create the effects you so despise also takes imagination, Yes, but it's their imagination, not mine, You can always use theirs as a jumping-off point, Oh, I see, two hundred thousand million kilometers instead of one hundred thousand million, Don't forget that what we call reality today was mere imagination yesterday, just look at Jules Verne, Yes, but the reality is that a trip to Mars, for example, and Mars, in astronomical terms, is just around the corner, would take at least nine months, then you'd have to hang around there for another six months until the planet was in the right position to make the return journey, before traveling for another nine months back to Earth, that's two whole years of utter tedium, a film about a trip to Mars that respected the facts would be the dullest thing ever seen, Yes, I can see why you're bored, Why, Because you're not content with anything, I'd be content with very little if I had it, You must have something to hang on to, your career, your work, it doesn't seem to me that you have much reason for complaint, But it's my career and my work that are hanging on to me, not the other way around, Well, that's a malaise, always assuming it is a malaise, that I suffer from too, I mean, I myself would much rather be known as a mathematical genius than as the long-suffering, mediocre secondary school teacher I have no option but to continue to be, Maybe it's just that I don't really like myself, Now if you came to me with an equation containing two unknown factors, I could give you the benefit of my professional advice, but when it comes to an incompatibility of that sort, all my knowledge would only complicate things still further, that's why I suggested you pass the time watching a few films, as if you were taking a couple of tranquilizers, rather than devoting yourself to mathematics, which would really do your head in, Any suggestions, About what, About what would be an interesting, worthwhile film, There's no shortage of those, just go into a shop, have a look around, and choose one, Yes, but you could at least make a suggestion. The mathematics teacher thought and thought, then said, The Race Is to the Swift, What's that, A film, that's what you asked me for, It sounds more like a proverb, Well, it is a proverb, The whole thing or just the title, Wait and see, What sort is it, What, the proverb, No, the film, A comedy, You're sure it's not one of those old-fashioned, crime-of-passion melodramas, or one of those modern ones, all gunshots and explosions, It's a light, very amusing comedy, All right, I'll make a note of it, what did you say it was called, The Race Is to the Swift, Right, I've got it, It's not exactly a masterpiece of cinema, but it might keep you amused for an hour and a half.
Tertuliano Máximo Afonso is at home, he has a hesitant look on his face, not that this means very much, it isn't the first time it's happened, as he watches his will swing between spending time preparing something to eat, which generally means nothing more strenuous than opening a can and heating up the contents, or, alternatively, going out to eat in a nearby restaurant where he is known for his lack of interest in the menu, not because he is a proud, dissatisfied customer, he is merely indifferent, inattentive, reluctant to take the trouble to choose a dish from among those set out in the brief and all-too-familiar list. He is confirmed in his belief that it would be easier to eat in by the fact that he has homework to mark, his students' latest efforts, which he must read carefully and correct whenever they offend too extravagantly against the truths they have been taught or are overly free in their interpretations. The History that it is Tertuliano Máximo Afonso's mission to teach is like a bonsai tree the roots of which have to be trimmed now and then to stop it growing, a childish miniature of the gigantic tree of places and time and of all that happens there, we look, we notice the disparity in size and go no further, ignoring other equally obvious differences, the fact, for example, that no bird, no winged creature, not even the tiny hummingbird, could make its nest in the branches of a bonsai, and that if a lizard could find shelter in thetiny shadow the bonsai casts, always supposing its leaves were sufficiently luxuriant, there is every likelihood that the tip of the creature's tail would continue to protrude. The History that Tertuliano Máximo Afonso teaches, as he himself recognizes and will happily admit if asked, has a vast number of tails protruding, some still twitching, others nothing but wrinkled skin with a little row of loose vertebrae inside. Remembering the conversation with his colleague, he thought, Mathematics comes from another cerebral planet, in mathematics, those lizard tails would be mere abstractions. He took the homework out of his briefcase and placed it on the desk, he also took out the video of The Race Is to the Swift, these were the two tasks to which he could devote the evening, marking homework or watching a film, although he suspected that there wouldn't be time for both, especially since he neither liked nor was in the habit of working late into the night. Marking his students' homework was hardly a matter of life and death, and watching the film even less so. It would be best to settle down with the book he was reading, he thought. After a visit to the bathroom, he went into the bedroom to change his clothes, he donned different shoes and trousers, pulled a sweater on over his shirt, but left his tie, because he didn't like to leave his throat exposed, then went into the kitchen. He took three different cans out of the cupboard and, not knowing how else to choose, decided to leave the matter to chance, and resorted to a nonsensical, almost forgotten rhyme from childhood, which, in those days, had usually got him the result he least wanted, and it went like this, Eenie, meenie, minie, mo, catch a tiger by his toe, if he hollers let him go, eenie, meenie, minie, mo. The winner was a meat stew, which wasn't what he most fancied, but he felt it best not to go against fate. He ate in the kitchen, washing the food down with a glass of red wine, and when he finished, he repeated the rhyme, almost without thinking, with three crumbs of bread, the one on the left was the book, the one in the middle was the homework, the one on the right was the film. The Race Is to the Swift won, obviously what will be will be, don't quibble with fate over pears, it will eat all the ripe ones and give you the green ones. That's what people usually say, and because it is what people usually say, we accept it without further discussion when our duty as free people is to argue energetically with a despotic fate that has determined, with who knows what malicious intentions, that the green pear should be the film and not the homework or the book. As a teacher, and a teacher of history, this Tertuliano Máximo Afonso, for one has only to consider the scene we have just witnessed in the kitchen, entrusting his immediate future and possibly what will follow to three crumbs of bread and some senseless childhood drivel, this teacher, we were saying, is setting a bad example for the adolescents whom fate, whether the same or an entirely different one, has placed in his hands. Unfortunately, we do not have room in this story to anticipate the doubtless pernicious effects of the influence of such a teacher on the young souls of his pupils, so we will leave them here, hoping only that one day they may encounter on life's road a contrary influence that will free them, possibly in extremis, from the irrationalist perdition that currently hangs over them like a threat.
© José Saramago e Editorial Caminho, SA 2002
English translation copyright © Margaret Jull Costa, 2004
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Requests for permission to make copies of any part of the work should be mailed to the following address: Permissions Department, Harcourt, Inc., 6277 Sea Harbor Drive, Orlando, Florida 32887-6777.
Sitting now on the bus that will drop him near the building where he has lived for the last six or so years, that is, ever since his divorce, Máximo Afonso, and we use the shortened version of his name here, having been, in our view, authorized to do so by its sole lord and master, but mainly because the word Tertuliano, having appeared so recently, only six lines previously, could do a grave disservice to the fluency of the narrative, anyway, as we were saying, Máximo Afonso found himself wondering, suddenly intrigued, suddenly perplexed, what strange motives, what particular reasons had led his colleague from the Mathematics Department, we forgot to mention that his colleague teaches mathematics, to urge him so insistently to see the film he has just rented, when, up until then, the so-called seventh art had never been a topic of conversation between them. One could understand such a recommendation had it been an indisputably fine film, in which case the pleasure, satisfaction, and enthusiasm of discovering a work of high aesthetic quality might have obliged his colleague, over lunch in the canteen or during a break between classes, to tug anxiously at his sleeve and say, I don't believe we've ever talked about cinema before, but I have to tell you, my friend, that you absolutely must see The Race Is to the Swift, which is the title of the video Tertuliano Máximo Afonso has in his briefcase, something we also neglected to mention. Then the history teacher would ask, Where's it being shown, to which the mathematics teacher would respond, explaining, Oh, it's not being shown anywhere at the moment, it was on four or five years ago, I can't understand how I missed it when it first came out, and then, without a pause, concerned as to the possible futility of the advice he was so fervently offering, But maybe you've already seen it, No, I haven't, I hardly ever go to the cinema, I just make do with what they show on TV, and I don't see very much of that, Well, you should make a point of seeing it then, you'll find it in any video store, you can always rent it if you don't want to buy it. That is how the dialogue might have gone if the film had been worthy of praise, but things happened rather more prosaically, I don't want to stick my nose in where it isn't wanted, the mathematics teacher had said as he peeled an orange, but for a while now you've struck me as being rather down, and Tertuliano Máximo Afonso agreed, You're right, I have been feeling a bit low, Health problems, No, I'm not ill as far as I know, it's just that everything tires me and bores me, the wretched routine, the repetitiveness, the sense of marking time, Go out and have some fun, man, a bit of fun is always the best remedy, If you'll forgive me saying so, having fun is a remedy only for those who don't need one, A good answer, no doubt about it, but meanwhile, you've got to do something to shake off this feeling of apathy, Depression, Depression, apathy, it doesn't really matter, what we call the factors is arbitrary, But the intensity isn't, What do you do when you're not at school, Oh, I read, listen to music, occasionally visit a museum, And what about the cinema, No, I don't go to the cinema much, I make do with what they show on TV, You could buy a few videos, start a collection, a video library if you like, You're right, I could, except that I haven't even got enough space for my books, Well, rent some videos then, that's the best solution, Well, I do own a few videos, science documentaries, nature programs, archaeology, anthropology, the arts in general, and I'm interested in astronomy too, that sort of thing, That's all very well, but you need to distract yourself with stories that don't take up too much space in your head, I mean, given, for example, that you're interested in astronomy, you might well enjoy science fiction, adventures in outer space, star wars, special effects, As I see it, those so-called special effects are the real enemy of the imagination, that mysterious, enigmatic skill it took us human beings so much hard work to invent, Now you're exaggerating, No, I'm not, the people who are exaggerating are the ones who want me to believe that in less than a second, with a click of the fingers, a spaceship can travel a hundred thousand million kilometers, You have to agree, though, that to create the effects you so despise also takes imagination, Yes, but it's their imagination, not mine, You can always use theirs as a jumping-off point, Oh, I see, two hundred thousand million kilometers instead of one hundred thousand million, Don't forget that what we call reality today was mere imagination yesterday, just look at Jules Verne, Yes, but the reality is that a trip to Mars, for example, and Mars, in astronomical terms, is just around the corner, would take at least nine months, then you'd have to hang around there for another six months until the planet was in the right position to make the return journey, before traveling for another nine months back to Earth, that's two whole years of utter tedium, a film about a trip to Mars that respected the facts would be the dullest thing ever seen, Yes, I can see why you're bored, Why, Because you're not content with anything, I'd be content with very little if I had it, You must have something to hang on to, your career, your work, it doesn't seem to me that you have much reason for complaint, But it's my career and my work that are hanging on to me, not the other way around, Well, that's a malaise, always assuming it is a malaise, that I suffer from too, I mean, I myself would much rather be known as a mathematical genius than as the long-suffering, mediocre secondary school teacher I have no option but to continue to be, Maybe it's just that I don't really like myself, Now if you came to me with an equation containing two unknown factors, I could give you the benefit of my professional advice, but when it comes to an incompatibility of that sort, all my knowledge would only complicate things still further, that's why I suggested you pass the time watching a few films, as if you were taking a couple of tranquilizers, rather than devoting yourself to mathematics, which would really do your head in, Any suggestions, About what, About what would be an interesting, worthwhile film, There's no shortage of those, just go into a shop, have a look around, and choose one, Yes, but you could at least make a suggestion. The mathematics teacher thought and thought, then said, The Race Is to the Swift, What's that, A film, that's what you asked me for, It sounds more like a proverb, Well, it is a proverb, The whole thing or just the title, Wait and see, What sort is it, What, the proverb, No, the film, A comedy, You're sure it's not one of those old-fashioned, crime-of-passion melodramas, or one of those modern ones, all gunshots and explosions, It's a light, very amusing comedy, All right, I'll make a note of it, what did you say it was called, The Race Is to the Swift, Right, I've got it, It's not exactly a masterpiece of cinema, but it might keep you amused for an hour and a half.
Tertuliano Máximo Afonso is at home, he has a hesitant look on his face, not that this means very much, it isn't the first time it's happened, as he watches his will swing between spending time preparing something to eat, which generally means nothing more strenuous than opening a can and heating up the contents, or, alternatively, going out to eat in a nearby restaurant where he is known for his lack of interest in the menu, not because he is a proud, dissatisfied customer, he is merely indifferent, inattentive, reluctant to take the trouble to choose a dish from among those set out in the brief and all-too-familiar list. He is confirmed in his belief that it would be easier to eat in by the fact that he has homework to mark, his students' latest efforts, which he must read carefully and correct whenever they offend too extravagantly against the truths they have been taught or are overly free in their interpretations. The History that it is Tertuliano Máximo Afonso's mission to teach is like a bonsai tree the roots of which have to be trimmed now and then to stop it growing, a childish miniature of the gigantic tree of places and time and of all that happens there, we look, we notice the disparity in size and go no further, ignoring other equally obvious differences, the fact, for example, that no bird, no winged creature, not even the tiny hummingbird, could make its nest in the branches of a bonsai, and that if a lizard could find shelter in thetiny shadow the bonsai casts, always supposing its leaves were sufficiently luxuriant, there is every likelihood that the tip of the creature's tail would continue to protrude. The History that Tertuliano Máximo Afonso teaches, as he himself recognizes and will happily admit if asked, has a vast number of tails protruding, some still twitching, others nothing but wrinkled skin with a little row of loose vertebrae inside. Remembering the conversation with his colleague, he thought, Mathematics comes from another cerebral planet, in mathematics, those lizard tails would be mere abstractions. He took the homework out of his briefcase and placed it on the desk, he also took out the video of The Race Is to the Swift, these were the two tasks to which he could devote the evening, marking homework or watching a film, although he suspected that there wouldn't be time for both, especially since he neither liked nor was in the habit of working late into the night. Marking his students' homework was hardly a matter of life and death, and watching the film even less so. It would be best to settle down with the book he was reading, he thought. After a visit to the bathroom, he went into the bedroom to change his clothes, he donned different shoes and trousers, pulled a sweater on over his shirt, but left his tie, because he didn't like to leave his throat exposed, then went into the kitchen. He took three different cans out of the cupboard and, not knowing how else to choose, decided to leave the matter to chance, and resorted to a nonsensical, almost forgotten rhyme from childhood, which, in those days, had usually got him the result he least wanted, and it went like this, Eenie, meenie, minie, mo, catch a tiger by his toe, if he hollers let him go, eenie, meenie, minie, mo. The winner was a meat stew, which wasn't what he most fancied, but he felt it best not to go against fate. He ate in the kitchen, washing the food down with a glass of red wine, and when he finished, he repeated the rhyme, almost without thinking, with three crumbs of bread, the one on the left was the book, the one in the middle was the homework, the one on the right was the film. The Race Is to the Swift won, obviously what will be will be, don't quibble with fate over pears, it will eat all the ripe ones and give you the green ones. That's what people usually say, and because it is what people usually say, we accept it without further discussion when our duty as free people is to argue energetically with a despotic fate that has determined, with who knows what malicious intentions, that the green pear should be the film and not the homework or the book. As a teacher, and a teacher of history, this Tertuliano Máximo Afonso, for one has only to consider the scene we have just witnessed in the kitchen, entrusting his immediate future and possibly what will follow to three crumbs of bread and some senseless childhood drivel, this teacher, we were saying, is setting a bad example for the adolescents whom fate, whether the same or an entirely different one, has placed in his hands. Unfortunately, we do not have room in this story to anticipate the doubtless pernicious effects of the influence of such a teacher on the young souls of his pupils, so we will leave them here, hoping only that one day they may encounter on life's road a contrary influence that will free them, possibly in extremis, from the irrationalist perdition that currently hangs over them like a threat.
© José Saramago e Editorial Caminho, SA 2002
English translation copyright © Margaret Jull Costa, 2004
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Descriere
José
Saramago’s
critically
acclaimed
novel
and
the
inspiration
for
the
major
motion
picture
"Enemy"
starring
Jake
Gyllenhaal
and
directed
by
Denis
Villeneuve.