The weight of the absolute world, of course, impinged

   Have you been stranded on Paros

   in the middle of an engraver's

   strike, when you had to get the

   place cards in time for a lunch

   on Lycabettus? Very likely, given

   how your rmbl shades give you a-

   way as the 4-year trouper that

   you are. But it's worse (let us

   console ourselves) for Gérard, 

   who can't remember whom he asked.

  

   Later this afternoon, there will

   have been 4 years of this page,

   which ought to have been fair e-

   nough warning of diurnal unrest, 

   with ample time to join in.

   What has held you back? Pace one's

   own polemic of yesterday, the same

   compunction imperils the progress

   of one's own spirit, toward that

   commemoration in Durrell no media

   mariner can refuse. When he jests,

   even Jimmy Merrill listens:

    At the post office I ran into the

    two French ladies. They had had a

    great shock, and they gobbled like

    turkeys as they told me about it.

    As usual they had been sending off

    clutches of post-cards to their

    friends and relations in France -

    they seemed to have no other occupa-

    tion or thought in mind. But peering

    through the grille after posting a

    batch they distinctly saw the clerk

    sweep the contents of the box into

    the lap of his overall and walk into

    the yard in order to throw all the

    mail on to a bonfire which was burn-

    ing merrily on the concrete, apparent-

    ly fed by all the correspondence of

    Taormina. They were aghast and shout-

    ed out to him - as a matter of fact

    they could hardly believe their eyes

    at first. They thought they had to do

    with a madman - but no, it was only a

    striker. He was burning mail as fast

    as it was posted. When they protested

    he said, "Niente Niente .. questo e

    tourismo .."

    What further travel can we wish on friends

    To coax their absence with our memory ..

   

Lawrence Durrell
Sicilian Carousel
  Taormina
  [two fragments]
Viking, 1977©