Questo racconto è il frutto delle preziose lezioni di scrittura creativa dell’autore australiano Arnold Zable, writer in residence al Collegio Internazionale Ca’ Foscari nei mesi di novembre e dicembre. Attraverso la tecnica “painting with words” gli studenti del Collegio hanno realizzato brevi descrizioni di attimi, persone e luoghi, dando vita a scenari profondi e suggestivi.

There is that girl in the room. And in the room there is that piano. And that girl is playing that piano.

That girl is playing that piano and she’s shivering as a cold wind had entered through the closed windows, but the windows are closed and the room is hot, but she is still shivering and she is still playing and the dog is barking and someone is ringing the bell insistently but she is not aware of all this, she is playing the piano in the hot room shivering, with her eyes closed, her thin fingers know where to touch.

And she’s dancing sitting on the piano stool, so fast to seem immobile, like the spinner’s children, or maybe she is really immobile.

And she’s singing loud with the voice of the mind, so loud that she would plug her ears to not hear, but she can’t remove her hands from the piano’s keyboard, she must continue to play.

And sometimes she sticks a note but it doesn’t matter, the old pics and the dog barking are not severe judges.

And she is lost and she knows it, but she doesn’t care, as long as she keeps on playing the piano everything is fine.

Margherita Caldiera