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“The cultivated one. Or, like when at the Nation Festival” The uncommonly cultivated one takes part in the national broadcasts As a surrogate for knowledge, dressed in a cassock Derived from illustrations in the encyclopaedias, In front of the television cameras shows on request The stigmata on both his hands and offers Ample explanations for them. Put to quieten popular discontent with prizes and lotteries, They have arranged the learned like fat Saints To taste the warmth of live applauses Interrupted by witty advertisements. To the thronging students outside, Invitations to go away are distributed, unplanned summits In the Press Room promise mercy and tolerance. Armed bands of young children are waiting among the cardboard columns Fir the beginning of their show, leafing through the illustrated brochures, They arranged explosives under the dish-covers on the buffet With the full approval of the Safety Committee. Ready at the disposal of the producer, the electrician puts up Additional trestles, spacious awnings over the stalls. The expense seems to induce a sense of Festiveness. The guard warns the uncommonly cultivated one about the actual risk of a power-cut. In the contemplative pauses, bewilderment among the guest-spectators Required to obey to the many imperatives. Below the stage, in the shadow, The orchestra of pensioners is dozing, the trombone Snores, the viola is resting her heard on the shoulder of the harpsichordist. The uncommonly cultivated one has no conception of resting so he takes advantage Of pauses to compile Errata, to formulate denials, oppressed by the fear of being misunderstood or taken too literally. Flagellants, clerics, prophets, self-confessed offenders stand in orderly queues before the make-up room to submit themselves To the agony of the make-up, the boldest show off their hairshirts and chalk faces. Pompous parades in front of the lifts at the end of each shifts. Ballerinas in lame offer voluntary assistance to the weak-hearted, Mending arteries, pinning up artificial valves, supporting the heads Of the nauseated. Levels rise in the spittoons. They almost overflow. The uncommonly cultivated one glances and moves away with a grimace of disgust. In the coming and going of stretchers and trolleys, the broadcast Secures it audience, pupils dilate, faces crumble. Briefly astonished In the alcoholic vapours of the video screens, the armed bands of children Are blue bands of angels, in their dreams glowing cathedral of firework. Erminia Passannanti, Salerno, 1993.