Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Part one - I
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across the first part of the piazza with its lighted shop windows
and passing trams towards the two semicircular arcades, which
laid a pair of rounded arms, as it were, about one part of the
place, drawing it into the quiet and darkness of the massive
church, with its broad steps extending in a shell-like formation
far out on the piazza.
The dome of the church and the row of saints along the roof
of the arcades stood out black against the faint light of the
sky; the trees and houses on the hill at the back seemed to be
heaped one on top of the other in an irregular fashion. The
street lamps were powerless here, the darkness streamed forth
between the pillars, and spread over the steps from the open
portico of the church. He went slowly up the steps close to
the church and looked through the iron doors. Then he went
back again to the obelisk in the middle of the piazza and stood
there gazing at the dark building. He bent his head back, and
followed with his eyes the slender needle of stone that pointed
straight into the evening sky, where the last clouds had
descended on the roofs of that part of the town whence he had
come, and the first radiant sparks of the stars pierced the
gathering darkness.
Again his ears caught the sound of water emptying into a
stone cistern, and the soft ripple of the overflow from one
receptacle into another into the basin. He approached one of the
fountains and watched the thick, white jet, driven upwards as
it were in angry defiance and looking black against the clear
atmosphere, to break high in the air and sink back into the
darkness, where the water gleamed white again. He kept
staring at it until a gust of wind took hold of the jet and bent it
towards him, raining icy drops on his face, but he remained
where he was, listening and staring. Then he walked a few
steps — stood still — and walked again, but very slowly,
listening to an inner voice. It was true, then — really true — that
he was here, far, far away from everything he had longed so
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