Page 307 - Revelation

Svetlana de Rohan-Levashova. Revelation

I was going to make seemed senseless and vain and would change nothing in this cruel
world... But then the desire to fight came back... And everything fell into place and I
was ready to return to the "battle-field", dedicating the whole of my self to the war and
perfectly realizing how unequal the forces in it were.

The chain of long and hard days continued to creep. I was still kept in suspense
and nobody disturbed me. Nothing changed. Nothing happened. Anna kept silent,
ignoring my calls. And I had no idea where she was or where I should look for her...
So, one day, being mortally tired of empty and endless waiting, I at last decided
to carry out my old sad dream – to visit my beloved Venice for the last time. I decided
to "waft" there to say goodbye, knowing that I never could do it otherwise...

It was May and Venice was decked out, adorned like a young bride, to celebrate
its most beautiful holiday – the day of Love.
Love soared everywhere. It saturated the very air of the city! Bridges and channels
breathed it. It penetrated into every corner of the elegantly decorated city and into
every fibre of every lonely soul which lived there... For one day Venice turned into a
magic flower of love – burning, heady and beautiful! The streets of the city were
swathed in scarlet roses which hung over the water like magnificent "tails", gently
caressing it with their fragile scarlet petals... The whole of Venice exhaled fragrance,
emitting the odour of happiness and summer. On this day even the most sullen
inhabitants of the city left their houses and smiled broadly, hoping that this wonderful
day whimsical Love would smile even at them, the sad and lonely...
The holiday began in the early morning when the first sunrays began to gild the
city channels, heaping on them their hot kisses and making the channels shyly shimmer
with red bashful flashes... The first love romances gently sounded under the windows
of the still sleeping city beauties... And the magnificently dressed gondoliers had
decorated their polished gondolas with festive scarlet the day before and patiently
waited at a pier, hoping to get the most beautiful woman of this wonderful magic day.

There were no prohibitions in this holiday for anybody. Young and old poured out
into the streets to partake of the forthcoming joy and tried to take the the best places
on bridges beforehand to see as closely as possible the gondolas which carried
beautiful as Spring, famous Venetian courtesans – those unique women, whose mind
and beauty was a matter of admiration for famous poets and painters which
immortalized them in their splendid poems and on their magnificent canvasses.
I always considered that love should be pure, and never understood or agreed
with infidelity. But the courtesans of Venice were not just women who sold love. Apart
from always being splendidly beautiful, they also were all excellently educated, far
better than any bride from a rich and noble Venetian family. Unlike very well-educated
noble Florentine women, the Venetian women of my time were prohibited from entering
the public libraries and being "well-read", because the wives of noble Venetians were
considered just a beautiful thing, which a loving husband kept enclosed in the house
for the "sake" of his family... The higher the status of a lady, the less she was allowed
to know.

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