‘Flower Smeraldo’ blog post translations – • cafe army •

Korean-English translation: yoon @cafe_ARMY
Original content: blog.naver.com/testesso/221322854971

testesso
2018. 7. 20

Do you believe that you are beautiful?
I once saw an experiment where people were placed in front of two doors. One read “I am beautiful” and the other read “I am not beautiful”, and the subjects were asked to choose which one they would go through.
If you were one of the subjects, what do you think you would do? The reason I am bringing up this story is in order to begin telling a story of love entwined with the Smeraldo.

The story of the Smeraldo dates back approximately to the 15th to 16th century and begins in a rural village in the northern parts of Italy. This village, called ‘La Città di smeraldo’ had a single, small, lone castle. In this castle lived a man with a very ugly appearance.

▲ A village in the northern parts of Italy, believed to be ‘La Città di smeraldo’

There are no details known about this man. It has been said that he is an illegitimate child of the Duke, an influential family of Florence, that the Duke fell in love with the gardener’s daughter and gave birth to an illegitimate child, that the man’s mother died while giving birth to him from excessive bleeding, that the Duke’s wife and children tried to kill the man, that the Duke then sent the man to escape into hiding. The rumours were plenty, but not one of them have been revealed as neither true nor false.

The man lived a lonely life in hiding in an obsolete world. Because he had received much hatred and criticism from his birth and growth, he did not open his heart to anyone, and if someone tried to approach him, he grew angry and hid. His only joy in life was growing flowers in his garden. Then, one day, a woman appeared near the man’s castle. The woman dressed in rags lifted her heels, jumped over the fence, and stole the flowers. At first, the man was furious and kept watch of his garden all night long. But in the moment that he dozed off, the woman picked the flowers and left once again. The same kind of night continued for a couple days, then the man pretended to doze off and watched as the woman came to the garden. He had developed a curiosity. Before he knew it, he found himself waiting for the woman. Then, one day, he followed behind her. In the place that he followed her to, with his body wrapped up in a cape, he came to know that the poor and frail woman was selling the flowers in order to make a living.

He wanted to help her. He wanted to teach her his way of growing flowers, and how to develop beautiful flowers. But, he could not show himself to her. She would be afraid of him, and it was obvious that she would not love his ugly appearance. As a result, all he could do was continue planting and growing flowers so that she would keep coming back.

The man decided that he would create a flower that did not exist in the world. He began to create a flower that the woman would be able to sell for a high price. The man stayed inside his castle and began to create the flower. After countless failed attempts, the man created a flower that did not exist in the world, and he filled his garden with this flower.

But from a certain point in time, the woman stopped making an appearance. No matter how long he waited, the woman did not appear in the garden. Worried, the man went down to the village with his face covered. But at that point, the woman had already died.

That was the story entwined with the Smeraldo. Whether these events really took place, or someone made up the story after seeing the flowers, is unknown. But every time I see the Smeraldo, I think of this story and have various thoughts. If the man had mustered up the courage, if he had shown his face and conveyed his truth, what would it have been like?
Of course, the woman may have run away out of fear, or she could have gotten angry. Because courage – it’s not an easy thing to have.

To tell the truth, I had a similar experience. It is about the friend I told you about in my last post, that I met at the playing cards conference. To tell the truth, I was in a single-sided love with this friend. This friend was very bright, cheerful, and full of light. After we heard that news of the Smeraldo being discovered and from then sharing conversations about the flower, we promised to go to ‘La Città di smeraldo’ together. It seems that this friend wasn’t completely uninterested in me, as she said for us to make sure we go there together.

I still think about those happenings to this day. My friend’s expression full of curiosity and anticipation, her short, quick steps towards me while wearing a big backpack, the day we excitedly made a promise, booked our flights, and discussed our schedule.

To me, those are moments I will never be able to forget.
And they are also scars that will not heal, no matter how much time passes.