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| Guercino Heads of two old men ca. 1620-40 drawing Royal Collection, Windsor |
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| Guercino Two women looking down ca. 1637 drawing Royal Collection, Windsor |
Two men were seated near me in a bus:
well-dressed, well-fed; in the forties;
obviously respected members of their community;
talking together calmly,
the way men of good breeding and education talk,
and the speech may have been Greek or Italian.
I could not hear enough of it to decide.
Suddenly a woman seated directly behind them
began in a loud voice:
"Why don't you talk American?
You live here, don't you?
You make your living here!
Talk American!"
One of the men turned to glance at her
and then the two went on talking in Greek or Italian,
calmly, quietly,
although every now and then the woman cried out,
"Talk American, why don't you?"
If these were Jews, I thought,
how uneasy they would have become,
and their faces would show it.
One of them might even say to the woman –
if he knew enough English –
"This is a free country, isn't it?"
And there would be a noisy argument.
Or they might become silent.
The two men, however, continued to talk
as they had been doing
and neither turned to glance at the woman
or show by gesture or grimace
that they heard her.
Finally, she jumped up and sat down beside me.
"What do you think of these men?" she asked.
"Why don't they talk American?
They live here, don't they?
They make their money here!"
"You must not be so impatient," I said.
"English is not an easy language to learn.
Besides, if they don't learn it, their children will:
we have good schools, you know."
She looked at me suspiciously
and, when the bus stopped, hurried off –
fleeing our contamination.
One of the men turned to me and said quietly
in the best of American with not a trace of a foreign accent:
"She's a little cracked, isn't she?"
– by Charles Reznikoff, from the collection By the Well of Living and Seeing (1969)
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| Guercino Study of old bearded man before 1666 drawing Royal Collection, Windsor |
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| Guercino Study of old bearded man before 1666 drawing Royal Collection, Windsor |
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| Guercino Satyr uncovering sleeping nymph ca. 1617-18 drawing Royal Collection, Windsor |
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| Guercino Reclining nude woman looking upwards ca. 1640-60 drawing Royal Collection, Windsor |
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| Guercino Martyrdom of St James the Greater ca. 1627 drawing Royal Collection, Windsor |
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| Guercino Winged putto in clouds ca. 1640 drawing Royal Collection, Windsor |
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| Guercino St Peter and St Paul before 1666 drawing Royal Collection, Windsor |
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| Guercino Visitation 1632 drawing Royal Collection, Windsor |
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| Guercino Woman looking downwards ca. 1637 drawing Royal Collection, Windsor |
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| Guercino St William receiving the monastic habit 1620 drawing Royal Collection, Windsor |
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| Guercino Grotesque figure of witch with ape face, holding lighted candle ca. 1620-40 drawing Royal Collection, Windsor |
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| Guercino Cat and dog ca. 1620-30 drawing Teylers Museum, Haarlem |