Literary Translation (in progress)

 

Dante detests aristocracy. Loaths it. The immaculate fabrics, the ancestral jewelry, the way they cover their mouths when smiling… Loaths it. When they eat, what they eat, where they eat. How they paint their lips and look at him over their shoulders.

But, more than all that, Dante detests the students: boys of noble families, with university titles to be paraded around like gold, alongside the family titles. The method by which they raise their hands and ask questions, the way they interact with the professors – Dante included –, each word tailor-made in an attempt to earn more affection from him than the others. It can be observed, looking at the sea of students during a seminar, which come from renowned families, and which grew up with limited opportunity. The first group views university as recess. A place to fraternize, to network. The second sees it as the only way to move up in life, a lifeboat for themselves and their families.

Let it never be said that Professor Dante “does not have favorites”.

Despite everything, Dante managed to amass a small fortune and a high-ranking position in Italy’s most prestigious university. Not through legal methods, by the way. Other times, his actions are more motivated by disdain towards certain people than by any passion. As an art curator, Dante is known for being capable of finding the rarest pieces. From public galleries to private collectors, the art he produced and conserved managed to offer Dante a life of certain luxuries, some which he had never before enjoyed.

And fine, the works are fake. So what? Dante managed to escape a life of poverty, the life of a poor man of color, manipulating aristocrats – taking advantage of the skin that had come out a little lighter than the rest of the family –, lying and stealing. He had done it all with only his intelligence and talent for painting. It is one of the few things he takes pride in. recently, however, the emotion he gets from seducing wives and selling forgeries is not enough to satisfy him. People do not know what he does, they do not know they are being conned. Dante feels the need to cause reactions. Therefore, on a moonless night, he ends up working up the courage and takes a risk.