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Italian · The Games of Life

La morte scherza

Death Plays a Joke

204 sentences · 18 notes

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  1. 1

    A line of carts that looked like traveling huts, covered as they were with sacks, sheets, and coarse canvas, broke with its heavy rolling the solitude and silence of the July night.

    UnaAuno · determiner, feminine, singulardeterminer of fila
    filalinefila · noun, feminine, singularsubject of rompeva
    diofdi · prepositionpreposition marking carri
    carricartscarro · noun, masculine, pluralmodifies fila
    chethatche · pronounsubject of sembravano
    sembravanolooked likesembrare · verb, imperfect, indicative, third-person, pluralrelative clause on carri
    capannehutscapanna · noun, feminine, pluraldirect object of sembravano
    ambulantitravelingambulante · adjective, pluralmodifies capanne
    coperticoveredcoprire · verb, past, participle, masculine, pluralclause modifying carri
    comeascome · subordinating conjunctionintroduces the clause of sacchi
    eranowereessere · verb, imperfect, indicative, third-person, pluralcopula linking to sacchi
    dabyda · prepositionpreposition marking sacchi
    sacchisackssacco · noun, masculine, pluraloblique complement of coperti
    lenzuolasheetslenzuolo · noun, feminine, pluralcoordinated with sacchi
    eande · conjunctionlinks the coordination
    tendecanvastenda · noun, feminine, pluralcoordinated with sacchi
    grossolanecoarsegrossolano · adjective, feminine, pluralmodifies tende
    rompevabrokerompere · verb, imperfect, indicative, third-person, singularmain verb of the sentence
    colwith thecon il · prepositionpreposition marking roteare
    suoitssuo · determiner, masculine, singulardepends on roteare
    pesanteheavypesante · adjective, singularmodifies roteare
    rotearerollingroteare · verb, infinitiveoblique complement of rompeva
    latheil · determiner, feminine, singulardeterminer of solitudine
    solitudinesolitudesolitudine · noun, feminine, singulardirect object of roteare
    eande · conjunctionlinks the coordination
    iltheil · determiner, masculine, singulardeterminer of silenzio
    silenziosilencesilenzio · noun, masculine, singularcoordinated with solitudine
    dellaof thedi il · prepositionpreposition marking notte
    nottenightnotte · noun, feminine, singularmodifies silenzio
    diofdi · prepositionpreposition marking luglio
    luglioJulyluglio · noun, masculine, singularmodifies notte

  2. On these ox-drawn carts, a sort of tribe of Sardinians was making its way to the sea baths.

  3. They had been traveling for hours upon hours.

  4. A thick layer of dust covered the oxen, the wheels, the people riding inside the carts, the household goods the bathers were bringing along, the drivers, and the dogs that followed.

  5. 2

    After a hot day, a cool, clear night had finally fallen: the sky looked white, so thick was it with stars; the road traced a gray line across the blackness of the highland, at the far end of which a wall of mountains resembling enormous crenellated castles hid the sea.

  6. 3

    A smell of stubble, of distant rushes, of heather dampened by the night drifted in with the occasional gust of wind.

  7. Not a living soul was to be met; only toward evening had a young shepherd watching his flock appeared in the background of the landscape.

  8. After one of the cart drivers, an old farmer, had judged from the course of the constellations of the Bears and the Dragon that it might be ten o'clock, all the travelers fell silent inside the carts; even the two nursing babies, after crying a little, were sleeping on the breasts of the two women, sturdy as holm oaks.

  9. 4

    Besides the cart drivers, only aunt Areca, a wealthy eighty-year-old landowner, lay awake inside her cart, repeating the millionth of the rosaries recited in the course of her life.

  10. For how many, how many years had she not slept!

  11. She no longer even knew what true, deep sleep was; only toward dawn did a vague drowsiness overtake her, and through its veil she still felt the sufferings of her body, half paralyzed, half wounded with sores.

  12. 5

    Aunt Areca lay alone in her cart, turned into a bed, which went ahead of the others to avoid the dust, driven by the servant Antonio Maria, a beautiful young Hercules, with hair curly and thick as a bush, and a beardless face, plump, red and dark like a pomegranate.

  13. Antonio-Maria was nineteen years old; he was a favorite of aunt Areca's, who had kept him in her service for a long time, and everyone envied him, but held him to be deeply devoted to the old woman.

  14. Every so often he lifted the curtain of the cart and asked the invalid woman if she wanted anything.

  15. 6

    "Since you're not sleeping, why don't you call your granddaughter Rosa to keep you company?"

  16. There's room for two people back here in the cart.

  17. 7

    "I have company already," the old woman answered, shaking her rosary with her hand that wasn't paralyzed.

  18. "Where are we now?"

  19. Is this sea far off?…

  20. 8

    "It's far!"

  21. the young man answered roughly, stretching his arm toward the horizon.

  22. "There's still a long way to go before we get there!"

  23. 9

    "My glorious Santa Greca!"

  24. the old woman sighed.

  25. "I can't take any more: this cart shakes me all over: I feel like I'm frying in a pan."

  26. 10

    The young man's dark eyes flashed: with a feline leap he threw himself down to sit on the edge of the cart and began to speak in a low but hissing voice:

  27. 11

    "So much the worse for you!"

  28. Why did you set out on this journey?

  29. Who put this idea into your head?

  30. I already told you, stubborn old woman: if you don't die along the way, you'll die the moment we arrive there.

  31. Don't you know that sea bathing is dangerous even for the young and the healthy?

  32. You'll die, you'll see that you'll die….

  33. 12

    "We'll all die!"

  34. We were born to die.

  35. Don't torment me.

  36. If I die, well then, I'll die after having tried every remedy.

  37. I believe the sea baths will do me good.

  38. 13

    "Last year," the other went on, implacable, "two old women died, in the sea, two old women as stubborn as you."

  39. And the old priest from Nugheddu, the one who practiced sorcery?

  40. Well, he went into the water and was never seen again: not even his body was found.

  41. 14

    "The devil must have carried him off."

  42. 15

    "But do you believe in the devil?"

  43. 16

    "How could I not believe in him?"

  44. There is nothing more certain than the devil.

  45. 17

    "And that the devil carries off body and soul?"

  46. the fearsome young man asked, with an inquisitorial tone.

  47. 18

    "My son," the old woman answered in a gentle voice, "the devil carries off those who in life failed to do their duty."

  48. 19

    "Then why don't you do your duty?"

  49. Stubborn old woman, why don't you make a will?

  50. You'll see — or rather, you won't see it at all: the moment you're dead, all those hawks" — and he pointed at the carts following behind — "all of them will pounce on your property and devour it in an instant: and Rosa, who's sacrificing her youth for you, Rosa will get nothing at all.

  51. Make a will, stubborn old woman.

  52. At the baths, they say, there's a notary.

  53. 20

    "If there's a notary, let him go bathe!"

  54. I'm not thinking about dying.

  55. I'm sick of your preaching.

  56. Death is in God's hands, and I will do my duty — if I haven't already done it — without a dressed-up stick like you teaching me how!

  57. 21

    "Forgive me," answered Antonio-Maria, as if repenting of his words.

  58. "Don't hold it against me if I speak to you like this; it's for your own good."

  59. Your relatives made you set out because they want you dead: in fact, I advise you to be careful when they put you in the water.

  60. You never know!

  61. 22

    "Rosa will be the one to put me in: don't worry."

  62. 23

    "Yes, but be careful even with Rosa."

  63. The sea water is treacherous; a wave comes and carries you off.

  64. It's truly like the devil.

  65. 24

    "Let it be the devil then, but leave me in peace."

  66. I'm not thinking about the devil.

  67. 25

    "Stubborn old woman!"

  68. 26

    The carts went on their heavy, monotonous way; here and there a dog barked in the silence of the night, here and there a fire appeared and vanished in the distance; the wall of mountains hiding the sea drew slowly nearer.

  69. 27

    Antonio-Maria often lifted the curtain, checking whether aunt Areca was asleep; but the old woman was praying, sighing, and thinking about her seventy cows and her pregnant mare.

  70. 28

    "When we get back from the baths we'll find the little foal," she was thinking.

  71. What will it look like?

  72. Bay-colored?

  73. When it's three years old I'll sell it for thirty scudi.

  74. Glorious Santa Greca, where is this sea?

  75. Will we never get there?

  76. 29

    Finally at dawn she dozed off: she could still hear the rolling of the cart, the barking of the dogs, and felt an occasional stronger gust of wind shake the curtain; the sore that cut across her left flank burned more than usual, and her whole side throbbed with pain; and yet she saw the bay foal, and dreamed she was in the water: the water was warm, the sand soft and gilded by the sun.

  77. All at once a wave came, tall and tousled like a young devil at play, and struck the old woman, but it couldn't carry her off, because she had found her strength again and resisted it with all her might.

  78. 30

    Then she thought she heard a stifled laugh and the sound of kisses behind the curtain lowered at her feet.

  79. 31

    "Could it be Rosa?"

  80. Rosa with Antonio-Maria?

  81. They've told me, yes, that those two are courting.

  82. I too, once, when I was twenty, hid with Predu-Maria behind the courtyard wall.

  83. Glorious Santa Greca, forgive the young….

  84. 32

    The laughter was not heard again, but the smack of kisses rang out more insistently: may Santa Greca forgive them, but "those two" had lost all restraint.

  85. 33

    Aunt Areca grew angry, and quite angry indeed.

  86. 34

    *

  87. 35

    At last the company arrived at the seashore, behind the mountain.

  88. 36

    Near the beach stood a building, every cramped room of which was already crammed full of well-to-do bathers; farther on stretched a long row of brushwood huts inhabited by villagers, mostly invalids.

  89. 37

    People bathed out in the open; the women on one side, the men on the other.

  90. The mountain's shadow covered the beautiful beach strewn with dark-blue rocks; the deserted sea changed color from one moment to the next, beneath a marvelously clear sky.

  91. 38

    In the blink of an eye aunt Areca's relatives built six brushwood huts; the women pulled the household goods and the blankets down from the carts, and the camp was soon in order.

  92. Aunt Areca wanted to be put into the water right away.

  93. 39

    "Where are the great waves, the devils of the sea?"

  94. she said to the servant, somewhat mockingly.

  95. "Look, the sea looks like a blanket of dark-blue velvet."

  96. 40

    "Oh, you'll see the great waves soon enough; they'll devour you alive, just like this!"

  97. And Antonio-Maria opened his mouth and made as if to devour something.

  98. 41

    Rosa, who barely came up to his chest, raised her olive, glowing face: she looked at him with her large, dark, shadowed eyes, one of which was set slightly askew, and she laughed and laughed, winsome and voluptuous as an Arab girl.

  99. 42

    "Devils from hell, let me get well first and then you'll have me to answer to," the old woman threatened, comically.

  100. "Now let me take my bath."

  101. 43

    "But you're tired."

  102. You'll drop dead on the spot, stubborn old woman.

  103. 44

    "If I drop dead, let me drop dead," she answered; and right after her first bath she declared she felt better.

  104. She was assigned the most comfortable of the huts, from whose opening she could see and gaze at the sea with a kind of tenderness.

  105. 45

    Antonio-Maria had to go back to the village with the other drivers.

  106. 46

    "My little lamb," he said to Rosa, "remember to keep talking to her about death, you know: otherwise, you'll see, she'll forget to make her will; and one fine morning you'll find her in her bed, dead, stiff as an unripe pear."

  107. And what will we do then?

  108. Life is long, and it takes a lot to live!

  109. 47

    Then the servant left again with the carts and the other drivers: only the women, the children, and one old man remained.

  110. Healthy men have no need of baths, not even to wash themselves!

  111. 48

    *

  112. 49

    Ten days later Antonio — Maria came back, with a horse laden with provisions.

  113. Seeing his old mistress, he felt a strange dismay; aunt Areca's eyes, once clouded by a milky film, were now clear and full of life; her face, already dark, had turned almost black, tanned by the sea winds, but it looked less wrinkled and less repulsive than usual.

  114. 50

    "How are you, aunt Areca?"

  115. 51

    "Better," she said with a mischievous smile.

  116. "You see, the devils of the sea don't want to carry me off."

  117. Not even the devils want me!

  118. 52

    "Rosa, my little lamb," the young man said to his sweetheart, as soon as they could find themselves alone, "it seems to me that that stubborn old woman doesn't want to die."

  119. Then we're in real trouble!

  120. 53

    "It's the lamp's last flicker before it goes out," said Rosa, who did not love her grandmother, because she loved the young man blindly.

  121. "You'll see: she'll die sooner than we think."

  122. At night she never sleeps; she moans, she's weaker than before.

  123. Besides," she added, smiling, "one moment you wish she wouldn't die, and the next moment….

  124. 54

    "There, you see: it's because I can't take it anymore," he said, embracing her fiercely.

  125. "This isn't a life."

  126. If I were sure she had already made her will in your favor, I'd be capable of doing something mad….

  127. But as things are we're poor: I have nothing, you have nothing, and even if you told your family you wanted to marry me, how would we manage to live?

  128. 55

    "You're right," said Rosa.

  129. 56

    "Life is long: look how long aunt Areca has lived!"

  130. Will you come tonight behind the rock?

  131. 57

    "I don't know."

  132. Grandmother never sleeps; and although I stay alone with her in the hut, because she doesn't want to be disturbed by the children's crying, I don't know if it will be easy for me to get out….

  133. 58

    That night, however, around eleven, when everyone was asleep, and on the moonlit beach only the murmur of the waves could be heard, aunt Areca suddenly stopped moaning and closed her eyes.

  134. 59

    Rosa, who was pretending to sleep, felt her heart pound violently, but she waited a while longer before moving.

  135. The old woman was not even breathing.

  136. 60

    "Could she be dead?"

  137. Rosa was thinking.

  138. 61

    "This evening she spoke to me more tenderly than usual."

  139. "Rosa," she said to me, "poor Rosa of May, be patient: you sacrifice yourself day and night for me, but your reward won't fail to come, neither in this world nor in the next.

  140. Go on, I have thought of you since you were a little girl."

  141. 62

    These words throbbed in Rosa's heart and filled her with a heady joy; she couldn't wait to repeat them to Antonio-Maria, and it seemed like a dream when she was able to get up and confirm that the old woman had her eyes closed, her mouth closed, her stiffened hands lying abandoned on the rough blanket.

  142. The big black rosary, fallen to the ground, looked like a small, sleeping snake.

  143. 63

    But mixed in with her joy, Rosa felt a mysterious fear.

  144. 64

    "And what if she's dead?"

  145. Should I call out to her?

  146. But…. what if she wakes up?

  147. 65

    She went out cautiously, made her way down to a rock that looked like an enormous decayed black tooth, and found herself in Antonio-Maria's arms.

  148. 66

    "Listen," she said, trembling with pleasure and fear, "grandmother isn't moving, she isn't breathing; I've never seen her like this."

  149. And then, listen to what she said to me tonight….

  150. I believe she's made her will in my favor….

  151. 67

    The young man listened, jamming a fist into his mouth, as if to keep himself from crying out with joy.

  152. Then he wanted to go and see the old woman, even at the risk of waking her, and he dragged Rosa along with him.

  153. In the hut, by the flickering light of a small flame that always burned inside a glass half filled with oil, aunt Areca lay silent, motionless, with her mouth and eyes closed, and her stiffened hands abandoned on the rough blanket.

  154. She looked dead, turned to stone, mummified for centuries.

  155. 68

    "Yes, she looks dead," the young man murmured, without being sure of it.

  156. But he didn't dare touch her, he too afraid of waking her.

  157. 69

    "My Santa Greca, we must let my mother know…."

  158. 70

    "You're mad!"

  159. Let's stay together a while first.

  160. If we don't take advantage of tonight, who knows when we'll be able to be alone again!

  161. 71

    They stayed inside the hut, but they couldn't even exchange a kiss.

  162. The old woman's presence, dark beneath the trembling strokes of that yellowish light, or rather the thought that she might wake up, or that she might be dead, kept them relentlessly apart.

  163. In the end the young man, unable to bear it any longer, took hold of Rosa and carried her out almost bodily, drawing her behind the rock.

  164. The moon was setting over the mountain, wrapped in bluish mist; the sea looked like milk and ink; great clouds were rising over the horizon, from the sea to the sky: everything was silence.

  165. 72

    The hours passed.

  166. For the two lovers it was a macabre, tragic idyll, of a wild intoxication.

  167. They thought the old woman might truly be dead, but they lived off her death, gripped by a madness of life, of youth, and of passion.

  168. 73

    *

  169. 74

    Several times, though, Rosa said, pressing herself fearfully against the young man:

  170. 75

    "My little flower, I'm afraid."

  171. I feel like I can see death wandering around here….

  172. 76

    "Let her do as she likes," he would answer, "she certainly won't take us."

  173. 77

    Every so often Antonio-Maria drew near the hut, spying.

  174. Always silence.

  175. No, there was no doubt: death had carried off the old woman.

  176. A little before dawn, feeling worn out, he went into the hut, took the basket of provisions and a bottle of liquor, and went back behind the rock.

  177. Rosa wanted nothing, but he ate and drank until he was drunk.

  178. 78

    Dawn caught the lovers, and Rosa decided to go: she took the basket and the empty bottle and headed back toward the hut.

  179. The sky was clouding over, the sea was turning black and yellow as she had never seen it before; a funereal calm reigned.

  180. Aunt Areca still lay motionless on her pallet, but she had drawn her unparalyzed hand back under the blanket.

  181. Rosa, who already felt gloomy and sad, felt a mysterious terror at no longer seeing that hand.

  182. A cold sweat chilled her all over; but little by little she took heart, and thought:

  183. 79

    "It's better that she's alive!"

  184. Ah, I would have felt remorse for the rest of my life, remembering that tonight I was enjoying myself while she lay here, dead!

  185. 80

    She thought of letting Antonio-Maria know, and went to the opening of the hut meaning to call him; but in the light of that gloomy dawn she saw, against a dark backdrop of sea, the young man's figure moving away along the stretch of beach where the men used to bathe, and she didn't dare call out.

  186. She went back into the hut and began to make the coffee.

  187. Suddenly a furious wind rose, the waves swelled up, the huts shook: the old woman woke and looked outside with eyes full of wonder.

  188. 81

    "Rosa!"

  189. I feel as if I'm coming back from another world," she said.

  190. "Santa Greca be praised, it's been years since I slept so well!"

  191. But look, look at the sea!

  192. It looks like hell; yes, truly, look: the waves seem like devils playing a frightening game.

  193. Ah, this time they'll truly carry someone off!

  194. 82

    *

  195. 83

    They carried off Antonio-Maria, who, drunk and gorged, had gone down to bathe.

  196. When the sea grew calm, the completely naked corpse of the young servant was seen floating in the distance.

  197. 84

    Rosa was seized with convulsions: she remembered what the young man had said, during their last night of love:

  198. 85

    "Let her do as she likes, death: she certainly won't take us!"

  199. 86

    And instead she had taken him!

  200. 87

    "Our Santa Greca, how blind man is," the old woman said one day, drinking her coffee.

  201. "Antonio-Maria always used to preach: 'Aunt Areca, think about dying; aunt Areca, death is about to throw its noose over you!'"

  202. And so along she comes and plays a trick: instead of throwing the noose over the old woman, she throws it over the young man!

  203. Yes, sometimes it seems that old aunt Death likes her jokes!

  204. Maria Itria, my daughter, keep an eye on your daughter Rosa; and take the cup, there; this coffee was cold.

The particulars

The text
I giuochi della vita, Grazia Deledda. The Games of Life.
Translation
Public-domain Italian (Deledda, d. 1936; collection published 1905). English translation © 2026 1732 Studios, LLC.
Words
Every word of the text, by letter.
Data
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Two whoopie pies and a pine. An inside joke.