The space of Travel is – may be, also a mythical space. In the Archipelago, "the sea is filled with mythological rumors." The Mountain, as a colossal genius of the Narrative, partakes in countless "secret stories" (A. Russo). "Arcana of the past," ruins are fragments which summon completion by the epic and the dramatic. Precipices, castles, rivers are immersed in the centennial haze of legend. Toponymy itself is a refuge to the imaginary. In the Holy Places, the imprint of the Biblical Story ("it is said that the Mother of God was a-sitting …") descends (laicizes) the myth and uplifts the spirit, to which it gives the illusion of "apparitions," in the proximity of non-sense.An "inner vision" (N. Iorga) projects the past, history, into a cineramatic dimension (M. Kogalniceanu in España), some of the stills obtained by super-impression. On gazing through the train window, I. Russu-Sirianu sees shadows on the canvas of time, how "fiery Hannibal splits the waves with his mounted men and, striking the Roman camp unawares, routs it and sows horror throughout the whole of Italy." But in a gondola, as well, "your head rings with novels, which you yourself invent and people them with beings which are alive but to your mind's eye" (In Rome). If the imaginativeness of places has been evoked, nothing would prevent us from further referring to their narrativeness.The real, subjected to an inquisitive eye, reveals its secret code (Baltasar Gracián: "all the existing is encoded"), similar to a text in invisible ink. This is the pleasant side to a journey, that even the trite gains, by novelty and unexpectedness, the prestige of adventure." (Goethe)Beyond the anodyne may lie "a sad history" or "a sanguinary drama" (Iosif Vulcan). And, if not so, an "entire novel." (A.D. Xenopol)A primal source of inspiration for amateurs – a "romance story" (I. Negruzzi), a "fierce scene" (T. Burada), peopled with outlaws or highwaymen. Entertaining scenes, adventures which by ensuing upheavals, seem incredible, in which the major caprice of destiny measures up to fiction. In lieu of a narrative development – the anecdote (D. Bolintineanu: on the "lucky Gyges," after Herodotus, I. Codru Dragusanu: on Hispanic haughtiness), "untrue anecdotes," of those wearily dismissed by Gh. Sion. And – what humorously absurd small-scale spectacle: the huntsman's fib – a quarrel between caviling skepticism and Tarasconian fabrication, with a "bob-tailed fox" at stake (Odobescu). "Tourist literature" (I. Codru Dragusanu) has concocted a style from the mélange of styles (narrative solutions, etc.).A myriad of things may trigger the "games of phantasy" (Gh. Sion) – "inestimable gems" (Gh. Asachi): a water-shaped boulder, an ancient tree, a crock piece from an amphora, a sword's hilt, the Egyptian pyramids, akin to "frozen poems" (Gherasim Timus). And, proper names – Urseolo, Marino Faliero, appear in Duiliu Zamfirescu's eyes as "entire poems." Fiume, Abbazia… – in Iorga's. It is "the magic of Italian names" (Th. Gautier). The poetry in the books once read spreads over the scenery ready to absorb it. In Spain, the walls of the town of Toledo, a vestige from the Middle Ages – also captivating to Iorga – resemble "hasty and deceitful apparitions" (M. Kogalniceanu). The "real world" dialogizes vacillatingly, with the "world of fancy" (I. Negruzzi). The quintessential imaginary re-semanticizes the real world. Nonetheless, "the poetry of the imaginative" (I. Codru Dragusanu) most often stands to lose if ruthlessly confronted with "the prose of life" (G. Baritiu). Then, the "prosaic" supplants poetry and its deceptive fictionalizing" (Archimandrite Nifon). Not all "that is built" is as the town of Toledo: "clashing against reality, my creations crumble and fade." (I. Negruzzi).The real and the imaginary, as in a jeu d'amour, mingle their signs. Dissimulation, "paint-over," mimicking graphicality are inherent to their "sensual" interplay. By a subtle redistribution of accents (I. Ghica, in Letters), by the marriage of candor and exaggerated consciousness (Iordache Golescu), reality may seem of the imaginary; as "fantasy" itself lays itself out, that it wouldn't seem what it is. (Th. Alexi, The Convent of Ialomitza. Reality, Fantasy and… More, in The Carpathian Bee, 1877)Excerpted from: The Auspices of Hermes. Travel Memoirs (before 1900) between the Real and the Imaginary, Minerva, 1993
by Florin Faifer
