Kad sam bila klinka imala sam slikovnica-verziju knjige “Putovanja Marka Pola”. Iako je to istorijski nepouzdano, u knjizi piše da je Marko rođen na Korčuli, a odrastao u Veneciji, odakle je krenuo ka Kini i dvoru Kublaj Kana putem svile. Postojao je jedan deo u kome je Marko zaljubljen u mladu plemkinju, verovatno duždovu kćerku, ali zbog svog društvenog položaja nije mogao da je viđa slobodno, nego bi se noću popeo na njenu terasu. Tako sam ja razmišljala da će jednog dana Marko Polo da se popne na moju terasu (na sedmi sprat). Imala sam šest godina i bila sam zaljubljena u Marka Pola.
U knjizi Invisible Cities, Itala Calvina, koju mi je neko nedavno poklonio, Marko Polo priča Kublaj Kanu o različitim gradovima kroz koje je prošao. Kao što kaže na poslednjoj strani – soon it becomes clear that each of these fantastic places is really the same place.
Venecija, verovatno.
Sad ću da vam spojlujem kraj, mada nije knjiga nije te vrste, nema nikakvog razrešenja. Marko Polo je odrastao, više se ne penje po terasama, razočaran je.
Khan said: “It is all useless, if the last landing place can only be the infernal city, and it is there that, in ever-narrowing circles, the current is drawing us.”
And Polo said: “The inferno of the living is not something that will be; if there is one, it is what is already here, the inferno where we live every day, that we form by being together. There are two ways to escape suffering it. The first is easy for many: accept the inferno and become such a part of it that you can no longer see it. The second is risky and demands constant vigilance and apprehension: seek and lean to recognize who and what, in the midst of the inferno, are not inferno, then make them endure, give them space.”