9th Smeraldo Story (2020) - It’s been a while

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Please do not repost my translations. Links to the page are appreciated. Translated by @courtneylazore.

These days, while busy making arrangements for customs clearance, transportation methods, and storage before the shop opens, I also worry about how to convey useful information about smeraldos, even if it’s just a bit.

So I haven’t been able to access the blog for a while, but I’m happy that the number of visitors interested in this increases each day.

Today I came to the shop location to install security equipment. Actually, I was thinking of uploading a picture of a more complete shop, but at lunch time I saw the news and I’d like to tell you the smeraldo story I recalled.

Do you remember the ending of the smeraldo legend I told you about last time? In the documents that remain, the legend ends with the man going to the village and learning of the woman’s death. But actually, there is more to the story that hasn’t been recorded in the legend.

According to a legend from the northern part of Italy, the man returned to his castle and set fire to all the smeraldo gardens he had grown himself. The fire grew big enough to swallow the castle; the man did not run away, he stayed to watch every smeraldo disappear in the fire. The fire spread to other houses, and when the villagers put out the fire, the man had left the charred castle and disappeared.

No one knew where the man went. Some said he died, some said he went to find his father. And others said he was hiding somewhere in the village. At first, people tried to find the man who started the fire, but in the end they couldn’t, and as time passed, they forgot about his existence.

Later on, a villager who went to Florence to visit a relative happened to see a man; they said the man was walking somewhere with an unknown expression on his face, and there were burn marks on his face.

It’s an oral story and we don’t know where it started; and actually it might not be a behind story of the smeraldo legend, it could be just a carelessly made-up story that was linked with smeraldo. But, when I first heard this story, I thought that this story was definitely a smeraldo story.  

A man who burned his flowers with his own hands and left behind wounds on his face that he can’t erase. Where would he have gone, after he left the village? Did he have a purpose? And why was he wearing an unknown expression? Is it because he lost everything he had? Maybe it’s because he realized his true self after he lost everything.

The news I saw wasn’t about an arson incident or about a man with wounds on his face, but there was a strange overlap of the man from the smeraldo legend and the face of the man I saw throughout the news. While looking at the man with a complicated expression on his face that I can’t explain, my heart hurt without me realizing it. I felt as if I had seen the man’s face somewhere, but I couldn’t remember no matter how I thought about it. I also thought: “I don’t know the details, but did this man realize something like the man in the legend?”

It seems I’ve talked a lot about dark things while talking about recent events. To return to talk about the shop, the interior is going well according to plan, and I think I’ll be able to open the shop easily on the planned date. I hope the day where I can show everyone the smeraldos comes soon.

Next time, I’ll come with news that’s brighter. They say tomorrow will be hot too, so everyone please be careful of the heat.