immortal person

After August, the scorching heat wave gradually retreated from Tuscany, the irises withered on the branches, and the air was dry and bleak in early autumn.On a fine morning in September, the girdle and rings of the Virgin arrived in Florence from the Vatican.This is the first city it tours.Crowds lined the road eagerly watched as a team of Swiss mercenaries escorted the two silver caskets containing the holy relics into the Church of Santa Maria del Fiore.In the days that followed, they were worshiped by thousands of Florentine citizens.The priest said that the city had not been so pious for ten years. People bowed down under the high altar for a long time, silently reciting prayers that they had not known for a long time, as if they would face the final judgment tomorrow.In the prayer room on the left side of the altar that belongs exclusively to the Medici family, Lorenzo de' Medici also kneels in front of the statue of the Madonna. When people pass by, they can catch a glimpse of his motionless back behind the grid.The crowd was moved by the duke's devotion to the faith, and they left the church proudly saying: "Look, this is our chief citizen."

Even Poliziano was rarely able to speak to the duke.In the early morning four days ago, Lorenzo handed him a letter that was about to be sent to Rome.He didn't say a word, looked rather haggard and obviously hadn't slept all night, so he didn't ask further.For the next few days, Lorenzo spent a long time in the church every day, and it was often evening when he returned to the palace.On this day, he finally waited for the Duke to return early, and when he stood in front of the study door, he saw Lorenzo looking up at the cedar-carved crucifix on the wall, still wearing a white absolution garment.

The rough bristles of the shirt had left a red, swollen scar clearly visible on the back of the Duke's neck.Lorenzo turned and smiled at him, his usual expression.Poliziano stared at him, pursing the corners of his mouth tightly, as if enduring some kind of pain for him.He intuitively felt that there must be a volcano buried under Lorenzo's calm face: in just a few days, the Duke became thinner; it seemed that something was roasting him from the inside out and eroding him at the same time. It will soon become disfigured.

"Are you all right?" he asked.

"very good."

"With all due respect," Poliziano said hesitantly, "the letter to Rome was..."

"Yes."

"How fast?"

"Next week," said Lorenzo.

He looked at Poliziano, neither dodging nor avoiding.Poliziano was silent for a while, and after a long time, he asked: "...does he know?"

Lorenzo didn't ask who "he" was.After a pause, he said, "I don't know."

Poliziano knew he had to stop there.Instead, he begged the Duke to take care of his health and limit his penance, and Lorenzo nodded obediently—but Poliziano knew he wasn't listening.He explained to his advisers the various matters that should be prepared later, and when he said these words, he looked no different from usual.The conversation should have ended here, as Lorenzo waited silently for him to say goodbye, but Poliziano remained where he was.The Duke was abnormally calm, as if someone else was suffering a few days ago.He couldn't help asking again: "Are you really okay?——Please forgive my talk, I must say, you really worry me now."

"Is it so obvious?" Lorenzo smiled.

Poliziano finally breathed a sigh of relief at his candor. "Yes," Poliziano said, "it looks as though you are seeking consolation in faith, but it is clearly not your antidote."

He was reminded of the sentence from the book of Acts: "Salvation is found in no one else".However, when the pain comes from the Lord, the Lord can do nothing.

Lorenzo turned to look at him, and the thin smile disappeared from his face.For a moment, Poliziano was sure he saw the pain he was trying to hide.

"I think," said Lorenzo slowly, "that I am already standing in the lake of fire."

For the past four days Giovanni had not worked on a single sculpture.Such a long period of stagnation was extremely rare for him in the past. He has always been praised for his calmness and firmness. , fell uncontrollably and quickly, and the bottom was pitch black.This is by no means a temporary ecstasy, he tried to keep a clear head in the confusion, to get the obvious answer.It was what he wanted so long and couldn't bear, and he would try to call it "love."

It is a rose and it is also a storm.For the past 18 years he had had an unshakable faith that was now a deadly shackle.The scriptures he had read since he was a child scolded him, telling him how abominable this is, and those who commit this crime will eventually be put to death by the Lord, and "the sin will be on them" and cut off from all peoples.Thinking of this, the bed under him seemed to be turned into thorns, and he couldn't sleep all night, and at the most unbearable time, he knelt before the crucifix and prayed, destroy me, bring disaster on me, just as you once Destroy Sodom... I have committed the same crime as the people in that city.But repentance is absolutely impossible, that person has already taken his soul before the Lord.

Lorenzo.In the torment of day and night, he drew strength from this name thousands of times.Approaching him will burn you, leaving him will kill you.As if out of some sad tacit understanding, they didn't say a word again, and even bowed their heads to avoid it when they met.The moment he passed by, he needed to use all his willpower not to turn around and run towards him... He remembered every detail he could see, the man's straight lips, clenched fingers, The thinner and thinner figure is exactly the same as him.

No one can break the deadlock between the two.On the fifth day, Giovanni finally devoted himself to carving again. He shut himself up for several days, trying to numb himself from the heavy work, which soon proved to be in vain.When Bertoldo came to tell him the news, there were only a lot of discarded wax models and scraps in his workshop.This took his teacher by surprise.

"What's going on with you?" Bertoldo looked disbelieving, "You won't fall because of Hercules' success—I won't believe it, you've never been a proud person. Tell me , because of what?"

And in the end he couldn't get a single word out of Giovanni's mouth.The stubborn young man would rather keep silent than lie. He got nothing and changed the subject: "Cheer up, we are going to get busy. The housekeeper wants us to start preparing a statue of Venus. Indeed, there are too few women in our courtyard." Yes. I thought, how about making a goddess with Cupid in her arms? The butler said that would be a good omen..."

"What?" interrupted Giovanni, for the first time in his life, without regard for decorum. "What omen?"

"He didn't say it clearly." Bertoldo shook his head indifferently, "But what else could it be?"

The extreme anxiety made it difficult for Giovanni to breathe for a while.He asked someone to convey his request to meet Poliziano, and the counselor agreed.On the second day, Giovanni came early to the room they had agreed upon, and paced back and forth on the carpet.After Hercules finished, their grammar lessons stopped for a while, but he wanted Poliziano to understand that he had not come to study the classics.The always punctual teacher was late for a long time that day. By asking the housekeeper, Giovanni learned that he had been summoned temporarily to meet the visiting cardinal, Crozzi Orsini.

"Why is Bishop Orsini here?" he asked.

The butler shook his head and asked him to forgive himself for not commenting.

Giovanni could not bear to wait here.He went to the first floor, lingered for a long time, and finally waited until Poliziano accompanied the cardinal down the stairs.Lorenzo didn't come down, which made him relieved while being disappointed.The cardinal was a dignified middle-aged man, he was full of smiles, he didn't know what agreement he had reached with the duke earlier, he looked very satisfied.Poliziano noticed Giovanni standing by, but pretended not to.They stood at the door, complimenting each other politely. Suddenly, the cardinal looked up at the head of Janus above the lintel and said with a smile, "I can't wait to see how it hangs with olive branches."

"That day is not far away." Poliziano smiled back.

Giovanni froze in place, his heart sank like lead in water

Poliziano bid farewell to the cardinal and watched him board his carriage and drive away.Since then, he has been standing by the door, and after a long time, he slowly turned around.

Giovanni was standing just behind him, watching him silently.

Poor, miserable man, Poliziano sighed in his heart—he had never seen so much pain in any pair of eyes.

"I think you don't need my answer anymore," he said to Giovanni.

The author has something to say:

The etymology of sodomite may come from Sodom, and some scholars believe that the people in the city were destroyed for this crime.This matter is found in "Genesis": "At that time, the LORD sent down sulfur and fire from the LORD of heaven on Sodom and Gomorrah..." (Genesis 19:24)

Hanging olive branches in front of the door is a wedding custom in the Renaissance.