I don’t have the other one any more, and I think if I didn’t get it back again, after all I’ve set down in it since August, I’d lose the inclination to write at all, and with it something of my will to live. But it isn’t lost — I simply had to leave it behind when I left Barinelli’s house in a hurry this morning. I hope to have it back by tonight, God willing. Hateb has gone to fetch it and a few other things, and I trust him to manage … Meanwhile I’ll deal with the events of this long day and the setbacks it has inflicted on me. Some of them I expected. Others not. This morning, then, while I was getting ready to go to church in Pera with all my people, a Turkish official arrived in state. He didn’t dismount from his horse, but sent one of his entourage to find me. All the local people saluted him very deferentially, some doffing their hats; then they vanished down the nearest alley. When I presented myself he greeted me in Arabic from amid his elaborate trappings.
What do You think about Balthasar's Odyssey (2011)?
