Seeing David again
( note: this was written in May 2018, however, I did not get to see David once a month as stated in this article since I moved to stay in Hong Kong around June of 2018)( 11/07/2021)
David was my neighbour
At least for five or six years
When I was a student at the Fine Arts Academy Of Florence
Next door from 1983 onwards
The students now update the direction
By putting a notice with the image
of David pointing towards the left hand side: 89 meters from here ( to be precise: if you want me, I am not here...but ... 89 meters away from here- to the left)*
At the time when we were students
We often enjoyed giving direction to
the tourists who came to our courtyard, mistaking our entrance for the entrance of the Gallery where the original David is found
Yes, we called him David
As if he was one of our friends
Our famous neighbour
For eighteen years - the period when I was a resident of this beautiful city -, I, however, did not get to say hi to David often-
But now, perhaps, one could get to say hello more often since the Fine Arts Authorities in Italy finally
allow free entrance to almost all State Museum once a month.
So , I am quite happy to say hi to David again , who is now five minutes walk from where my house is-
Hi my dear neighbour, thank you for the lovely
memories, especially for the essay I wrote of you for my Italian entrance exam to the Fine Arts Academy next door.
Bernadette
Eighth of May 2018
Florence, Italy
* for
some reasons, the only language not used in the Poster is Chinese - wondering why? （In 1983, I was one of the few Asian students on Campus- but most of them were from Japan)
Here is a possible translation -
找我嗎？我不在此；從這兒再走89米...(才是我的正確所在地)