Finding Genoa, Finding Myself Notes on Reading, Language, Travelling, and Mobility<br>(Pag-aapuhap sa Genoa, Pag-aapuhap ng Sarili Mga Tala sa Pagbabasa, sa Wika, sa Paglalakbay at Paglalayag)

Abstract

In this work, the author recounts her personal experience as an exchange scholar in Genoa, Italy, under the Erasmus Mundi Mobility programme. Told in two languages, English and Filipino, the author articulates what could be a typical mode of worlding an Asian scholar might have, if given the chance to see the sights in Europe. Realizing her linguistic preparation for Italian is insufficient, she begins to acknowledge her alterity as an English-speaking persona. She also realizes the complexity of lived time with strangers in a foreign land. Finding a translated text by Elsa Morante in a public library becomes a breather for the persona in the essay. The translated work, “History,” becomes an ironic commentary of how parallel existences can happen, experiencing hunger and loneliness similar to the fictional characters who lived in Mussolini’s time. Embedded in the narrative are brief recollections of mundane scenes in public spaces and transport, while the persona is coping with cultural gaps. Reading, and writing about the process of reading, becomes an act of salvation as well. Finding other people of color (economic or political exiles), the author recognizes the porosity as well as the impermeability of Italian as a language, when she realizes that comprehension of the language does not necessarily translate as power.

Keywords: Creative nonfiction, translation and migration, travel accounts