Mussolini is the biggest bluff in Europe. If Mussolini would have me taken out and shot tomorrow morning I would still regard him as a bluff. The shooting would be a bluff. Get hold a good photo of Signor Mussolini sometime and study it. You still see the weakness in his mouth which forces him to scowl the famous Mussolini scowl that is imitated by every 19-year-old Fascisto in Italy. Study his past record. Study the coalition that Fascismo is between capital and labor and consider the history of past coalitions. Study his genius for clothing small ideas in big words. Study his propensity for dueling. Really brave men do not have to fight duels, and many cowards duel constantly to make themselves believe they are brave. And then look at his black shirt and white spats. There is something wrong, even histrionically, with a man who wears white spats with a black shirt. (…)

The Fascist dictator had announced he would receive the press. Everybody came. We all crowded into the room. Mussolini sat at his desk reading a book. His face was contorted into the famous frown. He was registering Dictator. Being an ex-newspaperman himself he knew how many readers would be reached by the accounts the men in the room would write of the interview he was about to give. And he remained absorbed in his book. Mentally he was already reading the lines of the two thousand papers served by the two hundred correspondents. “As we entered the room the Black Shirt Dictator did not look up from the book he was reading, so intense was his concentration, etc.”

I tiptoed over behind him to see what the book was he was reading with such avid interest. It was a French-English dictionary–held upside down.

(Ernest Hemingway, „Mussolini, Europe’s Prize Bluffer“, The Toronto Daily Star, 27jan23)

* * *

Musolini je najveći lažnjak u Evropi. Da me Musolini sutra ujutru izvede na streljanje opet bih smatrao da je lažnjak. I streljanje bi bilo lažnjačko. Uzmite jednom neku dobru fotku Senjor Musolinija i proučite je. I dalje vidiš slabost u njegovim ustima koja ga prisiljava da se mršti čuvenim Musolinijevim namrštenim izrazom koji oponaša svaki 19-godišnji fašisto u Italiji. Prouči njegov dosadašnji record. Prouči savez koji fašizam predstavlja između kapitala i rada & razmotri istoriju prošlih saveza. Prouči njegovu genijalnost oblačenja malih zamisli u velike reči. Prouči njegovu sklonost dvobojima. Zaista hrabri ljudi ne moraju da ulaze u dvoboje, a mnoge kukavice stalno se sukobljavaju u dvobojima da bi uverili sebe da su hrabri. A onda baci pogled na njegovu crnu košulju i bele kamašne. Nešto nije u redu, čak i histrionično, sa čovekom koji nosi bele kamašne na crnu košulju. (…)

Fašistički diktator je najavio da će primiti štampu. Svi su došli. Nagurali smo se u sobu. Musolini je sedeo za svojim stolom & čitao knjigu. Lice mu je bilo iskrivljeno u čuveni namršteni izraz. He was giving Dictator. Kao bivši novinar znao je do koliko će čitalaca dopreti izveštaji koji će ljudi u toj sobi napisati o intervjuu koji će uskoro dati. I ostao je udubljen u svoju knjigu. Mentalno je već čitao redove iz dve hiljade novina koje će napisati dve hiljade dopisnika. „Kada smo ušli u sobu Diktator Crnokošuljaš nije digao pogled sa knjige koju je čitao, toliko je snažna njegova koncentracija“, itd.

Prišunjao sam se iza njega da vidim koju je knjigu čitao sa tako strastvenim zanimanjem. Bio je to francusko-engleski rečnik okrenut naopačke.

[Viktor Igo] wrote: „George Sand cannot determine whether she is female or male. I entertain a high regard for all of my colleagues, but it is not my place to decide whether she is my sister or my brother“.

(Samuel Edwards, GEORGE SAND: A BIOGRAPHY OF THE FIRST MODERN, LIBERATED WOMAN, 1972, David McKay Company, 4)