***
Once upon a time there was Ludovico.
Ludovico was a happy and kind child who lived in a small village next to the sea. He loved the sun, the smell of freshly cut grass and when he could, he spent his time on the quaysides, where the fishermen and seagulls quarrelled on the boats.
There was an incredibly old man who spent his days mending the fishing nets on the jetty. With lots of patience and care he worked on them as if they were pieces of jewellery. Ludovico would sit next to him and listen to him for hours. The little old man, surrounded by his cats, sewed up the fishing nets and sang stories of the sailors.
One day, Ludovico asked him “Why do you always sing when you work?”
The old man replied “Can’t you hear? The fishing nets are playing …. And I’m singing”.
What do you mean? They’re playing? » asked a surprised Ludovico.
« Ils jouent de la musique lorsqu’ils sont traversés par le vent ».
"But I can’t hear anything!” said Ludovico
"I can tell that you are a little bit on the deaf side!” replied the old man.
But Ludovico wasn’t ready to accept that. He started to pay attention. He concentrated so much that he finally managed to hear the sound of his breathing and his heart beats and that’s when he noticed that :
The sea played the piano, whether it was calm or stormy.
The perfume of the jasmin played the violins.
The fishermen’s nets in the wind played the flutes.
The rain rang the bells.
The lemon trees played the trumpets.
Ludovico was a very special child.He ignored the adults’ arguments but he listened to the sound of the grass growing.
He didn’t hear the sound of the cars in the street but he heard the voice of the sea in the seashells.
He walked with his eyes closed in the village as though he was in a concert of classical music.
People looked at him, they deliberately bumped into him, they shouted at him, they made fun of him, but he wasn’t worried because he had better things to listen to. Everyone said that he was deaf and perhaps a little mad, but in reality Ludovico was capable of hearing things that no one else wanted to listen to.
When he became an adult, Ludovico travelled around the whole world to listen to every sound imaginable. Every time he came back to his little village by the sea, he would go and see the little old man who he always found mending the fishing nets, surrounded by his cats and singing stories about sailors.
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