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The Late Mattia Pascal Chapter 1 – A Wrong Life
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My name is Mattia Pascal. Or at least… that’s what I called myself.
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I lived for years in a small town in Liguria,
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in a house that didn’t feel like my own, with a wife I never really loved
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and a mother-in-law who seemed born to make my life impossible.
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After my father died, our fortune quickly disappeared.
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Two dishonest men managed our money,
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and I could only watch them vanish.
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To make a living, I took a boring job in a municipal library.
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No one respected me, neither at home nor outside. My wife Romilda became increasingly bitter,
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my mother-in-law crueler.
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Every day I returned home with the weight of the world on my shoulders.
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No one listened to me, no one understood me.
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And I, slowly, began to disappear inside myself.
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Then, in a moment like many others, I decided to run away.
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Without saying anything to anyone, I got on a train,
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headed randomly. I had no plan,
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I had no hope. I just wanted to change my life.
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Forever.
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I couldn’t imagine that a few days later
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I would succeed. Too well, even.
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Chapter 2 – Escape and Fortune I arrived in Monte Carlo almost by chance.
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I still had some money in my pocket and a great desire to forget everything.
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I took a room in a modest hotel
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and went into the casino, more out of curiosity than anything else.
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I had never been lucky in my life, but that evening everything changed.
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I bet a few francs… and I won. I played again… and I won again.
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My hands were shaking, but I didn’t stop. I kept winning,
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as if fate wanted to compensate me for everything it had taken from me.
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In the end I left with an enormous sum.
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I had more money in my pocket than I had ever seen.
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For the first time I felt light. Free.
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I sat on a bench,
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looking at the sea. I thought:
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“What if I never went back? What if I started from scratch?
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With a new identity, a new life?”
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While I was thinking these thoughts, I bought a newspaper.
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There, on one of the pages, I read a news item:
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a body had been found in my town. And everyone thought it was me.
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At that moment I understood: fate was offering me
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a chance. Only one.
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Chapter 3 – The Wrong Dead Man I read that article three times.
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It said that a man had thrown himself into the canal,
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near my house, and that the body was unrecognizable.
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He had clothes and objects that looked like mine. People, the police,
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even my wife… everyone was sure: that dead man was me.
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At first I shivered. Then, slowly,
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an idea began to grow inside me.
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No one was looking for me. No one knew I was alive.
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If I had remained silent, I could really disappear.
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I spent the night walking. I thought about my wife, my mother-in-law,
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my gray life. There, among the lights of Monte Carlo,
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everything seemed so far away.
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And so I decided:
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I would never return. Mattia Pascal was dead.
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With the winnings I began to travel:
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first Nice, then Marseille, finally Italy.
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I cut my mustache, changed my hairstyle,
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bought new clothes. I burned my old wallet.
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I chose a new name: Adriano Meis.
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I felt reborn.
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Lighter than ever. But underneath that freedom
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there was also a strange restlessness.
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I no longer had a past. And without a past…
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building a future might not be so easy. But I would only understand this later.
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Chapter 4 – Adriano Meis
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With the name of Adriano Meis I crossed Italy
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like a ghost. With a full wallet,
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no one knew me, no one asked me questions.
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It was a strange, almost sweet feeling.
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I could be anyone, say anything.
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In Venice I was a tourist. In Florence I spent days in museums.
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In Rome I rented a quiet room, near the Tiber.
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I said I came from Switzerland, that I was there for health reasons.
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Everyone believed me, no one suspected.
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But I soon understood one thing:
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I was free, yes… but also invisible.
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Without real documents I couldn’t sign contracts,
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open an account, get married.
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Once I tried to stop a thief and the police asked me for my documents.
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I had to run away.
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And then Adriana, the daughter of the landlord, arrived.
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Sweet, intelligent, with two eyes full of melancholy.
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We started talking every day, then walking together.
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She looked at me with trust. And I… I was nobody.
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I couldn’t tell her the truth, but I couldn’t keep lying either.
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I was living a fake life, and I was starting to want it to be real.
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For the first time,
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I wanted to stay. And that… was a problem.
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Chapter 5 – Meeting the truth
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I really liked Adriana. I spoke sincerely with her,
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even if I didn’t say everything.
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Every day I waited for the moment to see her,
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to hear her voice. At home they began to trust me.
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Even her father, a difficult man, seemed to appreciate me.
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Sometimes I dreamed of staying there forever.
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Of marrying her. Of building a normal life.
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But every time I really thought about it, something inside me broke.
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Who was I to ask for the hand of an honest girl?
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I had no identity, no documents,
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no history. Only lies.
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One day I heard Adriana
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talking to a friend of hers. She said that maybe she loved me.
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I felt happy and guilty at the same time.
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That night I didn't sleep. The next day, in front of the mirror,
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I looked at my face.
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I no longer saw Adriano Meis or Mattia Pascal.
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Only a man who didn't know who he was.
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I had created an elegant cage,
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full of silences and illusions. I couldn't go on like this.
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Then I decided: Adriano Meis had to disappear too.
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I would erase my identity once again.
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Chapter 6 – The Impossible Return
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To make Adriano Meis disappear I chose a simple gesture:
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I left my clothes on a bridge and a farewell letter.
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Everything seemed to indicate that I would never return.
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So everyone would believe that Adriano had disappeared forever.
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Then I got on a train. Destination: home.
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I wanted to go back to being Mattia Pascal.
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I thought that, once there, everything would be fine.
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I was wrong.
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When I arrived in town, no one recognized me right away.
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And when I finally spoke to my mother, she almost fainted. She
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couldn’t believe I was alive. But the news that hit me the most
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was another: my wife had remarried.
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They had held a funeral. They had cried for me.
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And then… life had moved on.
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Romilda had a new husband,
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a new home, a new peace.
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And I… was a dead man who had returned too late.
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No one could accept my return. Not even the law.
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For the world, Mattia Pascal was dead.
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I couldn’t go back to my old life. I couldn’t go back.
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I had lost everything. Even the right to exist.
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Chapter 7 – The Late Mattia Pascal
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I tried to explain the truth, but the truth was no longer useful.
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My wife looked at me like a ghost.
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Her husband was someone else, and I was just a walking memory.
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I turned to a lawyer,
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but he also confirmed what I feared: for the State, I was legally dead.
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I couldn’t take back my name, or get my rights back.
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I couldn’t even ask for justice, because I would have had to report myself
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for false identity.
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I asked myself: who am I now?
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Adriano Meis died in the river. Mattia Pascal died years ago,
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at least for everyone else.
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And I, in the middle… what am I?
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A shadow. An idea.
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A person who doesn’t exist.
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I no longer had a home, nor a future,
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nor a past that I could take back.
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Just a body that walked in the world without purpose.
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So I did the only thing possible: I left,
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in silence, without looking for anything anymore.
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I had nothing left to lose. And in the emptiness that surrounded me,
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I began to understand something.
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Maybe the real prison
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It wasn’t my old life. It was absolute freedom.
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Chapter 8 – Alive, but not too much
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Now I live in a modest little room
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and spend my days between books and silence.
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I’ve returned to the library where I used to work,
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but no one knows who I really am.
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They call me “the strange one” and that’s okay.
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Every now and then I bump into someone from the past.
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They look at me with a mixture of doubt and indifference.
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No one has the courage to ask. Maybe they’re afraid of the truth.
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I haven’t tried to see my wife again.
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I know she’s happy. Or at least calm.
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I don’t want to disturb her. I don’t want to be a shadow that ruins everything.
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I’m writing this to fix my thoughts,
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as if it would serve any purpose. But I’m doing it anyway.
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I’ve lived two lives and in the end
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I didn’t save even one.
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My name is Mattia Pascal. Or rather,
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the late Mattia Pascal.
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Because even if I breathe,
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eat and walk… I don’t really exist anymore.
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I’m a man
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who has lost the right to be someone.
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And maybe, after all,
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this is precisely my freedom.
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An empty freedom.
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Silent. But mine.