“We fell into a special mood on those nights off the Zinc Cliffs: gay but with a touch of suspense, as if inside our sculls,
instead of the brain, we felt a fish, floating, attracted by the Moon. And so we navigated, playing and singing. The captain’s
wife played the harp; she had very long arms, silvery as eels on those nights, and armpits as dark and mysteriousas sea urchins;
and the sound of the harp was sweet and piercing, so sweet and piercing it was almost unbearable. And we were forced to let out
long cries, not so much to accompany the music as to protect our hearing from it. ”
— Italo Calvino, The Complete Cosmicomics