“I'lI mention in passing that Italian is, I believe, the only language in which the word for "vague" (vago) also means charming, attractive; having originally meant "wandering, it still carries with it a feeling of movement and mutability, which in Italian suggests not only uncertainty and indeterminacy but also grace and pleasure.) In order to put my love for exactitude to the test, I'll read over those passages of the Zibaldone in which Leopard praises the vague. He writes:
Le parole lontano, antico e simili sono poeticissime e piacevoli, perché destano idee vaste, e indefinite . .
(25 settembre I821)” ~Calvino
What do you think about this quote? 