Page 208 - SUMMARIES OF GIOVANNI BOCCACCIO’S DECAMEON : A Visionary Journey In 100 Stories And 100 Etchings By Petru Russu

Talano d’Imolese’s True Dream

Talano d’Imolese, a modest merchant from the city of Imola, is jolted one
night by a vivid and harrowing dream. In his sleep, he witnesses a wolf
attacking his beloved wife, tearing at her neck and face with savage fury.
The vision grips him with an unsettling clarity, so much so that, upon

waking, he is shaken and unnerved.

Deeply disturbed, Talano shares the dream with his wife, imploring her
to heed its warning. He urges her to be cautious, to avoid any solitary

excursions, and to treat the dream as an omen. His concern is neither
poetic nor melodramatic, it is sincere and urgent, underscored by the
gut sense that what he saw might somehow come to pass. Yet his wife,
practical and dismissive of such things, laughs off the premonition. She

assures him that dreams are fleeting shadows, nonsense conjured by a
restless mind, and that his worry is touching but unwarranted.

Still, Talano’s unease does not fade. He watches her go about her usual

routine with increasing anxiety, hoping the days will pass without incident.
Then one afternoon, while walking through a wooded path on an errand,
she encounters a wolf, a real, living threat rather than a phantom of sleep.
Before she can flee or cry out, the creature lunges, just as Talano had

envisioned, savaging her neck and face. Villagers hear the screams and
rush to her aid, driving the beast off and saving her life, but not before
she suffers grievous and disfiguring injuries.

The horror of the event is not simply in the attack itself, but in the precise
FRAGMENTED AND VIVID
TEXTURES REPRESENT THE and uncanny fulfillment of Talano’s vision. His prophetic dream, dismissed
INEVITABILITY OF FATE, as nonsense, becomes grim reality. The household is left stunned, the
WITH ABSTRACT SHAPES EVOKING
townsfolk murmuring about fate, and the wife bearing painful wounds that
THE PROPHETIC VISION’S TENSION
serve as a reminder of her skepticism.
AND TRUST.
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