Captain, I cannot thank you enough

Signora Fosca has always had a shortage of friends

My dearst Giorgio

What a joy to have someone to write to

Someone with whom I can share my past

I was a young man when my parents died

Fosca's mother and father welcomed me into their house

Whenever I was on leave

As a child -

As a child -

She was lonely -

I was happy -

Her parents doted on her -

My parents doted on me -

They said

Beautiful

So sensitive

So beautiful

They told me to be

Careful -

Of course -

- Fosca

- To them she was

A girl as beautiful as you are has to

And so (Be careful)

- I thought that I was beautiful

And then she (I) reached the age

Where being beautiful

Becomes the most important thing a woman can be

An unattractive man -

As long as you're a man

You still have opportunities (Can still have opportunities)

Beautiful

Whereas, if you're a woman

You either are

A daughter or a wife

A woman is a flower

You marry -

- You're seventeen

- Or you're a daughter all your life

Now is the hour

I'd met this nice young man

I'd seen this nice young man -

He'd introduced himself -

- Passing by -

- At my club

- Just below my window

So -

One day -

- One evening I invited him -

- He tipped his hat to me

- Home

Count Ludovic -

I must admit that I was flattered -

- This is my Aunt Theresa and my Uncle Bruno

A count?

From where, if I may ask

Austria

Austria

What a beautiful place

Fosca, we have a visitor!

Imagine my surprise

I'd like you to meet a new friend. Count Ludovic

He was even more handsome up close

I was amazed to see the Count take such an interest in my cousin

If I had know you were here, Signorina -

"If he had known" - Of course he knew

- I would have brought you many flowers

If I had known

You do like flowers?

Yes (I should have known)

I've seen you at your window

Won't you stay for dinner?

Do. Yes

I've watched you every day since I arrived

I had my suspicion

I had no suspicion

I chose not to see

The way you move

The way you gaze at the sky

For love had made me blind (How could I be so blind?)

- Or what I took for love

Within a month, he had asked for her hand

Signora Fosca has been married?

Yes

Austria

Count Ludovic of Austria

I sensed in him a danger

Deception, even violence

I must admit to some degree that it excited me

Austria! Count Ludovic of Austria

Once they were married

Once he received my uncle's sizable dowry

He traveled a great deal

Was unavailable to Fosca

He gambled away the dowry

I was forced to go to my parents

To borrow from what little savings they had left

Then one day, as she was coming from market

Excuse me. You're the wife of a Count Ludovic?

Yes

You fool

The man's a fraud, a fake

The trips he said he had to take abroad

He took them so that he could be with me

He calls himself a Count, but he's not

He's never had a title in his life!

He doesn't have a title

But he does have a wife

And a child in Dalmatia

No, you must be mistaken

Oh, yes

He only wants to bleed you

Until the day he doesn't need you

I warn you he'll abandon you

As he abandoned her and me

And countless others, I've no doubt

I'm telling you, the man was born without a heart

You fool

I confronted him with this information

And he made no attempt to deny it

Ah, well, at last you know the truth, Signorina

But you as well must face the truth

I've no desire to deceive you anymore

But do admit what you ignore

We made a bargain, did we not?

And we got what we bargained for

You gave me your money, I gave you my looks

And my charm and my arm

I would say that more than balances the books

Where's the harm?

Now it's through

If women sell their looks

Why can't a man, if he can?

Besides, the money wasn't even yours

It belonged to those ridiculous old bores

Your parents

Forgive me, my dear, but though you are no beauty

I fear, you are not quite the victim you appear

Well, let us part by mutual consent and be content

And so good luck and goodbye

I must go

Oh, and yes, we haven't paid the rent since July

Just so you know

I returned home

To find my parents impoverished and in poor health

Fosca's health failed

A woman's like a flower

She began to suffer her first convulsions

My aunt and uncle nursed her as best they could

A flower's only purpose is to please

I spent months looking for the man

Beauty is power

By then, of course, he'd vanished

Longing a disease

To this day, I dream of finding him and realizing my revenge

My father died not long thereafter

How could I be so blind?

I couldn't face the world

It took her many months to leave her bed (It took me months to leave my bed)

When her mother died, she had nothing really

No one

And so I went to stay with my cousin

Who in some way felt responsible for my circumstances

Why could I not admit the truth?

How could I not have seen through the veneer?

I told myself

"As long as she seems happy, why interfere?"

Or was I just relieved to know

That somebody would want her for a wife?

In war you know the enemy

Not always so in life

The enemy was love -

Selfishness really, but love

All of us blinded by love

That makes everything seem possible

You have to pay a consequence

For things that you've denied

This is the thorn in my side

As long as you're a man

You're what the world will make of you

Whereas if you're a woman

You're only what it sees

A woman is a flower whose purpose is to please

Beauty is power, longing a disease