Flashback

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