Invisible Cities

Kublai Khan asks Marco Polo if he’s ever seen a city like Kin-sai, his latest conquest. There are bridges over canals, palaces with doorsteps in the water, and boats unloading vegetables. Marco says that he never imagined a city like this one could exist. That evening, Marco describes cities. Normally Kublai goes to bed when he begins yawning, but tonight, he insists on staying up. At dawn, Marco insists that he’s described every city he knows. Kublai points out that Marco never speaks of Venice. With a smile, Marco asks what city Kublai thinks Marco’s been talking about, as he describes Venice every time he describes another city. For him, Venice is implicit. Kublai says that Marco should begin his stories with his departure from Venice. Marco says that once memories become words, they disappear. He suggests that in describing other cities, he’s already lost Venice.

Trading Cities. 5. In Esmeralda, streets and canals intersect. The shortest distance anywhere in Esmeralda is a zigzag, not a straight line, and travelers have infinite options for how to get somewhere. Esmeralda’s inhabitants are never bored, especially since they have to climb stairs up and down. Calm lives have no repetition, while adventurous lives face no restrictions. Cats, thieves, and illicit lovers in Esmeralda move along gutters and balconies, while below, rats run with smugglers through manholes and ditches. A map of Esmeralda should include all of these routes. More difficult, however, is to record the routes of the swallows that swoop overhead and dominate the city.

Cities and Eyes. 4. When a traveler arrives in Phyllis, they gleefully look at bridges over canals and a variety of different windows. The city offers surprises at every turn, and travelers believe that the person who looks at Phyllis daily and can constantly discover new mysteries must be happy. Travelers leave with regret, but some have to stay. For them, the city begins to fade and they stop noticing the windows. They follow zigzag lines and the streets. Phyllis becomes the shortest way to get somewhere, and people follow buried memories rather than what they see. Many eyes scan the skyline, but they may as well be looking at a blank page. Many cities are like Phyllis and are invisible, except when someone catches them by surprise.

Cities and Names. 3. Marco Polo explains that, for a long time, Pyrrha existed in his mind as a fortified city on a bay with high windows, a deep central square, and a well in the middle. Even though he’d never actually seen Pyrrha, it existed in his mind like other cities he’s never visited. When he eventually visited, everything he’d imagined disappeared and Pyrrha became what it is. At that point, he thought that he’d always known that one can’t see the sea in Pyrrha, and that the houses are low and separated by open lots filled with sawmills. Now, when he thinks of Pyrrha, he thinks of the city he saw, but his mind still holds many cities he’s never seen and never will see. The city above the bay is still in his mind, but he can’t call it by name or remember how he ever called it Pyrrha.

Cities and the Dead. 2. The city of Adelma is the farthest Marco Polo has been. He landed there at dusk and noticed that the sailor who tied his boat looked like a man he fought with and who died. An old man looked like a long-dead fisherman whom Marco remembered from childhood, while a fever victim on the ground reminded Marco of his dying father. Marco reasoned that if Adelma is a dream where he encounters the dead, the dream scares him. If Adelma is real, the resemblances will disappear. He reasoned that at some point, the number of people he knows who are dead will outnumber the number living. He began to wonder if he looked dead to other people, too. Marco wondered if Adelma is where people arrive dying to find people already dead. He reasoned that he was dead too and realized “the beyond is not happy.”

Cities and the Sky. 1. Eudoxia spreads upwards and down in confusing alleys, dead ends, and hovels. There’s a carpet there that allows people to see Eudoxia’s true form. At first, the carpet seems to have nothing to do with the city. When a person studies it, however, they decide that they can find any spot in the city on the carpet. It’s easy to get lost in Eudoxia, but with the carpet, people can find their way. Everyone compares it with their own version of the city, hoping to find an answer. Once, they questioned an oracle, and the oracle said that one object—Eudoxia or the carpet—is a map of the universe; the other, a human approximation. People believed that the carpet was divine for a long time, but it’s also possible to argue that Eudoxia, which is crooked and failing, is the map of the universe.

Kublai Khan declares that Marco Polo’s journey is truly one through memory, and that he’s trying to escape nostalgia. Kublai spent the last hour toying with questions about the past and the future, and finally, he demands to know if Marco is smuggling moods or states of grace. It’s possible that this exchange was imagined, however, as both men sit and smoke their pipes. Marco watches his pipe smoke and thinks of misty skies over seas and mountains that, when they disappear, reveal cities. Or, he sees heavy smoke that hangs over metropolises haunted by death.