Page 17

By Jack Joseph Smith

I am wandering by footstep sightently through Italy The Facists are gone here as they were I am Albanian and not Christian or Maslim As before I seek truth and education I am tough enough to be frightened For I am aware of my fighting skills And yes, my fighting skills are a gun For I intend on being a mathematician The gypsy tribes they stol me They did that with my Grandfather too I am young and I am an Ashiku Beauty Listen to my brain For I am all things to you The Karma of time is shorter now So it makes life strange Again the horror is on Afore the brother of my father Saved my father in taking another life One life for my grand father to flee

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

This page speaks in the voice of an Albanian self formed by exile, violence, intellect, beauty, and inherited family danger.

The speaker is young, armed, and fiercely self-defining. Mathematics, beauty, identity, and family trauma all sit in the same breath, with the final handwritten `grand father` insertion extending the inherited danger back another generation.

Claude

The book hands the voice to a young Albanian wanderer: 'I am wandering by footstep sightently through Italy,' 'I am Albanian and not Christian or Maslim.' He seeks 'truth and education,' is 'tough enough to be frightened,' and admits 'my fighting skills are a gun' because 'I intend on being a mathematician.' Stolen by 'gypsy tribes' as his grandfather was, he calls himself 'an Ashiku' and commands 'Listen to my brain.' The family's survival is a blood ledger: 'the brother of my father / Saved my father in taking another life,' 'One life for my grand father to flee.'