II
He has wonderful hands — not beautiful, but knotted with swollen veins,
and yet full
of a singular expressiveness and the power of creativeness. Probably
Leonardo da Vinci had hands like that. With such hands one can do
anything. Sometimes, when talking, he will move his fingers, gradually
close them into a fist, and then, suddenly opening them, utter a good,
full-weight word. He is like a god, not a Sabaoth or Olympian, but the
kind of Russian god who "sits on a maple throne under a golden lime
tree," not very majestic, but perhaps more cunning than all the other
gods.
