One, No One & 100,000: a fresh, modern translation by Kevan Houser

by Luigi Pirandello

He was the one who existed for others, the one I could never meet, the one others saw living, but was invisible to me. I wanted to see and know him too, the way others saw and knew him.

100,000

one and no one.

That has to be my top priority: not see me in me, but to be seen by me,

Since I couldn’t see myself living, I remained a stranger to myself.

Alas, dear friend, no matter how hard you try, you’ll always see me through the lens of your reality, even honestly believing it’s the same as my reality—and it may be. I’m not going to say it isn’t, because maybe it is, but it’s a “my reality” that I don’t know and will never be able to know. Only you, seeing me from the outside, will truly know it, so “my reality” for you isn’t “my reality” for me.