If you go by, whistling, your nose tilted up behind the whistle, you will know it from below: windowsills, flapping curtains, fountains. If you walk, head bent, your nails dug into your palms, your gaze will be held to the ground, in the gutters, the manhole covers, the fish scales, the wastepaper.
Note
Zemrude has no single shape. Whoever crosses it whistling, nose lifted behind the whistle, knows it by its windowsills, its flapping curtains, its fountains; whoever walks with head bowed, nails dug into their palms, knows it by its manhole covers, the fish scales in the puddles, the scraps of wasted paper. Calvino does not say which gaze is truer: both are Zemrude, and the city takes the shape of the mood of whoever walks through it.
Here that choice has become a single measure, taken from where you carry your eyes. Lift your gaze and the shutters fly open, curtains billow out of the windows, flower boxes bloom with saffron, a fountain throws its thread of water, swallows circle high and the walls warm to a fonder colour. Lower it, and the shutters close, the flowers withdraw, the walls wash grey as bare lime, and at your feet the gutter reappears, the manholes, the scraps of paper, the puddles, the fish scales left by the morning market.
Nothing truly vanishes: everything dissolves into its other state, continuously, as you drag your gaze up or down. Touch a window, and its shutters fling open at once, the curtain flying out whatever your mood; touch the street, and a gust sends the papers skittering and scatters the swallows. Zemrude is not two cities but one, remade each time by how you carry your eyes.
Quotations are brief excerpts for the purpose of commentary. The full text is available in published editions. The Cities of Ottavia, Valdrada & the soundtrack are inspired by "Monument Valley" from ustwo games.