In the meantime, my former ego went and lived in Madrid, Tokyo, Brescia and finally Milan, doing all kinds of work. With a degree in Philosophy, obtained with a thesis about Schopenhauer, that Carmen Covito was a teacher in junior high, a copywriter for advertising, a storywriter for comics, a free-lance cultural journalist, a publishing editor specialized in inside jacket blurbs. Having practised marriage with a Japanese scholar for eighteen years, she was also involved in cultural exchanges between Italy and Japan. My current ego, apart from the craft of writing, learned the art of literary translation from Aldo Busi.