We have a saying where I come from: Ko pjeva zlo ne misli. He who sings means well.
We have another saying: Vuk dlaku mijenja ali ?ud ne. The wolf's pelt changes, but his nature stays the same.
Proverbs like these have been passed on for generations in order to instruct people about the intricacies of human nature: song is good, wolf is bad.
Wolf is always bad, regardless of the colour of his pelt, and, if the proverb is taken to its logical conclusion, wolf neither sings nor harbours good intentions.
Violin tucked under his furry chin
And yet, there is a yellow-eyed wolf who makes the rounds of the Montreal Metro, violin in hand, offering the comfort of music to the crowds of humans, mingling the melodies of Bach and Chopin with the roar of the passing trains and the familiar voice of Michele Deslauriers: Attention a tous les passagers. Il y a un ralentissement de service sur la ligne (and you pause, frozen in suspense, hoping not to learn, as you invariably will, that it is, indeed, your line. Again.)
He is a white wolf, finely dressed in a green corduroy jacket and burgundy trousers, as if he has just stepped off a classical stage.
His large eyes gleam with sincerity and a touch of sadness. In the wolf's hands, the violin sobs and sighs and laughs and sings.
Passersby stop to listen ? mesmerized, it seems, as much by the music as by the surreal spectacle: a wolf in shiny Oxford shoes, with a violin tucked under his furry chin!
As it happens, he is a resident of Montreal, not an animal spirit, and like many of the city's inhabitants, he comes from a place far away. He has been playing the violin since he was seven years old.
In his homeland, the instrument alleviated years of compulsory military service.
As he explains over spinach soup and a slice of quiche, he successfully auditioned for the army orchestra and served his time by playing classical music for presidents, ministers and visiting foreign dignitaries. Nor is he a stranger to concert halls.
The idea to play in the Metro came to him from a 1994 film, Le joueur de violon, in which a successful concert musician abandons the stage and the spotlight to play, instead, for the people in the Paris Metro.
For our wolf violinist, who wishes to remain anonymous, this is a way of sharing beauty with and expressing gratitude to his adoptive town.