The dead don’t want revenge, it’s only the living who want it

The dead don’t want revenge, it’s only the living who want it is an Italian saying that Fabrizio Collini recalls after new evidence interrupts the trial. Spoken in the emptied courtroom, it turns his private reflection in prison into a brief exchange with Caspar Leinen about revenge, the dead, and whether they have won.

Occurrence

After the presiding judge adjourns the proceedings to consider how the schedule should continue, the courtroom slowly empties. Leinen remains seated, exhausted; Collini keeps silent for a long time, and Leinen does not want to break that silence. When Collini finally speaks, he says he is not good with words and does not think they have won. He recalls that at home in Italy people say, “the dead don’t want revenge, it’s only the living who want it,” adding that he spends all day in his cell thinking about it.

Meaning in the Exchange

The saying is presented as something Collini has heard at home, not as a maxim he claims to have invented. In the context of his uncertainty about the trial’s outcome, it shifts attention from whether the living can call the proceedings a victory to what the dead themselves might want. Collini’s admission that he keeps thinking about the saying makes it a continuing question for him, not a settled conclusion.

Leinen calls it a wise saying. Collini repeats that judgment, then stands and shakes hands with him. The exchange does not settle whether they have won; instead, the proverb gives their silence a form, and the handshake closes their conversation without resolving its doubt.