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…uld love it willingly, Goddess and Immortal. Gold? I hate is as you hate God. Ah, what then do you love, strange man? I love the clouds . . . . the clouds that float . . . down there . . . the marvellous clouds.
… TRUE ONE? XXXIX. THOROUGHBRED XL. THE MIRROR XLI. THE HARBOUR XLII. PORTRAITS OF MISTRESSES XLIII. THE POLITE GUNNER XLIV. THE SOUP AND CLOUDS XLV. THE CEMETERY AND THE SHOOTING GALLERY XLVI. A LOST HALO XLVII. MISS BISTOURI XLVIII. Anywhere, ANYWHERE OUT OF THE World! XLIX. DEATH TO THE Poor! L. IN PRAISE OF GOOD DOGS EPILOGUE
XLIV THE SOUP AND THE CLOUDS MY small beloved mad girl had invited me to dinner, and through the open window of the dining-room I contemplated the moving archi- tecture that God has made of vapour, the mar- vellous buildings of the impalpable, and I said to myself in my contemplation, All these phantasmagoria are almost as beautiful as the eyes of my beautiful, wild girl with the green eyes. And then, suddenly, I received a violent blow in the back, and I heard a raucous, charming voice, an hysterical voice, a voice made hoarse by brandy, the…
by the hurtling clouds. Not the peaceful and discreet moon that visits the slumber of chaste men, but the moon, torn from heaven, con- quered, yet in revolt, that Thessalian witches force by their strong spell to dance on the af- frighted grass. Beneath her narrow brow dwell tenacious will and lust of prey; and yet on this disquiet- ing countenance, where the mobile nostrils sniff up the unknown and the impossible, there breaks forth with ineffable grace the laughter of a great mouth red and white and delicious; as who should dream of the mirac…
…ARBOUR is a charming resting-place for a soul weary of the struggles of life. The ampli- tude of the sky, the mobile architecture of the clouds, the changing hues of the sea, the spar- kling of the lighthouses, are a prism, marvel- lously fitted to amuse the eyes without ever tiring them. The slender shapes of the ships with their complicated rigging on which the swell imprints its harmonious oscillations, serve to banquet the pleasure of rhythm and beauty in the soul. And above all, there is a sort of mysterious and aristocratic pleasure for h…
…lue by the vigour of their colour, and that the heat, making their perfumes visible, sends them up before the altar of the day-star like clouds. Nevertheless, in all this enjoyment I beheld one suffering. At the fool of a colossal Venus, one of those artificial madmen, one of those professional buffoons whose duty it is to make kings laugh when remorse or weariness sits heavy upon them, muffled in a startling and ridiculous cos- tume, with the horns and bells of a fools cap,
…n at the window while thou dost sleep in they cra- dle, and said to herself, This child pleases me. Softly she descended her ladder of clouds and passed noiselessly through the window- panes. Then she stretched herself upon thee with the supple tenderness of a mother, and laid her colours on thy face. From that thine eyes are turned green, and thy cheeks are marvellous pale. It is through looking at this celestial visitant that thine eyes are grown so strangely large, and she has so tenderly fas- tened on thy throat that thou hast therefore k…
…on the tender and uncertain colours of the twilight. Nevertheless, from the level of the moun- tain to my balcony across the transparent clouds of even there comes a great howl, com- posed of many discordant cries, which space transforms into a mournful harmony like that of a rising tide or of a tempest which awakes. Who are these unfortunate ones to whom evening brings no calm, and who, like the owls, take the coming of the night for the sig- nal of their sabbath? This sinister ululation comes to us from the black asylum perched upon the mount…
…ts flitted with a lightness like that of the atmosphere; vulgar passions, such as hate and profane love, seemed to me as far away as the clouds which defiled at the bottom of the abyss under my feet. My soul seemed to me as vast and as pure as the cupula of the sky which covered me. The memory of earthly things reached my heart weakened and diminished, like the sound of the bells of the unseen cattle which were feeding far, very far, on the slope of the oppo- site mountain. Upon the small unstirred lake, black by reason of its immense depth, th…
…SOUL IN a fair garden, where the rays of the au- tumnal sun seemed to linger in enjoyment, be- neath a sky already greenish where golden clouds floated like travelling continents, four lovely children, boys, tired without a doubt of playing, were talking among themselves. One of them said: Yesterday Papa took me to the theatre. There are big, sad palaces, beyond which one sees the sea and the sky, and in them there are men and women very serious and very sad too; but much more beautiful and better dressed than the people we see about, and they…
me;the Water, the Clouds, Silence, Night; the vast green Sea, the shapeless water that hath many shapes; the place where thou art not, the lover that thou knowest not, mon- strous flowers and delirious perfumes, cats that swoon at music and groan as women do with harsh, soft voice. And thou shalt be loved of my lovers, courted by my courtiers. Thou shalt be the queen of those men whose eyes are green and whose throats I have clutched in my nocturnal caresses: of those who love the sea, the vast, tumultuous sea, the shapeless water that hath m…
…all quarrels were forgotten, all wrongs pardoned. The duels which had been arranged were erased from memory, and ill-will fled away like clouds of smoke. I alone was sad, inconceivably sad. Like a priest from whom one should ravish his Divin- ity, I could not without heart-breaking bitter- ness tear myself from this sea, so monstrously seductive, from this sea so infinitely varied in its terrifying simplicity; this sea which seems to contain in itself and to represent by its play, its enticements, its rages and its smiles, the dispositions, the…
…air, enkindled as it were a sulphurous aureole of passion. It was easy to guess that he would not waste his life looking for Divinity in clouds, and that he would find it often enough elsewhere. Finally the fourth said, You know that I hardly ever play in the house, they never take me to the theatre; my governor is too stingy. God takes no trouble over me and my weari- ness, and I have not a pretty nurse to cuddle me. It has often seemed to me that my pleas- ure would be in going always straight in front of me without knowing where, without an…
…oing to tell you something happened to me which never happened to you, and which is a little more interesting than your theatre and your clouds. Some days ago Fa- ther and Mother took me away with them, and as in the inn where we stopped there were not enough beds for us all, it was decided that I should sleep in the same bed as my nurse. He drew his comrades nearer to him, and low- ered his voice. Oh, you do not know what a strange feeling it gives, not to be alone in bed, but with ones nurse in the shadows. As I was not asleep, I amused my…