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Page 1 of 21928 · PDF PAGE 78
XXII THE TWILIGHT OF EVEN THE day falls; a great relief comes over the poor minds that are wearied with the days toil, and their thoughts now take 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 ow…
1928 · PDF PAGE 2
at the sign of the black manikin MADE AND PRINTED PARTLY IN GREAT BRITAIN, PARTLY IN FRANCE
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VI EVERYONE HAS HIS CHIMERA BENEATH the great gray sky, in a vast and dusty plain that hath no road nor grass, with- out one thistle, without one nettle, I met sev- eral men walking, bowed over. Each of them bore upon his back an enor- mous chimera, as heavy as a sack of corn or coal, or the heavy marching of a Roman infan- tryman. But the monstrous brute was not a dead weight. On the contrary, it wrapped round and oppressed the man with its powerful and elas- tic muscles. It clutched with its two great claws at the breast of its mount, and its…
1928 · PDF PAGE 75
…their trembling hands, and then there were old mothers carrying abortions slung at their wasted breasts, and many another was there. The great Satan knocked with his fist on his enormous belly, whence came a long, resound- ing clangour of metal, which ended in a vague groan as of many human voices, and he laughed, showing shamelessly his decayed teeth in an enormous and imbecile guffaw, just as do certain men in every country when they have dined too well. And he said to me: I can give thee that which obtains all that which is worth all, that …
1928 · PDF PAGE 39
a king to play with, one might compare you with great accuracy to a young she-frog invok- ing the Ideal. If you despise King Log (as I am at present, you know well) beware of King Stork, who will crunch you and swallow you and kill at his pleasure! Poet as I am, I am not the dupe that you would like to think; and if you weary me too often with your affected complainings I will treat you like a wild woman of the woods or throw you out of the window like an empty bottle.
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wine, and a great bed with linen, a little coarse, but clean; what better is there in the world? But returning alone to his house at that hour when the advice of wisdom is no longer suffocated by the roar of the exterior world, he said to himself: I have had to-day in dream three dwelling-places, which have given me one as much pleasure as the other; why inflict the trouble of travelling upon my body since my soul does it so easily, and why carry out plans, since planning is itself a sufficient pleas- ure?
1928 · PDF PAGE 109
Save for the fear of making a fool of myself before so great an assembly, I would gladly have fallen at the feet of this generous game- ster to thank him for his unheard-of munifi- cence; but, little by little, after I had left him, incurable mistrust entered again into my bosom; I no longer dared to believe in such prodigious happiness, and, as I lay down to sleep, kneeling once more in prayer (a tag of imbecile custom!) I repeated, half asleep; Oh God. Oh Lord my God, do Thou grant that the devil keep his word to me!
1928 · PDF PAGE 184
…d of my grief unsung, I go not down to weep against your power, But like an old tramp in rotting dung Rather would I get drunk with this great whore Whose rank infernal charm preserves me young. And if in sheets obscure she still must snore, A bleary bitch, or like a young girl go Tripping in veils of evening, gold once more, I love you, o my city, in your woe, Sad capital, whose whores and bandits pluck Joys that your blind philistines never know. RALPH CHEEVER DUNNING.
1928 · PDF PAGE 26
…wag- ging his tail, which is, I suppose, for these poor creatures the sign which corresponds to smiles and laughter, comes near and with great curi- osity rests his nose upon the unstoppered flask; then, suddenly recoiling in fright, he barks at me reproachfully. Ah, wretched dog, if I had offered you a parcel of ordure you would have sniffed it with delight and very likely eaten it up! Unworthy companion of this sad life of mine, how you re- semble the public, to whom one must never present the delicate perfumes which only ex- asperate it, but…
1928 · PDF PAGE 134
…ountenance, 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 miracle of a su- perb flower blossoming on volcanic soil. There are women who fill one with desire to conquer them and to enjoy them, but she makes me wish to die by inches underneath her eyes.
1928 · PDF PAGE 51
… the sticking point; I resolved, as I passed, to lay some money on one of the boards, hoping that he would divine my inten- tion, when a great eddy of people, caused by I know not what disturbance, bore me far away from him. And, on my homeward round, obsessed by this sight, I sought to analyse my sudden sad- ness; and I said to myself: I have just seen the image of the old man of letters who has survived the generation which he so brilliantly amused; of the old poet, without friends, with- out family, without children, degraded by his misery a…
1928 · PDF PAGE 13
…tain delicious feelings whose vagueness does not prevent them from being intense, and no point is sharper than that of the Infinite. How great is the delight of drowning ones look in the vastness of sky and sea; solitude, silence, incomparable chastity of the blue; one little sail shuddering on the horizon is like a re- flection of my irremediable existence; the me- lodious monotony of the swell; all these things think by virtue of me, or I think by virtue of them (for in the vastness of the reverie the Ego is soon lost)they think, I say, but…
1928 · PDF PAGE 152
…be- loved, delicious, execrable wife, to the myste- rious woman to whom he owes so many pleas- ures, so many sorrows, and perhaps also a great part of his genius. Several balls struck far from the bulls-eye; one of them even buried itself in the ceiling. And as the charming creature laughed wildly, in mockery of her husbands bad shooting, he turned sharply towards her and said, You see that doll down there on the right with its nose in the air and so haughty an expression? Well, my dear angel, I imagine to myself that it is you, and he shu…
1928 · PDF PAGE 64
…as you walk by the inns below the trees, make presents of them to poor stranger children that you may meet. You will see their eyes grow great out of all knowl- edge. At first they will not dare to accept; it will seem too good to be true; then their hands will fasten lively on the present, and they will dash off as cats do, who go far away to eat the morsel you have given them, having learned to distrust man. On a road, behind the pale of a large gar- den, at the end of which shone the whiteness of a pretty house bathing in the sun, was a
1928 · PDF PAGE 158
…s matter for surprise in this. My dear boy, you know how horses and carriages frighten me; just now, as I was crossing the street in a great hurry, tip-toeing in the mud, across the moving chaos where Death arrives at a gallop from every side at once, my halo, in the course of a sharp move- ment, slipped from my hand into the mire of the street. I had not the courage to pick it up. I thought it less unpleasant to lose my decora- tions than to break my bones. And then I said to myselfEvery cloud has a silver lining; I shall now be able to wa…
1928 · PDF PAGE 58
…e wings of perfume like that of other men upon the wings of music. Thy hair contains a world of dream, full of sails and masts; it holds great seas whose winds bear me to charming climates, where space is bluer and deeper, where the atmos- phere is scented with fruit, with leaves, and with the skin of man. In the ocean of thy man I see a harbour, bust as an ant-heap with melancholy songs, with vigorous men of every nation, and with ships of every style, whose fine and compli- cated architecture is silhouetted on a vast sky where stalks forth th…
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…rossed by a thousand carriages, spar- kling with joys and sweetmeats, swarming with greeds and with despairs; the official delirium of a great city in conspiracy to disturb the brain of even the strongest solitary. In the midst of this topsy-turvyness and hubbub an ass was trotting smartly, tormented by a knave with a whip. As the ass was about to turn the corner of a pavement, a fine gentleman gloved and groomed, in a glossy suit, uncomfortably fash- ionable, bowed ceremoniously before the hum- ble animal, and said, taking off his hat, A happ…
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XV THE CAKE I WAS travelling. The landscape which spread around me was irresistibly great and noble. Something of it doubtless passed at that moment within my soul. My thoughts 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…
1928 · PDF PAGE 80
…are for me the signal of an internal festival, you are deliverance from anguish. In the solitude of plains, in the stony labyrinths of a great city, twinkling of stars or outbursting of lamps, you are the fire-work of the Goddess Liberty. Twilight, how sweet thou art and tender! The rosy lights which linger still on the horizon like the death-spasm of Day trampled by the victorious car of Night; the torch-like flames which stain with their dull red the expiring glo- ries of the setting sun; the heavy curtains which some invisible hand draws fro…
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…k what a subtle form of envy is his; he knows that I disdain his pleasures, and he wishes to sneak into mine, the ugly spoilsport! This great misfortune of not being able to be alone, says somewhere La Bruyère, as if to shame those who run to forget themselves in the crowd, fearing doubtless that they will be unable to tolerate their own company. Nearly all our misfortunes come to us from our not having the sense to remain in our chamber, says another wise man, Pascal, I think; thus summoning back into the cell of meditation all these wro…