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Page 1 of 11928 · PDF PAGE 78
…HE 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 owls, ta…
1928 · PDF PAGE 167
… Europe wedded to the beauty of the tropics. Not a word. Can my soul be dead? Are you then come to such a point of ener- vation that you take pleasure only in your un- happiness? If so, let us away to those coun- tries that are the emblem of death. I have it, poor soul, we will pack for Tornéo. Let us go farther still, to the far end of the Baltic, still farther from life, if it is possible. Let us set up our camp at the Pole! There the sun strikes the earth obliquely, and the slow alternation of light and night suppresses variety and in- creas…
1928 · PDF PAGE 113
…m for burial the de- gree of rigor mortis was such that, despairing of bending the limbs, we were obliged to tear and cut the clothes to take them off him. The Commissary of Police, to whom natu- rally I had to report the incident, looked at me asquint, and said, This matter needs clearing up, moved doubtless by an inveterate desire and professional habit to frighten at any cost the innocent as the guilty. There remained one supreme task to ac- complish, whose mere thought caused me dreadful anguish; I must inform his parents. My feet refused…
1928 · PDF PAGE 172
… you the theory which I have had the pain of trying upon your back! He swore emphatically that he had under- stood my theory, and would take my advice.
1928 · PDF PAGE 27
…ur without daring to go home; another keeps a letter for a fortnight without unsealing it, or only makes up his mind after six months to take some step which was nec- essary a year before: such feel themselves sometimes hurried brusquely into action by an irresistible force, like the arrow from a bow. The moralist and the doctor, who set up to know everything, cannot explain whence comes so suddenly so mad an energy to flood these lazy and self-indulgent souls, and how, incapable as they are of accomplishing the most simple and necessary things…
1928 · PDF PAGE 140
…away. Verily, she is ugly! She is an ant, a spider, if you will; even a skeleton:but also she is a love-draught, a magistry, a sorcery! Take her all in all, she is exquisite. Time has not been able to destroy the sparkling rhythm of her walk, or the indestructible elegance of her ap- parel. Love has not altered the suavity of her childs breath; Time has torn no hair from her wild flowing mane, whence is exhaled in tawny perfume all the devil of South French vitality Nîmes, Aix, Arles, Avignon, Narbonne, Tou- louse, towns amorous, charming, b…
1928 · PDF PAGE 60
…fogs of our northern marches, which one may call the east of the west, the China of Europe, so much does warm and capricious fancy there take the bit in its teeth; so much has it been patiently and obstinately made il- lustrious by its wise and delicate flora. A true country of Cockaigne, where all is beautiful, rich, quiet, straightforward. Where luxury takes pleasure in admiring itself in the mirror of good order; where life is easy and may be softly breathed; from which disorder, turbulence, and the unforeseen are shut out; where happiness i…
1928 · PDF PAGE 156
…y of death! If you knew how easy the prize was to gain, how easy the mark was to hit, and how all is nothing except death, you would not take so much trouble, O toilsome folk that are alive, and you would trouble less often the slumber of those who long since have hit the mark, the sole true mark of detestable life.
1928 · PDF PAGE 32
…t. At last the tyranny of the human countenance disappears, and I shall not suffer except from myself. At last! it is then allowed me to take mine ease in a bath of shadows. First let me double- lock the door. It seems to me that this turning of the key will intensify my solitude and strengthen the barricades that separate me from the world. Horrible life; horrible town! Let us go over the days work. I saw several men of letters, one of whom asked me if it was possible to go to Russia by land. He doubtless thought Russia was an island. I dispu…
1928 · PDF PAGE 5
TRANSLATORS PREFACE No bolder task can possibly be undertaken than the translation of prose so musical, so subtle, so profound as that of Charles Baude- laire. For this task I have but the one qualifica- tion of a love so overmastering, so absorbing, that in spite of myself it claims for me a broth- erhood with him. Charles Baudelaire is incomparably the most divine, the most spiritually-minded, of all French thinkers. His hunger for the Infinite was so acute and so persistent that nothing earthly could content him even for a moment. He even m…
1928 · PDF PAGE 122
…. By and by they each drank a glass of brandy and went to sleep, their foreheads turned up to the stars. I wanted so much to ask them to take me away with them and teach me to play on their instruments, but I did not dare; no doubt because it is always very difficult to decide to do anything, whatever it is, and also because I was afraid of being caught before getting out- side France. His three comrades showed little interest, which gave me to think This little fellow is al- ready an unintelligible. I looked at him atten- tively; in his eye…
1928 · PDF PAGE 175
…be those who wander solitary in the winding ra- vines of great cities or those who say to the hopeless man with blinking, soulful eyes, Take
1928 · PDF PAGE 115
… to the vulgar. I have kept these letters. And then, of a sudden, light broke in my brain; I understood why the mother was so anxious to take away the cord, and by what commerce she proposed to console herself.
1928 · PDF PAGE 112
…er; his blood-suffused face, and his eyes, wide open, with affrightening fixity, made me think at the first moment that he was alive. To take him down was not so easy a task as you might think; he was already quite stiff, and I had an inexplicable repugnance to let him fall roughly to the ground. I was obliged to hold him up entirely with one arm, and to cut the cord with my free hand; but when that was done, all was not done; the little monster had employed a very thin string, which had cut deeply into his flesh, and now in order to free
1928 · PDF PAGE 120
…s, 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 any person troubling themselves about it, and see- ing always new countries. I am never comfort- able anywhere, and I always believe that I shou…