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Page 1 of 11928 · PDF PAGE 11
THE STRANGER WHOM do you love best, man of enigmas? Tell us:Your father, your mother, your sister, or your brother? I have neither father, nor mother, nor sister, nor brother. Your friends? There you employ a word whose sense I have never understood. Your country? I do not know its latitude. Beauty? I would 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.
1928 · PDF PAGE 55
there was not, to tell the truth, any longer the bone of contention. The piece of bread had disappeared, and was scattered in crumbs like the grains of sand with which it was mingled. This sight hard darkened the landscape for me, and the calm joy, in which my soul danced before it saw these miniatures of men, had vanished utterly. On that account I remained sad for a long while, saying to myself over and over again, There is then a sublime country where bread is called cake, and is so rare a delicacy that it may beget war between broth- ers.
1928 · PDF PAGE 92
were too fascinated to express anything less than a deep, dull joy. Our song-makers tell us that pleasure makes the soul kind, and softens the heart; the song was right that evening as far as I was concerned; not only was I made tender by this family of eyes, but I felt a little ashamed of our bottles and glasses, that were greater than our thirst. I turned my looks to yours, dear love, to read my thought therein. I plunged into your eyes, so beautiful and so strangely sweet; into your green eyes, indwelt by caprice, and in- spired by the moon;…
1928 · PDF PAGE 131
…face, her clothing, her gesture, almost nothing, I have re-constructed the story of this woman;or rather, her legend. And some- times I tell it to myself, and weep. If it had been a poor old man, I could have reconstructed his history just as easily. And I lie down to sleep, proud of having lived and suffered in others than myself. Perhaps you will say to me, Are you sure that your fairy tale is true?
1928 · PDF PAGE 64
XIX THE POOR MANS TOY I SHOULD like to tell you of an innocent amusement. There are so few amusements that are not guilty ones! When you go out in the morning with the intention of lounging in the streets, fill your pockets with halfpenny toys, such as the flat Punch, moved by a single thread; blacksmiths beating the anvil; the horseman and his steed whose tail is a whistle. And, 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.…
1928 · PDF PAGE 56
XVI THE CLOCK THE Chinese can tell the time by looking in the eyes of a cat. One day a missionary, while walking in the suburbs of Nankin, found that he had forgotten his watch, and asked a little boy what the time was. The gutter-snipe of the Flowery Kingdom hesitated at first, then, recollecting himself, he replied, I will find out for you. A minute later he reappeared, holding in his arms a fine big cat, and looking, as the saying is, in the white of its eyes, he unhesitatingly affirmed, It is just a little before noon. This turned out t…
1928 · PDF PAGE 29
…d discordant cry came up to me through the heavy and con- taminated atmosphere of Paris. It would be ut- terly impossible for me ever to tell you why I was suddenly seized with a hatred, as sudden as it was despotic, against the poor man.
1928 · PDF PAGE 62
…ns escapes a strange perfumea Come-back-to- me from Sumatrawhich is as it were the soul of the place. A true country of Cockaigne, I tell you, where all is rich, clean, glittering like a beauti- ful conception, like magnificent plate, like splendid gold-work, like a mosaic of jewels. All the treasures of the world flow to it as in the house of a man who has well toiled and has deserved well of the whole world. Strange country, superior to all others, as Art is to Na- ture, where nature is re-formed by dream, where she is corrected, beautifi…
1928 · PDF PAGE 69
…man by trade, who could not in any manner assist the development of the gifts, or supply the needs of his unlucky offspring. I forgot to tell you that the distribution in these solemn cases is without appeal, and that no one may refuse a gift. All the Fairies rose, thinking that their spell of hard labour was at an end, for there re- mained no more presents, no more bounties to throw among all this human trash, when a brave fellow, a poor little tradesman I think, rose, and catching her by her robe of many- coloured smoke the Fairy who was near…
1928 · PDF PAGE 105
…he was; nevertheless, gambling, that super-human pleasure, had in- terrupted at different intervals our frequent li- bations, and I must tell you that I played and lost my soul in a rubber with heroic careless- ness and lightness. The soul is so impalpable a thing, so often useless, and sometimes so troublesome, that at this loss I experienced lit-
1928 · PDF PAGE 162
No, no, I tell you,unless it were to cut off your head. Dirty damned a of dirty s ! Wait, said she, you shall see. And she pulled a bundle of papers from a wardrobe. It was nothing less than a collection of portraits of all the illustrious doctors of the period, litho- graphed by Maurin, just as you may have seen them exposed for sale upon the Quai Voltaire. Hullo, do you recognize this one? Yes, it is X; the name is on the bottom of the photograph anyhow, but I know him personally. I was sure of it. See, there is Z, the ma…
1928 · PDF PAGE 113
his neck I must needs seek out the cord be- tween the two ridges of the cut. I forgot to tell you that I had called loudly for help, but all my neighbours had refused to come; faithful so far to the customs of civilized man, who is never willing, I know not why, to mix himself up in the business of a suicide. At last a doctor turned dup who said that the child had been dead for several hours. When later on we had to unclothe him for burial the de- gree of rigor mortis was such that, despairing of bending the limbs, we were obliged to tear and c…
1928 · PDF PAGE 121
both at once, and I think one would become quite mad if one listened too long. One of them, drawing his bow across his violin, seemed to tell the story of some grievance, and the other, making his little hammer dance upon the strings of a little piano that was hung to his neck by a strap, seemed to be laughing at his neighbors complaint, while the third from time to time clashed his cymbals with an extraordinary violence. They were so pleased with themselves that they kept on playing their wild mens music even after the crowd had dispersed; f…
1928 · PDF PAGE 120
…ew countries. I am never comfort- able anywhere, and I always believe that I should be better anywhere else but where I am. Well, let me tell you! I saw at the last Fair in the next village three men, who live as I should like to live. You never noticed them; they were tall, almost black, and very proud, although in rags, with the air of having need of nobody. Their large dark eyes became quite brilliant while they made music; a music so surprising, so exciting, that it makes one want first to dance and then to weep and then to do
1928 · PDF PAGE 111
…g, and the life which he led in my house seemed to him heaven compared to that which he had undergone in the paternal garret. But I must tell you that the little chap sometimes aston- ished me by strange attacks of precocious sad-
1928 · PDF PAGE 119
and vitality. I am going 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 no…