MAKINGS AND REMAKINGS

by

Fulano Detal

Uno Chiunque

Mene Fregista

Copyright Lösning Bokförlaget S.A. 2011

INTRODUCTION

I had one of the stock literary childhoods: growing up without love I retreated into the world of books, taking out as many as I could from the library every week as soon as I was old enough to get a card. I devoured everything I could find, from footballers’ autobiographies to Persian folk tales, Somerset Maugham to Flaubert, Sartre to Henry Miller, Bible atlases to pornography and Agatha Christie; by the time I was a teenager I could go through two or three entire books a day. On a two-week holiday to the Lake District I spent almost the entire time systematically consuming the contents of the bookshelves in the rented cottage. I was also interested in and good at languages, so writing would have seemed the next logical step. However, I had no desire at all to express myself in words, no matter how many I had unknowingly stored in my brain. I turned to music, precisely because it says nothing in particular, nothing specific. Shortly thereafter I became involved in an anti- intellectual form of psychotherapy and completely stopped reading for at least ten years. In my forties, having nothing better to do, I went to university. I met a few people I liked, and started reading again. About five years ago one of my former lecturers asked me to translate some of her poetry into Spanish. I did not want to do so. I believe that translators should be native speakers of the target language. However, time was short; apparently nobody else was available; so I did my best. I was pleased with the results, as it turned out, and momentum led me to write a few things of my own. I did so for a few months and then the momentum ran out. Later I was asked to translate some chapters from French for a publication. The work led me further than I had ever imagined, and I ended up translating around two thousand pages of the writer in question and the autobiographies of both his parents. But I still didn’t feel like communicating anything of myself verbally. I have never had the classic mental image of an ideal reader – I write for no one, just for amusement, similar to doing crossword puzzles (which I hate). I will probably never write a real book, but I decided to make a random compilation of the odds and ends I have written for one reason or another over the last few years. I like the Greekk etymology of ‘poetry’ – something ‘done’; I wrote these texts and did the translations because I enjoyed doing so. Being a fairly standard model homo sapiens, it would seem logical that if I enjoy writing something there is a good chance somebody else will enjoy reading it. I already find several of them embarrassingly bad, but I let them stand nevertheless because I ‘did’ them, ‘made’ them; they document something, even if only of my lack of talent. My sole pretension is to humbly add my composite drop to the ocean of mediocrity and worse that has engulfed the world.

I thank the writers who agreed to let me reprint their works.

Cover picture a Christmas present from Zefyros Evangelos Fernandes, aged six.

A BAKER’S DOZEN OF MAKINGS FROM THE SECOND OF MARCH 1953+53

The pieces which are not translated are untranslatable, but there is a discount for everything you can’t understand. The price may be calculated according to the following simple formula: if M = the basic price of the book, E = the price you actually pay, C = the total number of pages and X = the number of pages you can’t understand, then:

E = M – (M ÷ C) x X.

If you don’t understand the explanations skip them and go straight to the poems (oops), they should make everything clear.

The complete and unabridged complete works in one utterly convenient volume:

ttHHEE bbAADD ttEEMMPPEERREEDD ppOOEETT four and twenty gems in all major and minor keys by mmEENNEE f f RREEGGIISSTTAA

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EXPLANATIONS

Understanding these ditties requires a certain stock of useless information, which it would be far from reasonable to suppose everywhichone to possess. As mystification is not my aim, to spare all future generations of hackademics the chore of compiling glossaries and trying to figure out what I meant and as, believe it or not, I have even been accused of being obtuse, I find it appropriate to supply the following explanations:

In Chaucer’s day poems were called “makings”. I revert to this because “poetry” has acquired for me over the years a series of unfortunate associations, like “artist”.

I made them because it gave me pleasure; any notion of them being “good” or “bad” is alien to me. Whosoever desires may deny that they are poetry, but it would be difficult to assert that they have not been made. For that you’d need to be a philosopher. I would consent to calling them poetry only according to my new, highly democratic definition of “text that generally doesn’t reach the end of the line” or “ unjustifiable text”. This should please the far more numerous would-bes, if not the poets. A Baker’s dozen means “thirteen”. There were meant to be 13, but I think I was unlucky. Then I added a few more, must be nearly two by now. Five or six texts from my friend and alter ego Uno Chiunque’s The Observer’s Book of Flora and Fauna of the Western Isles are included. Mene Fregista’s The Bad Tempered Poet was never written, but I have no doubt it would have been a landmark in contemporary poetry, and perhaps in our perception of the English language as we know it.

**********

Salvatore Quasimodo was a Nobel prize winning Italian poet, author of the world’s greatest poem, a miracle, a text that becomes more true with every passing day.

Ognuno sta solo sul cuor della terra trafitto da un raggio di sole Ed è subito sera.

It loses all its beauty in translation, but for those who don’t understand Italian, it means:

We are all (everyone is) alone on the bosom (heart) of the earth pierced by a ray of sunlight And suddenly it is evening.

Time: that unique commodity: the more you save, the less you have.

Quasimodo was also the name of the hunchback of Notre-Dame, a character in Victor Hugo’s novel, Notre-Dame de Paris. It is pronounced with the stress on the “i”, not on the “o” like in English.

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A Salvatore QUASIMODO

was the world’s greatest lover passionate, tireless and True, but she preferred tom Cruise HUMAN POLITICS

The slogans are not satisfiably translatable. The Italian expression “fra i piedi” ( literally “between the feet”) means “in the way”, or that one is a nuisance. “Gambe” means “legs” and “fra” means “between”.

Feminist slogan:

Fra le gambe, si! Fra i piedi, no!

Misogynist slogan:

Fra le gambe, si! Fra i piedi, no!

THE THREE TENSES

The past: is a MONSTER that feeds on The future. The present (is its mouth)

QUASIMODO à Victor

He: was the world’s greatest lover; passionate, tireless and true She: preferred TOMCRUISE

DAFFODILS

The English poet William Wordsworth’s most famous poem begins “I wandered lonely as a cloud”. At some point he sees “a host of golden daffodils”.

I wander lonely as a cloud But can a cloud be lonely? Or did he find, this wordsmith, the greatest treasure of them all?

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O TERA 2 (the temple)

O tera (1) came to me in a flash in a Temple garden in Tsuruoka shortly before Laura’s exhibition. It was translated into Japanese and printed on the invitation. Many of the paintings were inspired by South American Indian drawings of sacred animals, including a frog.

My foot stops short of total destruction The world’s smallest frog doesn’t know what she’s missed. Nor that somewhere, in a place she has never heard of she is a symbol of something called “fertility” Away she hops I miss her it was long ago and far from the fertile valley of the Nile. O TERA 1

Une grenouille passe Elle ne sait pas Qu’elle est le symbole de la fertilité Quelque part

Elle saute.

LA SPEME

“ La speme” is an old Italian word for “hope”.

J’espère sans espoir

je désespère désespérément

voilà ma vie.

This doesn’t translate well. Only in French does “hope” sound so hopeless. It means roughly: English: I hope without hope. I despair desperately. That’s it. My life. Español: Espero sin esperanza. Me desespero, desesperadamente. He aquí, mi vida. Italiano: Spero senza speranza. Dispero disperatamente. Ecco, la mia vita. Svenska: Jag hoppas utan hopp. Jag förtvivlar i förtvivlan. Detta är mitt liv. Deutsch. Ich hoffe, ohne Hoffnung.Ich verzweifle, verzweifelt. Sonst nichts.

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Liszt: Bow Bells’ Minimal PEARS

“Minimal pairs” is a linguistic term that refers to words separated by one sound ( not one letter) like “cat”, “hat”; “dog”, log” etc. U.s.w. (und so weiter) is German for etc. K.t.l. ( ké ta lipá) is Greek. A Cockney is someone born within the sound of London’s Bow bells. In Chaucer’s time it meant “an effeminate fellow”, “a wimp”, maybe someone who would write poetry. Anyway, they invented this way of speaking called “rhyming slang”. “Apples and pears” are “stairs”; “trouble and strife” is “wife”; “Brahms and Liszt” is “pissed”. “Rorschach” is the name given to some psychological tests where one has to react to abstract ink markings on a series of ten cards. “Dvorǎk is of course a Czech composer.

Janet knows who she is.

Tahini – Tahiti Compliment – Complement Close (adj.; prep.) Close (verb, transitive) Live – Love Love – Leave Leave - Leaf Leaf – Life Life Strife (trouble and) Etc. Et cætera u.s.w. k.t.l. STAIRS (apples and) Room – Tomb Home – Hole Love – Live Give Sieve Rorschach – Dvorăk – oi va voi!

and Janet says:

“That’s enough now. Don’t get me (Brahms and)

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SUITE IN A DIMINISHED FOR UNACCOMPANIED HUSBAND C. T./ D. O’D. “Vieille photo” is a phrase from Charles Trenet’s beautiful song, “Que reste-t-il de nos amours?” known in English as “I give you love”.

VIEILLE PHOTO?

Trenet a posé la question mais personne n’a répondu: Que reste-t-il, enfin, de nos amours?

Et bien, moi non plus.

UNE AUTRE VIEILLE PHOTO?

Que reste-t-il de nos amours? La même chose qui reste de nous.

UNE TROISIÈME

C’est tout?

QUATRIÈME

Vraiment tout? 5ème

Vraiment?

6

tout?

et 7

!.

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Desde mi carpa en el Polo Norte, Dalla mia tenda al polo nord, penúltima base, una florcita para el penultima base, un fiore per i capelli di pelo de Shulamit.para Scott y los otros, Shulamit per Scott e gli altri, soprattutto sobretodo Oates, y para la muy elusiva Oates, e per la molto elusiva

Si vienes de España Se vieni dalla Spagna por favor per favore tráeme portami por amor per amore una libra de calor una libbra di calore medio litro de mezzo litro di perfume de profumo di naranjo en flor arancio in fiore desde aquí da qui hay sólo Sur c’è solo Sud no hay lugar mejor. non c’è posto migliore.

Prose translations: From my tent at the North Pole, next to last base, a flower for Shulamit’s hair. For Scott and the others, especially Oates, and for the most elusive: If you’re coming back from Spain / please / bring me / out of love / a pound of warmth half a litre of / the scent of / an orange tree in blossom / from here / you can only go south / there’s no better place. De ma tente au Pôle Nord, base pénultime, une fleur pour les cheveux de Shulamit. Pour Scott et les autres, surtout Oates, et pour la très élusive: Si tu viens d’Espagne / s’il te plaît / ramène-moi / par amour / une livre de chaleur / un demi-litre du / parfum d’un / oranger en fleur / d’ici il n’y a que Sud / il n’y a pas d’endroit meilleur

PAVANE POUR UNE PETITE FLEUR AU SHALIMAR Tu me plais, tu sais surtout tes clavicules Mais c’est un amour impossible Toi, t’es jeune t’aimes l’optimisme et surtout le sport Moi, je suis vieux ou presque je suis à jeun d’optimisme et j’aime surtout la mort, alors… A LA POSTE J’avoue Jasmin Je t’aime M’aimes si tu ne Même pas

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THE SWAN for Eva &Lars

Today I saw a dead swan my first.

They can be aggressive I know not this one though

It lies there passive and wan. If I had to compare it

to something it would be to a dead swan I wonder if it had time

to sing its last song What have I ever really known about swans?

A man was recently jailed in Galway for killing and roasting one on the beach

The papers called it “a heinous crime” but Chaucer’s friar liked nothing better

than a fat, roast swan or fried Then they became

PropertyoftheCrownofEngelond and now we’d no more eat them than we would

a dog unless we were very hungry or there were another war.

Perhaps the article was written over a heinous lunch of Peking Beijing Duck

Swans always travel in pairs I’m told This one lies alone beside the lake never no nevernomore to swan.

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There are black swans too I’ve seen them boating on the River Swan

in Perth and on beer-bottlelabels too smaller.

There’s a tune called The Swan by Saint-Saëns

One of those tunes where the cello first ties a string around your heart

and then the bow tries to pull it out Rostropovitch

always did a good job. I wonder if I should bury the swan.

It might start to smell. As I come closer I notice that it isn’t a swan it’s one of those largewhiteplasticbags farmers use to give vitaminsupplements

to their sheep. I’ve asked them why they discard such large plastic bags

in nature apparently they are bio-degradable in only two years

so that explains all. I’m sorry if I’ve misled anyone about the swan.

I was disappointed myself. I’ve never seen a dead swan. ¿I wonder where they go to die?

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WHITEWASHING MY BLANQUEANDO A MI MOTHER MADRE inspired by Eva Bourke’s poem inspirado por Lavando a mi Washing my Mother Madre de Eva Bourke

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LA VIE AQUATIQUE pour Thalès de Milet

Un contretemps an inopportune moment le printemps est épuisé étant le puits well la source étant tarie spring

Le champagne Ô, quel délice A cédé la place au dentifrice toothpaste

Avant qu’une molécule d’oxygène ne fît le choix avec deux d’hydrogène de faire son ménage à trois déjà dans tous les sens le temps volait

Désormais le printemps, c’est vrai

rouge rouge crépuscule twilight bleue libéllule dragonfly

Thales is generally regarded as the first “official” philosopher. He believed everything to be water and, out of love for children, had none.

THE CRUEL SEA is a novel by Nicholas Montserrat. The melancholy of the film version left an indelible impression on me as a child. I always had a vague feeling there was something unjust about the title. Some people have objected that killer whales, minks etc. can be cruel, but I think they are blanking out their awareness of the incredible levels of unspeakable cruelty in which our kind has excelled. There is no comparison. How can we call the sea cruel? Did she ask us to cross her? Did she ask us to steal her wealth? Did she ask us to kill each other? Does the air ask us to breathe? Of all things only we are cruel, and those whom we create in our image.

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BUTTERFLY MARIPOSA to nobody in particular, except Leopardi, a nadie en particular, bueno, a Leopardi, and to Gonzalo and his metronome y a Gonzalo y su metrónomo

My grandmother used to tell me Mi abuela me decía the ticking of the clock que el tic tac del reloj kept her company le tenía compañía in bed en la cama tick tock tic tac

I found it very sad Me parecía muy triste I don’t have a clock but Yo no tengo reloj pero many are the times and more muchas veces y más tick tock tic tac tick tock tic toc my only reason mi único motivo for being alive para seguir viviendo is to keep the fire going es mantener el fuego that keeps me warm que me calienta, a mí and the butterfly that hibernates y a la mariposita que inverna on the ceiling of the bedroom en el techo de la alcoba where I never sleep donde no duermo nunca tick tock tic tac tick tock tic tac tick tock tic tac ab initio ab initio ad infinitum ad infinitum

Giacomo Leopardi (1798 – 1837) was an Italian poet who made Leonard Cohen (1934 -) look like a stand-up comedian (cómico) HAIR TONIC to the pharmaceutical and advertizing industries, the guild of erstwhile apothecaries, and to my Lady J. d’Astonville (her again)

Regain is proven to prevent hair loss in 4 cases out of five

But You will always be the fifth

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To the Rt. Hon. Don van Vliet, supplier of vacuum cleaner in quantity 1 to Aldous Huxley Esq. & to Marinetti. Since deceased.

ZZig

ZZag wanderer cardiac bovine play musette first time note and let it float, float, float a blue billion miles to Venus.

London Bridge, Mojave desert 1976.

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ABSCHIED VON KRETA 97 Chaniatisches Wiegenlied

Blessèd are the sleepy; for they shall soon nod off

F. Nietzsche, in Also sprach Zarathustra

I lived in Crete for nearly a year in 1996/97. It was the worst experience of my life. A Swiss woman drove me to the harbour when I was leaving, that is why these thoughts came to me in German as I lay on deck awaiting departure. It is based on an untranslatable word-play, which however translates well into Swedish.The word-play is that death would be “a consummation devoutly to be wished” if we were able to “experience” or “live” it in some way – enjoy it as a state of complete freedom from life’s anxieties, where nothing “bad” can ever happen again. Later it occurred to me it was a lullaby.(Translators will be condemned to eternal damnation)

Fast Mitternacht Himmel fast schwarz sehr kalt für Ende Mai am Mittelmeer

Ich liege in meinem Schlafsack zusammengerollt und freue mich UNHEIMLICH

warm zu sein.

und es kommt mir vor, daß es sehr schön muß

tot zu sein

wenn man es nur er le ben kön nt e. z z z

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AVSKED FRÅN KRETA 98 Haniatisk vaggvisa

Nästan midnatt Himlen nästan svart mycket kallt för slutet av maj vid medelhavet

Jag ligger ihoprullade i min sovsäck och gläder mig OHYGGLIGT att vara varm

Och det faller mig in att det måste var mycket skönt att vara död om man ba ra kun de upp lev a det. z z z

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APPLE PICKING refers to a sad evening in Eugene, Oregon when I for the first time felt a need to write something vaguely maudlin. I managed to restrain myself for twenty years. The person in question was French. I lived there for two years and was either just coming back from or just going off to pick apples in Washington State. I was playing in an Andean group at the time called “Amankay” and generally wore a white poncho

Ce que j’aime surtout chez les gens c’est tout ce qu’ils ont oublié depuis longtemps

Ou bien, n’ont jamais ni su ni connu.

Que ces lèvres se collaient désormais à ta bouche d’instinct je savais paisible tourment

Du sommet des Andes en poncho blanc je surveillais le monde

tout en me noyant comme d’ailleurs tout le monde dans un réseau fluvial de sang

mourant peu à peu de faim en même temps pour le baiser qui venir ne peut ne pourrais, n’a pas pu et ne pourra

jamais jamais ja mais.

CONFIRMATION (for the divine Ms.d.B.) How are you? You don't want to know. Try me, she said: She didn't want to know.

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MI VECINA

Moniquinha minha vizinha gachupina parlanchina cocinera palabrera Dulcinea d e l a Media Puerta cultiva su huerta viveahora todasuhistoria enbuenahora mediamalamemoria Con sus antebrazos sin par sin par ¡beep beep! she drives her car cuando va a estudiar no sé qué vaina en el VTOS ¡Ay! Moniquinha minha muinto querida y linda vizinha qué linda ¡Ay qué linda que sos!

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PARA SIEMPRE y para Lorna

¿Cómo asimilar lo inaceptable? I n a c e p t a b l e

Dos mundos, herméticos, exclusivos mutuamente, que no se reconocen, ni siquiera de lejos ¿harían un hijo?

Que tendría que vivir para siempre que vivir con las contradicciones de los padres para siempre para siempre

Esa cosa que todos llevamos, se dice, por dentro desde siempre, desde siempre, no siempre llega.

No siempre.

¿O sí?

¿Vale la pena hacer preguntas? como éstas como ésta

¿O no?

No.

¿No?

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HIMMELFAHRT für Pascoli u.a. so schön. es wäre schön gewesen und langsam, langsam schwebten, schwebten samtweiche Schneeflocken durch die Löcher im Dache Während Snow Story letztendlich? If I could have one wish wer weiß, it would be to have oder vielleicht sogar zwei, been born eine Tasse seidenen Tees getrunken langsam, so, so unendlich langsam yukkuri, yukkuri two or three und hätte dort hundred years earlier ganz ohne Trauer in Japan. ganz ohne Äpfel I would adopt ganz ohne Blätter a new name: unter dem blauen Bananenbaum Banana Tree aufgehalten or Blue Ink Pot in der alten Mühle or even Cup of Tea ja, fast zweifellos I would talk und wäre mich, to crickets and swallows ohne Ende, knowing that the Milky Way ja, unendlich, das heißt, was reflected in their eyes, too. unendlich müde geworden, I might take to the road unfehlbar the one to the Deep North zweifelsohne, or live in seclusion wäre ich auf einmal complaining of too many visitors. Auf dem Wege I would study hinaufgekriechengekrochen. how a tree stands for itself auf den Fuji San hinaufgestiegen, and nothing else and try meinetwegen, to learn from it. I would teach important things könnte man wohl sagen, like ideograms, meaning “polite frog” or Es eilt sich ja nicht, “snail climbing Mount Fuji”. wie sonst? On my wanderings I would fix my broken sandal thongs or tears in im Schneckengang my knapsack, listening to the small songs of the insects. yukkuri, yukkuri At the end of my life I might find myself alone langsam, langsam living in a grain store wäre ich sicher with snow vor hundert Jahren oder zwei falling through holes Wäre ich eine Schnecke in the roof.

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ASCENSION for Theocrites, Bashō , Sherpa Tenzing, Pascoli, the V.M. so beautiful. But above all for the one and only Eva, long may she ffllurrisshhh! beautiful it would have been and slowly, slowly floated, floated Snow Story by Eva Bourke used without velvet snowflakes permission. the holes in the roof finally? Whilst through English translation of Himmelfahrt by Cuento niveo who knows, H. Magnum Duckburger Jr. or perhaps even two, Si se me drunk a cup of silken tea slowly, so, so infinitely slowly yukkuri means slowly in Japanese concediera un yukkuri, yukkuri sólo deseo and there I would have pediría haber quite without sorrow nacido hace quite without apples dos o tres siglos quite without leaves en Japón. under the blue banana tree Adoptaría un nuevo nombre: at the old mill Banano o Tintero Azul, have stopped off o incluso Taza De Té almost definitely Hablaría con grillos y golondrinas, and I would sabiendo que la Vía Láctea without end, también en sus ojos se refleja,. yes, endlessly, that is, Me echaría a los caminos, have become endlessly weary, acaso, ese que va al Norte, Norte, o viviría apartada without fail quejándome de las muchas visitas. doubtlessly, Estudiaría cómo un árbol representa lo que es all at once I would y nada más y trataría de aprender de ello. On the way Enseñaría cosas importantes como el crawled up Mount Fuji. ideograma por “rana bien educada” climbed up, o “caracol que sube el monte Fuji”. as far as I’m concerned, En mis errancias reparía las correas de mis sandalias rotas one might say, o mi mochilita rajada, escuchando las cancionetas There’s no hurry, de los insectos. how else? Al final de mi vida at snail’s pace me hallaría, tal vez, yukkuri, yukkuri viviendo sola slowly, slowly en un granero I would surely have donde la nieve caería por los a century or two ago huecos del techo If I’d been a snail

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REQUIEM FOR G.W.B. to Rupert Brooke

Rupert Brooke was a regular customer of the Orchard tea rooms in Cambridge (the original, where the Cam was bridged) and a poet of the not so great war, the one where everybody was wrong, the kind that gives the game a bad name. This is written in a kind of doggerel style, which I thought G. might appreciate; easy to remember and to the point. “Sine qua non” is Latin for “the bottom line” (more or less).

I’d like to say a few words about a man we all know too well, who at this very moment is in transit, either to heaven or to hell

I apologize most sincerely for my lack of procrastination, but he may well outlive me, and anyway I doubt if I’ll be invited to the official celebration

Governing the world, in fairness let it be said, is a thankless and arduous occupation; but, as they say, someone has to do it. We therefore must express a certain measure of commiseration with the all too obvious fact that he blew it.

A good man in many ways no doubt kind to dogs and children, generous to a fault, who took the good book literally but not literally enough

“Thou shalt not kill” is an explicit exhortation perfectly refractory to well-intentioned interpretation circumstantial speculation.

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He was a man who strove to do for others what he himself above all else abhorred to impose upon them a limiting indoctrination and to do so spent more than he could afford at the risk of breaking the bank of a bankrupt organization.

A man, for the record let it also be said, whose silly qua no, whose bottom line above all was his oil reserves. And into my mind comes a corner of a far off field, where a Viking lies inhumed ‘neath runewrit slab, ‘neath a fitting invocation for all, or for many a man:

“May God be kinder to his soul than he deserves”. FÜR HEINRICH, UNSEREN BRUDER Heinrich Heine was a European poet of the nineteenth century. I sometimes visit his grave in Montmartre. On his tomb is inscribed a poem in which he asks himself where his mortal spoils will lie. He favours some tropical beach or the banks of the Rhine. I have paraphrased the poem as an answer to his question; in fact he is in the red light district of Paris

Ich besuche Dich manchmal, .. Hier singt keine freudige Nachtigall, das weißt Du, ich mein’. gibt doch fahlen Stern und kranken, Weder Palmen sind Dein Denkmal vergifteten Baum. noch ruhst Du an dem Rhein.. In der Nacht Du bist weder in der Wüste, leuchten die Totenlampen von Pigalle. eingescharrt von fremder Hand, noch schläfst Du an der Küste All Dein Leid, leider war kein Traum. eines Meeres in dem Sand

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DEATH COMES A CREEPING requiem for myself

I sit before the stove tired in every way eyes, legs, brain, sex but my eyes are closed my legs are still I enjoy the warmth the smell of orange peel I hear a noise outside a rustling, a slithering in the grass

Death is creeping around my house looking for a way in

I don’t know why he wastes his time All he has to do is knock. I’ve been expecting him for years I’m even a bit fed up

I open the door and say “come in” He looks quite ridiculous and tries to pretend he’s lost something on the ground his false teeth maybe

I pull up another chair in front of the fire He seems happy we start to talk I don’t want to waste this opportunity He must have

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I ask him about his mother and his father were they in the same line of business? He says he never knew them and begins to cry

I put my arm around his shoulder and say “there, there” Millennia of sorrow flood my floor I go for a bucket and a mop

Alone, alone, always alone nowhere a friend hated and despised by all even those who at first seem friendly always change when he gets closer

If only people knew how much he loves them The worst thing of all is his insatiable curiosity to know how it feels to die

I say perhaps I can help I have some plants I’d been saving for myself would he care to try?

We mix the strange brew and he drinks falls to the floor in convulsions and soon lies quite still For the first time I notice how much he resembles me

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After a while he gets up Seems a new man He’s gotten a taste at least an idea Now many things are clearer He understands better people’s fear, he says, has to change his approach

He has to go Would I like to come with him now?

I say I’m enjoying my tiredness in a strange sort of way and it would be a pity to waste the orange peel

He says he understands whenever I’m ready I just have to let him know he’ll come any time at all we’re friends now what are friends for? He’s hardly ever at home and he doesn’t talk on the phone He gives me his e-mail address I put it in the top left-hand drawer [email protected].

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SOCIOLECTES Paris XIX AVIS Demain: dératisation.

Paris XVI AVIS Demain: désourisation

SARA woke me one winter’s night at 3a.m. I rushed naked to the table and scribbled this down in the darkness you come to me suddenly in a dream must be twenty years at least we were never close friends you gave me one kiss just to see what it would feel like and it didn’t feel like much you were doing some tests for brain cancer, I believe you’re surprised to see me as I am to see you you take my hand we are surrounded by people I never knew how beautiful a hand could be you start to cry you haven’t changed a bit and neither have I you give yourself completely in one sole embrace then you move on well, anyway it was nice to see you I’m glad I got the chance to say goodbye.

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VOS

Nunca escribiría una poesía sobre tí ni una canción ni nada

Si lo hiciera te volverías una más de tantas historias que he leído, de tanto nombre de mujer: de Anna, Bárbara, Clara, Chiara Delia, Elisa, Filomena, Gloria, Helena, Ilaria, Juanita, Katia, María, Natasha, Olga, Pepita querida, Roberta, Sara, Talia, Uña, Vera, Winona, Xantippa, Yolanda, Zahara que representan algo para uno no más y sólo son signos para todos nos demás.

Así que ni te nombro ni tu gracia escribo Para que no te metaforices para que te quedes lo que eres una única, unida unicidad algo imparafrasible algo no transferible algo insostituible sólo vos.

DEAR PLUTO

To me you will always be a star

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A SHORTER HISTORY OF UNIVERSAL PHILOSOPHY To Bertrand

?

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BACK PAGE BLURB TO MY LATEST BOOK

“If this doesn’t knock your socks off you’re not wearing any”! Muckrush Observer

“ never in the field...etc”! Winston Churchill

“Unsurpassable rubbish”! Muckrush Ladies’ Weekly Literary supplement.

“ A timely and fascinating insight into a world of which we know too little”! Muckrush Serious Newspaper

The author is a devout antidisestablishmentarian. To the best of his knowledge he is unrelated to any serving Prime Minister, President or other variously denominated chieftain except according to very prehistoric criteria. He is of no strategic value and represents no threat to the established world order. He keeps no domestic animals. He is a freelance layabout who divides his time between Muckrush and Stalingrad. His current project is changing his name to George O’Keefe.

IN THE MORNING (Aviary)

Vultures for my crisis blackbirds for my pie jackdaw my accomplice robins till I die. Hunt the wren for Christmas plant cuckoos in my bed but oh, the dark.

Swallows at the solstice seagulls’ lonely cry pigeons got your notice condor sailing by. Cranes are gone for Christmas hoot owls raise the dead to sink the ark.

Hawks are true to Isis a sparrow made me cry peacock tail entices ostrich cannot fly. Turkey roast for Christmas fish-eagle crown my head but oh, the lark.

28 UNJUSTIFIABLE TEXT NEWSFLASH! SHOCK FINDINGS!

NEW REPORT SUGGESTS LIFE CAUSES DEATH IN 100% OF CASES BETWEEN THE AGES OF 0 AND 200 GOVERNMENT PROMISES IMMEDIATE INVESTIGATION OPPOSITION CALLS FOR TEMPORARY BAN

My wife did art therapy with an old Spanish lady in Paris who had forgotten how to speak French. She used to sing the song La Paloma all the time and repeat the word ‘lelele’. I read the case history and was disturbed by the clinical death announcement, so I wrote this.

LA PALOMA

La colombe s’est envolée Dans son sommeil Huit jours plus tard Juste avant l’aube. Adiós Palomita Adiós Lélélé

LA GARE MONTPARNASSE SUITE Tu m’as donné rendez-vous Ma gardénia un vendredi quelconque superflue, je n’aurais pas et jusqu’au mardi suivant dû, avoir voulu je n’ai pas ouvert la bouche de peur que ma joie ne s’échappe. En fait, ce n’est pas vrai Mais j’aurais voulu.

29 UNJUSTIFIABLE TEXT TAMAÑO reyezuelo te quiero más que LLOOSS EESSTTAADDOOSS UUNNIIDDOOSS DDEE MMÉÉXXIICCOO BBRRAASSIILL YY AAMMÉÉRRIICCAA DDEELL NNOORRTTEE (Size: Little wren, I love you more than the United States of Mexico, Brazil and North America).

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HIGAN NO KETTEI to a child of the autumn, waterfall in the river all the poetry I need Jibun no gakkō ni hairu koto ni shimashita. Ashita hajimeru, mata wa asatte ka na. Konogoro tottemo isogashi kara. EQUINOX RESOLUTION (translation)

I’ve decided to go to my own school I’ll start tomorrow Or the day after I’ve been very busy lately. DICTÉE POUR COURAGEUX

L’autre jour à un ami japonais j’ai raconté qu’apparemment ce grand sot du Garde des Sceaux a fait un saut à Sceaux avec un tout petit sceau sur le tout petit seau où il garde les moins petits sceaux et mon ami qui ne fait jamais de tels sauts et qui, lui, n’est pas sot, a répondu “Ah sô?”

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THE PIRATE JENNY was a cleaning lady in Brecht/Weil’s Thrup’nny (Threepenny) Opera. I recently had the honour of portraying her in a long way off Broadway production. She’s not a real pirate of course, and neither am I, but I can’t remember when I last wasn’t shipwrecked, as I was on Maui, ’92, where there really was such a parrot – very popular he was too, God rest his soul if he’s given up the ghost and kicked the bucket. How long do parrots live? Lahaina is the capital of Maui. Søren Kierkegaard ( the double “a” is a long “o”. I can’t help you with the “ø”. The traditional advice is to imagine you have a hot potato stuffed in your mouth, but it’s risky, I can’t take the responsibility) was a Danish philosopher. I’ve never understood why more hasn’t been made of the fact that his surname means “graveyard”. Can you imagine him running for president? “At once President Graveyard”, “And now President Graveyard will address the Congress”. He’d have to be good – real good. In fact he’d probably have to abolish taxes and institute free sex on demand. He’s got my vote. That’s what I’d call a president. The quotation was one of the last coherent things he said, on his deathbed, I believe.

And a One & a 2 di ri Dum di ri Doo di ra Tara to 3 Don’t be late! Don’t be late! Søren Kierkegaard Maui it was, La haina, shipwreck ninety two – sold as a parking lot sweeper to a golf million aire, where scorpions stung me and I strummed a ukulele for the agèd queen while her young mother downed cans of cold beer.

Times were hard, we fought a lot, my dear parrot left me, what

32 UNJUSTIFIABLE TEXT else could he do? Got a job in a café where he didn’t like the hours, where he’d periodically pour out his sar- castic scorn, his vitriolic venom, his irate indig- nation, on the assembled flotsam (and jetsam to boot) of ozone – killers, rain – forest – devourers hell – bent – suicides of the right – to – life, hounding of happiness

“Free at last!” “Free at last!”

“Get a job motherfuckers”

But all is not lost ho! ho! ho! fifteen men on a dead man’s chest triple doubloons for a trip to the moon Pieces of eight! Pieces of eight! Red sail to starboard Aye, Jim me lad, batten the mainsail All hands look lively By Neptune the dogs Blow the mast! Blow the mast! A hoy!

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OMNIA VINCIT AMOR Cuando te conocí Cuando te conocí Cuando te conocí me puse triste me puse triste me puse triste mi amor mi amor mi amor cuando me fui cuando me fui cuando me fui más triste mejor más triste mejor más triste mejor Cuando volví Cuando volví Cuando volví me puse triste me puse triste me puse triste mi amor mi amor mi amor cuando nada funcionaba cuando nada funcionaba cuando nada funcionaba más triste mejor más triste mejor más triste mejor Cuando nos fuimos Cuando nos fuimos Cuando nos fuimos me puse triste me puse triste me puse triste mi amor mi amor mi amor cuando llegamos cuando llegamos cuando llegamos más triste mejor más triste mejor más triste mejor Cuando me dejaste Cuando me dejaste Cuando me dejaste me puse muy triste me puse muy triste me puse muy triste mi amor mi amor mi amor y cuando un día y cuando un día y cuando un día ya no me importará ya no me importará ya no me importará cuando cuando cuando denuestramor denuestramor denuestramor se habrá se habrá se habrá marchitado la flor marchitado la flor marchitado la flor Podré Podré Podré en ese día en ese día en ese día concluir concluir concluir con fervente ardor con fervente ardor con fervente ardor más bien más bien más bien ardiente fervor ardiente fervor ardiente fervor parece ser cierto parece ser cierto parece ser cierto ese muy viejo decir ese muy viejo decir ese muy viejo decir que omnia vincit que omnia que omnia vincit Amor vincit amor mi amor

.

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NOBEL PRIZE ACCEPTANCE SPEECH (Swedish with a Norwegian accent) I was strangely moved by the old Swedish king at the Nobel ceremony, back in 1967 I think it was. Nobody seemed to have told him that Sartre had refused the prize, and he seemed to discover it only as he read his little card. He seemed hurt and bewildered, as if at eighty something years of age the world had suddenly become incomprehensible to him. Era Majestäter Mina damer och herrar Barn Ryggradsdjur och invertebrater de två berserkarna med tvångströjan som blockerar utgången

Jag hade icke tänkt ta emot priset Jag är emot det principiellt Men Sartre har redan gjort det och jag behöver slantarna. Jag har nämligen flera mycket fattiga före detta sambor

Så ödmjukt jag tackar Och, från mitt sårade hjärtas oändligar djupar önskar från- och närvarande och de som än inte finns en trevlig kväll och en fridfull död

Lamentably translated in the following fashion by the Evening Standard: Your Majesties Ladies and gents Children Vertebrates and invertebrates the two bozos with the straitjacket blocking the exit

I wasn’t going to accept the prize I’m against it on principle But Sartre’s already done it and I need the dough I have several very poor ex’s you see.

So I thank you all humbly and, from the infinite depths of my wounded heart wish absent and present and those yet to come a pleasant evening and a peaceful death.

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P.S. AUTUMN HAIKU (right to left) W G L H R E O A E V W A E I T S L L T F R A S L A E L Y E S G V I O E L O I E D N B N T Y S L E Y ? T H E H A R V E S T M O O N SUMMER HAIKU Horse-flies, mosquitoes the shortest night of the year Why did we come here? SPRING HAIKU Eiffel tower view accordion plays musette we know where we are

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FORTUNE COOKIE EQUATORIAL ANTI-HAIKU Frozen lake beckons At the middle point with clear path to journey’s end day unchanging, six to six but stay where you are there are no s/r/easons

BEES SWARM AIMLESSLY FUTURE OF THE WORLD DEPENDS ON YOUR BRIGHT BEAUTY Du bist schön And I said Sei bella Eres linda wie eine Blume you were come un fiore como una flor im Frühling, as beautiful in primavera en la primavera hab’ich gesagt, as a flower in the ho detto, dije, und Du glaubst, springtime, e tu credi y crees es sei ein dummes and you think it’s a che sia que es un cumplido Kompliment. stupid compliment. uno stupido estúpido y cursi. complimento. Aber jedes Jahr But every spring Pero las flores verwelken I watch the wild- Ma presto, presto primaverales die Osterglocken gone daffodils appasiscono en un parpadear in meinem Garten wither, i fiori se marchitan, della primavera y al pensar Deinen Nektar and never que nunca y nunca, werde ich will I taste e mi viene ni una sola vez nie trinken, your nectar la tristezza voy a beber kein einziges Mal, and forever di sapere che mai, tu dulce néctar, neanche una volta. más que tristeza. und er muß must it be berrò il tuo me viene so süß sein. so sweet. dolcissimo nettare una grande sed.. . THE FOUNDER OF LISBON ALIAS SINBAD THE SAILOR A.K.A. NOBODY Legend has it that Ulysses founded Lisbon. Legend has it. Myths persist because people can identify with them. Ulysses is a mental Hercules. We’d all like to imagine ourselves invincible, either by force or by ruse, and the two have gone hand in hand through popular cultures for millenia. At the moment Hercules seems to have the upper hand, he’s even been elected governor of California. It’s no coincidence that his name was given to those obnoxious silver birds whose magic droppings marry wedding parties with death.Even Bob Dylan, in his autobiography, seems to reserve his greatest admiration for people who can “kick the shit out of anybody”. In Greek “nobody” sounds very much like Ulysses’ “real” name, Odysseus. A tragic loss in translation. He is really more like Everyman. Most people’s lives are a seemingly endless journey between clashing rocks on stormy seas to get? Buried alive in a cave full of inestimable treasures that Nobody is likely to steal not even a grave robber.

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L' Etrangeait à la manière de la poésie persanne

à Albert

Une fois par annait dans mon bistrot il entrait; toujours aprait minuit c'était toujours deux mots: "Une Leffe" que disait buvait payait repartait. Jamais su je n'ait qui c'était?

(et d'ailleurs je m'en foutait)

FAMOUS LAST WORDS

Long years must I live

before I discover that

all was for the best?

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RABBIT ISLAND

a very short story

Ann was lonely. She’d left her husband after twenty years of a fairly happy marriage and moved to Ireland. Her two sons were grown and working on opposite sides of the globe. She missed them terribly, but more as they were when they were small than as they were now, twice her size and with black belts in karate. She was hoping they would soon have children of their own. She wanted something small and defenceless to cuddle. One day it occurred to her to buy a rabbit. Rabbits look very cuddly. It is hard to imagine a rabbit that is not cuddly. She bought her rabbit, along with a fine wooden hutch, and took them both home. It was no ordinary, run-of-the-mill rabbit though, and no ordinary run-of-the- mill hutch. It was a small grey rabbit that hopped around and looked more like a beaver or a capybara than a rabbit. She called it Hunny. At first it was fun to have a rabbit. She gave it carrots and special rabbit food, the usual new rabbit routine – everybody’s done it. It ran around the garden, excited about its new home. Ann soon discovered though, that the rabbit didn’t like being picked up. It would claw and scratch and do its utmost to abscond from her loving arms. She was quite offended by this and felt rejected. She hadn’t thought about the fact that rabbits have been victims to birds of prey, foxes and other animals since longer than anyone can remember, and when picked up are therefore about as friendly as you would be to a cruising crocodile under the boardwalk. Still, it was nice to see the thing running around the house in the evening when she came home from work. She put a metal grille across the middle of the kitchen floor so that it couldn’t go all over the house; because it soon began eating wires and shoes and anything else it could grind up with its sharp teeth. A rabbit is an eating machine. For a while the rabbit seemed like good company, or at least, better than nothing. But then it began to get on her nerves. It kept trying to gnaw through the metal bars, making a terrible noise in the process. And it was always trying to escape from the garden. Life became one perpetual rabbit-chase – day-in-day-out - because she felt too guilty to leave it cooped up in the cage all the time. After a few months Ann decided she’d had quite enough of the rabbit. She called the pet shop to ask if they would take it back. They most certainly would not. She called Animal Welfare to see if somebody would like to acquire a nice sweet little rabbit, but the fact that it had scratched and bitten her, albeit with no proven malicious intent, (I rest my case) meant that they could not recommend it to anybody, especially not to a family with children. For a while Ann didn’t know what to do. Then she decided to just let the rabbit do what it wanted and escape from the garden. She called her brother and told him of her final solution. Her brother had never cared much for the rabbit, but he didn’t like the idea of letting it go in such a busy area, full of cars, burger joints, dogs, and even a few surviving foxes. He lived in the countryside, on the edge of a lake, on the far side of the country, so he suggested Ann bring the rabbit over in her car and he would let it go on an island in the middle of the lake, not far from his house, strangely enough, called Rabbit Island, one of the many. Ann was very busy with work and various other activities so it was a few months before she

39 UNJUSTIFIABLE TEXT plumped the rabbit into a beer crate with a wooden block for a roof, loaded her into the boot and set off cross-country. It was about a four-hour drive. The motorway had not yet been built. She did not film the journey. When she arrived they immediately took the crate out of the boot and headed for the taking off point for the island. In summer there is a small ford where you can walk to the island without getting wet if you have high rubber boots or leggings, or if you happen to be a duck. But it was autumn and rain had been falling for several weeks, as it is often does in Ireland. The little ford was now an impassable raging torrent about fifty yards wide. So Ann’s brother (who shall remain nameless) decided to borrow a little boat (a very little boat) from one of the neighbours. (‘Borrow’ usually implies some form of consensuality, so perhaps it is not quite the right word, but we shall not quibble). They were wealthy people from Dublin who only came to the house for a week or so once or twice a year. He embarked the rabbit in the little boat and paddled off trepidly but with absolute commitment for the island, which looked a very, very long way off because of the wind and the waves and the abovementioned littleness of the thimble- like vessel. At first he thought it would sink; he felt like Christopher Columbus; but after a while he got used to it. It was hard work paddling against the current. Half way out an otter officiously poked its head up out of the water amidships to see who was crossing its domain. Finally he reached the island. He put the crate down on land and took off the wooden board. He expected the rabbit to jump out immediately and run off, but it surprised him. It kept absolutely still for a long time, sniffing the air and looking around curiously. After about ten minutes, that is, six-hundred seconds, it sl o w l y climbed out of the crate and began to wander around - v e r y t e n t a t i v e l y. It was a whole new world. The rabbit had never felt such a strong wind. The earth was damp. Strange smells filled the air. A herd of cows lives on that island, and a donkey named Ted. Of course, the donkey has no idea his name is Ted, any more than the rabbit knows her name is Hunny. She stared at the strange creatures in the distance. Ann’s brother got back into the boat and tried to paddle away but sank and had to swim, leaving the rabbit to her new life, her first night in a brave new free world. He wondered how she felt. Was she happy to be free? Would she find a home and food? Would she be lonely? Did rabbits feel what humans feel? Did rabbits feel anything at all? How long would she last? He had given her the best chance of survival he could provide – her own island with no cars, no greyhounds and no foxes, but with who knows what else! An eagle had been reported in the area, and mink sightings confirmed. He could only hope against hope, as he had already been doing for a very long time.

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DIE SCHWEDISCHE REISE

I studied German at University. One of the books we studied was Goethe’s Italienische Reise. I was irritated by its hypocrisy; the author wrote about his platonic relationships with aristocratic ladies - amongst other things - but said nothing of the prostitutes he was really involved with; although he implied immersion in Italian life he in fact spent most of his time with other Germans. I wrote this little parody for the German newspaper at the university. I have since reflected that perhaps I was a little unfair because it was probably harder to be ‘honest’ in those days, but the parody is mild so I’ll let it stand. This piece is important to me because it was the first thing I ever wrote of my own free will; at the age of 40! Unfortunately, to understand it one must know German and also have read Die Italienische Reise

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE GALWAY

10. Oktober 1994

Weg! Weg! Sonst kommt es zu einem Nervenzusammenbruch, und schön wäre das bestimmt nicht. Wenn das Wort überhaupt existierte, müßte dieses monatelange Grűbeln űber Texte, die einen wenig interessieren, gesundheitswidrig sein. Und ein gewisses Fräulein X ertrage ich einfach nicht mehr. Nein, nein, nein! Es geht nicht! Reden, reden, reden. Immer nur reden. Űber Philosophie und Sprachtheorie, Aufklärung und Verfremdung, Endlősungen und Leitmotiven. Ich aber will nur...na, denk an die Kinder. Ich bin einer Wiedergeburt bedűrftig. Zurűck! Zurűck zur magischen Quelle meiner Lebenslust, um mir neue Kräfte zu holen, damit ich die höllischen kommenden zwei Jahre durchstehe. Ich muß unbedingt nach Norden; Ein Pferd! Taxi! Kutscher! Weg! Weg!! Weg!!!

VON SPIDDAL NACH GALWAY

11. Oktober

Lebt man an der Westkűste Irlands, genießt man den großen Vorteil, daß jede Reise zu einer kleinen Odysee wird. Ist man dazu von őffentlichen Verkehrsmitteln abhängig und lebt auf dem Land, nimmt diese Odysee eine besonders epische Gestalt an, indem es unmőglich ist, mit dem ersten Zug nach Dublin zu fahren, ohne in Galway zu űbernachten. Also, steige ich in den letzten Bus von Spiddal nach Galway. Ich mag diese Busfahrt nicht und versuche sie normalerweise zu vermeiden. Heute geht das nicht. Ich habe schon Ärger mit diesem Fahrer gehabt: Er will immer Country und Westernmusik und langweilige Nachrichten anhőren. Einmal fragte ich, ob er den Radioapparat nicht ein bißchen leiser stellen kőnne, damit ich meinen Walkman hőre. Das ging nicht. Nein. „Die Leute wollen die Nachrichten hőren.“ „Haben Sie gefragt?“ „Nein, aber...“ „Ich bin auch zahlender Kund und habe dagegen gesagt, daß ich sie nicht h őren will.“

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Keine Antwort. Irgendwo ist die Logik wohl von Nutzen, im wirklichen Leben aber steht sie nicht sehr hoch im Kurs. Heute Abend fangen die Nachrichten mit einer Reportage űber pädophile Priester an. Augenblicklich fliegt der linke Arm nach oben und schaltet den Apparat ab. Ich verspűre űberhaupt keine Lust zu fragen, ob die Leute nicht die Nachrichten h őren wollen. Streiten will ich heute nicht. Der Fahrer ist wohl ein guter Mann. Er bekreuzigt sich jedesmal, wenn wir an einer Kirche vorbeifahren. Daß durch eine ähnliche patriarchalische Schutzreflexbewegung die Regierung vor meiner R űckkehr fallen wűrde, konnte ich nicht ahnen Später fragte ich mich, ob ich an die Busgesellschaft schreiben sollte, um den Rűcktritt des Fahrers zu fordern; aber man hätte mich sicher irrt űmlicherweise f űr verrűckt gehalten. Ich komme also an einem gleichgűltigen Abend in Galway an, wo ich bestimmungsgemäß bei einer Freundin űbernachten werde. Eigentlich habe ich mit der obengenannten weiblichen Person, bisher noch kein einziges Wort gewechselt; wenn ich aber mich zur strengen Wahrheit halte, m űßte ich weitere Erklärungen geben, die niemand interessieren wűrden. Ich erlaube mir also die dichterische Freiheit, zu sagen, daß ich die Nacht bei einer Freundin verbringe.

ZUM BAHNHOF 12. Oktober

Es ist noch dunkel. Aufstehen! Etwas zu frűh; verschlafen aber will ich nicht. Ich langweile mich aber in dem winzigen, zugigen Zimmerchen, also geh‘ ich den Weg, den man gehen muß, wenn man unbedingt zum Bahnhof gelangen will. Die Luft ist kristallklar und eisig. Alles ist Ruh. Űber allen Giebeln hängt eine Waschkűche. Selbstverständlich kann die Luft nicht gleichzeitig klar und nebelig sein, aber die Inspiration hat Vorrang űber die Haarspalterei. Wir wollen nicht kleinlich sein. In allen Straßen spűrt man kaun noch einen Hauch von weder Bus- noch LKW- Abgasen. Das Beste läßt auf sich warten. Am Boden – eine Guinnessflasche, leider leer. Es ist wirklich ungewőhnlich neblig. Nicht einmal ein Schlangenmensch kőnnte die große Zehe seines llinken Fußes vor der Nase sehen. Ich gehe den obligatorischen Weg, vorwärts geneigten Kopfes, tief in meinen Gedanken versunken.

VON GALWAY NACH DUBLIN 12. Oktober

Ich stehe vor einer schwierigen Wahl, einem entscheidenden Augenblick; soll ich geműtlich mit f űnfzig Rauchern im Wartesaal stehen oder draußen auf dem Bahnsteig eine erfrischende halbe Stunde im bitterkalten Wind genießen. Ich leiste dem Wind Gesellschaft. Die kokettierende Verheißung des von mir einige Meter entfernten leeren Zuges bietet einen ungeheuren Trost. Endlich kommt der große Augenblick, in dem wir die jungfräuliche Heiligkeit des Zuges schänden dűrfen. Complete Irish Breakfast ONLY £7.95. Danke. Der Hunger schmeckt mir besser. Gerne wűrde ich die Werbeindustrie wegen Adverbmißbrauch verklagen. Aber wo? Sag mir wo... Galway und Dublin liegen auf fast demselben Breitengrad, und deshalb merkt man auf der Reise kaum einen Unterschied, weder in der Vegetation noch in der Fauna. Weniger Touristen vielleicht. Sitten und Frűchte ändern sich auch sehr wenig. Das alles wußte ich schon von frűher. Keine der Wissenschaft dienliche Beobachtung also.

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Auf dieser Fahrt bin ich einfach eingeschlafen, und das finde ich potztausend schade, weil der Nachwelt sicher einige ungeheuer wichtige Einsichten und Bemerkungen verlorengegangen sind.

ZUM FLUGPLATZ

12 Oktober

Eine kurze Busfahrt durch eine Stadt, der keine Wőrter hilfen kőnnen.

VON DUBLIN NACH MANCHESTER

12. Oktober

Manchester! Fűr mich viel exotischer als Rio de Janeiro oder Singapur, einfach weil es mir nie in den Sinn gekommen ist, daß ich mich einmal da befinden k őnnte. So etwa wie Belfast. Und trotzdem: Ich hatte mir immer etwas sehr Häßliches vorgestellt, satanische Műhlen und so, aber aus der Luft ist wenigstens die wellige, bewaldete Landschaft der Umgebung wirklich schőn. Als ich mich zur Landung anschnalle, denke ich an die Fußballmannschaft, die 1958 in Műnchen beim Start oder bei der Landung ums Leben gekommen ist. Das beruhigt mich irgendwie. Alles ist ja vergänglich. Wenn es morgen ist oder heute, na... Bei der Fußball Weltmeisterschaft in 1970 schoß der einzige Űberlebende, Bobby Charlton, das schőnste Tor, das ich je gesehen hatte. Aber damals war mein Aug‘ zugegebenermaßen nicht sehr ge űbt. Eine Gruppe schwedischer Geschäftsleute versucht sehr laut zu entscheiden, wie viele Guinness jeder einzelne am vorhergehenden Abend getrunken habe. Meine Begeisterung f űr die schwedische Sprache nimmt f űhlbar ab.

NACH KAUFMANNSHAFEN 12. Oktober

Wunderbar, Dänisch wieder zu hören! Mancher sagt, Dänisch sei keine Sprache, sondern ein Hundegekläff. Fűr mich wird sie immer die zärtlichste und sensibelste Sprache der Welt bleiben. Immer noch bricht mir fast das Herz entzwei, wenn ich an gewisse Sätze denke. Hier muß ich zwei Stunden verbringen, oder totschlagen, wie es heißt. Ich nehme eine Tasse Kaffee. Ah, endlich wieder eine Tasse echtes Kaffees! Der Kaffee kommt ursprűnglich aus Abessinien, wo man ihn seit jeher genossen habe. Nach Europa kam er erst im sechzehnten Jahrhundert und wurde anfänglich als eine große sittliche Gefahr betrachtet. Er ist also eine sűdländische und durchaus intelligente Pflanze, indem er nur dort wächst, wo es genug Sklaven gibt, um seinen Anbau wirtschaftlich zu machen. Ich bin im unklaren űber wie er so weit im Norden gedeihen kann, wo die Leute so gut verdienen. Das von den Kompaßpeilungen 3 W, 59 N und 2 O, 50 N – 10.5 W, 50 N gebildete Dreieck scheint ihm bermudadreieckartig ung űnstig zu sein. Das hat wahrscheinlich etwas mit magnetischen Kräften zu tun. Ich denke an den Kaffee, den man an der Universität in Galway bekommt: ein Rohr f űhrt wohl geradewegs ins Torfmoor und sie brauchen das Zeug nur heißzumachen.

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NACH STOCKHOLM! 12. Oktober

Endlich ist der heißersehnte Augenblick da. Mann ist zwar nach nur dreißig Sekunden schon in Schweden, aber die Reise dauert immer noch anderthalb Stunden. Ich sitze neben einer gutriechenden Blondine in den Fűnfzigern. Sie sei eine ehemalige Dampfschiffahrtsgesellschaftsvertre-tersgemahlin; der Gemahl sei aber längst verstorben, und jetzt reise sie nur umher und aműsiere sich riesenhaft. Sie komme nur jeden dritten Monat nach Hause, um ein bißchen Geld von der Dampfschiffahrtsgesellschaftsvertre-terswitwenrentenabholstelle abzuholen und um ihre kleine Boa zu f űttern. Na ja, die Bank kőnnte ihr eigentlich Geld űberweisen, und das Boaf űttern kőnnte sie jemand anderem űberlassen, aber das mit den lebendigen Tieren mache ihr einfach zu viel Spaß. Sie lädt mich zu einem Abendessen bei sich zu Hause ein; ich erkläre aber, daß ich, des Zeitmangels und der extremen Wichtigkeit meiner Anwesenheit in Schweden wegen, leider auf das Annehmen von unwesentlichen Einladungen verzichten muß.

12 Oktober spätabends

Meine Freunde wohnen unweit der Bushaltestelle. Ich laufe. Es ist sehr kalt, aber wunderschőn. Meiner Meinung nach ist Stockholm rein objektiv die schőnste Stadt der Welt. Ich gehe an der Wohnung einer alten Freundin vorbei. Sie weiß, daß ich komme. Licht brennt hinter den Spitzenvorhängen. Das letzte Mal, als wir uns sahen, gab sie mir endlich den Wohnungsschlűssel. Das ist schon f űnf Jahre her. Ich konnte nichts daf űr. Ir alze hôhe minne brâhte mich ûz dem sinne. Vil lîhte hât mich mîn tumbes herz verrâten, und habe ich nû diu beste und diu schoenste vrowe verlorn, die je zwischen Lappland und Lűbeck ist geborn. Ich bleibe jedenfalls nicht lange. Die Freunde warten.

13 Oktober

Aufstehen. Niemand ist da. Frűhstűck - oder frukost, wie es hier heißt – dann einen kurzen Spaziergang. Der Himmel ist himmelblau; das Wetter himmlisch. Die Bäume stehen genau wie Bäume und haben noch nicht die Blätter verloren. Leider habe ich meinen Linné nicht mit und kann also ihre lateinischen Namen nicht herbeten, doch traumhaft schőn waren sie nichtsdestoweniger. Vieles hat sich seit meinem letzten Besuch geändert. In den Straßen hőre ich: Türkisch Gotisch Argentinisch Englisch Griechisch Ägyptisch Chilenisch Australisch Serbokroatisch Irakisch Mexikanisch Eskimo Sprache Äthiopisch Arabisch Spanisch Lappländisch und auch Sprachen, DIE ICH NICHT VERSTEHEN KANN. Männer in meinem Alter beneiden die Jungen, weil sie sozusagen eine bessere Auswahl haben. Nicht nur diese Inge Holm-Typen, sondern alles, was man sich an sprachlich heimatlosen Waisenkinder der dritten Welt vorzustellen vermag. Die Jungen freuen sich tatsächlich. Wohl freuen sich auch die Mädels, daß es nicht nur diese Hans Hansen–Typen gibt, aber das hat mir niemandin erzählt.

Zweiter Teil (Aufenthalt in Schweden) in der ű bernächsten Ausgabe.

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POLITICS I have never been tempted to express opinions on current affairs, but one night I was so annoyed that I wrote this. TONY The other night on the television I saw Tony Blair pontificating about how one hears a lot about detainees’ rights, but what about the rights of the rest of us to live in peace and security… etc, etc. I was struck, and I mean struck, by the contrast between his aggressive self-assuredness - an unmistakeable characteristic of people who have grown overly accustomed to wielding power - and the extreme feebleness of his reasoning.

On one hand specific individuals are deprived of specific rights; on the other a government proclaims its hypothetical intention to do that which no government has ever been able to do: to guarantee peace and security. For decades billions have been spent on combating the drug trade; the only result has been to inspire traffickers to ever greater heights of creative ingenuity; and as far as I know there are no indications that drug use is diminishing. Trying to legislate against so-called “terrorism” can produce nothing but the same escalating spiral of futility.ty.

We must remember that many of the people detained are subsequently neither charged nor convicted of any crime. Many are guilty only of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The kinds of powers that Mr. Blair would like to possess and bequeath to his successors have already been used to detain an eighty-two year old man for heckling and to shoot dead a young Brazilian boy on his life’s adventure. It is said in justification that people often overreact in times of great crisis, but this is exactly why it is important that we maintain the fundamental principles of our law. The law is designed not only to protect us from others but also - and perhaps more importantly- to protect us from ourselves.

Of course opposition parties have gleefully jumped on the arrest of the elderly gentleman for their own ends, but one of the grave crises of our democracy is that nobody with half a brain can possibly imagine they would act any differently if in power. Much is spoken of freedom of choice in secondary areas, but perhaps this great proliferation of choice is mostly fostered to try to disguise the fact that in reality our choice lies between two almost identical sets of people who all represent the same system.

We cannot detain people for what they might do. If that were to become the case it would suffice that it be statistically proven, for example, that a high percentage of crimes in the United Stated are committed by young black males, to lock up all black males until such time as they could no longer qualify as “young”. Thankfully the Constitution prevents this, because it is alien to all that is best in us, and we must hope that this is never allowed to change. Moreover, it would be counter-productive, as it would create a huge body of hatred, which at some point in time would find expression. This is the case at present. Many people unfairly detained in this way will develop a lifelong hatred for our so-called “our way of life”; just as the invasion of

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Iraq has provided the ideology of hatred and confrontation with more converts than all the paltry proselytizers of the world combined. If we could detain everyone who “might” harm us, prison construction would become the world’s most lucrative industry; but it is a sad and revealing fact that in the U.S. more people are killed each year by petty domestic violence than died in the attack on the World Trade Center.

Although colonialism and imperialism may seem to be things of the past, in fact, the present situation in Iraq is nothing but a modern, mutated version. We continue to claim that we are there for the benefit of “the people” when in fact we are there for one, and only one reason: members of the current government of the U.S believed it was in their national interest and Mr Blair agreed with them. It is an affront to the intelligence of any Muslim, Iraqi, Arab, indeed of anybody, to claim that we are there to help the people. At best one can say that it was hoped, sincerely certainly, I would not impugn their sincerity, that this would be an inevitable by-product. But this sort of blatant hypocrisy is by itself enough to create an inexhaustible well of hatred. Now they find themselves in a position where any recognition of the foolhardiness of their venture would amount to political suicide, so they cannot but keep going, citing their responsibility to “stay the course” or one of the similar sporting metaphors that have so unfortunately permeated political language. But war is not a sport, nor a game – ideally at least. Soldiers filmed beating up young boys express their anger at the hostility shown to them by “people they are only trying to help”, but this is pure brain- washing and perfectly in the tradition of the colonialist mentality, an “opinion” formed in total ignorance of the people and the part of the world they are dealing with, a transference of one’s own world view to people incapable of sharing it, the exact hallmark of colonialism. They are in someone else’s country uninvited and have turned it into an even more terrible shambles than it was before. Our governments keep harping on about “the ordinary people” of Iraq, but who are those thousands of violent, hate-filled protestors on the streets, all “foreign terrorists” doubtlessly. Messrs. Bush and Blair talk of the “success” of the elections, that prove the people’s desire for democracy, when it is all too clear that any ensuing government, as in the case of the “democratically elected” Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, would never again voluntarily relinquish power.

Since the time of Margaret Thatcher it has become fashionable for leaders to govern according to their “deep personal convictions”. Tony Blair definitely has the aforesaid in abundance. The question is whether they are more likely to be right than those of any other Tom, Dick or Harry. People are elected not because of their intelligence or wisdom (of this there can be no doubt!), but first and foremost because they seek power, and secondly because they have enough money to be in a position to convince enough people to give it to them, usually via some sort of massive campaign of manipulation. But the real safeguard of our democracy and freedoms is that no one person’ s convictions, right or wrong, be allowed to hold sway over our lives for too long, no matter how great their services to the country. Winston Churchill is the greatest example in recent history. Nobody denied his extraordinary services to his country during the war, but he was kicked out soon afterwards. Democracy cannot work on gratitude. In this respect the Americans are wiser than we. No person may be re-elected to the presidency more than once. The Mexicans are even wiser. Their presidents get one term only. Sadly, their wisdom has never done them much good.

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My friend and neighbour, May Farragher, was a teacher until quite recently. She had to teach some classes on various religions about which she knew nothing, so she asked me to write her some lessons. I am an atheist, with no interest in religion, but I was amused at the idea of writing religious instruction They were intended for teenagers. ISLAM FOR DUMMIES Mohammed was born around 570 AD in Mecca, in what is now called Saudi Arabia. His name is often spelt Muhammed or in other ways because Arabic has only three vowels, a, i and ou, and lots of sounds European languages don’t have, so there is a lotlot of confusion and disagreement over how to spell words. He was a merchant and very interested in philosophy and religion. He wanted to reform his people’s beliefs. The Arabs are Semites like the Jews. The name “Semite” comes from “Shem”, one of the sons of Noah in the Hebrew Bible. The Jews and Arabs share the belief that there is only one God. The Christian Old Testament, which is the Jewish Bible, says: “Thou shalt have no God but me”. The Koran, which is the equivalent of the Bible, says: “There is only one God, and Mohammed is His Prophet”. The Muslims call Jews and Christians “peoples of the book”, because their beliefs are contained in a book supposedly revealed by God. All other people are pagans. Christians and Jews are deserving of respect, almost like brothers. The word “Islam” derives from the Arabic verb “salama”, meaning to become safe (by resigning oneself to God). It is the same word as the Hebrew “Shalom”, meaning “peace”. “Muslim” is derived from the same verb, a kind of past tense, something like “musalama”.. Mohammed based his new religion on the old Jewish religion. Islam accepts all the biblical prophets, Moses, Abraham, etc. It even has many of the same stories as the Bible, Joseph (Yusuf) and his many-coloured coat and many others. God is called “Allah”. Originally it was the name of just one of the local gods. This is very similar to the “Elohim” of the Bible. In fact they are exactly the same God with slightly different names. Mohammed even recognizes Jesus as a great prophet. His mother, Miriam, corrupted to Mary, Maria etc. by people who translated the Bible without knowing Hebrew, is recognized by Islam as one of the two great women, alongside Mohammed’s daughter, Fatima. Mohammed claims that God, Allah, dictated the Koran to him. It is regarded as the most beautiful and best written book in Arabic. Nowadays Koran is usually

4747 UNJUSTIFIABLE TEXT spelt “Qur’an”. It is supposed to be a sort of up-date of the Bible for what were then “modern times”. Around 622 AD Mohammed had problems because of his preaching and went to live in Yatrib, a city now called Medina. This is a very important date in Islam. It is called the “Hegira” or “Hejira”, which means something like “flight” or “a move to a more suitable place”. The Islamic calendar dates from that year, as the Christian calendar does from the birth of Jesus. They write 1405H, which is 1984 AD. The years do not coincide exactly because the Islamic calendar is based on lunar months, which are a few days shorter than the solar months of the Western calendar. Mohammed made up all sorts of rules to govern people’s behaviour. He was against polygamy, but it was still tolerated as a necessary evil. The Arabs lived in deserts. There were often more women than men because of wars and the like, and women had no protection if they were not married. Some men therefore had up to four wives. Some Muslim (or Moslem) countries still allow this, but just as before, men can only have as many wives as they can comfortably support financially. At first women did not cover themselves and hide their faces. There are several different theories as to why they now do this. Some people say the Koran tells them to do so. Others say that it does not. Another theory is that it prevents jealousy and promiscuous behaviour. Other people say it facilitates promiscuous behaviour because women are anonymous, they all look the same. A third theory says that at one time it became a fashion in one of the royal courts and has since been handed down over generations in the same way as people everywhere do many things just because they have been brought up to do them unquestioningly without ever really understanding why. Just like the Romans, the English and many other peoples at the peak of their development, the Arabs felt the need to extend their influence by violence and conquest, and built a vast empire reaching from China to central Spain. Many of the conquered peoples found it in their interest to adopt the new religion. Only with the defeat of the Kingdom of Granada in 1492 were the Arabs, or Moors, as they were also known, finally forced out of Europe, the same year Columbus landed on an island in the Bahamas (he never got to America). In the same way as Christianity, Islam is divided into many sects. These sects believe very different things and are often in conflict. There is no “one” Islam. The main division is into Sunnis and Shiites. Mohammed’s Islam had no priests. Every

48 UNJUSTIFIABLE TEXT individual prayed directly to God and read the Koran. When Mohammed died a few other people became heads of the faith, but then his son-in-law, Ali, husband of Mohammed’s daughter, Fatima, became the head of all Islam. This produced a big power struggle. Again, just as in Christianity, religion became associated with secular power and controlling people’s day to day lives. Ali was assassinated. Later his whole family was massacred in the desert near Karbala, which is now in Iraq. Some people began to worship Ali and his family, equivalent to the disciples, as if they were more important than God. They invented a kind of priesthood, now called “mullahs”, which in time became very powerful and wished to control every aspect of the entire life of the country. Only they are allowed to interpret the Koran, and reading it alone is almost considered a sin. Ali’s family sought refuge in Persia, now generally known as Iran. The Persians are not Arabs though. They are Indo-Europeans like the Irish or the Italians. Over the centuries they have mixed greatly with Arabs, Turks, Indians etc, but their language is related to English and is much easier to learn than Arabic. “Dokhtar” means “daughter” for instance. The massacre of Ali’s family created a wide rift between the two major groups. The new group called themselves Shiites (or Shi’ihs). Their name is also spelt “Shi’a” and is an abbreviation for the Arabic for “followers of Ali”. “Sunni” comes from the Arabic “Sunna”, meaning the body of traditional sayings and customs attributed to Mohammed. Most Muslim countries are Sunni. Iran is the only major Shiite country, although Shiites are in the majority in other countries such as Iraq, Oman and Bahrain. This is part of what is causing all the bloodshed at the moment. There are many Muslim countries in the world. Not only Arab countries are Muslim. The slave trade and other contacts brought Islam into Africa, and about twenty sub-Saharan African countries are now predominantly Muslim. All of North Africa is Muslim, from Egypt to Morocco. To the East, Islam reaches as far as China and the Philippines. Malaysia and Indonesia are Muslim countries. There are large Muslim groups in Russia, the former Soviet States, and even in the U.S.A. When India got independence from England in 1948 it was originally one country, but violent clashes between Hindus and Muslims brought about the creation of Pakistan, an independent Muslim country. In Europe only parts of Albania and Bosnia in the former Yugoslavia are Muslim, but there are now very large Muslim populations in most European countries, especially France, England and Germany. All in all there

49 UNJUSTIFIABLE TEXT are about 1.5 billion Muslims in the world, as opposed to 2.1 Christians. But far more more Muslims practise their beliefs than nominal Christians. Islam is therefore the most widely practised religion in the world today. Most of the Arab world was under Turkish domination for a couple of hundred years, the so called “Ottoman Empire”. The Turks, who are Sunni Muslims, fought with the Germans in World War One, and lost their empire when it was over. The Arabs wanted independence, but the English and other Western powers were interested in exploiting their oil reserves. They created a series of small, meaningless countries like Kuwait, run by a few sheikhs. These sheikhs became enormously wealthy while the rest of the people lived in great poverty. Great resentment and hatred began to arise against Westerners and western values and lifestyles. There is no doubt that powerful Western countries have exploited and humiliated Middle Eastern peoples for centuries. Some people interpret the Koran in such a way that they believe it tells them to destroy all infidels, that is, people who do not believe in Allah. They believe they are at war with a westernized world that wants to wipe out their beliefs and way of life. They therefore feel quite justified in what the Western press calls terrorism. They feel they are doing God’s work. Not only men are called upon. Even over a hundred years ago women and children were called upon to sacrifice themselves for God’s cause. They believe they will go straight to heaven. Saddam Hussein was President of Iraq. He was installed and supported for many years by the Americans, but then got greedy. He was an example of a type of dictator who really had little interest in religion but used it for propaganda purposes. The Americans decided to get rid him, but he actually posed very little threat to the world outside of Iraq, and most people now seem to have accepted that getting rid of him was a serious mistake. Ben Laden (or Bin Laden) is another matter. He is a Saudi Arabian multi- millionaire who believes (or believed – few people are sure if he is still alive) he has to wage holy war “jihad” on the infidel, on all Westerners. “Ben” means “son” like the Irish “mac”, so if he were Irish he would be called “MacLaden”. There have been many such people, but modern technology makes it possible for them to cause a lot more damage than in the past and to reach much further.

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A CONCISE HISTORY OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE

Sumu means name in ancient Babylonian, and was traditionally the name given to the first–born son. Its Hebrew form is Shem, and thus it probably was that Noah’s eldest son came to be called so. Many peoples are said to descend from him: the ancient Babylonians, the Assyrians, the Phoenicians, the Arabs, the Berbers and the Jews, amongst others. These are known as Shemitic peoples. Over time the word came to be pronounced as Semitic. Around 1800 BC Abraham, (or Avram, as he is called in Hebrew) made a covenant with a local god known as Yahweh. Translators who could not read Hebrew well later called him Jehovah. A covenant is an old fashioned word meaning agreement. In modern language we might say that Abraham made a deal with Yahweh, that the Jewish people would believe in him alone in return for help and protection. Years later Abraham’s grandson, Jacob (or Yaakov) renewed the covenant. His named was changed to Israel. Israel had twelve sons, whose descendants formed the twelve Jewish tribes. Famine forced the Jews to emigrate to Egypt, where they became slaves. Although they were slaves they kept their own customs and beliefs. Resistance to assimilation was to become characteristic of the Jews throughout history. With God’s help, Moses, a Jewish boy raised by an Egyptian princess, led them out of Egypt and back to their homelands. According to the Scriptures Moses received the Ten Commandments directly from God and once more renewed the covenant. In the sixth century BC the Babylonians conquered Jerusalem and carried off many Jewish people into slavery. They began to believe in a Messiah, which means anointed king, who would lead them out of captivity and restore Jerusalem. At that time the area north of Jerusalem was known as Israel. The desert region to the south was called Judah. In 722 BC Israel was destroyed by Assyrian forces. The ten tribes living there disappeared from history. All that remained was Judah, so the people were now known as Jews and their religion as Judaism. The Romans conquered the region in 63 BC and called it Palaestina. They met more sustained resistance from the Jewish people than any others in their empire. This led them to practise harsh persecution, and to force as many Jews as possible to leave the area. Life became impossible, and the Jews began to emigrate to all corners of the

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Roman Empire. These emigrants became known as the Diaspora, which is Greek for dispersion or scattering. The so-called Roman emperor, Justinian, who never went to Rome, declared Judaism a heresy and excluded Jews from all public office and from military service. A fundamental human trait is dislike of people who are different. Everywhere they settled the Jews kept to themselves, followed their own customs and traditions and did not integrate or intermarry very much with the local populations. This produced a lot of resentment and dislike, which in turn made the Jews even more determined to keep to themselves. A snowball effect arose. At that time the church did not allow Christians to practise usury, that is, to lend money for interest. It was considered incompatible with brotherly love and Christian beliefs. Jews were excluded from most trades, from the military, from working the land and other professions. Some of them began lending money to Christians. This led to even more resentment. Nobody likes owing people money. When the time came to pay their debts some found it easier to kill or beat up those they owed the money to. They usually came up with some sort of excuse for this behaviour. They said, for instance, that the Jews had killed Jesus. It was not until 1974 that the Vatican officially proclaimed that the Jews were not to be held responsible for the death of Jesus. The Vatican however, had completely missed the point. According to the Christian religion God sent his only son to the earth to be sacrificed in order to redeem, that is, to save, mankind. Without the death and resurrection of Jesus there would be no Christianity, so whoever killed Jesus was an instrument of God’s will and therefore completely blameless. In fact the Romans killed Jesus; some of the Jews were in favour of it. The Jews believe in Christ. He is the Messiah who will restore Jerusalem and their ancient glory. The main difference between them and Christians is that they do not believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ. They are still waiting for him. In the twelfth century a Polish king invited the Jews to his country. He offered many incentives because he believed they would be very good for the economy. Some Jewish traders were already living there. From Poland they spread into the Ukraine and other Slavic regions. Many of them came from what is now Germany, where they were regularly being persecuted and massacred. Another excuse given for killing Jews was that they spread the plague intentionally. Fewer Jews than Christians died during epidemics. This was in fact

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because their religious practices made them wash their hands before eating and be very careful about how they prepared food. Centuries were to pass before anybody understood the connection between health and hygiene. The English thought Queen Elizabeth I was highly eccentric because she took a bath once a year. King Bohislaw died, times changed and the Jews were soon no more welcome in Poland than anywhere else. Large massacres took place that came to be known as pogroms, which is Russian for devastation or destruction. The Jews continued their almost completely separate existence. Even after nearly a thousand years in Poland many of them had not learnt Polish. They spoke Yiddish, which is an abbreviation for Jewish German, (in German Jüdischdeutsch). This was the common language of Eastern European Jews. Elsewhere in Europe the Jews were becoming no more popular. They were all expelled from England in 1290 for nearly 400 years. They were expelled from Spain and Portugal in 1492. Massacres took place regularly. Times of economic hardship were particularly dangerous for Jews, as they were blamed for everything, even though there were always far more poor Jews than rich ones. Early in the twentieth century the so-called Limerick pogrom took place. The people of Limerick boycotted, harassed and beat up members of the city’s Jewish population. Most of them left. Many moved to Cork or, like many other people from all over Europe, emigrated to the United States. All the major Hollywood film studios were founded by Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. When the great economic disaster known as the Wall Street Crash destroyed the world’s economy in 1929 many people looked for a scapegoat. Particularly in Germany, where you needed a wheelbarrow full of money to buy a box of matches, unscrupulous politicians whipped up hatred of the Jews. One of these, Adolf Hitler, came to power by democratic election. At first Jews were just deprived of their livelihoods and beaten. For a while there was talk of deporting them all to Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. After a few years however nearly fifteen hundred years of hatred gave rise to what is known as The Final Solution, the decision to exterminate all Jews from the planet. From Germany, and later all of conquered Europe, Jews were shipped by train like cattle to concentration or extermination camps in Poland and other countries. Many millions of them died, alongside Gypsies, Slavs, homosexuals, mentally or physically handicapped people and Germans who opposed Hitler’s ideas.

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At one point Hitler offered to allow several thousand of them to move to Ireland, but Eamonn de Valera, the Irish President, replied that they would be a threat to the homogeneity of the Irish people and refused to accept them. All or most of those people were later murdered in camps. When World War II ended the world learned of what had happened. At first many people refused to believe that such horror could exist. Films were shown of the survivors - unrecognizable skeletons. The international community felt guilty and ashamed for what had been allowed to happen, and decided to try to make amends by creating a new Jewish homeland in Palestine, at that time a British mandate. It was to be called Israel. The ancient ceremonial language Hebrew was to be revived, modernized and adopted as the national language. The problem was that Arabs had been living on the land for over fifteen hundred years and were no more inclined to simply give it back to the Jews than the Americans would be to return Manhattan Island to the Indians, the Australians to restore their island continent to the Aborigines, or for that matter the English to give the British Isles back to the Celts. The newly formed United Nations took advantage of the military and economic weakness of the Arabs to impose their decision. This led to enormous resentment, hatred and violence, which have continued to grow and become more and more dangerous as technology makes mass destruction more easily available. Only a complete change of heart on both sides can ever change this situation. The Israelis have practised a form of apartheid against the Arabs. They do not receive equal pay for equal work, and are largely discriminated against in all fields. Like people in all other so-called western countries, many Jews are not religious. They are not a race. People are considered Jewish because of a shared history. For the Jews only a person with a Jewish mother is Jewish. The father does not count at all. Several reasons are given for this. All Jews in the world have an automatic right to move to Israel and become Israeli citizens. Israel is now divided between religious and non-religious or secular Jews. This is potentially dangerous for world peace, as the religious Jews have far more children and will therefore at some point become a democratic majority. They tend to be far more opposed to compromise.

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CASTES The word caste comes from the Portuguese casta, meaning “a breed”. This in turn came from the Latin castus, meaning “pure, chaste”. There have always been castes in human societies. The European serfs and the Japanese samurais were both castes. Butchers have traditionally been another caste in Japan. Their children could only marry amongst themselves because in a Buddhist country nobody else wanted to be affected by the karma of all the animals they had killed. Nowadays the word caste is usually associated with the traditional social organization of India. The four Indian castes are said to have sprung from the head, arms, thighs and feet of the god Brahma. The Brahmans sprang from his head. They are the priests. Next came the warrior caste. Then the merchants and farmers. Beneath these three Aryan castes were the conquered native people and children of mixed marriages, who were considered degraded. This is quite similar to the three sons of Noah in the Jewish and Christian Bible. The youngest son, Ham, generally supposed to be dark- skinned, saw his father naked, and was condemned to be a labourer for his two brothers. Even within themselves Indian castes are divided into groups whose members may not intermarry. Eating and drinking are rituals that differ between each caste and group, and mixing is not permitted. It is important to remember that disguised caste divisions exist in all human societies. People are divided into rich and poor, young and old, intelligent and stupid, beautiful and ugly etc. Although ethnic background is now less important in Europe and the Western world, very few people are prepared to marry outside of the group that generally shares their educational, social and economic background. We see an example of a caste system in exclusive nightclubs and discotheques where only good- looking people of a certain age and wearing the right brand of clothing are allowed admission. Both in ancient and modern times physical beauty has tended to lead to upward mobility. Globalization, increased international communication and ideas of sexual equality are now gradually dismantling the Indian caste system.

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REMAKINGS

Eva Bourke Lars Gustafsson Sven Alfons Friedrich Hölderlin Lorna Shaughnessy Rainer Maria Rilke Adam Mickiewicz? Wilfrid Blunt M.Kempson M.A.

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I woke to Sviatoslav Richter Me desperté al son

I woke to Sviatoslav Richter playing Bach: Me desperté al son de la sexta suite inglesa de Bach the English Suite VI. tocada por Sviatoslav Richter The early morning spilled over La mañana se derramaba the city's cornices and sills. por las cornisas y alfeizares de la ciudad.

It was November, still mild Era noviembre, un olor a putrefacción vegetal llenaba the air filled with the smell of vegetal decay; el aire aún templado; trees in the street were turning colour, los árboles de la calle se ponían dorados, rojizos, de golden, russet, flaming-red, carmín encendido, passers-by chatted and laughed los transeúntes platicaban y se reían below my window. debajo de mi ventana. Bach was on the air, each note rose Bach estaba en el aire, cada nota subía out of the black body del cuerpo negro of the radio, weightless, clear de la radio y seguía su camino, ingrávida, clara and unerring on its way: e infalible. In the terraced gardens above the city En los jardines colgantes sobre la ciudad el mal era evil was unheard of, desconocido, fear and hate stood still and listened, el miedo y el odio se detuvieron para escuchar, pain and despair halted el dolor y la desesperación interrumpieron su avance their progress through hospital wards por las salas hospitalarias and listened. y escuchaban.

The left hand knew precisely La mano izquierda sabía exactamente where the right was going, adonde iba la derecha, justice was justice, la justicia era justicia, truth and love were one, la verdad y el amor eran una sola cosa, soul rested against soul alma se apoyaba contra alma beneath the wild cataracts. debajo de las cataratas furiosas.

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RHINOCEROS RINOCERONTE

1 1

(From an Alexandrian manuscript) ( De un manuscrito alejandrino)

I am Alia, the cook, the only survivor – Soy Alia, la cocinera, la única sobreviviente –

From the camel drivers De los camelleros who hung around our vestibule que se entretenían en nuestro vestíbulo, fumaban smoked water pipes and discussed sightings narguiles y discutían avistamientos de serpientes of two-headed serpents, winged lions, bicéfalas, leones alados, oí hablar por primera vez I first heard of a powerful beast with one single horn. de un potente animal de un solo cuerno. I know now these events were omens Ahora sé que esas ocurrencias fueron presagios of the war in the North, de la guerra en el norte, the fever epidemic and the many dead. la epidemia de fiebre y los muchos muertos. If I’d paid more attention I would have seen Si me hubiese fijado mejor habría visto fingernails turning blue uñas amoratarse, or skin pulling off legs, like stockings, la piel quitarse de las piernas como medias, birds that fell from the sky. aves caerse del cielo.

Nearby signposts were back to front, Las señales en rededor estaban al revés, we knew neither time nor day no sabíamos qué hora era ni qué día nor where in hell we could go. tampoco adónde carajo irnos.

One night I put on my silk yashmak Una noche me pusé mi velo de seda crossed the courtyard’s cool tiles atravesé las frescas baldosas del patio lay down under the tamarisk behind the house me tumbé bajo el tamarisco atrás de la casa pressed my ear to the ground and waited apreté el oído contra el suelo y esperé for the touch of black pinions, of bird claws, el roce de alas negras, de garras de pájaro, for the thunder of the monoceros approaching el estruendo del monoceronte que se acercaba through night thickets. por los matorrales nocturnos.

II II

The rhino is in the infirmary. El rinoceronte está en la clínica. The Pierrot El pierrot and several masked figures y varias figuras enmascaradas are attending to it. le están atendiendo. Apologies to Dürer Disculpas a Dürer for missing the appointment again. por faltar otra vez a la cita.

III III

In the year 1513 En el año 1513 the mighty king Emmanuel el poderoso rey Emanuel displayed such an animal expuso un tal animal to the gentlemen and ladies of his court. para los caballeros y las damas de su corte. It terrified many Aterrorizó a muchos they fainted and had to be carried out into the air. se desmayaron y tuvieron que sacarlos afuera. Its name is Rhinoceros. Se llama Rinoceronte.

IV IV

It is a tiny creature Es una criatura minúscula because of the lowliness por la bajeza of its incarnation. de su encarnación. Learn from it Aprenda de ella for it is mild porque es mansa and its heart is humble. y de corazón humilde.

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V V

There’s nothing more pitiful No hay nada más lastimoso than a sick rhinoceros que un rinoceronte enfermo in a circus: en un circo: bulk without energy mole sin energía in a curved non-Euclidean space. en un espacio curvo no euclidiano.

VI VI

Dürer is tired of Holy Families, Dürer está harto de Sagradas Familias the Holy Family with the Cricket, la Sagrada Familia con el Grillo, the Holy Family with the Hare, la Sagrada Familia con la Liebre, the Holy Family resting with the Blackbird, la Sagrada Familia en reposo con el Mirlo, of all the Marys in amalfi-blue cloaks de todas las Marías en capas azul de Amalfi swaddling the Divine Infant, que envuelven al Niño divino en pañales, not to speak of the passions, martyrs and apocalypses, sin hablar de las pasiones, martirios y apocalipsis, seven-headed dragons, horned lambs, dragones heptacéfalos, corderos cornudos, Babylonian whores, rameras babilónicas, and the foursomes, the Riders, y los cuartetos, los Jinetes, Wind Angels, Bugle Angels, Ángeles del Viento, Ángeles de la Corneta, the endless sieges and battle scenes. los interminables asedios y escenas de batallas. But today he is filled with new spirit Pero hoy tiene nuevos ánimos having just heard about the rhinoceros. porque le han hablado del rinoceronte. A Dutch sailor who is lodging at the Golden Unicorn Un marinero holandés alojado en el Unicornio Dorado gave an accurate description. lo describió exactamente. Dürer questions him for two hours Dürer le interroga por dos horas notes down all the details and begins apunta todos los pormenores y empieza a preliminary sketch. un esbozo preliminar. The house is quiet, La casa está tranquila, everyone’s gone to a hamlet near Nuremberg todos se han ido a una aldea cerca de Nuremberga for the wedding of the cook’s daughter. para la boda de la hija de la cocinera. He contemplates the paraphernalia Contempla la parafernalia in his printing studio, de su taller, the presses, needles, knives, copperplates, las imprentas, agujas, planchas de cobre, acid bottles, gums and inks, botellas de ácidos, gomas y tintas, los cuchillos, uncertain which technique he should use – indeciso sobre la técnica que conviene – etching, drypoint, engraving – aguafuerte, timbrado en seco, grabado – then decides on a woodcut por algo tan imaginario y palpable for something so imaginary and palpable. se decide al fin por una xilografía. This is how we’ve come to know it: Así lo conocemos: The colour of a speckled tortoise, color de tortuga moteada, a body encased in thick shells cuerpo revestido de conchas gruesas and of equal height as the elephant, y de la misma estatura que el elefante, four squat chain-mail legs cuatro piernas achaparradas cota de malla that stand their ground que se mantienen firmes but can move rapidly, too, pero que saben moverse velozmente, también, a thick pelt infested with parasites, piel gruesa infestada de parásitos, a dewlapped chin full of bristles, barbilla cerdosa con papada, a single horn which is constantly sharpened on rocks, un solo cuerno, constantemente afilado en piedras, and a crafty upward look from one small eye. y una astuta miradita monócula hacia arriba. Dürer works in the Italianate blue of twilight. Dürer trabaja en el azul italianizante del crepúsculo. A cricket behind the wall panels Detrás de los paneles de las paredes un grillo turns its grinder, da cuerda a su organillo, outside a blackbird’s sweet cantabile afuera el dulce cantabile de un mirlo calls in the night. reclama en la noche. Suddenly above the smell of ink De repente al olor a tinta and wood shavings in the studio y viruta en el taller there’s the stink of rhinoceros. se impone un hedor a rinoceronte.

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VII VII

If the earth were Si la tierra fuera the centre of the universe, el centro del universo, its own centre and navel su propio centro y ombligo would be the stone rhinoceros sería el rinoceronte de piedra beside the Natural History Museum in Boston. al lado del Museo de Historia Natural de Boston.

VIII VIII

An ointment of unicorn’s liver Un ungüento de hígado de unicornio mixed with egg yolks cures leprosy. mezclado con yemas de huevo cura la lepra.

A belt made from unicorn skin Una cintura hecha de piel de unicornio prevents fever and the plague. previene la fiebre y la peste.

Shoes made of unicorn hide Zapatos hechos de cuero de unicornio ensure healthy feet. garantizan la salud de los pies.

The King of the Grail, Amfortas, suffered a wound El Rey del Grial, Anfortas, sufrió una herida that could only be cured que sólo se podía curar with the help of a unicorn’s heart con la ayuda de un corazón de unicornio and the carbuncle which grows beneath its horn. y del carbúnculo que crece debajo de su cuerno.

No animal will drink from a pool Ningún animal beberá de un abrevadero before a unicorn has dipped antes de que un unicornio haya metido its horn into the water to test its purity. su cuerno en el agua para comprobar su pureza.

Never eat at a banquet No coma nunca en un banquete unless you have a fragment of unicorn’s horn si no tiene usted un fragmento de cuerno de unicornio as a poison detector with you. como detector de venenos.

Alternatively you can put a unicorn’s hoof También se puede meter una pezuña de unicornio under your plate. debajo del plato.

If it begins to heat up and smoke Si empieza a calentarse y echar humo don’t touch a morsel of your food. no coma ni un bocado.

Wine tastes sweetest El vino sabe mejor from a golden unicorn cup de un cáliz dorado de unicornio set with diamonds and pearls. engastado con diamantes y perlas. and if you want your medicines to work y si quiere que funcionen sus medicinas you must buy them in pharmacies hay que comprarlas en farmacias with the sign of the unicorn. bajo el signo del unicornio.

IX IX

If ever you make the holy trek Si alguna vez hace usted el hadj sagrado through the desert to Mecca, por el desierto hasta la Meca, don’t mind the sacred stone no haga caso de la piedra sagrada or other manifestations of the Prophet, u otras manifestaciones del Profeta, all that can come later; todo eso puede esperar, head straight through the archway pase derecho por el arco. behind the mosque. Atrás de la mezquita In a walled-in orange grove en un naranjal tapiado you will find two young unicorns encontrará dos unicornios jovenes with curly manes and black horns. de crines rizadas y cuernos negros.

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X X

The unicorn is more warm than cold. El unicornio es más bien cálido que frío. It staple foods are only the purest herbs. Se alimenta sólo con las hierbas más puras. It is notoriously shy of people, Tiene fama de asustadizo con los humanos, especially of men. sobre todo con los hombres. Once a philosopher and a zoologist Una vez un filósofo y un zoólogo pursued a unicorn persiguieron un unicornio which leapt away from them in great leaps. que se alejó dando grandes brincos. It came across a group of young girls Encontró un grupo de muchachas making daisy chains, fabricando guirnaldas de margaritas, stopped, sat on its hindlegs se paró, se sentó sobre las patas traseras and stared in wonder y miraba maravillado at these beardless creatures esas criaturas imberbes who seemed to be human all the same. pero aparentemente no por eso menos humanas. The philosopher and the zoologist El filósofo y el zoólogo seized their chance and captured it. aprovecharon la oportunidad para capturarlo. Therefore if you want to catch unicorns Por lo tanto, si quiere usted atrapar unicornios don’t forget to bring a young girl with you. no se olvide de llevarse una muchacha joven. It’s of even greater advantage Si tiene varias en reserva to keep several in reserve. es aún más ventajoso.

XI XI

It lives on Prospero’s island Vive en la isla de Próspero in the cedar woods beside a lake en los bosques de cedros often stands on the banks a menudo en la ribera del lago when the moon is out en noches de luna and gazes at its own milk white reflection se queda mirando su pálido reflejo lechoso its mild head with the startling horn su mansa cabeza del cuerno asombroso in the water’s black mirror. en el espejo obscuro de las aguas.

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Global Economy Economía mundial

The train made strides on fiery tracks. El tren se precipitaba por la vía ardiente. Second stop: a melancholy Woodlawn Segunda parada: un melancólico Woodlawn weeping birches abedules llorones the sombre organization of spruce. la lóbrega organización de las piceas.

Low-slung clouds in tune with the withered Nubes bajas entonaban con las marchitadas purplish grace notes of heather and bracken, florituras violáceas de brezo y helechos, flocks of starlings flung themselves into the sky bandadas de estorninos se arrojaron al cielo blacker than grape shot. más negros que la metralla.

In the day's paper I read En el periódico de hoy leo acerca de of two young Chinese lovers murdered dos jóvenes amantes chinos asesinados carried together from their Dublin apartment. sacados juntos de su apartamento dublinés.

I wanted to disembark and lie down Quería bajar y acostarme on the spinning planet en el planeta que giraba hold close to me the round-faced girl sostener en brazos a la chica de cara ovalada the lanky boy in his college-logo T-shirt. al chico larguirucho en camiseta de la Uni.

Who invents the stories we have to live ¿Quién inventa las historias que tenemos que vivir? following them to the final sentence? Siguiéndolas hasta la frase final.

The train sliced through the countryside El tren surcaba los campos the murderous soft earth la blanda tierra asesina the yielding open heart. el corazón abierto que cede.

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Achill Killeen Achill Killeen

1. 1. Early morning . Muy de mañana. The holiday cottages across the bay are tired Las casitas de veraneo al otro lado de la bahía from rowing all night through the surf están cansadas tras haber remado toda la noche and lay their oars aside. contra el oleaje y dejan a un lado sus remos.

Far out between two rocks the sun opens Lejos de la orilla el sol abre una puerta azul entre dos a blue door and ushers a trawler and crew rocas y acompaña un arrastrero y su tripulación into the glittering high rise of the day. hasta la torre resplandeciente del día.

2. 2. A tortoiseshell butterfly leads me Una ninfálida me lleva hasta donde to where the waves unravel all over the sand. las olas se desenredan en la arena. It is a scrap of the lost map Con sus alas marrones of the island blown here and there de delicadas delineaciones negras with its brown wings es un fragmento del mapa perdido de la isla and delicate black delineations. a la merced del viento.

3. 3. I stand in a field above the sea strewn with pieces En un campo que da al mar me quedo of white quartz mirando los esparcidos pedazos de cuarzo blanco each marking a child's grave. que señalan cada uno la tumba de un niñito.

The stones are bright lamps lifted Las piedras son relucientes lámparas out from the earth and placed desenterradas y colocadas on a makeshift altar: en un altar improvisado

The old gods have come down Los antiguos dioses han bajado from the mountains de las cumbres to watch over the field in pity and silence. para vigilar compasivamente el campo en silencio.

4. 4. The children had slipped out of reach Los niños se escabullieron tan de prisa and into the earth so fast para esconderse debajo de la tierra their names were not written on stone. que las lápidas no llevan sus nombres.

But the young parents who knelt Pero los jóvenes padres arrodillados en la ladera on the hillside knew them by heart - los sabían de memoria – grief they were called, loss and anguish . aflicción se llamaban, pérdida y angustia.

5. 5. All day a mild wind rakes the grass Todo el día una brisa leve rastrilla el pasto and the clouds rush their cargo y las nubes despachan su cargamento de aves of birds eastwards. hacia Oriente. All day my feet go here and there – all day my heart Todo el día mis pies deambulan – todo el día mi wants to stand still. corazón quiere estar quieto.

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The walk-in heart El corazón de estar

In the Trans-Alpine struggling uphill En la subida afanosa del transalpino to Brennero hasta Brennero our compartment door kept sliding open un pequeño clic marcaba cada vez and shut again with a small click: el vaivén de la puerta al cerrarse The day outside had trained its wide-angle lens Afuera el día nos apuntaba con su gran angular on us.

A snow-covered book lay open beyond the Más allá de las ventanas las coníferas windows imprimían sus nombres en la página abierta de into which conifers printed their names, a un libro nevado, un texto cuneiforme llegaba cuneiform text hasta la despejada blancura cumbreña. Cual as far as the timber line. From three chimneys dobladillo enrollado de vestiduras santas subía smoke rose into the sky scrolled as the hems el humo de tres chimeneas al cielo –Asunción of saintly garments – a threefold assumption. triplicada.

In the strip show of mirrors above our seats Los espejos nos brindaban un striptease de peaks swung round and orbited away from us, cumbres en órbita que giraban coquetas, viaducts receded on stilts, alejándose, acercándose. Viaductos zancudos lakes lay still under the greenish sheen of retrocedían, lagos yacían inertes bajo el marble. marmóreo lustre verdoso.

I was neither here nor there, felt as though Y yo ni aquí ni allá, como si un lenguaje a strange language was drifting through me. extraño me recorriera toda, sin prisa. Cada Each word weighed less than a breath. The vocablo pesaba menos de un soplo. engine pounded and pounded as it climbed El motor palpitaba, palpitaba al subir, como si higher as though aspiring to gain on some quisiera alcanzar alguna trascendencia unquestionable transcendence. indiscutible

It was as set in its purpose as the heart Era tan inalterable como ese corazón in a Chicago museum inside which dentro del cual estuve hace tiempo en un I had stood and listened a long time ago. museo de Chicago, escuchando.

At the last stop before dark En la última parada antes de que anocheciera border guards verified us. The night rose los guardias fronterizos nos verificaron. La slowly like water. noche subía lentamente como agua. Nosotros We speeded downhill nos precipitamos cuesta abajo dejando atrás past platforms with unspellable names. Towns andenes de nombres indescifrables. En el tenue spread their brocaded ribbons across the plain lucir de sus escoldos las ciudades despliegaron glimmered and dissolved in a bowl sus cintas de brocado en la llanura antes de full of blackness. disolverse en un cuenco de oscuridad.

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The drowned book El libro ahogado

Hidden in a cave of leaves Escondida en una cueva de hojas I spent my childhood reading high above en el jardín, pasé mi infancia leyendo the garden’s afternoon ritual muy por arriba del rito de la tarde

where the lion of summer snored donde el león del verano roncaba under the table and coffee was served. debajo de la mesa y se servía el café. Letters followed one another Una tras otra, como hormigas negras, black and ant-like across the page forming words, las letras cruzaban la página, formando palabras, a trail of sweetness towards a major key una senda de dulzura hacia una tonalidad mayor that smelled of sailors and apples from China. que olía a marineros y a manzanas chinas.

The goddess of silence lived in the garden La diosa del silencio moraba en el jardín and her sisters Forgetting and Invention, y sus hermanas, el Olvido y la Invención, severas, stern, calico-clad, laurel-wreathed, vestidas de calicó, coronadas con hojas de laurel,

weaving pictograms into durable snares, tejían armadijos duraderos con pictogramas, Assyrian, hook and braid, stone jug, owl, asirios, gancho y trenza, jarra de piedra, buho, water pot, ibis, fox fur. cántaro de agua, ibis, piel de zorro.

I was hooked, lost to the world, my mother’s call, Estaba enganchada, perdida al mundo, a mi madre my brothers’ games, que me llamaba, a los juegos de mis hermanos, football, hide and seek. Poems ignited in my heart. el fútbol, el escondite. Poemas se encendían en mi corazón.

They were a freshly opened jar Eran un frasquito de condimentos of condiments, a planet-cluster settling on a gate recién abierto, un racimo de planetas posando a snowdrift piling up. en una puerta, la nieve que se amontonaba.

I would read till dawn. Leía hasta el amanecer. My father would catch me Mi padre me sorprendía a las cuatro at four with the light still on. con la luz aún prendida.

I’d been to the sources of night and found Había alcanzado las fuentes de la noche y the magic book encontrado el libro mágico the sorcerer Prospero had drowned. Próspero, el hechicero, se había ahogado.

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Snow story Cuento niveo

If I could have one wish it would be Si se me concediera un sólo deseo to have been born two or three pediría haber nacido hace dos o tres hundred years earlier in Japan. siglos en Japón

I would adopt a new name: Adoptaría otro nombre:

Banano o Tintero Azul, Banana Tree or Blue Ink Pot, o incluso Taza de Té. or even Cup of Tea. Hablaría con grillos y golondrinas I would talk to crickets and swallows sabiendo que la Vía Láctea knowing that the Milky Way se refleja en sus ojos, también. was reflected in their eyes, too. Me echaría a los caminos, acaso, I might take to the road, ese que va al Norte, Norte the one to the Deep North o viviría apartada quejándome or live in seclusion complaining de las muchas visitas of too many visitors. Estudiaría cómo un árbol I would study how a tree representa lo que es y nada más stands for itself and nothing else y trataría de aprender de ello and try to learn from it. Enseñaría cosas importantes I would teach important things como el ideograma por “rana bien educada” like ideograms, meaning “polite frog” o “caracol que sube el Monte Fuji”. or “snail climbing Mount Fuji”. En mis errancias repararía las correas de mis On my wanderings I would fix my broken sandal sandalias rotas o mi mochilita rajada thongs or tears in my knapsack, escuchando las cancionetas de los insectos. listening to the small songs of the insects. Al final de mi vida me hallaría, tal vez, At the end of my life I might find myself viviendo sola en un granero alone living in a grain store with snow donde la nieve caería por los huecos del techo. falling through holes in the roof.

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Litany for the Pig Letanía por el cerdo

Sorrowful pale brother, sister sacrificed Pálido hermano afligido, hermana sacrificada countless times. incontables veces. Your name, sullied, dragged through the mud Alabado sea for thousands of years be praised. tu milenariamente ensuciado nombre. Most generous of all creatures - you give yourself totally. Criatura más generosa - te entregas enteramente.

Noble pig, pig undefiled, pig beloved by many nations, Cerdo noble, cerdo puro, cerdo querido de muchas naciones, immaculate pig. cerdo inmaculado. Once you reigned in the chestnut forest, Los castaños del bosque eran tu reino, the closed garden of purity, slim-flanked, bristling el jardín cerrado de la pureza. with energy in your dark pelt, a wrathful and Esbelto, chispeando de energía en tu piel morena, padre protective parent of striped princelings. iracundo y protector de principitos rayados.

Savant and highpriest, worshipped and devout, Erudito sacerdote, venerado y devoto, you trotted over the tiles of sunken temples as swiftly pisabas tan velozmente las baldosas de templos sumergidos as through the grounds of airy, leafy dominions. como las amplias arboledas de parques reales. The earth took you into soft, miry arms, rocked you La tierra te estrechaba entre sus suaves brazos enlodados, te in warm ponds, gave up to you only its black, mecía en tibios estanques, solo a ti entregaba su negra buried wonder, the rotting velvet of the truffle. maravilla enterrada, el terciopelo putrescente de la trufa.

You were mother of cunning and kindness when you Ligero como Ariel llegaste, arrived - an emissary from great distance, light as Ariel, madre de la astucia y la bondad, lejano emisario, your body the simple curving line los ojos llenos de ingenio y conocimientos de otros mundos. and firmness of a waterjug, Tu cuerpo la sencilla línea curva, your eyes full of wit and knowledge of other worlds. y la firmeza de un cántaro.

The word made flesh you dwelt among us. But we Vivías entre nosotros, palabra encarnada. Pero no queríamos closed our ears to your message. The deaf president escuchar tu mensaje. Ni el presidente sordo didn't hear, nor the philopher of the taverns, not the oyó, ni el filósofo de las tabernas, soldier, nor the professor ni el soldado, ni el profesor. And now it's too late. You were free Ahora es demasiado tarde. Eras libre, so we crushed you. We insulted you with our refuse y por eso te aplastamos. A ti, acostumbrado a la bellota y a you who were used to acorn and chestnut, wild sage and la castaña, a la salvia y al tomillo, thyme. te insultábamos con nuestros desperdicios. You had to become like us, naked, fearful, degraded. Tenías que parecerte a nosotros, desnudos, miedosos, We turned you into a swelling grotesque, squashed you degradados. Te convertimos en una caricatura grutesca, into stinking prisons to breed generations of slaves apretujada en prisiones hediondas para que criases tore you limb from limb and devoured you, silent lamb generaciones de esclavos, te descuartizamos y te devoramos, to the slaughter - we have broken your heart. mudo borrego al matadero - te partimos el corazón.

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Letter from the Danube Carta del Danubio

"This year the swallows didn't arrive. «Este año no llegaron las golondrinas. I wonder what might be the cause of that." ¿Porqué sería?» Richard Wall Richard Wall

Always perfectly timed when the sun strikes up its fanfare Siempre al momento justo cuando el sol empieza su fanfarría and the river flows broad and calm between green banks, y el río corre ancho y tranquilo entre orillas verdes, when orchards stand sunstruck for days in a slow white hum en días del lento zumbido blanco de vergeles insolados and vineyards and cornfields wait for a breeze to stir their music, cuando viñedos y trigales esperan que el viento despierte su música, that's when the swallows return. Out of the blue first one del cielo azul vienen bajando las golondrinas. En un poste o en un then a second envoy materialises on poles and wires alambre se materializa el primer enviado, luego el segundo to scout the familiar haunts, then the rank and file close para reconocer los lugares predilectos, luego la tropa en masa , behind them pour from a gap in the sky, down and down, hecha al viaje, bajando, bajando de un hueco en el cielo, fan out over the field, travel-worn, brisk, full of chat se despliega en abanico por el campo, enérgica, parlanchina, as you, too, would be, safe and at rest, at last como cualquiera, salva y sana después de un viaje por salinas y after a journey across salt deserts, man-made desiertos, trampas humanas y la noche de yacimientos petrolíferos en traps and the night of flaming oil fields with no other guide llamas, guiadas sólo but your small tough heart and a memory fixed bright as a star por sus corazoncitos endurecidos y un recuerdo luminoso fijado como chart in your mind. The swallows are back. Each spring una carta astral en sus memorias. Han vuelto las golondrinas. Cada I welcome them from the bridge, reassured, even relieved. primavera les doy la bienvenida desde el puente, tranquilizada, incluso But this year the airstrips and stop-overs aliviada. Pero este año las pistas de aterrizaje y las escalas entre between stable and hay barns are empty. cuadras y heniles están vacías. Los niditos de adobe, como estuco Little adobe nests stuck into ceiling nooks desmoronado, metidos en los recovecos del techo – vacíos. Los pasillos like crumbling stucco – empty. Pub hallways where swallows de las tabernas donde las golondrinas entraban y salían swung in and out to feed their young, Aztec house clusters para dar de comer a sus crías, los grupos de casitas aztecas fijados con mortared with swallow spit and glued to rafters of grain lofts- saliva de golondrina y pegados a las vigas de los graneros – silenciosos all are silent. On flyways above elders and pines - nothing. todos. En las aerovías arriba de los saúcos y los pinos – nada. Vientos Kite-winds lift off empty-handed. No one scales the steep para cometas despegan sin pasajeros. Nadie escala el cielo empinado de June sky. Where are the swallows, frock-coated mobsters debonair in junio. ¿Dónde están las golondrinas? Gángsteres de levita, gallardas en shirt front and cap, as they scissor through midge-webs pechera y gorrito mientras tijeretean tejidos de mosquitos above the bean rows, or cut across the river in the nick arriba de las filas de judías verdes, o cruzan el río como una exhalación of a storm. Which freak current carried them off course. What toxins mientras la tormenta tome aliento. ¿Qué corriente inesperada les habrá blew their way? Did they drop - little ones first - like cinders desviado de su rumbo? Los pequeñitos primero, ¿Se habrán caído como into the furnace of a desert? Are they still lost drifting cenizas en el horno del desierto? ¿Estarán a la deriva, perdidas en in icy spaces, looking for somewhere to rest? espacios helados, buscando un lugar para descansar? This is a bad year - put on hold till the swallows arrive, looping Este es un mal año, suspendido hasta que lleguen las golondrinas, and sliding together on their breezy slide to their nests and rich trazando rizos y deslizándose juntas en su tobogán ventoso hasta sus mid-air pickings. Till the swallows arrive the heart of the summer nidos y su rico botín en vuelo. Hasta que lleguen las golondrinas el stops beating, the river stands still beneath a plague of flies corazón del verano no late, el río se queda inmóvil bajo una plaga de that waft and breed, a dark spreading cloud, while in the moscas que flota y se reproduce, una oscura nube que se extiende unlit depths the worms fatten. mientras en las profundidades sin iluminar engordan los gusanos.

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THE LATITUDE OF NAPLES LA LATITUD DE NÁPOLES for Eoin para Eoin I 1

With this pen as my eidograph Con este pincel por eidógrafo I draw the map diseño el mapa. the ground plan of power Los planes del poder and the street plan of destruction: el plano de la destrucción: first the central square primero la plaza central with the ducal palace – or what’s left of it, con el palacio ducal – o lo que de ello queda, the fountain doubling as a pillory la fuente que también servía de picota (the irony of the life-giving well (la ironía del pozo vital al lado de los grillos del beside the neck irons of scorn), desprecio), then the North Eastern road después la calle noreste leading across the New Bridge – que atraviesa el Puente Nuevo – now out of service – ya fuera de servicio – from which you can see Black Island de donde se ve la Isla Negra with the Leper’s tower, con la Torre de los Leprosos, straight to St. Andrew’s Fortress. derecho hasta la fortaleza de San Andrés.

I sketch the arsenal with its tall oak gates Bosquejo el arsenal con sus altas puertas de roble y and tiny apertures high up in the South wall. las minúsculas aberturas en lo alto de la muralla The river loops around the old city castle meridional. El río da la vuelta al viejo castillo de la 19 times ransacked and now in ruins ciudad 19 veces saqueado y ahora en ruinas, no however, underground passages and casemates obstante, pasajes subterráneos y fortificaciones might still have some use. todavía podrían servir para algo.

The wall existed not so much La muralla existía no tanto to protect the inhabitants para proteger a los habitantes but to prevent them como para impedirles from exiting without a pass. de salir sin permiso.

The only gate, the Gate of Persuasion, La única puerta, la de la Persuasión, is surmounted with a fine tympanum está coronada por un tímpano depicting the rhetorical arts in marble. que representa las artes retóricas en mármol.

Maybe they talked themselves to death inside Tal vez de puro palabrear hayan muerto ahí dentro, once the gate was locked forever cuando se cerró con llave la puerta para siempre y and no one came out or went in. nunca salió ni entró más nadie.

I draw the avenue from the ducal palace Dibujo la avenida del palacio ducal to the citadel overlooking the city hasta la ciudadela que da a la ciudad ( which is even more fortified (aún más fortificada que muchos de los edificios than many of the municipal buildings), municipales), then the two graveyards – entonces los dos cementerios - de antaño once strictly segregated according to religion- estrictamente segregados según la religión – with their countless tombstones con sus innumerables lápidas sepulcrales and blackened inscriptions e inscripciones ennegrecidas and last of all taking special care y al final, con mucho cuidado dibujo un nido de I draw a swallow’s nest with five nestlings golondrina con cinco polluelos under the eaves of the gravedigger’s hut. debajo del alero de la choza del sepulturero.

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II II

The first time you brought me La primera vez to your room que me llevaste a tu pieza we were islanded aterrizamos en la isla on your coral bed de tu cama de coral lying in each other’s arms abrazados in the ear of the night en el oído de la noche on tidal waves of jazz sobre maremotos de jazz and street noise y rumores callejeros dreaming of bays soñando bahías interlaced with rigging and masts entrelazados con el aparejo y los mástiles till the sun rose, bakers in white hasta que amaneciera, por toda la ciudad mounted their bikes all over the city panaderos de blanco se subieron a sus bicicletas y and a clear pathway led una senda despejada conducía as far as the latitude of Naples hasta la latitud de Nápoles and along the old silk road y por la antigua ruta de la seda to Samarkand hasta Samarcanda

III III

There it is / closed now / Ahí está / cerrado ahora / tenía alas/ cantaba had wings once / sang armaba líos / vivía arriba de la tierra / hacía nidos caused trouble / lived overground decía palabrotas / mentía /pesado como piedra built nests / swore / lied rico como piedra /duro como piedra /cabía en una stone heavy / stone rich / stone hard mano / tenía dedos / tenía uno igualito fit into a hand once / had fingers once tenía semillas / semillas como lunas / semillas y held one just like it / had seeds once vocablos / vocablos y sintaxis / lenguaje de hueso seeds like moons / seeds and words lenguaje de ala / no ahora words and syntax / bone language / wing language puertas y contraventanas cerradas not now / shut down / and shuttered tenía luz / veía had light once / saw tenía sonido / oía had sound once / heard se queda quieto ahora / sordo como piedra / ciego lies still now / stone deaf / stone blind como piedra

IV IV

Since the musicians moved in Desde que se instalaron los músicos love was declared in our street se declaró el amor en nuestra calle turtledoves appeared in the trees aparecieron tórtolas en los árboles Debbie put on her dancing shoes Debbie se pusó los zapatos para bailar the heron returned from out of town volvió la garza de su viaje sailed in with blue sails. izadas las velas azules.

V V

No matter where we went Adondequiera que fuésemos you read the cities tú leías las ciudades in the palm of your hand. en la palma de tu mano. With you I trusted again Contigo confié de nuevo in the tortuous paths en los senderos tortuosos through iron gardens a través de jardines de hierro and temples whose roots y templos cuyas raíces grew from reptile cages. crecieron de jaulas para reptiles. One look at the map Te bastaba mirar una vez el mapa and you knew your way y ya conocías el camino

70 UNJUSTIFIABLE TEXT between silk routes entre rutas de seda and golden gates. y puertas de oro.

You sent word from Ninive Mandaste una señal desde Nínive where the light donde la luz lay imprisoned between yew trees. quedaba encarcelada entre tejos.

Below ghetto walls Bajo los muros del ghetto when darkness erupted cuando estalló la oscuridad you brought me hot mutton soup. me trajiste sopa de carne de oveja

Salt winds and Spain Vientos salados y España delante lay like a beating red heart como un rojo corazón palpitante in an ultramarine bowl. en un cuenco azul turquí.

Persia, a prayer rug spread over a desert Persia, una manta devocionaria cubriendo un crossed by the nonchalant stride desierto que camellos impasibles atraviesan a of the camel. zancadas.

Near Ararat we threw driftwood Cerca de Ararat echamos madera de deriva en la into the iron stove, warmed ourselves estufa de hierro, nos calentamos with waterpipe smoke. con el humo del narguile.

We followed the 53 stations Seguimos las 53 estaciones of the East Sea Road del Higashiumimichi and it was still raining in Shonu. y todavía llovía en Shonu.

Worlds travelled through us, Mundos viajaron a través de nosotros, you took me downtown at night to music por la noche me llevaste al centro para escuchar played on blue keyboards. música tocada en teclados azules.

NOTES FROM HENRY STREET APUNTES DESDE HENRY STREET (end of October) (finales de octubre) with apologies to Montale con disculpas a Montale

Gales that played wild and loose all night Vendavales que toda la noche brincaron con la with rubbish in the street and flung plastic forks basura de la calle y tenedores de plástico tirados like confetti round the garden have died away to como confeti por el jardín se han amainado al son the hum of Astra and Toyotas on wet tarmac. de Astras y Toyotas sobre el alquitranado mojado. There are worm-eaten floorboards in my room El tablado de mi pieza está carcomido and from the kitchen comes the smell of burning y de la cocina sube un olor a pan quemado. toast. Non-stop rain blows in from the sea Del mar sopla incesante la lluvia por esta calle del along this street of Club Paradiso, sex shop Club Paradiso, sex shop más Casino, pasa plus Casino, drifts past FOR SALE signs, past despacito por los carteles EN VENTA, por los the latest appartment block’s rain-black walls, muros color de lluvia negra del último edificio silvering my window with salt, nuevo, plateando mi ventana de sal, and I write to you from this remote table, y te escribo desde esta mesa lejana, the cubicle, the satellite thrown into space – el camarillo, el satélite arrojado al espacio – and the silent TV, the fireplace y el televisor silencioso,la chimenea with its dusting of ashes, the veins polvorienta de cenizas, las venas de baba de babosa of slug slime and mold are the setting y moho son la escena which soon you will be coming home de tu próxima vuelta a casa. to. These days as I invent the narrative Estos días, mientras invento la narrativa de mi vida of my life are full of bluster and no chance son rafagosos, y ni se vislumbra una salida para of an escape to gentler zones in sight. zonas más amenas. Your photo’s on my wall – your smile lights Tu foto está en la pared – tu sonrisa ilumina mi up my room.It’s raining cats and dogs outside. pieza. Afuera llueve a cántaros.

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WASHING MY MOTHER LAVANDO A MI MADRE

I 1

Grass grow over me Hierba cúbreme bridge let me fall puente déjame caer cloud come and hide me – nube ven a esconderme – my mother’s long hair el pelo largo de mi madre was cut off by nurses fue cortado por enfermeras too busy to brush it. demasiado ocupadas para cepillarlo.

Vein flow for me Vena corre por mí heart pump for me corazón late por mí eye close for me – ojos ciérrense por mí – they stabbed their scalpels apuñalaron a mi madre en la columna into my mother’s spinal cord. con sus bisturíes.

Door dismiss me Puerta échame syringe stitch an exit for me jeringa sutúrame una salida stairs be my catapult escalera sé mi catapulta mortuary shine with your tiles for me – depósito de cadáveres que brillen sus baldosas para they didn’t give my mother the time mí so she could say goodbye. a mi madre no le dieron tiempo para despedirse.

Herr Doktor, pronounce your judgement. Herr Doktor, pronuncie su sentencia Frau Doktor, take half the pain. Frau Doktor, tome la mitad del dolor. Fräulein Schwester, share out the sorrow. Señorita enfermera, divida el penar.

II II

Mother of quince Madre de membrillo mother of rosehips madre de escaramujos mother of sweet pockets madre de bolsillos dulces mother of narrow gauge railway timetables madre de horarios de ferrocarriles miniaturas mother of starch and cambric madre de almidón y cambray mother of Bohemian winds madre de vientos bohemios mother of algebra madre de álgebra mother of bicycles madre de bicicletas mother of hypotenuses madre de hipotenusas mother of sonatinas madre de sonatinas mother of clove, feather and milk madre de clavos de olor, pluma y leche mother of Greek syntax madre de sintaxis griega mother of buttercups madre de ranúnculos mother of winter trams madre de tranvías invernales mother of rivermeadows madre de praderas ribereñas mother of camomile madre de manzanilla mother of yeastcakes madre de bizcochitos de levadura mother of original mildness madre de dulzura original mother of blue crockery madre de loza azul mother of the final house madre de la casa final

III III

When she died, Cuando se murió the mountains las montañas lakes, forests around her house, los lagos, las selvas alrededor de su casa, the fuchsia bushes los arbustos de fucsia she had tended, all went silent que ella cuidaba, se callaron todos and the lampshades y las pantallas de las lámparas filled with butterfly husks. se llenaron de cáscaras de mariposa.

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the last imprint of her fingers La última impresión de sus dedos on her soap – en su jabón – the last imprint of her head La última impresión de su cabeza on her pillow – en su almohada – through the windows A través de las ventanas darkness flooded the room, la oscuridad inundó la pieza, the morning came to her bed too late. la mañana llegó demasiado tarde a su cama. The world had been adjourned. Se había suspendido el mundo.

IV IV

After I’d undressed her Cuando le quité la ropa she lay before me like a child, se quedó como una niña delante de mí, without shame, her body still and bare. sin vergüenza, su cuerpo quieto y descubierto. I’d never seen her naked before Nunca la había visto desnuda and was full of fear. y me llené de miedo. There was a basin of warm water Había una palangana de agua tibia so nothing cold would touch her para que no le tocase nada frío and a bar of her special scented soap. y una pastilla de su jabón perfumado especial. Outside the summer ran Afuera el verano through one artful colour se pintaba en perpetuas scheme after another. transmutaciones cromáticas. The hills lay calm and blue Las colinas estaban tranquilas y azules in the late afternoon light en la luz crepuscular and a breeze through the window y por la ventana entró una brisa fingered and brushed the curtains aside. que acariciaba y apartaba las cortinas. A slip of a day moon idled slowly by. Indolente pasó una chiquilina lunita diurna. I washed her then, her silent face, La lavé entonces, su cara callada, lifting the strands of hair levantando las trenzas the busy nurses had cut short, cortadas por las enfermeras tan ocupadas, her neck, her throat, el cuello, la garganta. I washed the ribbed vault of her chest, Lavé las costillas abovedadas de su pecho, flat as a young girl’s como los de una muchachita her shrunken breasts. los senos encogidos. She was so thin Estaba tan delgada the bones showed singly que los huesos se distinguían uno por uno underneath the skin. debajo de la piel. I’d never known she’d wasted so away. No me había dado cuenta Where did I have my eyes? que tanto se había consumido. How did she manage to disguise ¿Dónde tenía yo los ojos? this so well? I touched ¿Cómo logró disfrazarlo tan bien? where a fracture’d mended Toqué una fractura badly in her collar bone, mal repuesta en la clavícula, the white seam of a scar. la costura blanca de una cicatriz. I washed her stomach, Lavé su estómago, el huequito del ombligo, the navel’s recess, her pelvis, el generoso cuenco poco profundo its generous shallow bowl. I felt del pelvis. her skin smooth as suede, Sentí su piel, suave como ante, rosewood, cool as water, crinkled palisandro, fresco como agua, arrugada and fine as crêpe de chine. y fina como crespón de China. I washed with reverence Lavé con reverencia the gentle rise la suave vertiente of her pubis, her sex now hairless del Monte de Venus, su sexo ya sin pelo washed her secret flesh, lavé su carne secreta, her gaunt flanks and thighs. los descarnados muslos y costados.

We had changed places, she and I. Habíamos cambiado de lugar, ella y yo.

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For the first time I did Por primera vez hice para ella for her what without question lo que ella tantas veces había hecho tan she had often done for me. naturalmente para mí. And yet despite her silence she Y con todo, a pesar de su silencio ella commanded everything, still taught dominaba todo, me enseñaba me as she once had about life como antes, de la vida all that she knew of death. todo lo que sabía de la muerte. Her eyes lay deep below Los párpados redondeados cubrían sus ojos their rounded lids. en las órbitas caídas. Her mouth was soft and calm. Su boca era suave y tranquila. I dressed her then, the air was warm La vestí entonces, el aire del atardecer estaba and summer evening blue. templado y azul veraniego.

The poet in his seventies takes out the 17 colours El poeta a los setenta saca los 17 colores of water and paints a winding road by the sea del agua y pinta un camino que serpentea al lado a blue-slated house with a narrow green del mar, una casa de pizarras azules con una staircase and a window sill on which two apples estrecha escalerita verde y un alféizar donde dos and three oranges lavish manzanas y tres naranjas regalan el mundo con su their scent on the world he paints perfume pinta a door that leads into a tree at the back of the la puerta de un árbol al fondo del jardín garden la puerta de un muro de piedra a door into a stone wall a door into the sea – la puerta del mar - all wide open – he paints todas abiertas de par en par – pinta the liturgy of the wind near a lake and the reeds’ la liturgia del viento cerca de un lago y la respuesta murmured response he paints murmurada de los juncos pinta a few boys playing in a field as the light throws algunos chicos que están jugando en un campo its arms around them he paints mientras los abraza la luz pinta the hoofbeats of a brown foal los trancos de un potrillo pardo on a Gloucestershire meadow he paints en un prado del Gloucestershire pinta the most beautiful word in Russian he paints la palabra más hermosa en ruso pinta the violated body of the synagogue he paints el cuerpo ultrajado de la sinagoga pinta his own heart which never ages su propio corazón que nunca jamás envejece returned from the sun-lit canals of Haarlem volvió de los canales asoleados de Haarlem from nights in the garden of longing de noches en el jardín del anhelo the garden of revelry el jardín de la jarana its tremor sets the glasses a – tinkle on his table he los vasos de su mesa tintinean con su temblor pinta paints las extrañas melodías salvajes de Catalunya pinta the strange wild melodies of Cataluña he paints libros en donde las palabras duermen books in which words lie asleep arrolladas en sus sombras, otras curled around their own shadows, others que salen de la página e inundan el mundo that rise from the pages and stream into the world con el crujido de la seda pinta with the rustle of silk he paints anaqueles, cuadros, fotografías llenas de su bookshelves, paintings, photographs filled extrañeza familiar, pinta with their familiar strangeness, he paints a sí mismo sentado en su silla las manos en el himself seated in his chair his hands resting in his regazo lap las manos que ayudan a arreglar his hands that help to straighten out el desorden del mundo con ternura the world’s disarray with tenderness y una elegante letra ordenada. and a tidy elegant script.

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ROZHINKES MIT MANDLEN ROZHINKES MIT MANDLEN I wanted at least to preserve their faces. Quería por lo menos conservarles las caras Roman Vishniak, photographer Roman Vishniak, fotógrafo.

Yidele, Motl, Avrem, Yídele, Motl, Avrem, Yankele, Tsipele, Sarah, Yánkele, Tsipele, Sara, where did they take you? ¿adónde los llevaron?

*** *** Aunt Fini wears her pearl earrings La tía Fini tiene puestos sus aretes de perlas she sits at the head of the table. está sentada en la cabecera next to her Uncle Moishe, A su lado el tío Moisés, then Aron, then Mother después Aron, después Mamá and on the other side my cousin the beautiful y del otro lado mi prima la hermoza Sarah Sara with her arm around me. que me tiene abrazada. We don’t look at the camera because No miramos la máquina fotográfica porque es it is the Seder evening Seder we are hungry tenemos hambre and there is fish soup in the pot. y hay sopa de pescado en la olla. the tin mug hanging on a nail El tazón de estaño colgado en un clavo behind Aunt Fini was my father’s atrás de la tía Fini era de mi padre but he’s gone I don’t know where. mas se ha ido a no sé dónde.

*** *** On the steps to the shop En la escalinata de la tienda two best friends – dos mejores amigos – pigtails and blond curls trenzas negras y rizos rubios a ragged woollen coat harapienta chaqueta de lana a dirty pinafore – mugroso delantal sharing lemon drops compartiendo pastillitas de limón in the July heat en la canícula de julio.

*** *** My father is a locksmith Mi padre es cerrajero And works at home. y trabaja en casa. When he fixes a lock Cuando repara una cerradura he wears his working cap lleva puesto su gorrito para trabajar and I wear mine y yo el mío because I help him porque lo ayudo all the time. siempre.

We have two beds En la habitación with carved crests tenemos dos camas standing in our room, de cabecera tallada, one for the six children una para los seis hijos one for Dad and Mum. una para Papá y Mamá.

*** *** On Sabbath I wear El Sábado me pongo my coat with the fur collar mi abrigo con cuello de piel and two buttons y dos botones as big as a five crown piece, grandes como monedas de cinco coronas, my brother Joshele has brushed his locks, mi hermano, Yóshele se ha cepillado las trenzas he carries the holy book. lleva el libro sagrado.

*** *** One – nut – empty Una - nuez - hueca two - twins – gone dos - mellizos – partidos three – coins – spent tres – monedas – gastadas

75 UNJUSTIFIABLE TEXT four – wheels – broken cuatro – ruedas – rotas five – fingers – burnt cinco – dedos – quemados six – children – gassed seis – niños – asfixiados seven – gathered – lost siete – juntados – perdidos eight – think straight – wept ocho – ideas claras – lloraron nine – degrees – froze nueve – grados – se congelaron ten – seeing men – killed diez – videntes – matados eleven – a body – hurt once – un cuerpo – lastimado twelve – a clock – stopped doce – un reloj – parado thirteen – whips – lashed trece – látigos – azotaron fourteen – stitches – cut catorce – puntadas – cortadas fifteen – years – died quince – años – muertos

*** *** Only Motl has shoes Sólo Motl tiene zapatos so he must be the horse así tiene que ser él el caballo Yossi holds the reins Yossi tiene las riendas and I hold Yossi’s hand. y yo le tengo la mano a Yossi.

*** *** Grandmother knows the best stories La abuela conoce las mejores historias how the angel came to Tobias cómo llegó el ángel a Tobías how Lot’s wife turned to salt cómo la esposa de Lot se salpetrificó and how the sheaves of wheat y cómo las gavillas de trigo, dispuestas en un standing in a circle bowed to Joseph. círculo se inclinaron delante de José. When she holds me in her arms Cuando me tiene en sus brazos and calls me her maedele y me llama su médele I feel so good and warm. me siento tan bien y calentita.

*** My father is a shoemaker Mi padre es zapatero his name is Adam Mandelbaum. su nombre es Adán Almendro. My mother’s called Mirjam Mandelbaum Mi madre se llama María Almendro and I am Felix Mandelbaum. y yo soy Félix Almendro. The almond tree is the most beautiful tree. El almendro es el árbol más hermozo I saw one once in a garden in Lodz. Una vez en Lodz vi uno en un jardín. I am six years old Tengo seis años I like to sing me gusta cantar and eat raisins and almonds. y comer pasitas con almendras.

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THE LAST HOUSE LA ÚLTIMA CASA

after Rainer Maria Rilke según Rainer María Rilke

No matter who you are, when evening comes Quienquiera que seas, al atardecer get up and leave your room with the familiar levántate y deja tu pieza con las cosas things, scattered books, photographs familiares, libros esparcidos, fotografías pinned to the shelves, clavadas en los estantes no matter who you are. quienquiera que seas.

And as you step outside into a lively scene Y al salir a la escena animada of buildings, people, traffic rushing past, de edificios, gente, tráfico apurado it strikes you that your house is the last se te ocurre que después de tu casa before the empty distances begin, empiezan las lejanías vacías. and though you’re tired beyond words, y aunque estés indeciblemente fatigado your eyes too tired to lift themselves across con los ojos demasiado cansados para levantarse the busy threshold of your house, al umbral animado de tu casa yet they will slowly raise aloft a tree todavía erigirán despacio un árbol and place it standing straight against the sky, y lo colocarán derecho contra el cielo, black, slim and solitary, negro, menudo y solitario. and you have made the world anew, y has recreado el mundo and it is vast and silent, y es vasto y silencioso a word picked early as a fruit una palabra cosechada temprano that’s left to ripen in the sun. como una fruta madura al sol.

But at the moment when Pero en ese momento, cuando you think you’ve understood crees haber comprendido what it all means, your eyes el significado de todo, tus ojos let go of it again lo sueltan de nuevo with tenderness. con ternura.

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FROM SALOME OF LURIA’S LEXICON DEL LÉXICO DE HIERBAS, ESPECIES Y OF HERBS, SPICES AND CURES CURAS DE SALOMÉ DE LURIA

O Lychorida, bid Nestor bring me spices, ink and O, Licórida, pedidle a Néstor que me traiga paper. especies, tinta y papél. Shakespeare, Pericles, Prince of Tyre, III,1 Shakespeare, Péricles, Príncipe de Tiro, III, I

Indeed, Sir, she was the sweet marjoram of the En verdad, Señor, ella era la mejorana de la salad, or rather, the herb of grace ensalada, o más bien, la hierba de la Gracia. Shakespeare, All’s Well That Ends Well, IV, 5 Shakespeare, Bien es, lo que bien acaba, IV, 5

There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance; pray, Hay romero, para la memoria; te ruego , mi amor, love, remember: acuérdate: Shakespeare, Hamlet, IV,V Hamlet a Ofelia, IV,V

Arrowroot Arrurruz

An envelope arrived today by post Hoy llegó por correo un sobre from the Americas de las Américas containing a powder which que contenía un polvo que when mixed with red wine from Castile al mezclarse con vino tinto de Castilla will make a poultice to draw the poison se convierte en una cataplasma from any love- para sacar el veneno de cualquier corazón wounded heart herido de amor

Basil Albahaca

In groups of two, three, a dozen En grupos de dos, tres, una docena happiness leaves hojas de la felicidad they lodge in the spring garden se hospedan en el jardín primaveral mothers of seven madres de siete below the roof of my mouth debajo del paladar love’s lettuce la lechuga del amor searching for the taste of truth buscando el sabor de la verdad king’s wort raíz real with fragrant fingertips. de las yemas perfumadas

Caraway Alcaravea

Intoxicant of northlands, Embriagador del Norte sickle moon in forests crossed luna de hoz en selvas cruzadas and recrossed by thirsty reindeer herds y recruzadas por sedientas manadas de renos on the way to the cisterns of knowledge. rumbo a las cisternas del conocimiento.

Cardamom Cardamomo

Black grains crushed between my teeth, Granos negros machacados por mis dientes the eye in the needle of flavour el ojo de la aguja del sabor opens wide – se abre de par en par – enter and tongue the bright mouth. entra y toca la boca iluminada con tu lengua

Coriander Cilantro

I remember a thoroughbred outside every house Me acuerdo delante de cada casa in the village of Wadi Musa, en el pueblo de Wadi Musa, un pura sangre high-spirited, pawing the ground, piafando la tierra con ánimos, men in a circle on the square un círculo de hombres en la plaza shared hummus and bread, compartía hummus y pita, towards evening dry golden seeds of manna al atardecer llovió de los minaretes rained from the minarets. un maná de secas semillas de oro.

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Cloves Clavo de olor

I‘ve planted a myrtle tree for each child He plantado un mirto para cada hijo and if it flourishes y si florece the child will prosper. el hijo prosperará. From the bark I extracted De la corteza extraje a brown liqueur to sweeten the verse un licor marrón para endulzar el verso recited by my court versifier que susurra al oído de su emperatríz into his empress’ ear. mi versificador cortesano.

Dill Eneldo

My hand secure in the warmth Mi mano segura en la cálida mano de mi abuela, of grandmother’s hand, asiente la pluma de su sombrero. her hat-feather nodding. Nele, neldo – canción de cuna del estío Dilla, dilla – lullaby in high summer, estribillo de los días de sendas de aciano refrain from the days of cornflower paths, canción hierba de pan de conejo, grass song of rabbit’s bread, hierba del amor, hierba del leve temblor, love-grass, woman’s hair, shiver grass. hierba de cabellera de mujer.

Fennel Hinojo

Umbellate blossoms, bloodbespattered, Flores umbelíferas, de sangre salpicadas trampled into the ground pisoteadas as far as the eye can see – hasta donde la vista alcanza – the Battle of Marathon was fought la Batalla de Maratona fue librada on a golden field. en un campo áureo. the warriors’ souls Las almas de los guerreros have shed their bodies se han despojado de sus cuerpos y comen semillas and are eating fennel seeds to restore their vision. de hinojo para recuperar la vista.

Ginger Gengibre

She lives somewhere in the city, Vive en algún lugar de la ciudad lost child of the streets, niña perdida de la calle, undertone of pop songs, trasfondo de música pop, unruly heckler spicing our disputes en los cafés condimenta revoltosa in coffee houses nuestras disputas with her zing. con su dzeng.

Juniper Enebro

Bitter scent wafts from oracle caves. Olor amargo flota desde grutas oraculares the black candle wicks Las mechas negras of prophesy burn. de la profecía arden. I watch my step Camino con cuidado on singed ground en la tierra chamuscada. . Mustard Seeds Semillas de Mostaza

Breaking free of the dark earth Liberándose de la tierra oscura they float towards me flotan hacia mí incomparable, munificent, incomparables, munificentes tiny boats bearing green sails. barquitos minúsculos de velas verdes.

Nutmeg Nuez Moscada

I have pounded myristica fragrans in the mortar He molido myristica fragrans en el mortero and ground it into a fine powder but hasta que se convirtiera en un polvo fino pero there’s no knowing what will happen no se puede saber qué ocurrirá

79 UNJUSTIFIABLE TEXT if I administer this to you, my sick lover, si te lo suministro, mi amante enfermo. together with attar of roses con aceite de rosas and hot white wine – y vino blanco caliente – which fevers will I quench ¿cuáles fiebres apagaré? and which rekindle? ¿ y cuáles reavivaré?

Parsley Perejil

Harvested on riverbank allotments Cosechada en huertas ribereñas petroselium – a crisp green froth petraselium espuma verde almidonada which I wind round my sweetheart’s neck que enrollo en el cuello de mi bien amado to keep foul fumes from harming him. para protegerle de humos hediondos. but if he ever cheats on me Pero si jamás me pone los cuernos I’ll pick a sprig and say his name recojo una espiga y lo nombro and he will perish miserably. y perecerá vilmente.

Rosemary Romero

Small flowers recall Florcitas se acuerdan the feathery weight of a cloak de una capa, ligera como pluma que pesa casually draped over this aromatic bush. con desenvoltura sobre este arbusto aromático. So earnest, loving and loyal, Tan serio, cariñoso y leal, aflame with longing, anhelo ardiente blue incense rising from bare rock. incienso azul que sale de la roca desnuda

Saffron Azafrán

One breath is enough, Basta soplar bright between my fingertips, brillante entre mis dedos reverie in the earliest meadows ensueño en los prados más precoces of the year. del año Yellow of such purity Un amarillo de tanta pureza must have been salvaged sólo se conserva from deep beneath the winter grass. muy por debajo del pasto invernal.

Sage Salvia

The goddess enchanted by the perfumes La diosa hechizada por los perfumes of her spring garden quite forgot de su jardín de primavera se olvidó por completo to fill Persephone’s pockets de llenar los bolsillos de Perséfone with the silvery leaves de las hojas plateadas de salvia, hierbamadre, of salvia, the mother herb que le habría protegido contra las picaduras de las which would protect her from the bite of snakes serpientes, y así le picaron y se la llevó el pálido so she was bitten and then carried off to señor de los Infiernos Demeter’s wild grief Deméter inconsolable by the pale master of the underworld. enloquecida de dolor. I chop sage into every dish, my love, Yo meto salvia picada en cada plato, mi amor, to give you strength of mind and body para darte fuerza de cuerpo y de alma and to keep you safe. y para protegerte.

Salt Sal

This old language Esta antigua lengua came from a distant country vino de un país lejano and sailed on the back of a river navegando en el lomo de un río directly towards two goats derecho hacia dos cabras standing beside the water paradas al lado del agua in a field rampant with ferns and brambles, en un campo exuberante de helechos y de zarzas, their coats weave de hilos blancos y de peltre of white and pewter threads tejen sus pieles

80 UNJUSTIFIABLE TEXT luminous among the various greens. luminosas entre los varios verdes.

Star Anise Badiana (Anís Estrellado) children of the stars Hijos de las estrellas wooden rosettes escarapelas de madera turning their minute mill wheels que hacen girar rueditas de molino on the lip of mildness. en el labio de la dulzura.

Sugar Azúcar

Crystals that whisper Cristales que cuchichean rub against each other and melt se frotan unos contra otros y se derriten in reflections of glittering islands. en reflejos de islas centelleantes. How dark the world seems tonight Qué oscuro parece el mundo esta noche seen in their light. A su luz.

Sumac Zumaque

In the bazaar at Aleppo En el bazar de Alepo I hawk the sour fruit of the vinegar tree pregono la fruta agria del árbol del vinagre to fat merchants from Tripoli and Alexandria a mercaderes gordos de Trípoli y Alejandría to tickle their palates para el deleite de sus paladares, their insatiable appetites. sus apetitos insaciables.

I dance for them Bailo para ellos on the steps to the ziggurat en la escalinata del zigurat in sumac yellow, in zaffre blue silk en amarillo de zumaque, en seda azul de zafre till they shower me with gold. hasta que me tiren oro a manojos.

In the dark alleys of Jerusalem En los callejones oscuros de Jerusalén I cure them of their pox los curo de la viruela with pills which I’ve prepared con pastillas que he preparado from poison tree and balsam fir del árbol del veneno y abeto de bálsamo. one scruple each of exudation of berries and resin un escrúpulo cada uno de rezumo de bayas y resina mixed with powdered pokeroot – mezclado con mechoacán en polvo – not easy to come by these days – ya no tan fácil de encontrar - a talent of silver a piece. un talento de plata cada ramillete.

Tarragon .Estragón

Grey Moorish silk, Seda gris morisca, leaf-embroidered tent-roof carpa bordada de hojas of gentle-spoken nomads. de nómadas del habla dulzón. Iridescent fish En las paredes peces irisados sprung from mosaic walls. brotan de los mosaicos.

Za’attar Za’atar

In a garden that sloped down to the sea En un jardín que bajaba al mar I stilled the hungers of my childhood apagué las hambres de mi niñez beneath olive and citrus trees bajo olivos y auranciáceas with freshly baked bread spread with Za’attar con pan recién horneado untado de za’atar broken and passed around from one to another roto y compartido entre todos savour and spice unfolding sabor y especie desplegando their musical scales on my tongue. sus escalas musicales en mi lengua.

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LARS GUSTAFSSON 1 FLICKAN THE GIRL En dag står livet One day life stands milt leende som en flicka softly smiling like a girl plötsligt på den andra sidan utav bäcken suddenly on the far side of the brook och frägar and asks (pä sitt förargliga sätt) (in its annoying way)

Men hur hamnade Du där? But how did you end up there?

II FICHTE VID FOTOGENLAMPAN FICHTE BY THE KEROSENE LAMP När augusti månads mjuka mörker When the month of August’s gentle gloom plötsligt slöt sig suddenly closed in var det som om sjön slog därnere it was as if the lake beat faster med kortare slag, andades annorlunda on the shore below, breathed otherwise okända djur kanske tittade ut ur Strange creatures peeped out perhaps sina hålor i strandkanten. from their waterfront holes. Och fotogenlampan tändes. And the kerosene lamp was lit. Den var som ett litet fyrtorn It was like a tiny lighthouse i olika avsatser av glas och porslin with different landings of porcelain and glass och den heat strömmen av upphettad luft and the hot stream of heated air fick inte komma i gardinen mustn’t go near the curtain mycket noga med detta, careful now aldrig ställa lampan under gardinen. never put the lamp under the curtain. Den gjorde, noga taget, mycken hetta It gave off, to be precise, a lot of heat (skillnaden kändes tydligt I rummet) (the difference in the room was obvious) och litet ljus. Och kring denna lampa flög and little light. And around this lamp flew en arg liten metallblå insekt an angry little metallic blue insect filosofen Fichte hade på något sätt the philosopher Fichte had somehow tagit sig ut ur den tjocka bruna boken found his way out of the thick brown book på bordet, on the table, där han förmodades bo. where he supposedly lived. Kretsade tills lågan tog honom Circled until the flame claimed him. Men då var kvällen slut. But then the evening was over.

III CITYWIDE GARAGE SALE AUSTIN , TEXAS 1998 Gamla mynt och sedlar Old coins and notes Däribland En dollar 1810 Including One dollar 1810 utställd av Mechanical Bank i Saint Louis issued by the Mechanical Bank of Saint Louis En rolig ölsejdel med röd näsa A funny beer tankard with a red nose En medalj från frivilliga brandkåren i Lubbock A medal from Lubbock’s voluntary fire brigade för berömvärda insatser for commendable efforts Ett arbetskort, utfärdat av Tredje Riket A work card made out by the Third Reich för Werner Hoffmann 16 år to Werner Hoffmann 16 tryckerilärling printer’s apprentice Ett implastat exemplar av tidskriften Look A plastic covered copy of the magazine Look med Marilyn Monroe på omslaget with Marilyn Monroe on the cover Två mycket gamla hyvlar Two very old planes säkert hem gjorda, doubtless homemade bruna och något skavda, brown and somewhat scraped med en doft av många långa dagar with a scent of many a long day i getternas och tummelsnårens land in the land of goats and tumbleweed

Jag undrar: hur dog Werner Hoffmann? I wonder: how did Werner Hoffman die?

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SVEN ALFONS MÅLARENS BREV THE PAINTER'S LETTER Mitt staffli har jag ställt upp inomhus I've put up my easel indoors Jag målar sedan en vecka I've been painting ATLANTISKA OCEANEN THE ATLANTIC OCEAN vad betyder detta, kära for a week. what does that mean, my love mig kan mildhet förfära I can be terrified by gentleness vid detta hav är jag van I'm used to this sea här finns en invärtes klocka there's an inner clock here som även i stillheten dånar that booms even in quietness jag vilar i en vild vagga I rest in a wild cradle hör listen två rader lämnar jag tomma I'll leave two lines empty med plats för zefyrisk musik with room for zephyrish music. kära, min duk är ingenting lik my love, my canvas is like nothing else på kvällen öppnar den sin mun in the evening it opens its mouth och talar and speaks oceanens läppar the ocean's lips formar som varning en blå ballad form a blue ballad as a warning. tidigt på dagen early in the day fyller mig havet med hat the sea fills me with hatred och stor fruktan and a great dread.

jag lägger örat mot horisonten I put my ear to the horizon och avlyssnar den onda friden inuti and listen carefully med flit to the angry peace within försöker jag verkligen fånga try to really capture mitt svåra motiv my difficult motif.

jag uppstiger varje dag every day I climb up i mitt hjärtas torn in the tower of my heart för att se allt to see everything havet the sea ligger där bart lies bare before me alltid större än min tro always larger than my belief

jag mäter förgäves dess vidd I gauge its expanse in vain med ett uppspärrat fingerkliv between two outspread fingers jag mäter förgäves dess välde och våld I gauge in vain its empire and violence med min egen oro against my own unease annars lever jag gott eller näst intill otherwise I live well or near enough at least vid fönstret äter jag solens hårda bröd by the window I eat the sun's hard bread och dricker en klunk sval vind and drink a gulp of cool wind jag har mest allt jag behöver I have just about all I need livet, döden life, death men, kära, sänd mig but, my love, send me sänd mig send me ultramarin ultramarine.

Ur Revolutionens dotter From Daughter of the revolution Det finns tendenser till ordning There are tendencies towards order jag kallar dem kärlek I call them love men var but where

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For E.

AN DIE PARZEN PARCÆ

Nur einen Sommer gönnt, ihr Gewaltigen! But one summer grant, ye mighty ones! Und einen Herbst zu reifem Gesange mir, And one harvest of ripened song, Daß williger mein Herz, vom süßen That gladlier my heart, with sweet Spiele gesättigt, dann mir sterbe. Playing then replete, dieth unto me.

Die Seele, der im Leben,ihr göttlich Recht The soul that in life its divine right Nicht ward, sie ruht auch drunten im Orkus nicht; Forsook, neither in Orcus repose doth find; Doch ist mir einst das Heil’ge, das am But if ever once I did succeed in Herzen mir liegt, das Gedicht gelungen, Poetry, most sacred to my heart,

Willkommen dann, o Stille der Schattenwelt! Welcome then, O shadow-world peace! Zufrieden bin ich, wenn auch mein Saitenspiel Content am I, though my plucking Mich nicht hinab geleitet: Einmal Lead not the way: Once Lebt ich, wie Götter, und mehr bedarfs nicht. I lived, as do gods, and more I do not need.

Friedrich Hölderlin

Liebes-Lied Love Song

Wie soll ich meine Seele halten, daß How can I keep my soul from sie nicht an deine rührt? Wie soll ich sie brushing against yours? How can I hinheben über dich zu andern Dingen? raise it over and beyond you to other things? Ach gerne möcht ich sie bei irgendwas Oh, how I should love to put it away Verlorenem im Dunkel unterbringen in some dark lost place, quiet and alien, an einer fremden stillen Stelle, die that does not take up nicht weiterschwingt, wenn deine Tiefen schwingen. the throb of your throbbing depths. Doch alles, was uns anrührt, dich und mich, But all that touches us, you and me, nimmt uns zusammen wie ein Bogenstrich, takes us together like a bow der aus zwei Saiten eine Stimme zieht. drawing one voice from two strings. Auf welches Instrument sind wir gespannt? On what instrument are we strung? Und welcher Geiger hat uns in der Hand? And what player holds us in his hand? O süßes Lied. O sweet song. Rainer Maria Rilke

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Lorna Shaughnessy

The 39 Steps Sea Change Cambiazo

for Trish para Trish

The day the tide turned at her feet La vuelta de la marea le reveló su auténtico ser; she discovered her true nature; centelleaba el espejón, a mirror flashed, a silver tail flipped y con una sacudida de escamas plateadas ¡Zas! and she swam into her element. se echó a su elemento natural.

Now waves swell in her blue-green eyes, En sus verdiazules ojos her ear strains to catch her sisters' song, ondea ya el agua, and salt dries in the hollow prints busca en el aire el canto de sus hermanas, where she walks. y en sus pisadas se cristaliza la sal

Pearls scatter in her hair, to crown Una redecilla de perlas corona the changeling, and call to mind al duende marino y recuerda an older charm, the caul, a sign un encanto más antiguo, el amnios, señal this child would never drown. que jamás esta criatura se ahogará.

The Charm El hechizo Love had made them wild and timid Por guijarrosas riberas as hares driven to the wilderness, huyó su amor; the unsought rocky headlands frenética y tímida only stumbled on by the rest, liebre refugiada their bodies uncharted en yermos tan desconocidos as the stony shorelines where they ran. como sus cuerpos.

Alert to the intruder’s step, Intimación de paso ajeno swift in retreat to the walls of intimacy, da pronta retirada a íntima clausura, austere and rich as solitude, austera y riquísima soledad unprepared to meet the eye that would break the spell inaccesible al ojo rompehechizos que quitaría and make them shed their tawny coats, el pelo leonado, la agudeza de oídos, lose their keenness of ear, redescubriendo lo de siempre, to be again a thing of goose-pimpled flesh ambulante piel de gallina walking upright, visible and bare. erguida, evidente y pelada.

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Song of the forgotten Shulamite Cantar de Sulamit la olvidada

Who will sing for the ageing Shulamite, ¿Quién cantará por Sulamit la vieja? who will share her song? ¿Quién armonizará con su voz? See how her limbs bow like branches Ved sus miembros encorvados, burdened with unplucked fruit, ramas cargadas de fruta pocha, her skin dulls like dust-coated foliage. el follaje empolvado de su deslustrada piel.

Who will dance with the ageing Shulamite, ¿Quién bailará con Sulamit la vieja? who will clasp her waist and move ¿Quién valseará al viento her creaking branches in the wind? con esas ramas crujientes? Hear how her feet drag across the floor Oíd el arrastrarse de sus pies, as the rustling of dry leaves. susurro de hojas muertas.

Who will love the ageing Shulamite, ¿Quién amará a Sulamit la vieja? who will be her King? ¿Quién será su rey? Lift up her boughs, lift up her head Levantad sus ramos, levantad su cabeza and crown her hair with flowers, y coronadla de flores that she may once again stand tall para que nuevamente pueda erguirse among the Cedars of Lebanon. orgullosa entre los Cedros del Líbano. Causeways Calzadas

Snow on Popocatépetl, Nieve sobre Popocatépetl. the Sleeping Woman*, yawns and stretches, a Sonríe socarrona la media luna half-moon smiles crookedly y en el valle se van apagando las luces. as the last lights go out in the valley Sedienta, la ciudad lame las laderas de la and the parched city licks the hillsides. Mujer Dormida*, que se estira y bosteza.

A blurred photograph falls from a wallet, Una fotografía borrosa cae de una cartera: lovers seated on basalt columns amantes sentados en columnas de basalto an ocean away, a un océano de distancia, her arms bind his chest in a tight girdle los brazos de ella apretándolo as though her life depended on it, como si de eso dependiera su vida, as though he could stop the wind como si fuera él capaz de parar el viento that whips their clothes and hair. que azota sus ropas y cabellos.

In eighty-five the gods thrashed in their En el ‘85 se revolcaron los dioses en sus graves, the city shook, schools and hospitals tumbas, tembló la ciudad, cayeron escuelas y crumbled; only the infants in their incubators hospitales; se salvaron tan sólo infantes en were spared. incubadoras.

Elsewhere their anger oozed and oozes still, Seguía rezumando esa ira, y sigue todavía, the slow-cooling fire that sculpted enigmatic incandescente escultora de enigmáticas causeways, hexagonal puzzles calzadas, rompecabezas hexagonales where giants and lovers en donde las luces de gigantes y amantes pit their wits against the elements. desafian los elementos.

Popular name of Iztaccíhuatl, a dormant volcano. Both Iztaccíhuatl and the highly active Popocatépetl are situated in the Central Mexican altiplano.

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Signing Señas

For Joanna and her son Gabriel para Joanna y Gabriel, su hijo

You speak my language. Hablas mi lenguaje. The dart and lunge of your hands startle, Tus acrobáticas manos espantan dos twin kingfishers on this brown river. martines pescadores en la orilla lodosa.

The Glen encircles us La valle nos encierra como ese nido like the nest we found under the apple tree, que hallamos bajo el manzano, a weave of horsehair and moss musgosa trama de crin braided through with memories. trenzada de recuerdos.

You speak your father’s tongue as well. Hablas también la lengua de tu padre. No more owned by place than the migrant in flight, Desgarrador y desencantador, effortless, heart-rending and spell-breakingly planeas leve - libre ave migratoria - you glide between your parents’ worlds, entre dos mundos: between speech and silence – la palabra y el silencio - the air that hums between feathers on the shaft of a wing, murmullo del aire en un astil plumado, the hushed anticipation of nestling eggs. solemne vigília de cascarones sin romper.

Dawn Arrival Llegada al alba Lemon-rind moon. The road is mine, Luna cáscara de limón. but the town belongs to the crows that swoop Observados por madrugadores brasileños - low across the litter-filled square. refugiados del frio en el retrovisor - Earlier still than the Brazilians who huddle in ruidosos motores diesel se lanzan a la carretera. the wing mirror against the chill, heads turning La calle es mia - at the rumble of diesel engines accelerating pero los cuervos que se están abatiendo sobre la past them and on to the open road. basura de la plaza han tomado la ciudad .

Faded letters fall from my name Letras descoloridas se caen de mi apellido on a shop-front in this, the seat of my tribe. en un escaparate de ésta mi casa solariega. The dawn, tentative, picks its way west El alba, indecisa, se desplaza a tientos hacia el lit by hawthorn, reluctant clouds blush oeste. Nubes reticentes, iluminadas por oxiacanta, then dissolve into blue. se sonrojan antes de disolverse en azul.

A contrail carves a skewed horizon Por un momento la blanca estela de un jet forma un that splits sky from sky and for a moment horizonte sesgado que separa cielo de cielo seems to set limits on boundless space. y parece definir el espacio infinito. Your plane descends as though drawn Tu avión baja by an invisible line back to earth, como si lo tirara una amarra invisible, the pull of the migrant’s flight-path. la atracción de la ruta migratoria.

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Coming out of Stars Salida de las estrellas Once I saw the heavens migrate, Una vez ví los cielos migrar, take the forms of creatures, encarnarse, not lions rams or scorpions no como leones, carneros o alacranes but gold and turquoise fish mas como peces - rojos y color turquesa - that swam in the fathomless heights. que nadaban en las alturas sin fondo.

I had forgotten the many colours of the stars. Había olvidado los múltiples colores de las estrellas.

Last night they took flight Anoche se dispersaron repentinamente, swift and sudden as starlings veloces como estorninos, but silent, silent as silver. calladas como plata. They rose in a bright arc, a surging wave, Cual arco luminoso, cual mar encrespada se alzaron, swooped earthwards lanzándose luego en forma de abanico and opened like a fan rumbo a la Tierra, to form trunk, limb and branch, donde formaron un árbol de estorninos estelares a tree of star starlings cuya luz intermittente me llamaba, that beckoned with its throbbing light. me llamaba.

Rapt as a nocturnal flower Extasiada flor nocturna, that has long forgotten the sun, olvidada del sol, I close my eyes and see it still, al cerrar los ojos lo veo aún, still long to be swept up aún anhelo ser recogido to sing like a bird on any of its branches. para cantar, pájarito, en cualquier rama sua.

Disarray Desorden The gales have passed Ya pasaron los vendavales but bits of her are scattered mas fragmentos de ella quedan desperdigados from Spiddal to the Coral Strand. por toda la costa. She hastens to gather them up, Estorbada por domingueros de vida más blocked by Sunday drivers ordenada se apura para juntarlos with tidier lives, and sees y se da cuenta que faltan algunos, the pieces do not make a pretty picture; y que son demasiados, some are missing, or else y que el cuadro que forman there are just too many. no deja de no ser lindo.

The heat in this November sun is unseasonal; El calor es excepcional para la época; the heart the only true barometer. único barómetro fidedigno el corazón. She saw it coming that afternoon in August Ya lo había intuido una tarde de verano when she switched on her wipers al activar el limpiaparabrisas to clear the dandelion snow. para quitar la nieve de florcitas.

Primum mobile Primum mobile Not even Michaelangelo Ni siquiera Miguel Ángel Could capture the power podría reproducir el poder In this tiny hand de esta minúscula mano That spans my heart, que abarca mi corazón, Holds me in its palm. mi ser entero.

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Ambush Embuscada Brutality was not En el apuro para revestirse y volver al coche what sprang to mind in the afterglow; – sin tocarse – neither of them saw it coming ninguno de los dos sospechaba as they dressed hurriedly and walked, que la brutalidad estuviese por infiltrarse without touching, to the car. en el regusto placentero. But it stopped him in his tracks Mas lo paró de golpe when the words this is pointless al saltar de las tinieblas un sprang from the shadows. esto no tiene sentido.

Next day when he asked Al otro día, cuando preguntó él , she could not recall the words on her lips, ya no se acordaba ella de sus palabras, but felt the rawness of the wound mas sentía el dolor de su carne viva, they had opened, point-blank. herida a quemarropa.

The photographs they never took of Las fotos que nunca tomaron de la vida the life they almost shared... que casi compartieron…

incluirían: una mujer joven en los peldaños de would include a young woman, a bag slung un museo, con una bolsa al hombro; sus over her shoulder smiling from the steps of a piernas apenas rozándose al desayuno; esa museum. Their legs just touching beneath a toma de conciencia en los ojos de un hombre café table over breakfast. That moment of joven, lo mismo en un hombre mayor realisation in a young man’s eyes, the same mientras ella atravesaba un bar abarrotado en look in an older man’s eyes as she walked una ciudad ya no suya; una vuelta en coche across a crowded bar in a city she had left hacia la luz del ocaso, la mano de ella en el behind. A drive into western light, her hand pescuezo de él, o los lagos y montañas que on the nape of his neck, or the lakes and veía ella en sus ojos mientras hacían el amor mountains she saw in his eyes when they entre las frescas sábanas de una neblina made love between the cool sheets of a matinal; lo repentino de dos liebres, morning mist. The suddenness of two hares inconscientes de los obturadores de la oblivious to the clicking shutters of memory memoria, mientras el presente se tapa con la as the present wraps itself in the safe blanket reconfortante cobija del pasado, una vida de of the past, a life of snapshots to catalogue, imágenes para catalogar, para pegar en paste in albums that gather dust in dark álbumes que se cubrirán de polvo en rincones corners oscuros.

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Making Tracks Saliendo de aquí

A heron takes off from a perch of rusted Le dió un besito en la mejilla, scrap as the train pulls away; deseando que todo estuviese bien. she kissed him on the cheek as she left, De un montón de chatarra wanting things to be right. despega una garza.

The girl on the other side of the table El tren traquetea sobre gastados rieles; turns a new leaf of her paperback, la chica de enfrente Shaken, not Stirred está absorta en su libro as they rattle along worn tracks. Shaken, not Stirred.

Sunlight glances off the backs of gulls, Insolente, el sol se refleja en blancas gaviotas. insolent. The train shudders past the Por fin el tren se sacude los terrenos baldíos, wastelands that follow every track leaving acompañantes suburbanos de todas las vías, town till it decides which direction to take. y decide su rumbo.

She tucks her punched ticket into a back Sacudida por ritmos contrapuntales, pocket, jolted by contrapuntal rhythms, remete el billete cancelado en un bolsillo, and looks for her fate y se mete a buscar su destino in the name of every station. en el nombre de cada estación.

. Eurydice to Orpheus Eurídice a Orfeo

What was it you doubted, Orpheus, ¿De qué dudaste?, Orfeo, as you emerged towards the light? emergendo a la luz. Was it the sureness of my step ¿De la certeza de mi paso? or the magic of your own gift? ¿De tu fuerza encantadora?

Oh poet of great power and little faith, O, poeta de mucho poder y poca fe, who charmed the creatures with your song amansaste las bestias con tu canto and still could not believe the given thing. pero de tu don desconfiaste.

Did you even hear my echoing foot-fall ¿Escuchaste mis pisadas on the road out of hell, en la salida del infierno? or were your ears filled ¿O te ensordecían with the pulsing fear of your own blood? los latidos de tu miedo?

Easier to blame my constant and unfaltering Más fácil echar la culpa a mis pies inseguros, feet, transformar pérdida en desdén turn loss to contempt y despreciar a mis hermanas tracias. and scorn my Thracian sisters. Dicen que tu cabeza se fue rodando hasta Some say your head rolled to Lesbos. Lesbos; I doubt it. yo lo dudo; The sweet chords of your faithless gift los dulces acordes de tu don desleal will long outlive this song. sobrevivirán mucho tiempo a esta canción.

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The Gift El regalo

This prison, these irons ¡Esta cárcel, estos hierros that cage the soul. en que el alma está metida! Saint Teresa of Santa Teresa de Ávila Avila As the sun rises over public parks in Al alba en los parques públicos de Singapura Singapore se cuelgan centenares de jaulas en postes hundreds of cages are hooked onto high poles altos para que los pájaros where birds can take the cool morning air tomen el fresco aire matutinal y canten. and sing. En estos desolados árboles metálicos no brota There are no budding leaves ninguna hoja. Ningún camuflaje permite al on these stark, metal trees. No camouflage alma reticente cantar desapercibida; allows the coy soul to sing unseen; cada percha es escena y prisión.. each bird’s perch serves as shackle and stage. Hay cosas que el cuerpo solo puede sentir There are things a body cannot feel en la enfermedad o la vejez, until it meets old age or disease, cosas imprevistas things unforeseen por ese auto-abrazo llamado juventud, in the self-embrace that we call youth, y canciones que no sabrían brotar de un and songs that cannot spring corazón indemne; from a heart that knows no pain; al pájaro enjaulado el único regalo que le the caged bird’s one remaining gift to its quede para dar a su captor - aunque no lo captor, undeserved, still redeems. merezca - redime todavia.

Impressionist Impresionista

Your voice chimes amidst the china, Tu voz tintinea entre la vajilla, the soft thock of croquet on the lawn. el golpe sordo del croquet en el césped. A painter's brush traced that shadow Un pincel de artista trazó el claroscuro de tu on your brow, the drape of your skirt, just so. frente, los pliegues de la falda así ¡Perfecto! "Come and laugh with us" you say, “Ven a reirte con nosotros” me dices, but I cannot hear my voice. pero no escucho mi voz.

Your hand strokes the varnished wood Tu mano acaricia la madera barnizada that sweeps upwards to white rooms que me sube a blancos aposentos where I am clothed in muslin and lace, donde me visten de muselina y encaje, satin slippers placed on my feet, en mis pies pantuflas de raso, a gardenia at my breast. en mi pecho una flor de gardenia. "Look in the mirror" you say, “Mírate en el espejo” me dices, but I cannot see my face. pero no me veo la cara.

"Link arms with me" you say, “Toma mi brazo” me dices, "and let us stroll by the lakeshore”. “y demos un paseo por la ribera”. The curve of our bustled backs Nuestros polisones se deslizan por el lago, mirrored by swans who turn their heads in cuyos admirados cisnes reconocen el recognition as we glide by. parentesco. Poised in perfect stillness the water shows me Compuestas en perfecta inmovilidad the possibility of grace, el reflejo me demuestra una posible gracia, but still, I cannot see my face. pero igual, no me veo la cara.

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Guadalupe, Tonantzín* Guadalupe, Tonantzín* For Estelle para Estelle If black is the absence of colour Si el negro es el color de la ausencia the night sky is not black el cielo nocturno no es negro but has many hues. y tiene muchos matices, Like pain, igual que el dolor, a raven’s wing, un ala de cuervo, Tonantzín’s hair. el pelo de Tonantzín. And the souls of those Y las almas de aquellos untouched by this world que este mundo no contamina shine in the blue of her mantle brillan en el azul de su capa like stars in a lightening sky, como estrellas al alba, brushing the dark skin rozando la piel morena of her mother’s arms de los brazos de su madre that open in embrace que se abren en un abrazo in the blackest of nights. en la noche más oscura. Guadalupe Guadalupe

We climb the steps Subimos los peldaños and pin a little miracle to the altar - y clavamos un milagrito en el altar – a shrunken heart of brass. un encogido corazón de bronce. Old women open and close their fish mouths, Viejas abren y cierran sus bocas como peces; hands weaving spells around each others’ en torno a sus cabezas heads and fasten gaudy ribbons se tejen recíprocos sortilejios con las manos, at the saint’s feet. y atan cintas chillonas a los pies de la santa.

We walk along one hundred years Recorrimos cien años de testimonianzas, of thankful witness, hand-painted pintadas a mano por agradecidos by souls who saw and survived: sobrevivientes de: revoluciones, incendios, revolution, fire, a train-crash, open heart- descarrilamientos, cirurgía a corazón abierto, surgery, lives walked in pilgrimage down vidas de peregrinaje por largas avenidas de long avenues named in victorious optimism victoriosos nombres optimistas hasta las to Guadalupe’s ochre domes. cúpulas ocres de Guadalupe.

In the museum, a bird builds her nest En el museo un pájaro construye su nido among coyotes and flowers, another perches entre coyotes y flores, otro se posa on the patriot-priest’s shoulder and sings en el hombro del cura-patriota y canta about the day a brown saint met a brown de cuando un santo moreno conoció a una goddess, her feet in the river, the stars in her diosa morena parada en el río, las estrellas de mantle as watchful as the eyes of the dead. su capa vigilantes como ojos de muertos.

On the trinket-seller’s stall, En el puesto del vendedor de dijes, wrapped in the national flag, envuelta en la bandera, Guadalupe smiles down sonríe Guadalupe on dark-skinned cherubs a querubines morenos wearing Indian clothes. en traje indígena..

According to a 17 th century legend, the Virgin of Guadalupe appeared to the Indian peasant Juan Diego on a mountainside long associated with worship of the Aztec Goddess Tonantzín. Guadalupe is traditionally depicted as dark-skinned, and wears a blue, star-studded mantle.

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Grasping the Nettle Agarrando la ortiga

Nothing stings the memory like nettles. Nada pica la memoria como las ortigas. I squeeze the sap from a dock leaf onto a small Sobre una pequeña mano exprimo la savia de una hand and recall a girl who tried to jump a stream, hoja de acedera, y me acuerdo de una chica stumbled, clutching wildly at the first solid- tropezando al saltar un arroyito y agarrando looking clump of green, not pausing to measure convulsivamente, sin medir arroyo, pierna o stream, leg or consequence, consecuencias, el único matojo verde a su alcance. and the shocked revelation of pain Y de la ultrajada revelación de un dolor que chilló that screamed from hand to brain. de mano a cerebro.

She entered the street stage right, hand held aloft Entra en escena por la derecha, directamente del like a messenger from the battlefield. campo de batalla, mano alta en señal de socorro. Her uncle shook his head and held the hand Un tío comprensivo sujeta la mano beneath a tap outside the byre. bajo el grifo de la cuadra.

And it was hard to tell which gave the sharper Y era difícil decidir qué más picara: sting, the blisters rising on her palm, ¿Las ampollas en su palma? the icy shock of water, ¿El agua helada? or the salty taste of shame on her lips. ¿O el sabor salado de la vergüenza en sus labios?

Gorse Fire Incendio aulagal

The day before the resurrection En la vigilia de la resurrección we gathered egg-shaped pebbles on the beach, juntamos guijarros oviformes en la playa, fingering their punished perfection, tanteando su aporreada perfección, now the painted eggs we hid in the garden los coloreados huevos duros escondidos en are lost – or too well hidden. el jardín parecen definitivamente perdidos.

The stone is rolled back Cuando se quita la piedra but the women find only the burial clothes. queda solo una mortaja. Someone forgot to tell the bees Nadie avisó a la abejas, and they will not return to the hive. y no volverán a la colmena.

The gorse banks up the hillside like a Cathedral choir En la ladera canta su himno de alegría sending up its shouts of joy. The Glen ignites un doble coro de aulaga. Sus florcitas as the evening sun sparks off the yellow flowers, amarillas prenden fuego en el sol torching the brown river crepuscular, iluminando el barroso río with the promise of Pentecostal fire. con la promesa de fuego pentecostal.

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The Careless Genie El djinn descuidado There is a kind of magic Siempre hay uno, that never learned the art of good timing – el djinn que llega tarde the genie who pops up too late y encuentra a un niño desesperado and finds a child sick with wishing que mira aburrido who looks dully at the jewelled turban, el turbante enjoyado, shrugs, and asks que se encoge de hombros y pregunta if he too can live in a bottle? si acaso él también podría vivir en una botella?

Achilles’ Heel Talón de Aquiles Jaws drop around the table Se quedan boquiabiertos as the story unfolds al escuchar el relato of how the fearless Achilles de como en Troya cumplió met his destiny at Troy. audaz Aquiles su destino.

Agamemnon the school-yard bully La fuga de Elena angling for a fight, Helen’s flight (mera exigencia del argumento) only there to drive the plot, raise anchors y Agamenón, un abusón que buscaba pelea, and hoist a thousand sails to the wind. levan anclas e izan mil velas al viento.

Behind the epic glamour and gore Atrás de la sangrienta epopeya young minds ponder jóvenes inteligencias reflexionan profound injustice, sobre profunda injusticia the tragic flaw. y el defectillo trágico.

What was she thinking ¿Dónde tenía la cabeza esa mujer cuando when she dipped her child so carelessly? metió a su hijo en el agua? Couldn’t she have held one foot first ¿Por qué no metió primero un pie and then the other, have the river y luego el otro? cover him all over? Así el río lo habría protegido todo.

Implacable logic. Blame Lógica implacable. must be apportioned where it’s due. Hay que proporcionar bien merecida culpa. Achilles, arrogant and feared, Según estas tiernas mentes in these young minds the victim Aquiles, arrogante y temido, of a mother’s oversight. es víctima de un descuido materno. God knows they see it every day. ¡Por Diós! ¿No los ven todos los días?

And any mother worth her salt Cualquier madre digna del nombre would take more care habría seguido más atentamente when following divine instruction. las divinas instrucciones. Instead the hero’s one true weakness En vez de eso su único punto vulnerable won him his fame; the softest tissue, le trajo la fama; el tejido más endeble, fatally exposed, brought him fatalmente expuesto, to the river’s farthest shore. lo llevó a la otra orilla.

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Newgrange, New Millennium Newgrange, Nuevo Milenio

For I am every dead Pues, yo soy cada cosa muerta thing en donde el amor forjó in whom love wrought nueva alquimia. new alchemy. (John Donne) (John Donne) Mientras amanece el solsticio ciegan las luces TV lights glare in the eye of a solstice dawn, del equipo de rodaje; el que habla al the man with the microphone micrófono predica vocablos regastados. En mouths tired words. Silent un silencio as the womb the chamber waits, de útero la cámara espera, greets the first light y saluda al alba with the mute solemnity of stone. con callada solemnidad de piedra.

Hand on belly, I turn inwards Mano en la panza, to miracles unseen, contemplo el milagro invisible, waiting for the moment of recognition. esperando el momento de reconocimiento.

Euripides writes to his pupil from exile Eurípides escribe a su alumno desde el in Macedonia... exilio en Macedonia… Rain-sodden sparrows peck Gorriones empapados picotean las últimas the last spilt seeds from my doorstep, semillas desparramadas en la entrada. my bones ache from the damp. Me duelen los huesos de la humedad. I wish I could summon Ojalá hiciera de tripas corazón in my heart such courage como la chica de mi obra, que, as I penned in the young girl’s mouth, who, sabiendo que ningún milagro u holocausto knowing the winds would not change pudiera llenar velas insensatas for any miracle or sacrificial blood, de más propicios vientos that men would set a thousand sails descubrió no obstante against their better senses, su cuello a la daga, laid bare her neck to the knife trayendo vergonzosa deshonra and shamed the House of Atreus. al linaje de Atreo.

This war has lodged itself Esta guerra se ha instalado in my memory and my lungs en mi memoria y mis pulmones and nothing I write seems to dock y nada de lo que escribo parece in the safe harbour of conclusion. entrar en puerto conclusivo.

Take this sad tale where you will, Llévate a dónde quieras esta triste historia, raise its anchor from my heart, leva su ancla de mi corazón, cast it adrift. mándala a la deriva. Clouds darken the horizon. Mi horizonte está obnubilado.

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Arpilleras Arpilleras For Marjorie Agosín para Marjorie Agosin

They met in hospitals, morgues and courtrooms: Se encontraban en hospitales, depósitos de cadáveres y the women in search of their loved ones, tribunales: en busca de sus seres queridos, golpeando en knocking at the soundproofed perspex windows los insonorizados vidrios de perspex de un sinfín de viles in wall after wall of lies. mentiras.

There were no disappeared, No había desaparecidos, only the unmarked graves in Santiago’s cemetery solo las anónimas tumbas de gente enterrada of those buried in the darkness of curfew. en el cementerio de Santiago bajo la capa de la noche, No names to name and nothing to tell. sin nombres que nombrar ni nada que contar.

Stripped of their truths, like Philomena Privadas, como Filomena, de sus verdades, they chose to tell each story with their hands - decidieron contar sus historias con las manos – rose early to put in an hour with scissors and se alzaban temprano para cortar y coser thread before readying the house for another antes de preparar sus casas working day; para otro día laboral; met weekly in churches, hands clammy se juntaban semanalmente en iglesias, conspiradoras with the cold sweat of conspiracy and fear, manos heladas humedecidas por el sudor del miedo, carrying their stitched witness folded up sleeves, y cosidas testimonianzas tucked under coats, inside closed umbrellas. disimuladas en mangas, paraguas y abrigos.

The vivid green patch of grass in that scene El vivo verde del pasto en tal escena was the sleeve of a daughter’s dress; the blue era la manga del vestido de una hija; of a son’s favourite shirt gives innocence back to el azul de una camisa preferida devuelve la inocencia a sky like the one where the sun shone a un cielo en donde brilla el sol the last time she saw him. como al último encuentro con su hijo.

Their fingers craved knowledge of the missing – Sus dedos se morían por saber the texture of the clothes they wore, the scent of algo de los desaparecidos – la textura de sus ropas, el their hair, perfume de sus cabellos, the way an infant needs an absent mother’s smell como un niño necesita el olor de la madre ausente or the touch of her apron. o el roce de su delantal.

The women sewed and met and sewed. Cosían y se juntaban y cosían. They sewed and met and began to march, Cosían y se juntaban y pusiéronse en marcha, wearing the same seasonless clothes vestidas siempre con la mismísima ropa since the moment of disappearance, de ese fatídico día, waiting to sew the last scrap of each life esperando para coser el último trocito de cada vida firmly into place. firmemente en el lugar que le correspondiera.

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Rebuilding Reconstrucción

They were perfectly safe until we saw them: Estaban perfectamente seguros hasta que las idas y alerted by parental comings and goings, venidas de los padres nos avisaron. our eyes slow to make them out, tucked Dificilmente los reparamos deep in the shoulder of a terracotta pot, en el fondo de la maceta, then the thrill of beady eyes looking back. mas de repente nos encantaron Five speckled chicks. cinco pares de ojitos llenos de asombro.

We keep our distance, talk about the need No nos acercamos, hablamos de la necesidad de proteger to rig some netting round the pot. el nido con una malla.

Home from work, I sense something amiss, De vuelta a casa al otro día intuyo algo, peep in and find the empty nest. voy a mirar y no encuentro nada.

I lug my guilt up the hill, try to shake it off Subo la colina, cargando un sentimiento de culpa,quiero but it settles like a hump on my back. sacudírmelo, mas se me pega como joroba.

Not one of us will make a thing that fits its task Jamás ninguno de nosotros hará nada que cumpla tan as well as this nest. And still it was not enough. bien su finalidad. Y aún así no bastaba.

A flash of black and white, the blameless Un rayo blanco y negro, la inocente urraca toma tierra; magpie lands; the cuckoo, hard-wired from birth el cucú, el engaño integrado en su naturaleza. to deceive.

Somewhere robins are rebuilding, En algún lugar una pareja de petirrojos está unseen, with unsurpassed, invisible skill. reconstruyendo con insuperable habilidad invisible.

Naranjo en flor Orange Blossom I remember perfectly Me acuerdo perfectamente the awkward gait of storks del torpe andar de cigüenas, bending branches en el ramaje de olivares; as they landed in the olive trees; sigo escuchando las fuentes still hear the fountains de jardines habitados in gardens haunted by sad princes, por fantasmas de príncipes tristes, sense the presence of small squares siento la presencia de plazuelas oscuras in the dark, where orange trees flower en donde los naranjos florecen and petals form crystals on cobblestones. y se cristalizan pétalos sobre adoquines.

But I cannot smell the orange-blossom, Pero no huelo los naranjos en flor, or feel the touch of your hand. ni siento el roce de tu mano.

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Empty Pockets Bolsillos vacios

There was a time Hubo un tiempo when I stuffed my pockets cuando me llenaba los bolsillos full of summer, de verano, shells, smooth stones, conchas, piedritas pulidas, a gull’s feather. plumas de gaviota.

There was a time Hubo un tiempo when my feet answered cuando mis pies imitaban your unerring rhythm, el ritmo infalible de los tuyos scrunching over stones, en la gravilla, our talk fading with the light callándonos en sintonía con la menguante luz as pebbles chimed, dragged al tintín de guijarritos by the ebbing tide arrastrados por la marea out into the dark. a la oscuridad.

There was a time Hubo un tiempo when things held meaning, cuando las cosas tenían su sentido, hieroglyphs of a shared memory - jeroglíficos de recuerdos compartidos – stone, shell, feather. piedra, concha, pluma.

Epiphany Epifanía Fairy lights cast shadows upwards Las lucecitas de colores arrojan sombras through the Christmas tree por el arbolito, making patterns on the ceiling, creando diseños en el techo, dark snowflakes in a white sky. oscuros copos de nieve en un cielo blanco.

Time to put away the tinsel. Es hora de guardar el espumillón.

Soon the branches will kindle, Antes de florecer each twig sparking before it blooms e inclinarse en última despedida and bows with a dying fall, cada ramita se habrá encendido, the wounded choreography la coreografía herida that still quickens the blood que aún acelera el pulso in the cooling from blaze to ash. al convertirse de llama en ceniza.

Outside, a pine tree creaks in the wind Afuera, un pino cruje en el viento like the hinges of a closing door. como las bisagras de una puerta que se cierra.

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Appointment with Mutilation Cita con la mutilación

Via Cruxis Via Cruxis Is this how the young Masai feel ¿Es así que se sienten los jóvenes Masai as they walk the tunnel that opens onto pain, mientras recorren el pasillo del dolor greet the knife that cleaves y saludan el cuchillo past life from future? que hiende pasado y futuro.

Five minutes from ward to surgery Se anuncian eternos could be an eternity. Somehow los cinco minutos entre cama y quirófano. feet find a way of moving forward. De alguna manera los pies logran moverse. Bolting is no longer an option. Huir ya no es posible.

The lift descends. One floor down Baja el ascensor. En el piso inferior a porter wheels in an empty chair, un celador me trae una silla de ruedas, in courtesy looks away from my wet face. por educación no mira mis lágrimas. Doors part onto polished tiles, Las puertas se abren sobre baldosas relucientes the sudden agoraphobia of the last stretch. y la repentina agorafobia de la recta final.

A paper hanky is offered, Se me ofrece un klínex, one hand beneath my elbow guides, una mano me apoya en el codo, another presses my shoulder; otra aprieta un hombro; compassion ushers in surrender. ante tanta compasión me doy por vencida.

Post op Passione perfecta est

Focus, focus on the words, eyes, touch, Trato de concentrarme en las palabras, los ojos, el breathe in the oxygen from the mask. contacto, inspirar profundamente de la máscara. The only pain I feel is in my arm. Me duele sólo el brazo.

Back on the ward, De vuelta a la cama a woman from Casla and her daughter-in-law una de Casla y su nuera tear strips off uncompliant kin. están echando rapapolvos a parientes impenitentes, I vomit on the other side of the curtain. y yo, vomitando atrás de la cortina.

For a split second your eyes register disbelief, Por un segundo tus ojos no dan crédito, the words slip out “That’s bile, love”, luego se te escapan las palabras: “Es hiel, mi amor”, you stroke my hair and wet my lips. me acaricias el pelo y mojas mis labios.

I ride waves of biliousness, Navego en un mar de bilis, a sea of senseless motion, de olas sin sentido, the only unmoving point your hand. con tu mano por único faro.

Convalescence Convalecencia

Propped on pillows, Recostada en las almohadas, too tired for tears, demasiado agotada para poder llorar, I hear sound-bites of the paper escucho frases intermitentes del periódico I asked you to read. que te pedí que me leyeras.

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At midday we switch on the telly A mediodía prendemos la tele for TG4’s re-runs of The Virginian, para mirar un viejo western repuesto, double bill. All these years y constatamos que, a pesar de los años, and Trampas hasn’t changed a bit. nuestro héroe sigue igualito.

Then things get fuzzy, Luego todo se pone borroso, the reception is bad la recepción es mala or else the morphine is good. o la morfina buena.

Slowly, the ear attunes Poco a poco el oído se acostumbra to the language of nerve-endings: al lenguaje de terminaciones nerviosas: paravertebral block, pca, Difene, paravertebral block, pca, Difene, and conjugations of caring too subtle to index y conjugaciones de solicitud demasiado sutiles para in the grammars of behaviour in good health. indizar en gramáticas comportamentales.

I learn to accept the routine delicacy Aprendo a aceptar la delicadeza rutinaria of extraordinary kindness. de una extraordinaria bondad.

The Flesh La carne

Wing-clipped. Alas cortadas. This rite of passage has cut a path Este trámite iniciático ha abierto un pasaje from shoulder blade to rib-cage, desde el omóplato hasta la caja torácica, moved muscle, removed ha trasladado músculos y quitado that part of me lately defined undesirable, esa parte de mí recién definida como indeseable, undesired. no deseada.

The scars will fade. Las cicatrices se cerrán. Inside, living tissue twists and stretches, Por dentro, adaptándose a la nueva anatomía, finds ways to accommodate a new anatomy, se retuerce el tejido vivo y se estira, as the hawthorn bows to Atlantic gales, igual que ante vendavales atlánticos wind-warped, se inclina alabeada la oxiacanta, forsaking symmetry for survival. cambiando simetría por supervivencia.

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Drinking Lemonade with Whistler’s Tomando limonadas con la madre de Mother Whistler No, this is not how I remembered you: No, no eras así: your mouth never made a straight line, tu boca nunca trazaba una línea recta, your mirth fizzed those afternoons tu buen humor burbujeaba siempre drinking lemonade on the veranda, en esas tardes de limonadas en la terraza, recounting childhood escapades, acordándonos de travesuras infantiles or gazing toward the lake o admirando el lago across well-trodden grass, por el césped bien trillado, respectful of all that went before, respetuosas de todo lo vivido attuned to the voices calling from the garden y atentas a las voces que desde el jardín you touched my hand and smiled me llamaban. Tocaste mi mano y sonreiste: “Go now, they’re waiting”. “Vete ahora, te están esperando”.

Unsung Olvidados Is it so hard to write, that song about the men ¿Tan dificil es escribir la canción who came from grey towns that smelled of turf smoke, where crows painted invisible arcs de hombres de ciudades grises que olían a turba in low clouds around high nests, quemada? Donde los cuervos - trágico coro a tragic chorus accompanied mostly by dogs? acompañado mayormente por perros - pintaban Where women folded their cardiganed arms arcos invisibles en torno a sus altos nidos and talked bittertalk in black rectangles, Donde mujeres en cardiganes se cruzaban de doors that opened to dark, narrow houses? brazos al contar sus amarguras en rectángulos negros, entradas de estrechas casitas oscuras.

Men who left to find something better, de hombres que se iban en busca de mejor, found it, then found they had to leave again; y encontraban, mas no se podían quedar; who girded up their resolve and clenched que estóicos embarcaban their jaws as they took the boat, cut adrift y rechinando los dientes, from the smiles and wet kisses of babes, privándose de sonrisas y besos de hijitos. and who knows if the words they wrote home, ¿Quién sabe si sus cartas - like the strong hand that rubs a bruised shin, ever ásperas manos para frotar un cardenal - took the edge off the pain? jamás aliviaron un dolor?

Robbed of their children’s childhood, de desconcertados padres the good fathers who look, surprised, que en hijos cuarentones siguen buscando at middle-aged sons and daughters, las inocentes caritas perdidas still hoping to catch a glimpse of those little faces. de sus recuerdos.

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Taliswomen Talismanas

For Pura a Pura

The handful of dolls you gave me Las muñequitas que me regalaste come to the day-ward in my pocket. me acompañan al hospital, Each face embroidered with her own humour, cada cara bordada con su humor particular, each huipil, woven in Chiapas, tells a story, cada huipil chiapaneco cuenta su historia, each woman bald beneath her bright headscarf, cada una calva bajo los colores vivos del pañuelo, the tell-tale sign that marks us all. señal que nos delata a todas.

The poisoned chalice is hooked up El cáliz envenenado está conectado by the gloved hands of administering angels. por manos enguantadas de ángeles de la Even clad in latex their touch transcends misericordia. Incluso a través del látex el roce the banalities that spew from daytime radio; trasciende las banalidades vomitivas de la radio; some one thing una sola cosa inviolable. inviolable.

Heart-stopper Maravillas

Many trees grow in the walled garden of my heart, En el jardín secreto de mi corazón los árboles clipped and teased to a topiary of delight. están esculpidos con arte. Shy camels graze on tender shoots Mansamente pestañeando, that sprout between old stones, pacen tímidos camellos en tiernos retoños blinking in the stillness. que brotan entre viejas piedras musgosas. But not for long. Pero el silencio dura poco. Entran platillos, Enter cymbals, tambourine, bursts of bird-wing. panderetas, una explosión de aves. Camels raise eyebrows in elegant surprise, Los camellos arquean sus elegantes cejas, exchange knowing glances intercambiando cómplices miradas frente a las at the feats of the strong man, horses prancing. hazañas del forzudo, los caballos encabritándose. The garden fills with noise and wonder, Se llena el jardín de ruidos y maravillas, disbelief miraculously suspended from a trapeze la incredulidad milagrosamente suspendida de un dangling, without a net trapecio – sin red – above the heads of flowers arranged in rows. sobre hileras de flores.

The camels forget to blink, Los camellos se olvidan de pestañear. flowers forget to close their petals Las flores se olvidan de cerrar los pétalos as the sun sinks. en señal de despedida del sol.

The circus plays out, cymbals scrape Se acaba el circo, chirrían los platillos, and acrobats limp wearily to rest. y agotadísimos acróbatas van buscando sus camas. Big cats climb to stretch out on branches, Los grandes felinos se trepan a los árboles, camels kneel and close their eyes los camellos se arrodillan y cierran los ojos and dream of another life para soñar de una vida beyond the garden walls. más allá de estos muros.

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I think this is by the Polish-Lithuanian poet Adam Mickiewicz. I can’t remember why I translated it. I did the English from somebody else’s translation because I couldn’t find the original.

I walked through the old city Caminé por el barrio viejo in the evening or at dawn, al atardecer o al alba, I was very young or quite old. Era muy joven o bastante viejo. I had neither watch No tenía reloj nor calendar, my stubborn blood ni calendario, sólo mi terca sangre alone measured the endless expanse. medía la extensión infinita. I could begin life over, Podía recomenzar la vida, my own or another, la mía o ajena, everything seemed easy, todo parecía fácil, apartment windows were partway open, las ventanas de los apartamentos other fates ajar. a medio abrir, otras suertes entornadas. It was spring or early summer, Era primavera o principios del verano, warm walls, los muros calientes, air soft as an orange rind: el aire blando como cáscara de naranja: I was very young or quite old, Era muy joven o bastante viejo, I could choose, I could live. Podía elegir, podría vivir.

I was asked to translate this poem by Ramón Haniotis, a Uruguayan living in Italy.

LEGALIDAD II LEGALITÀ II

¿Cuál es la frontera límite Qual'è la frontiera limite confín último de su permiso? confine ultimo del suo permesso?

¿Es ese consentimiento una pesadilla o È un incubo quel consenso o delimita esa tolerancia mi sueño? delimita quella tolleranza il mio sogno?

¿Es esta soga a mi cuello È questo cappio al mio collo este plomo en mi nuca questo piombo nella mia nuca esta electricidad que me abrasa questa elettricità che mi ustiona este gas en mis pulmones questo gas nei miei polmoni su límite y mi condena il suo limite e la mia condanna o su reconocida impotencia? o la sua riconosciuta impotenza?

Mientras esto me pregunto Mentre questo mi domando los leguleyos amurallan su mundo virtual i leguleii murano il loro mondo virtuale levantando montañas de incisos elevando montagne di incisi y argamasa de sangre ajena. e malta di sangue altrui.

Al grito se le suma un llamado Sommando al grido un richiamo Crece el alarido Cresce lo strillo Cuidado Attenzione soñar despiertos sognare sveglii es peligroso è pericoloso nada es más real niente e più reale

(12-07-'89)A'dam.

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DILFIZA

Arthur Gobineau wrote an epic poem inspired by Moore’s Lalla-Rookh that, despite great hopes, he never succeeded in publishing. The translation is intended only as a guide. I have made no attempt to create coherent prose, but have divided the lines as closely as possible to match the poem. The French original uses archaic spelling, “tems” for “temps”, “instans” for “instants”, “encor” for “encore” etc. The Peri was a very widely known figure in nineteenth century European literature. The name is now usually transcribed Pari, a common female name in Iran; vowels, however, are particularly mutable in Persian, and often interchangeable. In this book ‘Pari’ would be a misleading anachronism. Besides Moore, Byron, Hugo, Lamartine, Flaubert and many others also wrote about the ‘Peris’. They are apparently descendants of fallen angels denied paradise until they have performed penance. They were first regarded as evil, later as benevolent, and often caged by the evil Divs. Robert Schumann set Lalla- Rookh to music as the cantata Das Paradies und die Peri, opus 50. His work had the misfortune of being used by the Nazis for the martial effect of certain segments. Gilbert and Sullivan subtitled their operetta Iolanthe, The Peer and the Peri. Dilfiza was published in Poemi inediti di Arthur Gobineau (Florence, 1965) as part of the collection Biblioteca dell’Archivum Romanum, edited by Paola Berselli Ambri. The editor points out, as do other commentators favourable to Gobineau, that the poem is of purely biographical value. It shows the author’s early passion for Persia and the East in general, and introduces one of his recurrent themes, that of passionate love with tragic leanings. It is also a clear indication of his early rejection of nationalism. Ambri, Jean Boissel and others have written at length on the Oriental influences of the poem, but Occidental influences are more than prevalent. Alfred de Musset’s Nuit de mai begins with the same repeated exhortation to the poet to ‘take his lute’. ‘Haidée’ is a character in a Byron poem, Don Juan - if I remember correctly. The structure is more or less identical with that of Ludovico Ariosto’s Orlando furioso, which, as previously stated, Gobineau placed above all other literature, and which Byron also quoted as the source of the structure of his poetry. I think everybody, including the man himself, has been a little hard on the young Gobineau. The poem is of course a clichéd re-hash of a popular vogue, full of pompous classical references and stereotypical language, but he wrote it at nineteen to impress a girl; it demonstrates serious application, the rhymes succeed in appearing quite natural, the rhythm is good; the plot has some tension and fascination and could easily have been turned into an acceptable short story. That is one reason I include it here. The other is that Dilfiza and the Asiatic Short Stories effectively demarcate Gobineau’s span as a writer. For over forty years, Persia/Iran inspired him, was his Muse. Other places, like Athens, could elicit temporary enthusiasm, but only because there was “still enough of the Orient” to make life liveable.

Here then, is the young poet’s “détestable” poem (see The Travelling Life from Asiatic Short Stories, in which the author symbolically kills his young self ). I have included some advance notes because of technical difficulties with endnotes. The cover was hand-drawn by Gobineau; the verses are those addressed directly to Amélie.

Surma - Kohl Iram - Legendary Arabian city Djelam - A river, affluent of the Indus. Cassolette - A box for burning perfumes Kazi - Military officer in the Ottoman empire Kallifehs - Chalefs; common oriental plant Bulbul - Persian, Arabic, Turkish; a sort of nightingale Andalib - Nightingale Malhica - Melokia, tropical plant Siricha - Xiris; another tropical plant Djerherabad - Jalalabad. There are cities of this name in Pakistan, India and Afghanistan. Zili - Zither-like instrument Peribanu - Character from the 1001 Nights Amélie Laigneau, later Baronne de Saint-Martin Nymphæ - White or yellow water-lily Tassels - Fasteners

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DILFIZA DILFIZA

I Chapitre Chapter I

LE COMMENCEMENT THE BEGINNING

Mon luth, je veux chanter le Chrétien et le Maure, My lute, I shall sing of the Christian and the Moor, Ou le platane vert, ou le grand sycomore, Or the green plane tree, or the great sycamore, Ou l’aube qui paraît, ou le jour qui s’éteint, Or the approaching dawn, or the dying day, Ou le manteau de pourpre, ou celui de satin. Or the purple mantle, or the satin cape.

Je veux chanter, ô luth, la cavale qui passe, I shall sing, O lute, of the passing mare, Ou la balle qui siffle en glissant dans l’espace, Or the bullet whistling and sliding through space, Ou la flèche qui tremble en frappant le guerrier, Or the arrow that trembles as it strikes the warrior, Ou l’éperon de fer grinçant dans l’étrier. Or the iron spur creaking in its stirrup.

Viens, mon luth adoré, je suis celui qui chante, Come, my adored lute, I am he who sings, Je suis le cri d’effroi, je suis la voix touchante I am the cry of fear, I am the tender voice Que le soir on entend parler sous le jasmin, That speaks at sunset beneath the jasmine flowers, Je suis le faible enfant, l’homme à la forte main. I am the weak infant, the strong-armed man. Parfois je suis celui qui reste sans courage… Sometimes I am he whose courage is at an end… Mon bras saura toujours me venger d’un outrage ; My arm will always avenge an outrage; Je suis le cri de guerre ou le parler d’amour, I am the war cry or lovers’ talk, L’accord de la guitare ou le son du tambour. The guitar’s chord or the sound of the drum.

Viens ; que m’importe à moi le sol de la patrie ? Come; what care I for the earth of the fatherland? Ai-je un toit qui soit mien, une maison chérie, Have I a roof to call my own, a beloved home, Un manoir où s’étale en blanc mon écusson, A manor where my coat of arms is displayed in white, Un champ pour me nourrir, un rocher, un buisson ? A field to feed me, a rock, a bush? Ai-je une source à moi dont l’eau me désaltère, Have I a spring whose water quenches my thirst Et dont le souvenir me force de me taire ? And whose memory forces me to silence?

Non ! Je n’ai jamais dit : - quand dois-je les revoir No! I have never said: - when shall I see again Mes foyers paternels… - Ce n’est rien qu’un devoir My father’s home… - Love of country is but a duty, L’amour de la patrie et tout devoir me pèse ! And all duty oppresses me! Voyageur isolé, je veux marcher à l’aise. Solitary wanderer, I wish to walk at ease.

Je ne me suis chauffé qu’au feu de l’étranger, I have never been warmed but at a stranger’s hearth. Quand je m’éloigne aussi, mon pas est plus léger. The farther I go the lighter my step becomes. Le pain qui me nourrit, la liqueur qui m’abreuve, The bread that nourishes me, the liqueur that quenches C’est le fruit du hallier, c’est l’eau puisée au fleuve, My thirst, are the thicket berry, water drawn from the river, Au fleuve que mon pied sur son chemin trouva. From the river that crosses my path. J’oublie et le hallier et le flot qui s’en va. I forget the thicket and the passing wash. Je suis seul… Je suis libre, et je marche sans crainte. I am alone… I am free, and I walk without fear. Mon pays… oh ! mes bras ont brisé cette étreinte ! My country… Oh! my arms have broken that embrace!

Adieu, mes compagnons ! J’ai là mon luth d’argent : Farewell my companions! I have my silver lute: C’est un ami que j’aime et qui n’est point changeant, It is a beloved friend and constant besides. Je l’embrasse avec joie aussitôt qu’on le nomme, I embrace it joyfully whenever it is named, J’ai le cœur fier ainsi que doit un gentilhomme. I have a proud heart as befits a gentleman. Je ne regrette point les biens que je n’ai pas, I miss not wealth I do not possess, Rien ne pourra me dire : - Où s’égarent tes pas ? – Nobody can ask: - Where do your footsteps stray? – Je m’arrête à l’endroit où la terre est fleurie. I rest in flowery glades, Je m’en vais loin de toi, lande ingrate et flétrie. Far from you, ungrateful and withered land. Je ne laisse après moi nul pensée et nul vœu, I leave behind no thought, no wish, J’ai rompu tout lien… mes compagnons, adieu ! I have broken all bonds… my companions, farewell!

Quand je serai tout seul sur une plage aride, When I am alone on an arid beach, Sans reporter vers vous une pensée avide, With no avid thought directed at you, Sans donner un regret au tems fini pour moi, With no regrets for a lost past, Je vivrai dans mon cœur ; c’est là que je suis roi ! I shall live in my heart; there I am king! Et puis, si quelqu’oiseau sortant de la feuillée And then, if some bird comes out of the foliage, Crie et frappe un buisson de son aile effrayée, Cries and strikes a bush with its frightened wing,

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Si le ciel aussi gris que je l’ai vu souvent, If the sky as grey as I have often seen it, Dort… refuse la nue aux caprices du vent… Sleeps… refuses a cloud to the caprices of the wind… Si le vent du matin froissant ma chevelure, If the touch of the morning breeze rustling my hair, Féconde en l’effleurant une pensée obscure, Inspires an obscure thought, Et des chants aussitôt par les airs emportés, And songs at once carried away by the wind, Ah ! n’oublierai-je pas ceux que j’aurai quittés ? Ah! Shall I not forget what I have left?

Oui, peu d’étés encore ont brûlé sur ma tête ; Yes, few summers have scorched my brow; Si le nuage noir qui sur mon front s’arrête, If the black cloud that rests over my head Cache à mon œil ardent un firmament d’azur, Hides the blue firmament from my ardent eye, Un jour viendra, peut-être, où mon ciel sera pur ! A day will come, perhaps, when my sky will be pure! Oh ! si je suis poète, oh ! si j’ai dans l’âme Oh! if I am a poet, oh, if I have in my soul Ce pouvoir créateur, cette source de flamme, That creative power, that source of flame, Cette force de Dieu qui, brisant le Chaos, That strength of God who, rending Chaos, À l’obscurité même allume ses flambeaux, Lights torches in the very darkness, Que m’importent le monde et les amis qu’on laisse ? What care I for the world and abandoned friends? Que m’importe l’amour, que me fait son ivresse, What care I for love, what use are its raptures, Les bras tendus vers vous, les souris, les doux yeux, The arms that reach out, the smiles, the gentle eyes, Que m’importe l’amour à moi qui prends les cieux ? Taking to the skies, what care I for love?

Ce penser me ranime… Oh ! mon cœur se réveille ! This thought revives me… Oh! my heart awakes! Le chagrin s’est enfui… Je m’arrête… ô merveille ! Sorrow has fled… I stop… O wonder! Voyageur attristé sur le bord du chemin, A sad traveller at the road’s edge, Je marchais ; mon regard se ranime soudain ! I walked; my gaze is suddenly enlivened.

Ô luth ! Je chanterai ! La nuit, silencieuse, O lute! I shall sing! The silent night, Souvent à mon chevet voit s’abattre rêveuse Often at my bedside sees dreamily rest La muse au teint cuivré du naïf Orient, The copper-tinted muse of the naïve Orient, Et moi, penché vers elle, attentif, souriant, And leaning towards her, attentive, smiling, Je retiens doucement la Péri qui s’envole ; I gently hold back the escaping Peri C’est alors qu’aux sons purs de sa douce parole, Then, to the pure sounds of her gentle voice, Aux sons harmonieux du rébab enchanteur, To the harmonious sounds of the enchanting rebab, Je sens revivre en moi quelque peu de bonheur. I feel some small happiness return. Qu’elle vienne à présent en moi qui la désire May she come now, and I who desire her Je vais faire vibrer tes cordes, ô ma lyre ! I shall make your strings vibrate, oh my lyre! Qu’elle vienne ! oh, descends ! May she come! oh come down! Mes bras te sont ouverts, My arms are open, Perle… source de feu d’où jaillissent mes vers ! Pearl…source of fire that sparks my verses!

J’attends ! Impatient, mon sang se précipite, I wait! Impatient, my blood rushes, De moment en moment, ma veine bat plus vite ; With each passing moment my vein beats faster; C’est un trop lourd désir !… Péri ! délivre-moi ! The desire is too heavy!… Peri, deliver me! Oh ! Péri, tu ne peux mentir à notre foi ! Oh! Peri, you cannot belie our faith. Elle vient ! Elle vient ! Déjà sa chaude haleine She comes! She comes! Already her hot breath Ravive dans mon sein les pensers qu’elle entraîne. Revives in my breast the thoughts she inspires. Eh ! quoi, ton bras d’argent m’attire sur ton sein ! Eh! what, your silver arm draws me to your breast! Tu voles. Je frémis… Oh ! quel est ton dessein ? You fly. I shiver… Oh! what is your design? Oh ! sous mes doigts hardis que ma harpe s’agite ! Oh! how my harp is agitated beneath my bold fingers! Mon regard cherche en vain cette terre qu’il quitte ; My gaze seeks in vain the land it leaves; Quel radieux désert se roule devant moi ? What radiant desert stretches out before me? - Le firmament, Poète, où je monte avec toi ! - – The firmament, Poet, whither I rise with you!

II Chapitre Chapter II

LES AMANS THE LOVERS

Cachemire ! Oh, c’est toi que mon esprit appelle, Kashmir! Oh, it is you that my spirit calls, you, Toi, qui dans mes pensers me paraissais si belle, You, who in my dreams seemed so beautiful, Toi, vers qui je sentais mes désirs s’envoler, You, towards whom I feel my desires take flight, C’est de toi maintenant que je m’en vais parler. It is of you that I now shall speak.

Que de fois, j’ai rêvé, la poitrine agitée, How many times have I dreamt, with agitated breast, J’ai désiré ton lac et son onde argentée ; Have I desired the silver waves of your lake; Que de fois, j’ai rêvé tes sveltes minarets, How often have I dreamt of your svelte minarets, Tes monts et tes ruisseaux, tes fleurs et tes forêts ! Your hills and streams, your flowers and your forests! Que de fois dans ces nuits où l’esprit se réveille, How often in the nights when the spirit awakes

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J’ai traversé l’espace, ô ma ville, ô merveille ! Have I crossed space, O my city, O wonder! Et dans un songe d’or qui m’emportait flottant, And in a golden dream that carried me floating, Mon esprit sur ton front s’arrêtait hésitant ! My spirit hesitated on your brow! Alors, je te cherchais aux lueurs des étoiles… Then, I sought you by starlight… Toi, comme une épousée, ouvrant un peu tes voiles, You, like a bride, half-opening your veils, Tu découvrais à peine un dôme, un frais jardin… Revealed a dome, a refreshing garden… Et l’ombre en retombant t’enveloppait soudain. Then suddenly the falling shadow enveloped you anew.

Mais voilà ! mon cœur bat. Il jaillit de ma tête But there, my heart beats. A ray of light Un rayon qui s’allume et vole et se projette. Bursts from my head and flies and projects. Je découvre tes champs, tes palais et tes bois ! I discover your fields, your palaces and your woods! Ô toi, que je rêvais, à présent, je te vois ! O you, of whom I dreamed; now I can see you! C’est bien ! Oh, dors livrée à la voix de ta brise ! It is good! Oh, let your breeze’s voice lull you to sleep! Dors, la vague du lac est toute noire ou grise, Sleep, the lake’s wave is all black or grey, Dors, la nuit sur ton front a jeté son manteau ; Sleep, night has thrown its mantle over your brow; Ferme tes yeux brillants à son pâle flambeau ! Close your brilliant eyes to its pale torch! L’éclat de ton soleil te montre assez de fêtes ; The blaze of your sun shows you enough festivities; Tu pourras t’éveiller quand d’autres seront prêtes ! You can awake when more are ready! Dors, le voile est tiré sur la couche du jour… Sleep. The veil is drawn around the day’s bed… Dors, le bruit de la terre épouvante l’amour ! Sleep, the sound of the earth frightens love!

Écoutez !… Listen!… - Tout sommeille et votre lampe brille - Everything sleeps and your lamp shines, Jeune fille penchée aux barreaux de la grille ; Young girl leaning over the bars of the gate; Votre rideau de soie, agité par le vent, Your silken curtain, agitated by the wind, Est par votre main blanche écartée bien souvent. Is often pulled aside by your white hand. Mon ange, qu’avez vous et pourquoi cette attente ? My angel, what is wrong, and why this wait? C’est un brûlant désir celui qui vous tourmente ! It is a burning desire that torments you! Ah, que vous êtes belle ! Ah, votre œil mi-fermé, Ah, you are beautiful! Ah, your half-closed eye N’a, pour paraître grand, nul besoin de surmé ! Needs no surma to seem larger! Mais vous pleurez, je crois ? – But you are crying, I believe? –

Et la jeune captive And the young captive A tordu ses deux bras, tant sa douleur est vive. Has twisted her arms, so great is the pain. Elle reste courbée et de sa douce main She is bent, and with her gentle hand Elle voudrait briser le treillage d’airain… She would break the bronze lattice… Mais tout à coup, voilà que de l’étroite rue But suddenly, from the narrow street, Une voix a chanté, voix à peine entendue, A voice sings, a voice barely heard, Et dont l’accent plaintif a trahi la frayeur. Whose plaintive accent betrays fear. Son visage aussitôt se couvre de rougeur, Her face is at once covered with red; Aussitôt de son corps déroulant sa ceinture, At once she unwinds the belt from her waist Elle agite ses plis sur la muraille obscure, And agitates its folds on the dark wall, Elle craint qu’un écho ne s’éveille à ce bruit… She fears that an echo might awake from that sound… Elle attend… Tout se taît… alors elle sourit ! She waits… All is quiet… then she smiles!

Et la porte a fléchi sous une main discrète… And the door has given way beneath a discreet hand… L’enfant a peur encore… elle écoute et s’arrête… The child is still afraid… she listens and stops… - C’est vous ! C’est bien heureux ! Je ne t’attendais pas. - It is you! Welcome! I did not expect you. Pourquoi donc venez-vous ? - tais-toi… Parlons plus bas! Why have you come?… Be quiet… Speak softer! Il est là, dans la chambre… À présent je devine He is there, in the room… Now I can guess Quand on a comme vous une beauté divine ! How one can have a divine beauty like yours! Tu m’aimes, n’est-ce pas ? moi seule ?… ô mon amour ! You love me, is it not so? Me alone?… O my love! Sais-tu dans quels tourments j’ai passé tout le jour ? Do you know in what torments I have spent the day? Dilfiza, mon bonheur ! Tu vois bien que je t’aime Dilfiza, my joy! You well see that I love you Plus que le rossignol la rose de l’Irème ! More than the nightingale the rose of Iram! - N’entends-tu rien, Hassan ? – rien ! oh, mais laisse moi – Do you hear nothing, Hassan? – Nothing! oh, but let T’entourer de mes bras ! C’est qu’il te tuerait toi ! Me hold you in my arms! He would kill you! - Ne songe pas à lui… Songe à moi qui t’adore, – Do not think of him… Think of me, who adores you, À moi qui viens ici pour t’embrasser encore ! Of me who comes here to kiss you once more! - Laisse –moi ! – Par tes yeux, je ne m’en irai pas, – Leave me! – By your eyes, I will not go, Ma perle, sans t’avoir tenue entre mes bras ! My pearl, without having held you in my arms!

- Que tes yeux sont brillans !… Faut-il donc, faible femme – How brilliant your eyes are!… Weak woman, Qu’à leur feu dévorant j’amolisse mon âme ! Must their devouring fire soften my soul? - Un baiser !… Laisse-moi me mirer dans tes yeux ! – A kiss!… Let me look into your eyes! Pourqoui, donc, vouloir perdre un temps si précieux… Why, then, do you wish to waste such precious time? Viens… ta couche… Come… your bed…

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- Arrêtez ! – Et sa main le repousse, - Stop! – And her hand pushes him away, Et son regard l’attire et sa voix est si douce And her eyes entice and her voice is so gentle Que lui, tout enivré, ne se connaissant plus, That, intoxicated, beside himself, La presse sur son sein. Ses cris sont superflus. Presses her to his bosom. Her cries are in vain. La reproche ! Il respire écrasé sous sa bouche ! Reproach! He breathes, crushed beneath her mouth! Et la plainte ! Elle effraie… Oh ! moins qu’elle ne touche ! And the complaint! She is less fearsome… Oh! than touching! Il l’entraîne. Il l’étreint comme un souple roseau ; He pulls her to him. He embraces her like a supple reed; Leurs pieds quittent le sol et le chaste rideau Their feet leave the ground and the chaste curtain Retombe ! Falls!

- Et te quitter ! Hélas ! ma souveraine ! - And to leave you! Alas! my sovereign! Le soleil vient déjà ! Le soleil ! Il entraîne The sun is already here! The sun! He brings Tant de maux avec lui pour mon cœur amoureux, So many sorrows for my loving heart Que le voir seulement me rendrait malheureux. That the very sight of him makes me sad. - Déjà, déjà partir ! J’aime la lune pâle, – To leave, already! I love the pale moon, Et je hais le soleil et ses reflets d’opale ! And hate the opal reflections of the sun! Tu vas partir, Hassan ? Tu reviendras demain ? Are you leaving, Hassan? Will you come tomorrow? Laisse encor un instant ta tête sur mon sein ! Rest your head another moment on my breast! Elle est belle, la nuit ! oh ! n’est-ce pas, mon âme ? The night is beautiful! Oh, do you not agree, my soul? Son parfum est plus doux que ceui du cinname ! Its perfume is sweeter than cinnamon! Non ! Laissez-moi m’asseoir, mon maître, à vos genoux. No! Let me sit on your lap, my master. Je voudrais vous servir et n’être rien qu’à vous ! I would like to serve you and be yours alone!

Rien qu’à moi, Dilfiza ; rien qu’à moi ! Le beau rêve - Mine alone, Dilfiza; mine alone! Beautiful dream, Seulement y penser en mon esprit soulève Just thinking of it raises a thousand desires in my mind, Mille désirs, hélas ! qui s’éteindront sans fruit, Which will, alas, be extinguished before ever bearing fruit, Comme l’arbuste en fleurs qu’un orage détruit. Like the blossoming bush destroyed by the storm. Toi, n’être qu’à moi seul, oh, pourquoi me le dire ? You, mine alone! Ah, why say such things? Tu voulais sur ma lèvre éteindre le sourire ! You wanted to erase the smile from my lips! Rien qu’à moi, rien qu’à moi, quand nous parlons tout bas ; Mine alone, mine alone, when we speak so low; Quand je devrais m’enfuir au moindre bruit de pas, When I must flee at the slightest sound of footsteps, Quand, lorsque je te prie et que tu n’es plus forte, When, when I beg you and you have no more strength, Tu recules soudain en regardant la porte ! You recoil suddenly looking at the door! Quand tes yeux, ton visage, un autre les a vus ! When your eyes, your face, another has seen them! Un autre, quand il veut, te berce en ses bras nus ! Another, when he wishes, cradles you in his bare arms! Un autre a tes regards et tes souris d’épouse… Another has your wifely looks and smiles. A tout ! Et je le sais ! Et vous êtes jalouse ! Has everything! And I know it! Are you jealous? Alors que suis-je donc, moi, qui dois tnat souffrir ? What am I then, who have to suffer so? Croyez-vous mon chagrin facile à soutenir ? Do you believe my sorrow easy to bear? Moi qui ne puis vous voir que voilé de mystère, I who can only see you shrouded in mystery, Qui pour vous posséder me suis fait adultère, Who to possess you have become an adulterer, Qui ne fais tout le jour rien qu’attendre la nuit, Who do nothing all day but await the night, Bourrelé de remords aussitôt qu’elle fuit ? Tortured by remorse as soon as it flees? Vous n’êtes rien qu’à moi ! C’était cruel à dire… You are all mine! A cruel thing to say… Ah, vous aimez mes pleurs bien plus que mon sourire ! – Ah, you love my tears more than my smiles! –

Elle l’environnait d’un regard éclatant… She wrapped him in a brilliant gaze… Triste de sa douleur ; mais heureuse pourtant Sad at his sorrow; but happy nonetheless De voir autant d’amour dorer chaque parole… To see so much love gild every word… La joie et le chagrin la rendaient presque folle, Joy and sorrow make almost mad, Et quand il eut parlé se relevant soudain, And when he suddenly arose after speaking Elle dit à voix basse en lui serrant la main : She said in a low voice and squeezing his hand:

- Tu le voudrais, Hassan ? Tu le voudrais, mon âme ? - Would you want that, Hassan? Would you, my soul? Eh bien, cela sera ! Faible et timide femme, If so, it shall be! Weak and timid woman, Pour n’être qu’à toi seul, je ne craindrai plus rien ! To be yours alone, I would fear nothing! Mes amis, mes parents, le ciel… mon plus cher bien, My friends, my relatives, heaven… my dearest treasure, Pour toi, pour mon amant, pour celui que j’adore, For you, for my lover, for he whom I adore, J’abandonnerai tout! S’il se peut, plus encore ! I will abandon everything! If possible, even more! Qu’as–tu donc ? Je suis calme, et tranquille est mon cœur ; What is wrong? I am calm, and my heart is at rest; Tu crois, toi, que mes yeux sont troublés de terreur ? Do you believe that my eyes are troubled by terror? Mais ils sont fatigués… depuis longtems je veille. They are just tired. It is long since I slept. Ô ciel ! quel bruit là-bas a frappé mon oreille ? O heaven! What distant sound has struck my ear? Écoute… Laisse donc ! ce n’est rien… ce n’est rien ! Listen… Enough! It was nothing! It was nothing! Ton cœur bat, pauvre enfant ! bien plus fort que le mien ! Your heart pounds, poor child! far more than mine! Va ! Tu m’entends, demain, demain à la même heure ! Go! You hear me, tomorrow, at the same time tomorrow!

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Tu sais que le Djâlem court près de ma demeure ? You know that the Djelam runs close to my house? Va, mon Hassan chéri, va ; tu prendras de l’or ! Go, my dear Hassan, go; you will have gold! Va-t’ en, va ! Dilfiza n’est pas ta femme encore ! – Go now! Go! Dilfiza is not yet your wife! –

Et lui, lui tout ému, la conjure, la prie And he, deeply moved, entreats, begs De lui confier tout… Mais dans la galerie That she give him all… But in the passageway Retentissent soudain les pas du vieux émir… The steps of the old vizier suddenly echoed… Il ne peut plus rester, il est tems de partir ! He could stay no longer! It was time to leave! Une échelle de soie est pendue à la grille ; A silk ladder hangs from the bars; Il tombe du balcon… s’enfuit sous la charmille. He falls from the balcony… flees beneath the bower.

- Vous dormez, Dilfiza ? Levez-vous, mon amour ! - Are you asleep, Dilfiza? Rise up, my love! C’est l’heure de prier ! Levez-vous, il est jour ! – It is time for prayer! Rise up, it is day! -

III Chapitre Chapter III

L’ÉPOUSE THE WIFE

C’était dans un salon dont l’arcade mauresque It was in a room whose Moorish arcade Se découpait en gris sur un fond peint à fresque. Stood out grey against a painted fresco. Des fleurs d’or, des fruits d’or, des feuillages d’azur Golden flowers, golden fruit, blue leaves, S’élevaient, se brisaient, s’enlaçaient sur le mur. Rose, broke, entwined on the wall. À la croisée étroite un long vitre d’opale, In the casement window a long opal glass, Colorait de ses tons une lumière pâle, Coloured with the tones of its pale light, Et sur un divan rouge, incliné à demi, And on a red divan, leaning over, Une femme berçait un enfant endormi. A woman rocked a sleeping child.

Triste et les yeux en pleurs, sa voix qui s’abandonne Sad and teary-eyed, her delirious voice Laisse tomber les mots de son chant monotone ; Utters words of a monotonous song; Parfois son regard terne errant dans le jardin, At times her tender gaze, wandering around the garden, Se ranime un instant ; mais bientôt il s’éteint. Revives for a moment; but it soon fades. Un seul penser l’occupe et ce penser la tue ! One thought besets her, and that thought kills! Par d’horribles soupçons son âme est combattue : Her soul struggles with horrible suspicions; Elle est trompée… oh ! oui, voilà qu’au jour naissant, She is betrayed… Oh! yes, at dawning day, L’épouse délaissée a vu rentrer Hassan ! The abandoned wife has seen Hassan return home!

- Pourquoi donc dans la nuit, quand elle est aussi sombre, - Why, in the night when all is dark, Mon époux s’en va-t-il ? Aurait-il besoin d’ombre ? Does my husband go out? Does he need shadows? Pourquoi me fuir ainsi ? Pourquoi, pendant le jour, Why does he flee me thus? Why, during the day, Parler seul et rougir ? Penserait-il d’amour ? Talk to himself and blush? Is he thinking of love? Pourquoi plus de baisers pour mes lèvres d’épouse ? Why no more kisses for my wifely lips? Pourquoi, lorsque je dis : « Hassan, je suis jalouse », Why, when I say: “Hassan, I am jealous”, Pourquoi ce regard triste ou ce propos moqueur, Why that sad look and that scornful reply, Qui me fait mal à voir, ou qui me blesse au cœur ? That distorts my features and cuts me to the heart? C’est bien ! Je suis trompée ! Oh ! oui ! Mais la vengeance It is well! I am betrayed!… Oh! yes! But vengeance Est amère encor plus que douce n’est l’offense ! – Is even bitterer than the offence is sweet!

Et son regard tomba sur son fils endormi : – And her gaze falls on her sleeping son: - Dors, mon dernier plaisir. Dors, mon dernier ami ! - Sleep, my last pleasure. Sleep my last friend! Tu lui ressembles tant ! S’il me fuit, tu me restes ; You are so like him! If he flees you stay; Je n’ai plus rien que toi de mes rêves célestes, Of all my celestial dreams you are all that remains, Dors, mon dernier bonheur, ferme tes yeux charmans, Sleep my last happiness, close your charming eyes, Toi, tu seras aussi comme tous les amans ; You too will be like all lovers; Tu diras : « Que me fait l’épouse qui m’adore ? », You will say: “What does my adoring wife matter to me?” Méchant ! Vous tromperez ! Reste en mes bras encore ! – Wicked! You will betray! Remain in my arms a little longer! –

- Il ne vient point, hélas !… Il est pourtant ici… - He is not coming, alas! But he is here… Par quelqu’autre dessein son front est obscurci ; His brow is darkened by another plan; Qu’il reste loin de moi ! Qu’importe son absence ! Let him stay far from me! What does his absence matter? Je l’entends ! – Le voilà ! Rapide, elle s’élance… I hear him! – Here he is! Quickly, she runs… La tenture se lève et son regard jaloux, The hanging is raised and her jealous gaze, Jeté furtivement, reconnaît son époux. Furtively cast, recognizes her husband.

C’était lui. Son œil fauve et sa marche incertaine, It was he. His wild eye and stumbling gait, Et sur ses traits flétris une ironie hautaine, And on his ravaged features a haughty irony, Trahissaient un désordre, un désespoir de cœur, Betray a confusion, a desperation of the heart,

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Qui perçaient malgré lui, sous son masque railleur. That pierce, despite himself, the mocking mask. Cependant, quand il vit venir sa jeune femme, However, when he saw his young wife coming, Si pâle et devers lui tendant toute son âme, So pale and with her soul offered Sur ses bras qui tremblaient, quand il vit leur enfant, On her trembling outstretched arms, when he saw their child, Si rosé, si joli, sur son front souriant So pink, so pretty, wearing on his brow, Portant au lieu de fleurs, des larmes de sa mère, Rather than flowers, his mother’s tears, Il se pencha vers elle, en sa douleur amère, He bent towards her, in her bitter grief, Et l’attirant des mains qui pressaient Dilfiza, And pulling her with the hands that had embraced Dilfiza, Il voulut l’embrasser… mais sa bouche n’osa ! He wanted to kiss her… but his mouth did not dare!

Calmée, elle restait pourtant sur sa poitrine, Calmer, she lay her head on his chest, Comme un lys affaibli sur un soutien s’incline ; Like a weakened lily against a support; Et triste elle sourit et puis se relevant And sadly she smiled and then, rising, Elle posa son fils sur le bord du divan. She put her son on the edge of the divan.

- Restez-vous, mon seigneur ? Ma servante tartare - Are you staying, my lord? Should my Tartar servant Doit-elle accompagner mes chants de sa guitare ? Accompany my songs on her guitar? Votre esclave est heureuse alors que je vous vois Your slave is happy when she sees you Vous plaire à retenir les accens de sa voix. Pleased to retain the accents of her voice. Aimez-vous les parfums de cette cassolette ? Do you like the perfumes of this cassolette? Vous n’avez plus au cou cette sainte amulette You no longer have around your neck the holy amulet Qu’il y a bien longtems je vous avais donnée ; I gave you long ago; Quand vous veniez, mon cœur vous avait deviné… As you were coming, my heart could feel you… Il battait… Vous restez ? Oh ! car j’ai bien des choses It was pounding… Are you staying? Oh! for I have many things Qu’aime à voir mon seigneur… Cette essence de roses My lord likes to see… This attar of roses Dont me parlait Fathmé, la femme du Kazi, Of which Fatima spoke, the wife of the Kazi, J’ai fait venir la Juive et moi-même j’ai choisi. I had the Jewess come and I myself chose. Et puis cette ceinture aux fleurs d’or et de soie, And this belt with golden flowers and silk, Et ce brocard d’argent où le saphir ondoie And the silver brocade where the sapphire undulates, Et cet ivoire blanc apporté du Magrib, And this white ivory from the Maghreb, Ces perles, ces rubis venus de Serandib, These pearls, these rubies from Serandib, Je vous montrerai tous ces cadeaux de mon père… I will show you all these presents from my father… Car vous restez ici, c’est bien ce que j’espère… For you are staying here, that is my hope… Mais je vous parle trop et votre front fâché But I speak too much and your angry brow Tombé sur le coussin y demeure caché ! Is fallen on the cushion and remains hidden there! Je m’en vais ! – Haïdé, restez ! Je vous écoute ! - I am leaving! – Haïdé, stay! I am listening! - Vous êtes fatigué d’une trop longue route ; Are you tired after a journey; Vous revenez de loin ? – Je ne veux pas dormir ! Did you come far? – I don’t want to sleep! - Tout à l’heure, pourquoi vous ai-je vu frémir ? – Just now, why did I see you shudder? Voulez-vous dans mes bras reposer votre tête ? Do you want to rest your head in my arms? Oh, venez, mon Hassan ! – Haïdé, non, arrête ! Oh, come my Hassan! – Haïdé, no, wait! Haïdé ! Voyez-vous… Enfant ! Pardonnez-moi ! Haïdé! Do you see? Child! Forgive me! Restez ici… tout près… j’aime à t’entendre, toi ! Stay here… close to me… I love to hear you, you! Mais je souffre, vois-tu, je suis alors colère ; But I suffer, you see, and then I am angry; Dis, quels sont les présens que t’a donnés ton père ? – Tell me, what gifts has your father sent? –

Elle était devant lui, les yeux mouillés de pleurs… She stood before him, eyes wet with tears… Tremblante, succombant au poids de ses douleurs, Trembling, succumbing beneath the weight of her grief, Elle oubliait déjà ses momens de veuvage… She was already forgetting her moments of widowhood… Comme un esquif frappé lorsqu ‘il touche au rivage, Like a skiff broken as it reaches shore, Elle était presqu’heureuse, et tout à coup le sort She was almost happy, and suddenly fate Réveille le chagrin pour la frapper encor. Woke up sorrow to strike her once more. Et lui, lui qui la voit inquiète, agitée, And he, he who saw her worried, agitated, Sur le mot qu’il dira toute entière arrêtée, Hanging on whatever word would fall from his lips, Attendant de sa voix la joie ou ses douleurs, Expecting from his voice her joys or pains, Prête pour le plaisir et prête pour les pleurs… Ready for pleasure and ready for tears… Le rêve d’autrefois revient en sa pensée, The former dream came back to him, Son bras tout contre lui la ramène embrassée… His arm brings her close and he kisses her… Des larmes dans ses yeux, lentement, se font jour, Tears in his eyes, slowly appear, Il sait qu’on souffre tant, quand on souffre d’amour… He knows that love’s suffering is most severe… Un esclave paraît… il s’agenouille… il donne A slave appears… he kneels… he gives Au jeune homme interdit que la vie abandonne To the embarrassed young man who is like one dead, Une lettre… Il s’éloigne… A letter… he leaves…

- Allez sur le balcon ! - Go to the balcony! Allez-y. Je le veux ! Ayez de la raison Go. I wish it. Be reasonable, Surtout ! Ne pleurez pas ! pourquoi cela, mon âme ? Above all. Don’t cry! why this, my soul?

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Laissez-moi seul. Allez : je vous aime ! – Leave me alone! Go: I love you! –

Sa femme His wife Secoua tristement son front décoloré, Shook sadly her discoloured brow, Mais le regard d’Hassan devenait égaré, But Hassan’s eyes became deranged Et plein d’impatience il fait un dernier signe : And, full of impatience, he made a final sign: À partir il faut bien qu’Haïdé se résigne, Haïdé must resign herself to leaving, Et quand on n’entendit plus le bruit de ses pas And when her steps no more could be heard Il s’écria tout haut : - Je ne partirai pas ! - He cried out loudly: - I will not go! -

IV Chapitre Chapter IV

LA LETTRE THE LETTER

À l’aimé de mon cœur… À l’âme de ma vie, To the beloved of my heart… To the soul of my life, À celui dont l’amour est toute mon envie… To he whose love is all my desire… Au cyprès qui m’ombrage, au saphir d’Orient, To the cypress that shades me… To the sapphire of the Orient, Dont l’éclat de ma nuit a fait un jour riant ; Whose brilliance has made of my night a laughing day; À mon unique bien, à l’anneau de la chaîne To my sole treasure, to the link of the chain Qui retient mon esprit dans ce monde de peine, That binds my spirit to this vale of tears, À celui qui me fait, en son brillant miroir, To he who, in his shining mirror, Trouver beau chaque instant qui me semblait si noir, Makes me find beautiful every instant that once seemed so black, À mon seigneur, Hassan, puisse Dieu de sa gloire To my lord Hassan, may God project his glory Projeter les rayons bien loin dans la mémoire ! Long in memories! Puisse-t-il amoureux, toujours, de mes souris, May his love for my smiles always make him Oublier dans mes bras le ciel et ses houris ! Forgetful in my arms of paradise and its houris!

- Dilfiza vous attend ! Dilfiza qui vous aime, - Dilfiza awaits you! Dilfiza who loves you, Pour être plus à vous, veut se perdre elle-même. To be more yours, will sacrifice herself. Si vous m’avez compris, car j’ai parlé bien bas, If you have understood, for I spoke very quietly, Ce soir, vers mes jardins, vous conduirez vos pas : This evening, your steps will lead you to my garden; Nous avons des coursiers, mais à cette heure sombre We have steeds, but at that dark hour Entourés tous les deux par des gardiens sans nombre, Surrounded by numberless guards, Un bruit, le moindre bruit pourrait seul nous trahir ; A sound, the slightest sound could betray us; Sur les flots du Djâlem, il vaut mieux nous enfuir. On the waves of the Djelam we had better flee. J’ai trouvé des rameurs… Une barque légère I have found rowers… A small boat Nous descendra demain sur la rive étrangère Will leave us tomorrow on a foreign shore Où vous serez à moi !… Rien qu’à moi ! Rien qu’à vous ! Where you will be mine!… Mine alone! Yours alone! À vous ! Que ce mot seul pour mon oreille est doux ! Yours! How sweet that word falls on my ears! À vous, toujours à vous ! À vous seul ! Que j’y pense, Yours, yours forever! Yours alone! Just to think of it Il me semble aussitôt que je suis en démence. And I feel I am already mad. Mais non ! Demain… À l’heure où maintenant j’écris, But no! Tomorrow… At the time I now write, Je baiserai ta bouche et verrai ton souris. I will kiss your mouth and see your smile. Demain ! Plus de frayeurs qui troublent notre joie ! Tomorrow! No more fears will trouble our joy! Demain ! Pour t’amener plus d’échelle de soie ! Tomorrow! No more will I bring you the silken rope! Plus de crainte du bruit ! Mon bonheur, mon Hassan, No more fear of making a sound! My happiness, my Hassan, Sur ton front amoureux plus de sort menaçant ! On your loving brow no more menacing fate! Je n’y veux plus songer… Cette pensée enivre, I do not want to think of it any longer… the thought intoxicates, Être heureux à ce point… mais on ne saurait vivre ! To be so happy… how could one live? Je ne sais pas porter le poids de mon bonheur, I do not know how to bear the weight of my happiness. J’en ai trop… j’en ai trop pour qu’il tienne en mon cœur ! I have too much… My heart has no room! Viens ! Tour à tour mon front pâlit et se colore, Come! My forehead pales and then reddens, Je t’attends, je t’attends comme on attend l’aurore, I await you, I await you as one awaits the dawn, Je t’attends comme un charme, un précieux talisman I await you like a charm, a precious talisman Qui va me délivrer. Je t’attends, mon amant ! That will deliver me. I await you, my lover! Et pourtant un soupçon, le croiras-tu, mon ange ? And yet a suspicion, would you believe it, my angel, Laisse sur mon esprit flotter une ombre étrange : Lets a strange shadow float over my mind: Ma bouche voulait rire et tout à coup n’osa, My mouth wanted to laugh but suddenly did not dare, Car une voix me dit : Viendra-t-il, Dilfiza ? For a voice is saying to me: Will he come, Dilfiza? Il le veut à présent, mais lorsque viendra l’heure, He wants to now, but when the time comes, Ne pensera-t-il pas qu’il laisse sa demeure, Will he not think that he is leaving his home Pour aller dans l’exil suivant ses pas errans, To go into exile, following your wandering footsteps, Voir en tes yeux sa joie, en tes bras ses parens ? To see in your eyes his joy, in your arms his family? Et j’ai beau m’écrier : Ô mon Dieu, mais il m’aime ! And I cry out in vain: O my God, but he loves me! S’il laisse tout cela, je le laisse de même ! If he leaves all that, so do I! Je ne t’ai point cherché quand tu me vis au bain ! I was not looking for you when you saw me at the baths!

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Savais-je, moi, qu’une autre eût couché sur ton sein ? Did I know that another had lain upon your breast? Non ! je t’ai tout donné, mon honneur et ma vie ; No! I gave you everything, my honour and my life; Hors ton amour, ici qu’est-ce donc qu j’envie ? Besides your love, what is there that I want?

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Il n’en détachait pas sa prunelle rougie, He could not take his reddened eye from her, Mais il le maudissait cet être dont l’amour But he cursed that creature whose love Était beau, mais brûlant, ravissant, mais si lourd ! Was beautiful, but burned, ravishing, but so heavy! Mais il la maudissait, elle et son regard d’ange, But he cursed her, her and her angel gaze, Son regard dont l’ardeur était parfois étrange, Her gaze whose ardour was sometimes so strange, Son regard si profond, si noir de volupté, Her gaze so deep, so black with voluptuousness, Son regard si divin et pourtant éhonté ! Her gaze so divine and yet so shameless!

- Oui, j’irai… je le dois… j’irai, mai s pour lui dire - Yes, I will go… I must… I will go, but only to tell her Qu’au bord du précipice a cessé mon délire ; That my madness ceased at the edge of the precipice; Je lui dirai : - Voilà ! J’ai rompu nos sermens, I will tell her: - Look! I have broken my vows. L’ivresse du bonheur sur les premiers momens The drunkenness of happiness on our first moments A jeté le manteau qui nous cachait le crime, Threw the cape that hid our crime, Maintenant tout s’éclaire au fond de cet abîme. Now all is clear at the bottom of that abyss. Partir ! Y penses-tu ? J’ai souffert plus que toi, Leave? Will you? I have suffered more than you, Car un autre t’avait et je te voulais, moi ! For another had you and I wanted you. Mais quitter Haïdé, mais quitter cette femme But leave Haïdé, but leave that woman Qu’on n’a jamais flétri d’un seul penser de blâme, Who has never been scourged with a blameful thought, Moi, la quitter ! Jamais ! son amour la défend ! – Me, leave her! Never! her love defends her! –

- Je veux enfin sortir de ce gouffre étouffant. - I want to finally climb out of that stifling chasm. Je ne la suivrai pas… Il faut attendre l’heure ! I will not follow her… I must await the hour! Haïdé, je l’entends ; elle vient… et je pleure ! Haïdé, I hear, she is coming… and I weep! Elle demanderait… Je ne veux pas la voir ! She will ask… I do not want to see her! Esclaves ! dans la cour sellez mon coursier noir ! – Slaves! Saddle my black steed in the yard! –

Il s’élance. Haïdé, l’œil en feu, délirante, He runs. Haïdé, eyes ablaze,delirious, Accourait. Il est loin dans la poussière errante ; Runs up. He is far in the wandering dust; Elle l’appelle, elle court jusqu’au bois de jasmins… She calls, she runs to the jasmine wood… Il ne l’écoute pas. Elle tordit ses mains… He does not hear. She wrings her hands…

V Chapitre Chapter V

DILFIZA DILFIZA

La soie et le velours, de larges broderies, Silk and velvet, wide embroideries, Des tentures d’argent tombant des galeries, Silver hangings from the arches, Des vases peints d’azur, de vert et de carmin Blue-, green- and crimson-painted vases, Où la rose pourprée et l’odorant jasmin Or the purple rose and the scented jasmine Mêlaient et leurs parfums et leurs couleurs d’opale, Mingled both their perfumes and their opalescent colours, Remplissaient le salon… Dilfiza, seule et pâle, Filled the salon… Dilfiza, alone and pale, S’appuyant sur le coude au fond de son divan, Rested her elbow on the end of her divan, Tenait ses yeux fixés sur le soleil levant. With her eyes fixed on the rising sun. Elle restait ainsi ; sa mouvante prunelle She remained thus; her mobile pupil Interrogeait l’éclat de la voûte éternelle ; Questioning the brilliance of the eternal vault; Et rien ne paraissait sur le disque enflammé ; And nothing appeared on the enflamed disc; Et plus l’ardent flambeau grandissait allumé, And the more the ardent torch grew in light, Plus l’ombre s’éffaçait, plus l’Océan de brume The more the shadow faded, the more the misty Ocean Se fondait et nageait en longs flocons d’écume, Blended and swam in long flakes of foam, Plus la teinte rosée et fraîche du matin The more the morning’s fresh, dewy tint Colorait leurs flancs gris des reflets du satin, Coloured their grey sides with satin reflections, Plus son regard terni se ravivait de joie ; The more its dull gaze filled with joy; Plus sa main effilée et tourmentant la soie The more her hand unravelled and tormented the silk De la robe à longs plis qui tombaient sur ses pieds, Of the long-pleated robe that fell to her feet, Enroulait doucement les cordons dépliés. Gently rolled up the unfolded strands.

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Enfin ce long soupir qui vient après la peine Finally that long sigh that comes after sorrow S’échappa de son cœur avec sa douce haleine : Escaped from her heart with her sweet breath: - Aucun d’eux dans le ciel ! Je vais partir bientôt ! - None of them in the sky! I shall leave soon! Pas encor cependant dans les plis du coteau, Yet still, perhaps, in the folds of the hills, Quelque Péri, peut-être, est à jouer à l’ombre, Some Peri still plays in the shade, Je vais attendre. I shall wait.

- Hélas ! Que ma pensée est sombre ! - Alas! How dark my thoughts are! Au milieu de mes chants, de mes cris de bonheur, Amidst my songs, my cries of joy, Je m’arrête parfois pour écouter mon cœur… I sometimes stop to listen to my heart… Toujours un rire en lui par un soupir s’achève. There laughter always ends in sighs. Comme il est triste, lui ! Que brillant est mon rêve ! How sad it is! How brilliant my dream! Rêve ou réalité ? Suis-je donc bien Péri ? Dream or reality? Am I really a Peri? Est-ce à moi, Dilfiza, qu’un jeune homme a souri ? Was it to me, Dilfiza, that a young man smiled? Est-ce moi que ses bras ont pressée, que sa bouche Was it me his arms squeezed, whose mouth Brûla sous ses baisers, ici… sur cette couche ? Burned beneath his kisses, here, on this bed? À quoi pensai-je ? Hassan ! Viens à moi, viens à moi ! What was I thinking? Hassan! Come to me! Come to me! Vous êtes mon époux, mon seul maître, mon roi ! You are my husband, my only master, my king!

- Il est dans son palais… Que fait-il à cette heure ? - He is in his palace… What is he doing now? Il… oh ! Sa femme est là ! Sa femme ! que je meure He… oh! His wife is there! His wife! Let me die Si j’attends plus longtems pour l’ôter de ses yeux ; If I wait longer to take her from his eyes; Elle est pure, dit-il ! Qu’elle aille dans les cieux ! She is pure, he says! Let her go to heaven! Elle est belle… oh ! mon Dieu ! S’il m’oubliat près d’elle ! She is beautiful… oh! My God! If she made him forget me! Oh, mais je suis Péri ! Je peux tout, et mon aile Oh, but I am a Peri! I can do anything, and my wing Va me porter près d’eux ! Poignard ! viens dans mon sein ! Will carry me close to them! Dagger! Come into my bosom! Ta pointe est affilée et plaît à mon dessein ! Your point is sharp and pleases my design! Reste là ! Stay there!

- Rien au ciel ! Je puis partir, je pense. - Nothing in the sky! I can leave, I think. S’ils me voyaient pourtant… Voilà je recommence But if they saw me… There, I am trembling À trembler ; oh, l’effroi ne quitte pas mon cœur. Again; oh, fear will not leave my heart. S’ils me voyaient aussi ? J’ai raison d’avoir peur ! If they saw me too? I have reason to be afraid! Je veux attendre encor ! Tous ces pensers de flamme I will wait a little longer! All these flaming thoughts Brisent mon énergie et dessèchent mon âme. Sap my energy and dry my soul. Mes rêves les plus beaux, je les vois se flétrir, My most beautiful dreams, I see them fade, Je voudrais être heureuse et je me sens mourir… I want to be happier and I feel that I die… Je ne veux plus penser ! I do not want to think!

- Et mon lys diaphane - And my diaphanous lily, Sans un regard de moi se déploie et se fane ; Without a look from me bends and withers; J’ai tort de t’oublier, mon lys au front d’argent ! I am wrong to forget my silver-headed lily! Et toi, ma rose rouge, au teint vif et changeant ! And you, my red rose, whose colour is lively and changing! Tes feuilles t’ont cachée et te voilà, coquette, Your leaves have hidden you and there you are, coquettish, Pour qu’on te cherche aussi, tu détournes la tête ! So that you too may be sought, you turn your head! Mes charmans Kallifehs sont morts depuis longtems ; My charming kallifehs are long since dead; Mon luth qu’hier encore j’ai pris quelques instans, My lute that only yesterday I held for a few instants, Sous les coussins de soie est tombé, ce me semble… Is fallen on the silken cushions, it seems… Ses cordes et mes doights étaient toujours ensemble Its strings and my fingers were always together Autrefois… Maintenant il n’est plus ainsi. Before… Now it is not so. Voyons encor pourtant… je veux chanter aussi. – Let us try once more… I too want to sing. –

Elle était belle, oh ! belle, oh ! belle et séduisante ; She was beautiful, oh! beautiful, oh! beautiful and seductive; Ses deux bras entouraient cette harpe luisante, Her arms embraced the shining harp, Comme le cou d’un cygne un faisceau de joncs verts ; Like a swan’s neck a bundle of green reeds; Alors demi-penchée elle chanta ces vers : Then half bowed she sang these verses:

- Qui sait dans le fond des bois sombres - Who knows in the depths of the dark woods Combien d’arbres jettent leurs ombres, How many trees throw their shadows,ws, Combien on voit de frais abris ? How many cool shelters may be seen? Qui peut, soulevant les voiles, Who can, raising all the veils, Contempler de près les étoiles ?… Contemplate the stars close up?... Dieu seul… Dieu seul et les Péris ! God alone… God alone and the Peris! - Qui sait ce qu’un vague silence – Who knows what a vague silence Dit au doux bruit qui se balance Says to the gentle sound that sways Au-dessus des plaines de riz ? Above the rice plains?

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Oh, qui sait ce que dit l’abeille, Oh, who knows what the bee says Quand elle mord la fleur vermeille ?… When it bites the vermilion flower?... Dieu seul… Dieu seul et les Péris ! God alone… God alone and the Peris!

- Qui sait ce que dit à la rose, - Who knows what the bulbul that approaches Le Bulbul qui s’approche et n’ose And does not dare land on the beloved tree Se poser sur l’arbre chéri ? Says to the rose? Dilfiza le sait. Car au monde Dilfiza knows. For in the world Nulle chose n’est trop profonde Nothing is too deep Pour Dieu… Dieu seul et la Péri ! – For God… God alone and the Peri! –

Ainsi dans une nuit claire un Andelib qui chante Thus in the night an Andalib who sings S’arrête sans finir sa romance touchante… Stops short and does not finish its touching romance… Et passant son front brun sous les rameaux fermés, And passing its chestnut brow beneath tangled branches Contemple avec amour les rosiers parfumés, Lovingly contemplates the scented rosebushes, Ainsi fait Dilfiza : tourmentée et distraite, This does Dilfiza: tormented and distracted, Elle regard au ciel et la chanson s’arrête ; She watches the sky and the song ends; Le luth tombe à ses pieds, elle se dit : - il est tems ! – The lute falls at her feet, she says to herself: - it is time! – Et serrant sur son corps ses vêtements flottans, And wrapping her flowing robes tight around her body, Elle part… elle vole et la crainte et la joie She departs… she flies and fear and joy Agitent dans les airs l’aile qui se déploie, Are agitated in the air by her unfolding wing, Et de son vol ardent effleurant les palmiers, And touching the palm trees with her ardent flight Elle ébranle les nids où dorment les ramiers. She shakes the sleeping ring-dove’s nest.

Moi, poète, je dis : - Ivre encor de rosée, I, the poet, say: - Still drunk on dew, J’ai vu la fleur des nuits par l’aurore baisée, I have seen the night flower kissed by dawn, Refermer chastement son calice vermeil, Chastely close up its crimson chalice, Et défendre son sein des baisers du soleil. And protect its breast from the sun’s kisses. Bien souvent je l’ai vue à l’heure où sa tendresse Often I have seen, at the hour when her tenderness Par plus de passion la tourmente et la presse, Torments her by increase of passion, and presses her, Honteuse, et sur sa tige abaissant son front pur, Shameful; and on her stem lowering her pure brow, Se laisser dépouiller le corps de son azur. Allows her body to be stripped by its azure. Bien souvent je l’ai vue, alors qu’au crépuscule Often I have seen her, when at sunset Son amant affligé pâlit et se recule, Her afflicted lover pales and withdraws, Dévoilant peu à peu son visage lassé, Unveiling gradually her tired face, Reprendre avec le soir la fraîcheur du passé. Recover with the evening the freshness of the past. Et je pensais : And I thought:

- Voilà ! Dans toute la nature, - There! In all of nature, Sur tout ce que le ciel, radieuse ceinture, In all of what the radiant sky contains, Entoure de ses plis, dans l’Éden, en nul lieu, Wraps in its folds, in Eden, nowhere, Rien de plus ravissant ne fut créé par Dieu. – Nothing more ravishing was created by God. – Mais un jour j’étais seul et ma lèvre tremblante, But one day I was alone and my trembling lip Trahissait les pensers de mon âme brûlante, Betrayed the thoughts of my burning soul, Et j’errais au hasard et je ne voyais rien, And I wandered at random and I saw nothing, Et murmurais des vers sans suite et sans lien ; And murmured verses without rhyme or reason; Je m’arrêtai ; les bras croisés sur ma poitrine, I stopped; arms folded over my chest, J’écoutai ! Dans mon cœur une harpe divine I listened! In my heart a divine harp Soupirait des accents qui ne sont pas des mots : Sighed accents that are not words: Il me semblait entendre un bruit dans les ormeaux, I seemed to hear a sound in the elms, Puis un cri, puis un chant, puis voir fuir dans les nues Then a cry, then a song, then see flee in the clouds Des anges murmurant leurs chansons ingénues ; Angels murmuring their ingenuous songs; Des djinns qui blasphémaient, des ramiers, des pigeons ; Blasphemous Djinns, wood-pigeons, doves; Je voyais onduler des étangs et des joncs, I saw ponds and reeds undulate, Je voyais se baisser sous les doights des Zéphyres I saw bow beneath the fingers of Zephyrus Des roses et des lys et j’entendais des lyres… Roses and lilies and I heard lyres…

Et tu vins, Dilfiza ! Je te vis, Dilfiza ! And you came, Dilfiza! I saw you, Dilfiza! Sur ton corps, ô Péri, mon regard se posa, On your body, O Peri, my gaze rested, Mon regard se posa sur ton corps, sur ton âme, My gaze rested on your body, on your soul, Je vis ta passion, mystérieuse femme ! I saw your passion, mysterious woman! Alors, tout enivré de tes traits, de ta voix, Then, drunk with your features, your voice, Toi, toi que je voyais pour la première fois, You, you, whom I was seeing for the first time, Je dis : - Les fleurs, les bois, la fraîcheur de la brise, I said: - The flowers, the woods, the freshness of the breeze, L’éclat du diamant, la perle blanche ou grise, The diamond’s sparkle, the grey or white pearl, L’antelope aux longs yeux, la gazelle au front pur, The long-eyed antelope, the pure-browed gazelle, Le lotus entrouvrant ses corolles d’azur, The lotus half opening its blue corollas,

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Les blanches malhicas où l’abeille s’arrête, The white malhicas where the bee stops to rest, Le siricha si beau sur une jeune tête, The siricha, so beautiful on a young head, Le parfum qui circule autour du mimosa… The perfume that surrounds the mimosa… Tout cela, ce n’est rien auprès de Dilfiza ! – All that, is nothing beside Dilfiza! –

VI Chapitre Chapter VI

LES DEUX PÉRIS THE TWO PERIS

Oh Péri, Dilfiza, génie aux ailes blanches, Oh Peri, Dilfiza, white-winged genie, Tu passes sur la nue et rapide tu penches You pass over the clouds and quickly lean L’ivoire de ton cou vers le ciel embaumé Your ivory neck towards the balmy sky, Et lui montres ta joue et ton front animé. And show it your cheek and your enlivened brow. Oh, jacinthe, asphodèle, oh, rose entre les roses ! Oh, hyacinth, asphodel, oh, rose amongst roses! Voluptueuse enfant, tu passes et tu n’oses, Voluptuous child, you pass and do not dare, Sous le globe d’azur ralentir ton essor… Beneath the azure dome to slow your flight… Et tu fuis, ô mon charme, ô ma perle, ô trésor ! And you flee, O my charm, O my pearl, O treasure!

Lys de Djerherabad, tes yeux sont un calice Lily of Djerherabad, your eyes are a chalice Où mon regard se plonge et reste avec délice. Wherein my gaze plunges and remains in delight. Ta bouche est une datte entrouverte au soleil, Your mouth is a date half open in the sun, Fraîche et couverte encor de son éclat vermeil, Fresh and still covered with its crimson brilliance, Ton corps souple qui vole et bondit dans l’espace, Your supple body flies and leaps in space, La tige du cyprès a-t-elle plus de grâce ? Does the cypress stem have more grace? Tu parlas ! Oh, j’entends la voix d’un bengali, You spoke! Oh, I hear a Bengali voice, Ou les sons d’un kendjbad ou l’accord d’un sili. Or the sounds of a Kenjbad or a zili’s chord.

Elle disait : - j’ai peur, sur ma route, She said: - I am afraid, on my way, De rencontrer celui que mon âme redoute : To meet the one my soul dreads: Mon père !… S’il venait… S’il me voyait ainsi… My father!… If he came… If he saw me thus… Pâle !… Si son regard pénétrait jusqu’ici… Pale!… If his gaze reached here… Rien ne me sauverait ! – Nothing would save me! –

Palpitante de crainte, Quivering with fear, Elle avait peur du vent dont la légère étreinte She feared the wind whose light embrace Par momens se jouait à l’entour de son corps ; At times played around her body; Tout la faisait trembler et, dans ses longs efforts, Everything made her tremble, and in her long efforts, Les lieux qu’elle quittait s’enfuyaient derrière elle ; The places she left behind fled behind her; Encor quelques instans… encor quelques coups d’aile, A few more moments… a few more flaps of her wings, Et le toit qu’elle cherche à ses yeux paraîtra. And the roof she sought would appear. Mais tout à coup… Ô Dieux ! une main l’entoura, But suddenly… O Gods! A hand encircled her, Et malgré sa frayeur, ses larmes étouffées, And despite her fear, her stifled tears, Une voix, douce ainsi qu’on dit celles des fées, A voice, gentle as they say the voices of fairies are, Tandis que sa paupière était cachée au jour, While her eyelid was hidden to the day, Tout en riant chanta, puis parla tour à tour : Laughing, singing, then spoke in turn:

- J’ai fait bien du chemin, ma belle, - I have come a long way, my beauty, Depuis ma prison jusqu’ici ! From my prison to here! Est-ce moi que ton âme appelle ? Is it me that your soul was calling? Moi, que tu croyais infidèle ? Me, whom you thought unfaithful? Eh bien, regarde : me voici ! Well, look, here I am!

- Dilfiza, Dilfiza, qui pourrais-je bien être – Dilfiza, Dilfiza, who could I be Qui te couvre les yeux ? Peux-tu le reconnaître ? Who covers your eyes? Do you recognize me? - C’est la fée aux yeux bleus, douce comme son nom, – It is the blue-eyed fairy, gentle as her name. - Es-tu Péri-banou ? – La voix répondit : Non ! - – - Are you Peribanu? – The voice replied: No! --

Le hasard interrompt la page en cet endroit, Chance interrupts the page at this point, Avant de la tourner, arrêtez votre doigt Before turning it, stay your finger Pour vous rappeler, Amélie, To remember, Amélie, Que je n’ai fait ce livre aux ornemens dorés, That I am only making this book with its gilded ornaments, Aux fleurons, aux bijoux l’un sur l’autre serrés, Its florets, its crowded jewels, Surtout cette page embellie, Most of all this embellished page, Que pour avoir encor un sourire de vous, To obtain another smile from you, Quand il reposera, joyeux, sur vos genoux When it will rest happily in your lap Et que vous lirez, indulgente, And you will read its verses indulgently,

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Ces vers, les premiers nés d’un chanteur inconnu The first born from an unknown singer Dont à personne, ici, le nom n’est parvenu, Whose name nobody here has heard, Tant la gloire est peu complaisante. So unobliging is glory.

- Moi, que tu croyais infidèle - I, whom you thought unfaithful Enfin, me voilà de retour ! Finally I am back! Je viens de loin et ma pauvre aile I have come from far and my poor wing De fatigue devient rebelle ; Rebels at such fatigue; Oiseau, j’ai fui devant l’autour ! A bird, I fled before the goshawk!

- Oh, Dilfiza, ma sœur, écoute bien, devine ! - Oh, Dilfiza, my sister, listen well! Guess! Comme toi, ma nature est puissante et divine… Like you, my nature is powerful and divine… Je suis… Réfléchis bien… Cherche en ton souvenir ! I am… Think well… consult your memory! - Narnine aux cheveux noirs ? – Tu n’en vas pas finir - – Narnine the black-haired? – Go on – Gulefchân ! Oh ! c’est toi ! c’est toi, ma bien chérie ! Gulefshan! Oh! It is you! It is you, my darling! Que nous t’avons pleurée ! Oh, dis-moi, je t’en prie, How we wept for you! Oh, tell me, please, Tu reviens donc enfin ? Courons vers les forêts ! Are you really back? Let us run to the forests! J’ai peur ici… - Pourquoi ? – Tu le sauras après ! – I am afraid here… - Why? – I will tell you later! –

Les voilâ toutes deux, sous un épais ombrage : They are together beneath the dense shade: Maintenant Dilfiza retrouve son courage… Now Dilfiza recovers her courage Elle dit : - Oh, ma sœur, que je te vois encor ! She says: - Oh, my sister, I see you once more! Que ses yeux sont brillans, que sa taille a d’essor ! How her eyes are brilliant, how her figure is lithe! Elle est comme un roseau balancé sur un fleuve. She is like a reed swaying on a river. Non, je ne comprends pas, après si rude épreuve, No, I cannot understand, how after such an ordeal Que tu sois aussi belle ! Ah, dis-moi, reviens-tu ? You are still so beautiful! Ah, tell me, are you really back? Le dieu qui t’avait prise, qui l’a donc abattu ? The god who captured you, who killed him? Conte-moi tout cela. – Ce n’est pas longue histoire, Tell me all of this. – It is not a long story, Et cependant je crois y avoir un peu de gloire And yet I believe it brings some little glory Pour ton esclave, moi. Tu sais que lorsque nous… To your slave, me. You know that when we… - - Viens donc t’asseoir ici – Je suis mieux à genoux. Come sit here – I prefer to kneel.

- Le soir que je vêtis la robe d’esclavage, - The evening I donned the robe of slavery J’avais quitté mes sœurs et suivais un rivage I had left my sisters and was following a riverbank Où le nymphéa rose à peine encor ouvert, Where the pink nymphæa, freshly budded, Brillait comme un rubis dans son feuillage vert. Shone like a ruby in its green foliage. Je ne te dirai pas combien l’onde était belle, I will not tell you how beautiful the water was, En berçant sur ses flots un amant infidèle, Cradling an unfaithful lover, Le soleil, qui toujours se rapprochant du bord, The sun, ever seeking the banks, La laissait assombrie et passait sans effort. Left it darkened and passed without effort. Et je ne sais comment la nuit revint si douce And I do not know how the night came so gently Que je posai mon front sur la première mousse, That I placed my brow on the first moss, Et que les rossignols chantant autour de moi, And the nightingales singing around me Me laissèrent bientôt sans plaisir, sans émoi. Soon left me without pleasure, without emotion. Je dormais… Tout à coup, ouvrant leur robe sombre, I slept… Suddenly opening its dark robe, Les ténèbres troublées me laissent voir dans l’ombre The troubled darkness let me see in its shadows Les yeux étincelans des démons de la nuit, The sparkling eyes of the demons of the night, Et je veux m’échapper… mais un d’entr’eux me suit. And I wanted to flee… but one of them followed me. Je m’élance, il me suit… je cours dans les ravines, I run, he follows, I run into the ravines, Son souffle qui m’atteint, bat mes ailes divines. His breath is on me, I beat my divine wings, Il approche… je fuis !… je traverse un ruisseau, He comes closer… I flee!… I cross a stream, Il se jette après moi dans les détours de l’eau… He throws himself after me in the windings of the water… Il me prend ; je pleurais… mais je dis en moi-même : He takes me; I wept… but I said to myself: Cet horrible démon, si je pouvais qu’il m’aime, This horrible demon, if I could make him love me, Il me laisserait libre et pour cela, ma sœur, He would set me free and for that, my sister, Je le priai tout bas, parlant avec douceur. I begged him quietly, speaking gently. Et je le regardai comme on ferait un ange, And I looked at him as an angel would do, Je caressai son front souillé, noirci de fange, I caressed his dirty brow, black with mud, Même, je dis : Ami ! Je le vis hésiter, I even say: Friend! I see him hesitate, Et puis bien lentement je le vis remonter ; And then slowly he stands up; Mais voilà que vers nous une troupe étrangère But then a group of strangers S’envole. Embrassé, le djinn me dit : - Que faire ? Flies towards us. Unsure, the djinn says to me: - What shall I do? Je lui dis : - Sauve-moi ! Mais sur tout l’horizon, I answer: - Save me! But all along the horizon Les djinns, ils s’étendaient ! On me mit en prison’ The djinns had agreed! I was put in prison; En prison ! ô, ma sœur, en prison, quel outrage ; In prison! O, my sister, in prison, what outrage! Moi ! pense, Dilfiza, qui pour calmer sa rage Me! Think, Dilfiza, who to calm his rage Avais serré les mains de ce démon d’enfer, Had pressed the hands of a demon from hell,

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Me donner pour demeure une cage de fer ! To give me for a dwelling an iron cage! Elle fut suspendue au tronc d’un sycomore… It was suspended from the trunk of a sycamore tree… Quelques Péris venaient m’y porter, dès l’aurore, A few Peris came at dawn Des fleurs qui me gardaient des démons importuns ; To bring me flowers that protected me from importunate djinns; Car tu sais que les djinns fuient devant les parfums. For you know that djinns flee from perfumes. Je m’ennuyais beaucoup, surtout quand, la nature I was very bored, especially when, nature Reprenant au printems sa nouvelle parure, Recovering in Spring its new coat, J’apercevais mes sœurs jouant sur les coteaux I saw my sisters playing on the hills Sans moi qui soupirais derrière mes barreaux. Without me, sighing behind bars.

- C ‘est ainsi tristement que se passait l’année ; - The year passed sadly in this way; Mais un jour… tu comprends si je fus étonnée, But one day… You can understand how astonished I was, Je reconnus de loin mon ancien amoureux. I recognized my former lover from afar. Mon Dieu, qu’il était laid ! Il paraissait heureux My God how ugly he was! He seemed happy, Et cet air de plaisir sur sa noire figure, And that look of pleasure on his black face, Oh, c’était plus qu’affreux ! J’en tirai bon augure. Oh, it was worse than frightful! I saw it as a good omen. Je jetai mes bouquets, il s’en vint près de moi : I threw away my bouquets, he came closer: - Je suis resté, dit-il, bien longtems loin de toi ! - I have long stayed far from you! Me voici, maintenant, et je sais que tu m’aimes, Here I am, now, and I know you love me, Tu l’as dit… je le crois, car les anges, eux-mêmes, You said so… I believe it, for the angels themselves Viendraient m’adorer, s’ils me voyaient aussi ; Would also come to adore me, if they were to see me; J’ai baissé jusqu’à toi mon regard adouci. I have lowered my softened gaze to you. Viens, sors de ta prison. Suis-moi dans ma caverne ; Come. Leave your prison. Follow me to my cave; C ‘est de là que mon sceptre et dirige et gouverne From there my sceptre rules and governs Et la terre et les cieux… - Je sortis… Mais soudain The heaven and the earth… I came out… But suddenly Je cours ; il me poursuit ; je tombe en un jardin ; I run; he pursues me; I fall in a garden; J’arrache un lys en fleurs ; il recule, le traître ! I snatch a lily in flower; he recoils, the traitor! Et fière, je le vois pâlir et disparaître : And proudly, I see him pale and disappear: Il ne se vantait pas en s’enfuyant ainsi. He did himself no credit by fleeing so. Pour moi, je t’aperçus et c’est tout : me voici ! Then, I saw you and that is all: here I am!

- Mais Dilfiza, dis-moi, tu m’écoutes à peine ? - But Dilfiza, you are not listening? La gentille Gultjir, retenant son haleine, The gentle Gultjir, breathless, Admirait mon récit qui la faisait trembler Admired my story, which made her tremble, Et tu restes ainsi, pensive, sans parler, And you stay still, pensive and speechless, Sans m’écouter, je crois, et baissant vers la terre Without listening I believe, and lowering to the earth Un regard dédaigneux. Qu’est-ce donc ? Quel mystère ? A scornful gaze. What is wrong? What mystery? Toi, la plus avisée entre toutes mes sœurs, You, the cleverest of all my sisters, Toi, racontant toujours de joyeuses noirceurs, You, always telling of joyous mischief, Toi, montant jusqu’au ciel ou descendant sous l’ombre, You, climbing to heaven or descending to the shadows, Seulement pour chercher des nouvelles sans nombre ! Endlessly looking for stories!...... Mon histoire était belle et méritait, ma foi, …My story was good and, by my faith, D’être mieux entendue ; oh, viens m’en dire, toi ! Worth being better listened to; oh, come and talk to me! Mais, tu ne réponds rien ? Mais que ta joue est blanche, But you do not answer! Your cheek is white, Et ton front sans couleur, et ta tête se penche… And your brow colourless, your head is bowed… Que tes yeux sont brillants ! Je sens battre ton cœur, How brilliant your eyes are! I feel your heart pound, Et ta lèvre est pâlie… Où souffres-tu, ma sœur ? – And your lips are pale… Where do you suffer, my sister? –

À ces mots Dilfiza lève sa brune tête At these words Dilfiza raised her brown head Et son regard de feu sur Gulefchân s’arrête… And her fiery gaze fixed on Gulefshan… Elle saisit sa main… - que dis-tu, que dis-tu ? She grabbed her hand… - What? What did you say? Oui, ma lèvre est pâlie et mon air abattu, Yes, my lips are pale and I look downcast, Oui, ma bouche est sans rire et mon front est sévère, Yes, my mouth has no smile and my brow is severe, Oui, je porte en mon sein une pensée amère ! – Yes, I bear a bitter thought in my breast! - Amère ! – Taisez-vous ! si le ciel t’entendait, – Bitter! – Be quiet! If heaven heard you, Si mon secret, hélas, jusqu’à lui se perdait… If my secret, alas, if even that were lost… Oui, si l’oiseau des bois qui passe et qui s’envole Yes, if the bird of the wood that passes and flies on, Tout en planant sur nous, emportait ta parole… Soaring above us, bore on your words… Je ne sais quel malheur Dieu jeterait sur moi ! I do not know what harm God would heap upon me! Mais tu veux le savoir ? C’est bien ; approche-toi. But you want to know? Very well, come closer.

- J’étais dans mon palais ; j’étais calme et tranquille, - I was in my palace; I was calm and at peace, J’étais avec mon père ; une nue immobile I was with my father; an unmoving cloud Voilait l’horizon noir de ses plis ténébreux, Veiled the black horizon with its shadowy folds, Et l’orage en roulant ébranlait tous les cieux ; And the rolling storm shook all the heavens; Je riais en pensant. Mon père dit : ma fille, I laughed while thinking. My father said: daughter, Sais-tu que l’éclair frappe en même tems qu’il brille ? Do you know that lightning not only shines but strikes?

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Pourquoi, donc, ce bonheur ? Why this happiness then?

- Mais mon langage ardent - But my fiery language Maudit l’amour que Dieu montre aux enfans d’Adam, Cursed the love that God shows to the children of Adam, Et je dis : que me fait cette race insolente ? And I said: what do I care about that insolent race? Moi, fille des Péris, je dois venir tremblante I, a daughter of the Peris, should I come trembling Lorsque’un sage m’appelle et je ne puis punir When a sage calls me and I cannot punish L’audacieux mortel que Dieu voulut bénir ? The audacious mortal whom God wanted to bless? Leurs vices sur mes yeux ont comblé la mesure ! Their vices have overfilled my eyes! Combien pour le Très-Haut, faut-il que cela dure ? How long can the Most High let it go on? Si le ciel, aujourd’hui doit crouler sur leurs fronts, If heaven should fall on their heads today, Je ris de voir leur mort effacer nos affronts. I would laugh to see their deaths efface our indignities.

- Mon père se pencha sur ma couche dorée - My father leaned over my golden bed Et voulant ramener ma pensée égarée, And tried to correct my straying thoughts, Il me montra le sort des anges orgueilleux He showed me the fate of proud angels Que le puits de Babel dérobe à tous les yeux. That the well of Babel takes from all eyes. Je souris ! Je jurai par l’âme du prophète, I smiled! I swore on the Prophet’s soul, Par la glaive d’Aly, sur mes yeux, sur ma tête ; On Ali’s sword, on my eyes, on my head; Je dis : un fils du ciel, peut-il être tenté ? I said: a son of heaven, can he be tempted? Il me couvrit soudain d’un regard irrité ; He looked at me suddenly with irritation; - Tu le veux, me dit-il ; par l’orgueil aveuglée, - This is what you need, he said; you are blinded by pride, Viens ! Je veux te mener parmi les fils d’Adam ! Come! I will put you amongst the sons of Adam! Si tu démens jamais ce langage imprudent, If ever you belie that imprudent language, Si quelque beau jeune homme au visage de rose If some rosy-faced handsome young man Fait briller ton regard… s’il se trouve une chose Makes your eyes shine… if there is a thing Qui domine ton cœur. Si tu baisses les yeux That dominates your heart. If you lower your eyes Là-bas, vers quelque objet, oublieuse des cieux… Down there, towards some object, forgetful of the heavens… Prends garde, ô Dilfiza, j’en jure sur ta tête ! Take care, O Dilfiza, I swear on your head! Dieu seul est le Dieu fort ; et la vengeance est prête ! – God alone is strong; and vengeance is ready! - Je le suivis, ma sœur ! Comme un seigneur puissant – I followed him, my sister! Like a mighty lord Il traversa l’Irak, courut le Korassan. He crossed Iraq, passed through Khorassan. Aucun événement n’accueillit son attente ; No event met his expectations; Sur le bord du Djâlem il vint poser sa tente, On the banks of the Djelam he pitched his tent, Et quelques jours après, il me dit : - Levez-vous, And a few days later he said to me: - Arise, C’est assez voyager, vous avez un époux ! – Enough travelling, you have a husband! – Et c’est un vieux émir dont je devins la femme ; And it was an old emir whose wife I became; Il m’aimait. Cependant, dans le fond de mon âme He loved me. However, in the depths of my soul Le rire du succès commençait à vibrer ; The laughter of success began to vibrate; Encore trente jours ! Et comment m’égarer Thirty more days! And how could I weaken Jusque là ?… Je frémis quand mon esprit y pense. Before then?… I shudder when my mind thinks of it. Ah ! pourquoi n’ai-je pas su garder le silence ? Ah! Why did I not keep silent? ……… Je le vis, ô ma sœur ! ……… I saw him, O my sister! Ah, je connus alors l’angoisse et le bonheur, Ah, I knew then anguish and happiness, Je frémis de mon vœu ; je maudis ma faiblesse… I shudder at my vow; I cursed my weakness… Je passe tour à tour de la crainte à l’ivresse ; I go back and forth between fear and intoxication; Je ne puis, je le sens, songer au lendemain… - I cannot, I feel it, think of tomorrow… -

Et ce disant, son front retomba sur sa main. And thus speaking, her head fell into her hands.

VII Chapitre Chapter VII

L’AMOUR LOVE

- Je le vis, ô ma sœur. Dans un jardin de roses - I saw him, O my sister. In a rose garden, Il dormait, ô ma sœur, et ses paupières closes He was sleeping, O my sister, and his closed eyelids Couvraient d’un voile noir un regard ignoré. Covered an unknown gaze with a black veil. Dans mes rêves, déjà, je l’avais adoré, In my dreams I had already adored him, C’était lui, c’était lui qui demandait mon âme… It was he, it was he who demanded my soul… Qu’aux nuits de mon printems, en mes rêves de flamme, Who in the nights of my Spring, in my flaming dreams, J’avais vu m’enlacer et m’étreindre en ses bras. In whose arms I had seen myself entwined and embraced. Non… je ne le pouvais… je ne résistai pas ! No… I could not… I did not resist!

- Qu’il est brûlant, ma sœur, cet amour que l’on rêve ! - How the love that one dreams burns, my sister! Comme l’ambre odorant apporté par la grève, How the sweet scented amber brought by the tide, La vague du désir le jette en votre cœur, The wave of desire throws into your heart,

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Et la nuit n’a pour vous que tourment et chaleur. And night for you holds only torment and heat.

- Le sais-tu, le sais-tu ce que ressent la bouche - Do you know, do you know what the mouth Quand celle d’un amant et s’avance et la touche… Feels when a lover’s comes close and touches it? Connais-tu ce parfum qu’exhale la beauté ? Do you know the perfume exhaled by beauty? Ce fruit délicieux qu’on nomme volupté ? That delicious fruit named voluptuousness? Ce fruit que, lorsqu’on mord en brillante écorce, That fruit that, when one bites its shining husk Inonde tous vos sens d’une nerveuse force, Inundates all one’s senses with nervous force, Anime votre sein, le fait bondir plus haut, Enlivens the heart, makes it bound ever higher, Fait bouilloner le sang plus rapide et plus chaud Makes the blood boil faster and hotter Et déversant en vous son ivresse à plein vase, And filling you with its full intoxication Vous rejette éperdu, du désir à l’extase ? Throws you bewildered from desire to ecstasy? Le sais-tu ce que c’est que ce feu dévorant, Do you know that devouring fire Allumé dans les yeux, par tout le corps errant ? Shining in your eyes, raging through your whole body? Le sais-tu ? C’est l’amour ! Oh, jamais dans ma vie Do you know? It is love! Oh, never in my life, Jamais je n’avais vu mon âme plus ravie ; Never have I seen my soul so enraptured; Et je me dis : « voilà, celui qu’il faut aimer ! » And I say to myself: “This is he whom I must love!” Et je sentis en moi mes désirs s’allumer. And I feel my desires catch fire.

- Il s’éveilla, ma sœur, et sa main blanche et douce - He awoke, my sister, and the gentle white hand Qui dormait sur son cœur, retomba sur la mousse. That slept on his heart fell on the moss. Je m’éloignai… pourtant mon regard s’attardait… I went away… but my gaze lingered… C’était tout mon bonheur qu’à cette heure il perdait ! It was all my happiness that he was destroying! Et je restai deux jours dans le deuil et les larmes, And I was in tearful mourning for two days, Deux jours je voulus fuir, je maudissais les charmes For two days I wanted to flee. I cursed the charms Qui m’avaient enchaînée… Oh, je ne vivais plus. That had enchained me… I lived no more. Pourtant, je sentais bien qu’ils étaient superflus And yet, I felt that they were in vain, Tous ces soins… Je l’aimais ! These cares… I loved him!

- Dans un férédjeh sombre - In a dark feredjeh Un soir j’allais au bain ; je vois passer une ombre, One evening I went to my bath; I see a shadow pass, Je regarde… C’est lui ! Je m’arrête soudain, I look… It is he! I stop suddenly, De mon voile fermé, qui s’entrouvre à dessein, From my closed veil, which half opens by design, Une fleur, un regard tombent… La nuit obscure A flower, a gaze fall… The dark night L’amène sur mon sein. Il m’aime, j’en suis sûre, Leads him to my breast. He loves me, I am sure, Mais pourtant, je ne sais… enlacé dans mes bras, But yet, I am not sure… entwined in my arms, Souvent je l’interroge, il ne me répond pas, I often ask him questions, he does not reply, Et je le sens trembler… Je sens qu’il me repousse, And I feel him tremble… I feel that he rejects me, Et, si voulant de lui quelque parole douce, And, if wanting a gentle word from him Je m’attache à ses lèvres… Alors il se défend, I attach myself to his lips… Then he pushes me away Et je l’entends crier : « ma femme et mon enfant ! » And I hear him cry: “My wife and child!” Ah ! la première fois que l’affreuse parole Ah! The first time the awful word Fut jetée entre nous, vois-tu, je devins folle. Was thrown between us, you see, I became mad. Au moment où mon cœur était ivre d’amour, At the moment when my heart was drunk with love, Où sans peur près de lui, j’étais fière à mon tour, When, fearless beside him I too was proud, Il la pleurait. Oh, Dieu, je respirais à peine, He wept for her. Oh, God, I could barely breathe. Je pâlis et de honte et de crainte et de haine. I became pale from shame and fear and hatred. Mais j’ai pris mon poignard, tout cela doit finir ! But I have taken my dagger, all that must cease! Je sais, je l’aime trop, le ciel doit m’en punir. I know, I love him too much; heaven must punish me for it. Mais toi, pardonne-moi, prends pitié de ma rage, But you, forgive me, take pity on my rage. Ah, vois-tu, j’ai voulu briser mon esclavage. Ah, you see, I wanted to break my enslavement. Pendant deux jours, ma sœur, j’ai trompé mes désirs, For two days, my sister, I tricked my desires, Pendant deux jours, les sens altérés de plaisirs, For two days, my senses transformed by pleasures, La nuit je me tordais sur ma brûlante couche, At night I twisted on my burning bed, Et flétrissais les fleurs des baisers de ma bouche… And withered the flowers with my mouth’s kisses… Pourquoi parler ainsi ? Tu ne me comprends pas, Why speak so? You do not understand. Tu me méprises ; bien ! Va ! Porte ailleurs tes pas ! – You disdain me; very well! Go! Take your steps elsewhere! –

- Qui ? moi, te mépriser ! Je veux te suivre même, - Who me, disdain you? I will even follow you. Je n’ai jamais compris la douleur quand on aime. I have never understood the pain of love. Toi seule, mes parens, voilà tout mon amour ! You alone, my relatives, you are all my love! Pourquoi donc en changer ? Quand vient l’aube du jour, Why change? When dawn comes Ne suis-je pas heureuse à courir par la plaine, Am I not happy to run across the plain, À rire avec le vent dont chaque souffle amène To laugh with the wind whose every breath Le parfum de la fleur d’été qui me nourrit ? Brings the scent of the summer flower that nourishes me, À rafraîchir de l’aile un lotus qui périt ? To refresh with its wing a dying lotus? Que me faut-il de plus ? C’est là ma seule envie. What more do I need? That is my only desire.

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Ah, que fais-tu,ma sœur, de l’arbre de ta vie, Ah, what are you doing my sister, with the tree of your life, Ébranché comme il est du rameau du bonheur, From which the branch of happiness is cut off; Car je pleure ta joie autant que ta douleur. I weep for your joy as well as your sorrow. Je ne te comprends pas… Et pourtant, pars ou reste, I do not understand you… But go or stay, Cherche l’âtre infernal ou le banquet céleste, Seek the infernal fire or the celestial banquet, Les monts ou les déserts, je te dirai : voilà, The mountains or the desert, I will say: there, Où tu seras, ma sœur, je serai toujours là ! – Wherever you are, my sister, I shall also be! –

La Péri, sur son cou, laissa tomber sa tête The Peri let her head fall on Gulefshan’s neck, Et lui baisa la main. – Gulefchân, je suis prête, And kissed her hand. –I am ready, La consolation est éclose pour moi, Consolation has blossomed for me, J’ai goûté son breuvage et la Coupe… C’est toi ! – I have drunk its draught and the Cup… It is you! –

VIII Chapitre Chapter VIII

LE MEURTRE THE MURDER

- Je vais rester ici sous ce bouquet de palmes ; - I will stay here beneath this bouquet of palms; Taisez-vous, mes pensers, ou bien, soyez plus calmes ! Be quiet, my thoughts, or rather, be calmer!

- Ah, mon âme est brisée et je ne puis mourir, – Ah, my soul is broken and I cannot die, Je ne puis, Dieu le veut, il me faut donc souffrir ! I cannot, God wishes it so, and I have to suffer! Je n’ai pu l’arrêter ; on l’attendait sans doute… I could not stop it; it was expected no doubt… Je lui parlais d’amour : le mien… il le redoute ; I spoke to him of love: mine… He fears it; Quand il me répondait, son rire était moqueur, When he answered his laughter was mocking Et je croyais, hélas, avoir touché son cœur ; And I believed, alas, that I had touched his heart; Et lorsque j’ai voulu lui soulever la tête, And when I tried to raise his head Qu’il était méprisant quand il m’a dit : arrête ! How scornful he was when he said: Stop! Mon mari, mon Hassan ! Mes cris sont superflus, My husband, my Hassan! My cries are in vain. Ah, quand il m’entendrait, il ne répondrait plus ! Ah, even if he hears me he will not answer!

- Je vais rester ici sous ce bouquet de palmes ; - I will stay here beneath this bouquet of palms; Taisez-vous, mes pensers, ou bien soyez plus calmes ! Be quiet, my thoughts, or rather be calmer!

- Comment pourrais-je aimer ces fleurs ou ce ruisseau, - How could I love these flowers or that stream, Ou les platanes verts qui couvrent ce berceau ? Or the green plane trees that cover this crib? Comment pourrais-je aimer, maintenant, ce grand arbre How could I love, now, that great tree Qui traîne ses festons sur les dalles de marbre ? That trails its festoons on the marble slabs? Moi, femme délaissée et mourant de douleur, I, abandoned woman and dying of grief, Comment pourrais-je aimer le frais ou la chaleur ? How could I love coolness or heat? Je n’aimerai plus rien, rien n’aura plus de charmes I shall henceforth love nothing, nothing will hold any charm Pour mon regard terni par un voile de larmes ; For my gaze, dulled by a veil of tears; Que me font mes longs cils et l’éclat de mon teint ? What do I care about my long lashes or the gleam of my skin? Je n’ai plus mon époux, mon bonheur est éteint. I have no more husband. My happiness is gone.

- Je vais rester ici sous ce bouquet de palmes ; - I will stay here beneath this bouquet of palms. Taisez-vous, mes pensers, ou bien soyez plus calmes ! Be quiet my thoughts, or rather be calmer!

Elle parlait ainsi, seule, au fond du jardin, She was speaking thus, alone, at the end of the garden, Quand l’aile des Péris les y jette soudain, When the Peris’ wings suddenly cast them down, Et Dilfiza rougit et pâlit tout ensemble. And Dilfiza both blushed and went pale. - Sa femme, la voilà ! Joyeuse, ce me semble ! – His wife, there she is! Happy, it seems! Ces mains, ces bras, ce cœur ont pressé mon Hassan… Those hands, those arms, that heart, have held my Hassan… Je la regarde, ô Dieu, mais c’est en frémissant, I look at her, O God, but shuddering, Je la hais ! Sur mes yeux, il n’est point de vengeance I hate her! By my eyes, no vengeance Qui puisse s’élever aussi haut que l’offense : Can be as high as the offence: Qu’ai-je fait du poignard ? – Where is my dagger? –

- Dilfiza, que dis-tu ? - Dilfiza, what are you saying? Vois que son front est pâle et son air abattu : See how pale is her brow and her look dejected: Comme elle souffre, ô sœur ! elle respire à peine ; How she suffers, O sister! She is barely breathing; N’as-tu jamais pitié quand on est dans la peine ? Do you never have pity for others’ pain? Pour moi, pardonne-lui ! – For my sake, forgive her! –

- Mon poignard ! mon poignard ! - - My dagger! My dagger!

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- Ah, détourne de moi le feu de ton regard ! - Ah, turn the fire of your gaze from me! Un djinn est sans amour, sans pitié pour les hommes ; A djinn is loveless, pitiless for men; Mais nous, ma Dilfiza, nous, anges que nous sommes, But we, my Dilfiza, we, angels as we are, Nous, penser comme lui qu’une grâce est un don, We, to think like him that a kindness is a gift, Et détourner les yeux quand on nous dit : pardon ! And turn away our eyes when they say: forgive us! Écoute ! ton poignard, je l’ai sous ma ceinture, Listen, Your dagger, I have it in my belt, Quand tu me racontais ton affreuse aventure, When you told me your terrible tale J’ai tremblé de le voir, alors je te l’ai pris : I trembled to see it, and therefore I took it: Il ne faut pas de sang sur les mains des Péris ! – No blood must stain the hand of a Peri! –

Elle n’écoutait pas. Toute entière penchée She was not listening. Leaning over Sur les rameaux touffus qui la tenaient cachée, The tufted branches that kept her hidden, On aurait cru l’éclat qui brillait dans ses yeux One would have thought the light that shone in her eyes Le reflet de l’enfer et non celui des cieux. Was the reflection of hell and not that of heaven.

- C’est belle, pourtant ! oh, Gulefchân, regarde ! - She is beautiful! Oh, Gulefshan, look! Est-ce à tort, dis-le moi, que mon amour se garde ? Tell me; is my love wrong to beware? Puis-je voir sans effroi, sans terreur, sa beauté ? Can I see without fear, without terror, her beauty? Dis-le moi, jalousie est-ce donc cruauté ? Tell me; is jealousy cruelty? Comme son front est blanc, comme sa chevelure How white is her brow, how softly her hair S’épanche mollement autour de sa ceinture, Hangs around her waist. Comme sa bouche est fraîche et que blanche est sa main… How fresh her mouth is, and how white her hand… Haïdé, ton époux sera pour moi demain ! – Haïdé, tomorrow your husband will be mine! –

- Partons, ô Dilfiza, voici que descend l’heure… - Let us leave, Dilfiza, the hour is falling… - Quelques instans encor ! Il me faut qu’elle meure ! - - A few moments more! She must die!

- Prends garde ! En le faisant, tu déchires ton cœur ; – Take care! By doing so you will tear your heart; Laisse-lui son chagrin et garde ton bonheur ; Leave her her sadness and keep your happiness; Le remords le tuerait. Fière de ta tendresse, Remorse would kill it. Proud of your tenderness, Que ton âme, ô ma sœur, dorme dans son ivresse ! – Let your soul, O my sister, sleep in its drunkenness! –

Et sous le voile noir de ses épais cheveux, And beneath the black veil of her thick hair Dilfiza, l’écoutant, répondit : - je le veux ! Dilfiza, listening, answered: - I wish it! Je le veux, oui, partons, laissons là cette femme. I wish it, yes, let us go, leave this woman here. Où vas-tu, Gulefchân ? – Where are you going, Gulefshan? –

- Au pays du cinname ; -To the cinnamon land; Je vais dans l’Arabie où la fée à l’œil noir, I am going to Arabia where the black-eyed fairy, La gentille Gultjir doit m’attendre ce soir. The gentle Gultjir expects me this evening. J’ai tardé bien longtems… comme il faut que j’arrive, I have stayed too long… As I do not want to be late, Mon départ sera prompt, ma course sera vive, I must soon depart, my journey will be quick.

Adieu ! – Farewell! –

- Pars devant moi ! Tu vas de ce côté ? - Leave before me! Are you going that way? Pour moi, vers l’Orient mon vol est emporté. I fly towards the Orient. Adieu, ma Gulefchân ; si tu revois mon père, Farewell, Gulefshan; if you see my father, S’il te parle de moi… Vous vous tairez, j’espère ? If he speaks of me… You will say nothing, I hope?

- Oui, ma sœur Dilfiza ! Tu restes en ce lieu ? - - No, my sister Dilfiza! Are you staying here? - - Moi, non, je pars, aussi ! Dieu te protège, adieu ! - - Me, no, I am leaving too! God protect you, farewell! -

Le branchage s’écarte et les Péris s’élancent. The branches part and the Peris take flight. Quelques instans encor leurs ailes se balancent For a few moments their wings sway Dans un même chemin ; mais fuyant comme un trait, On the same path, but like a flash Gulefchân dans l’éther remonte et disparaît. Gulefshan climbs into the ether and disappears. Elle disait tout-bas : - Pauvre sœur ! Sa tendresse, She said to herself: - Poor sister! Her tenderness, Comme un lien de fer, la torture et l’oppresse ; Like an iron link, tortures and oppresses her; Ce n’est point de l’amour que ce délire ardent : That ardent delirium is not love: Peut-être, Dieu punit son langage imprudent. Perhaps God is punishing her imprudent language. Comme son cœur est dur, hélas ! et sans clémence. How hard her heart is, alas, and without clemency! Je voudrais la sauver de sa folle démence… I wish I could save her from her mad dementia… Le puis-je ? Je hâterai mes pas… Can I? I can? I will hurry… L’abandoner ainsi… non, je ne le dois pas ! To abandon her thus… No, I must not! Mais que faire ? Ah, je sais, il faut que je l’évite… But what can I do? Ah, I know, I must prevent it… Et, vers la terre, aussi, m’abaissant au plus vite, And, towards earth too, dropping as fast as I can,

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Il me faut découvrir où s’en va son amant. I must discover where her lover is going. Je le reconnaîtrai dans le même moment I will recognize him immediately Que mon œil le verra, car le long de la route When I see him, for she has described him Elle l’a bien décrit mille fois, et sans doute A thousand times during our journey, and he is surely Il est plus sage qu’elle, ou du moins le destin Wiser than she, or least destiny Pour le pousser au mal n’a pas ouvert la main. Has not opened its hand to push him to evil. Allons, allons plus vite ! ô, nuage qui passes, Quick, quicker! O, passing cloud, Écarte devant moi ta longue et blanche masse, Move your long white mass away from me. Éloigne, éloigne-toi, je ne puis voir le sol ! – Go, go away! I can no longer see the sun! – Et traversant la nue elle abaissa son vol. And crossing the cloud she descended.

Sitôt qu’elle est loin, en détournant la tête, As soon as she is far away, turning her head, Dilfiza ralentit sa course et puis s’arrête… Dilfiza slows down and stops… Elle écoute… Elle est loin ! Elle écoute… aucun bruit She listens. She is far away! She listens… no sound Ne vibre dans l’éther où naît déjà la nuit. Vibrates in the ether where night is already beginning. Alors elle descend rapide et frémissante : She descends quickly and shuddering: Le feuillage écarté par son aile puissante The foliage displaced by her powerful wing S’ouvre… Elle disparaît sous les branchages verts… Opens… She disappears beneath the green branches… Un seul, un faible cri fit tréssaillir les airs, One lone, feeble cry shakes the air, Et quelque tems après, échevelée et pâle, And soon after, dishevelled and pale, Sanglante et respirant avec l’accent du râle, Bloody and with rattling breath, La Péri se traîna sur le bord du bassin The Peri crawls to the edge of the pool Et rougit le flot pur en y plongeant sa main. And reddens the water with her bloodied hand.

IX Chapitre Chapter IX

L’AVERTISSEMENT THE WARNING

Moi, poète, je dis : - Enivré de la guerre, I, the poet, say: - Drunk on war, J’aime un sabre brillant, un riche cimiterre. I love a shining sabre, a rich scimitar. Il est beau de paraître, alors qu’on a vingt ans, It is fine to seem, at twenty years of age, Plus terrible qu’un loup, plus prompt que les autans ! More terrible than a wolf, faster than the south winds! Il est beau de monter, cavalier intrépide, It is fine to mount like an intrepid horseman L’indomptable étalon, ou sa jument rapide, The untameable stallion, or his rapid mare, Loin de sa tente, ainsi, perdu dans les déserts, Far from one’s tent, lost in the deserts, Exhalant en longs cris son bonheur par les airs ; Exhaling happiness to the air in long cries; Il est beau de laisser flotter à l’aventure, It is fine to let the tassels of one’s cape, Les glands de son manteau, les plis de sa ceinture ; The folds of one’s belt wander at will; D’effrayer, en passant, du feu de son regard To frighten in passing with a fiery look Le lion affamé qui s’enfuit, l’œil hagard. The hungry wild-eyed lion, who flees. Il est beau de passer au milieu du silence It is fine to pass through silence Et de brandir joyeux sa longue et lourde lance, And to brandish the long heavy lance, Et la nuit, seul avec un compagnon hardi, And at night, alone with a bold companion, De poursuivre le cerf à cette heure engourdi, To pursue the stag at that sluggish hour, Ou, suivant d’un flambeau la lueur pâle et terne, Or, following the pale dull light of a torch, Et sans peur pénétrant au fond d’une caverne, And without fear to enter a deep cave, De chercher, d’attaquer le fauve léopard, To seek, to attack the wild leopard, Et d’abreuver de sang la soif de son poignard. – And to quench the thirst of one’s dagger with blood. –

Après avoir passé des sables, des ravines After crossing sands, ravines Où croissaient tristement quelques buissons d’épines, Where a few thorny bushes forlornly grew, Hassan vint sur un mont rapide et rocailleux ; Hassan came to a steep and rocky mountain; Un sombre désespoir s’agitait dans ses yeux, A dark despair agitated his eyes, Il disait : - En avant, ma rapide cavale ! He said: Forward my fast mare! Comme un torrent qui passe, élance-toi, dévale Like a passing torrent, go, race En bas du long sentier qui fuit sous l’horizon, Down the long path that flees below the horizon, Qu’à peine tes pieds blancs tombent sur le gazon. Let your white feet barely touch the grass. En avant, en avant ! va sans reprendre haleine ; Onward! Onward! Do not stop for breath; Laisse fuir sans les voir la montagne et la plaine ; Let go unseen the mountains and the plain; Ferme tes yeux rougis, ma cavale aux longs crins, Close your reddened eyes, my long-haired mare, Cachons, si tu le peux, nos traces aux chagrins. Hide, if you can, our tracks from sorrow. Quand la nuit étendra ses ombres et sa brume, When night extends its shadows and mist, Je laisserai tomber ton mors blanchi d’écume ; I will take out your foam-whitened bit; Tu pourras suivre au loin les coursiers vagabonds, You can follow roaming steeds, Mais va, mais va toujours, allonge encore tes bonds, But go, go, lengthen your stride, Hennis ! C’est bien, ma belle, et frappe la poussière ! Whinny! Well done, my beauty, and strike the dust!

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Secoue, en bondissant, ta flottante crinière ; Shake, leaping, your floating mane; En avant, en avant ! toi, les yeux pleins d’ardeur, Onwards! Onwards! You, eyes full of fire, Le front baissé, mais calme, et, moi, l’angoisse au cœur. – Head lowered, but calm, and me, with my anguished heart. –

Hassan vint dans un val où l’ombre était épaisse ; Hassan came to a shaded vale; Une voix lui parla : - Beau cavalier, ô cesse A voice spoke to him: - Good Sir, O cease De presser sans pitié les flancs de ton cheval ; To urge pitilessly your horse’s flanks; Vois-tu, pour m’échapper il court encor trop mal. Can you not see? It runs too slowly to escape me. Regarde, ne crains pas ! C’est une voix amie : Look. Do not fear! I am a friend: Par les feux du soleil ton âme est endormie, Your soul is numb from the sun’s fires, Attends, beau cavalier qui cherche Dilfiza ! – Wait, good Sir who seeks Dilfiza! – À ces mots, Gulefchân devant lui se posa. At those words Gulefshan alighted before him. Inquiet, il hésite. Elle, gaie et coquette, Worried, he hesitates. She, gay and coquettish, Lui sourit finement et, balançant sa tête, Smiles subtly and swaying her head, Elle plisse en jouant sa robe de satin, She playfully folds her satin dress, Et dépouille la fleur qu’elle tient dans sa main. And strips the flower she holds in her hand.

-As-tu peur, bel Hassan, d’une femme sans armes ? - Are you afraid, handsome Hassan, of an unarmed woman? Ou ton regard qui voit chaque jour tant de charmes Or do you by proud disdain lower for me Se baisse-t-il pour moi, par orgueilleux dédain ? The gaze that each day sees so many charms? Écoute-moi, pourtant. Listen to me nonetheless.

- J’ai vu dans un jardin - I saw in a garden Une rose pourprée et si belle, si belle A purple rose, so beautiful, so beautiful Qu’auprès d’elle le cœur vous devenait rebelle, That its closeness made your heart rebel, Et qu’enivré d’amour, oubliant tout devoir, And drunk with love, forgetting all duty, Il aimait mieux mourir que de ne plus la voir. It preferred to die than not to see her again. J’ai vu sur un cyprès penché devers la rose, I saw a cypress leaning over the rose, Un Andelib, tout seul, à l’air triste et morose… An Andalib, alone, looking sad and morose… L’oiseau ne chantait plus et contemplant la fleur, The bird no longer sang and watching the flower, Pendant bien, bien des jours il nourrit sa douleur ; For many, many days it nourished its grief; Et la rose lui dit : - quand l’Andelib vous aime And the rose said: - when the Andalib loves you Après bien des étés, est-il toujours le même ? – After many summers, is it always the same? - Et l’oiseau le promit et l’amant au beau teint And the bird promised, and the nut-brown lover Lui dit : - Mon bien-aimé ! Puis lui donna son sein. Said: - My beloved! Then gave him her breast. Un matin un lys d’or, balancé sur sa tige, One morning a golden lily, swaying on its stem, Appela cet époux : - ô toi, chante et voltige ! Called that husband: - O you, sing and jump! Ô toi, deviens joyeux, je suis un lys charmant ; O you, become joyous, I am a charming lily; Viens, toi, l’amour des fleurs, tu seras mon amant ! – Come, you, love of flowers, you will be my lover! – L’Andelib oublieux de sa première épouse, The Andalib, forgetting his first wife, Dit : - je le veux ! – alors elle devint jalouse Said: - I will! – Then she became jealous Et cacha sous sa feuille un front décoloré, And hid her discoloured brow beneath a leaf, Que l’on ne revit plus ni riant ni paré. So she was no more seen to laugh or adorn herself.

- Oh, pense, bel Hassan, à la rose qui pleure, - Oh, think, handsome Hassan, of the weeping rose, Détourne ton coursier, retourne à ta demeure ; Turn back your steed, go home; Crains d’aimer un lys d’or que t’a refusé Dieu, Fear to love a golden lily that God has refused you, La Péri Gulefchân t’en avertit… Adieu ! – The Peri Gulefshan has warned you… Farewell! – Il s’écria : - Je sais, mon amour est un crime, He cried: - I know, my love is a crime, La rage du destin me pousse vers l’abîme ; The rage of destiny pushes me to the brink; Je voudrais m’élancer… je retombe toujours, I should like to leap… but I always pull back, Haïdé, Dilfiza, ma femme, mes amours ! Haïdé, Dilfiza, my wife, my loves! Haïdé, seule à toi maintenant je veux être, Haïdé, I want to be only yours, Le bonheur qui m’a fui me reviendra, peut-être. The happiness that has fled will return, perhaps.

- Pour la dernière fois je m’en vais la revoir, - For the last time I will go to see her, Il le faut, ô mon cœur, tais-toi, c’est un devoir. I must, O my heart, be quiet, it is a duty. À toi seule, Haïdé, maintenant ma tendresse, For you alone, Haïdé, is now my tenderness, Mais il me faut briser le lien qui me presse, But I must break the bond that oppresses me, Ce lien que j’adore et maudis si souvent ; That bond I adore and so often curse; Allons mon bon coursier, en avant, en avant ! – Come on my good steed, onwards, onwards! –

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X Chapitre Tenth Chapter

LE DÉPART DEPARTURE

- Te voilà, doucement, par cette allée obscure - There you are, carefully, follow me down this dark lane; Suis-moi ; prends dans ta main le bout de ma ceinture, Take the end of my belt in your hand. Restons sous le cyprès, la barque va venir, Let us wait beneath the cypresses; the boat will soon arrive. Assieds-toi près de moi, nos tourmens vont finir. Sit by me. Our torments will soon end. Tu ne comprenais pas, Hassan ; oh, que je t’aime ! You did not understand, Hassan. Oh, how I love you! Je laisse tout, et pourtant ma joie est extrême. Even though I am leaving everything behind my joy is extreme. S’il est vrai qu’au plaisir conduise la douleur, If it is true that pleasure brings sorrow Si longue et froide nuit doit mener au bonheur. Such a long cold night must bring happiness. Je vais être à toi seul ! Sur l’horizon bleuâtre I will be yours alone! On the bluish horizon Une voile a brillé comme le feu dans l’âtre ; A sail shone like fire in the hearth; Ce n’était pas pour nous. Ô nuit de liberté ! It was not for us. O night of freedom! Sans crainte, ô mon amant, contemple ma beauté ! Without fear, O my lover, contemplate my beauty! Pour toi, toi qui m’es tout, tout le ciel, tout le monde, For you, you who are all to me, all the sky, all the world; Pour toi sont mes yeux noirs, ma chevelure blonde, For you are my black eyes, my blond hair, Pour toi mon sein d’albâtre et mes bras arrondis, For you my alabaster breast and my curved arms, Qui pour mon vieil époux étaient toujours roidis ; Which for my old husband were always rigid; Pour toi tout mon amour. Ah, maintenant l’aurore For you all my love. Ah, now the dawn Sans t’enlever à moi peut de la nuit éclore. May bud from the night without taking you from me. Que songez-vous, mon maître, ô quel sombre regard ! What are you thinking, my master? O, what a dark look! Vous ne répondez rien ? Votre bouche, au hasard, You do not answer? Your mouth, at random, Laisse tomber des mots que l’oreille incertaine Lets fall words the uncertain ear Ne saurait retenir. Écoute la fontaine Cannot retain. Listen to the fountain, Dont le chant berce l’âme et qui répond aux bois, Whose song lulls the soul and answers the woods, Comme hier soir encor tu faisais à ma voix. As only last night you did to my voice. Écoute ce que dit la Péri du nuage Listen to what the Peri says of the cloud, Au timide Zéphyr qui soulève l’ombrage… To the timid Zephyr who carries off the shade… Écoute… entends-tu bien les chants du bengali ? Listen… Can you hear the songs of the Bengali? Cache, cache dans mon sein ton visage pâli, Hide, hide your pale face in my bosom, Mon amant ! Pourquoi donc, quand la nuit nous rassemble My lover! Why then, when the night unites us, Venir au rendez-vous si morose ? Il me semble Come so morose to our rendez-vous? It seems to me Qu’autrefois près de moi vous étiez plus joyeux… That in my presence you were more joyful before… Qu’avez-vous, mon bonheur ? N’êtes-vous pas heureux ? – What is wrong, my happiness? Are you not happy? –

- Si, Dilfiza… Je n’ose ! - - Yes, Dilfiza… I do not dare! – - Un accent de ta bouche - - An accent of your mouth, Peut-il donc m’affliger ? Oh, quel regard farouche ! Can it afflict me? Oh, what a wild look! Tu trembles… Qu’as-tu donc ? Quel si terrible aveu… You tremble… What is wrong? What terrible confession… Oh, mon Dieu, parle donc ! – Oh, my God, speak then! –

- Il faut nous dire adieu ! - - We must say goodbye! - Adieu ! nous dire adieu… sur ma tête et ma vie, – Goodbye! Say goodbye… On my head and my life, Ai-je bien entendu ? Mais non… quelle folie ! Have I heard right? But no… what madness! Ah, tu ne me l’as pas dit… Non… je me trompais… non… Ah, you did not say it… No, I was wrong… no… Quelle bizarre idée a passé sur mon front… What bizarre idea passed over my brow… Oh, je n’écoutais pas… que disais-tu, mon ange ? Oh, I was not listening… what were you saying, my angel? Car j’ai mal entendu… I heard you badly….

- Que mon sort est étrange ! - How strange is my fate! Oui, Dilfiza, je pars, je te laisse, oh, mon cœur Yes, Dilfiza, I am leaving. Oh, my heart A besoin d’être fort pour porter ma douleur. Needs to be strong to bear my grief. Sois forte pour nous deux… Vois-tu, vois-tu, mon âme, Be strong for us both… Do you see, do you see, my soul, Je ne puis la quitter, ô, car elle est ma femme, I cannot leave her, O, for she is my wife, La mère de mon fils… non, je ne puis partir ! The mother of my son… no, I cannot leave! Elle souffre déjà… La ferai-je mourir ? She suffers already… Shall I let her die? Ah, ton regard me tue, ah, j’aurai du courage, Ah, your gaze kills me, ah, I will have courage, Laisse-moi, laisse-moi dans ma douleur sauvage ! Leave me, leave me in my savage grief! Ah ! dans mon désespoir rien ne peut m’arrêter, Ah, in my despair nothing can stop me, Ta colère et tes cris, je puis tout affronter. Your anger, your cries; I can withstand anything. Non, je ne crains plus rien. Adieu, toi que j’adore, No, I no longer fear anything. Farewell, you whom I adore, Laisse-moi m’en aller… Dis-le moi, je t’implore ! Let me go… Tell me, I beg you! Laisse-moi te quitter… laisse-moi fuir bien loin… Let me leave you… let me flee far…

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Fais-moi de l’énergie… ah, car j’en ai besoin. Give me energy… ah, for I need it. Je pars… Que je suis faible ! hélas, mon Dieu, mon Dieu, I am leaving… How weak I am! Alas, my God! My God! Ne pourrai-je donc pas m’arracher de ce lieu ? Can I not tear myself from this place? Dilfiza, Dilfiza, ton amour c’est l’ivresse, Dilfiza, Dilfiza, your love is intoxication, J’ai vendu mon bonheur pour avoir ta tendresse, I have sold my happiness to obtain your tenderness. J’ai vendu mon devoir pour te faire céder, I sold my duty to make you give in. J’ai vendu mon salut, ah, pour te posséder… I sold my well-being to possess you… Maintenant je n’ai rien que des remords dans l’âme ; Now I have nothing but remorse in my soul; Tes caresses de feu comme une ardente flamme Your fiery caresses like an ardent flame Ont desséché mon cœur et j’ai maudit les miens ; Have dried my heart and I have cursed my family; Qu’es-tu donc, qu’es-tu donc auprès de tant de biens ? Who are you? Who are you compared to such things? Tu pleures… Oh, pardon ! elle pleure, ma vie, You weep… Oh, forgive me! She weeps, my life, Oh, cesse de pleurer, finis, je t’en supplie, Oh, stop crying, stop, I beg you, Tu sais que je ne peux… si tu m’aimes, tais-toi ! You know I cannot… If you love me, keep quiet! Ah, le ciel et l’enfer sont ligués contre moi ! – Ah, heaven and hell are in league against me! –

- Hassan, quittez-moi donc ! oh, quelle erreur profonde, - Hassan, leave me then! Oh, what a terrible error Vous, me parler ainsi ! Plus jamais dans ce monde For you to speak to me thus! Your eyes will never again Vos yeux ne me verront… pour vous, je vais mourir, See me in this world… for you, I shall be dead, Pour vous j’ai supporté tout ce qu’on peut souffrir, For you I have stood all that can be suffered, Mais je vous aimais tant, on fait tout quand on aime, But I loved you so, when one loves one does anything. Vous étiez tout à moi, vous n’êtes plus le même, You were all mine, you are no longer the same. Adieu ! je vais mourir, car pour venir à vous, Farewell! I shall die, for to come to you Des portes du jardin j’ai brisé les verrous ; I have broken the locks of the garden gate; On le verra demain. Adieu, je vous pardonne… It will be seen tomorrow. Farewell, I forgive you… Non, je ne maudis pas celui qui m’abandonne, No, I do not curse he who abandons me. Quoi ! vous ne dites rien ; traître, reprends ta foi ! What! You say nothing; traitor, take back your faith! Va-t’en, je te maudis, recule, éloigne-toi ! Go, I curse you, withdraw, leave! Va-t’en porter ailleurs la fourbe et le mensonge, Go take elsewhere your trickery and lies. Va-t’en, va ! je croirai que je n’ai vu qu’en songe Go! Go! I will believe that I saw only in a dream Cet amour délirant qui dévorait mon cœur… The delirious love that devoured my heart… Mais non ; tu restes là pour goûter ma douleur. But no, you stay there to enjoy my pain. Il est doux, n’est-ce pas, de déchirer soi-même It is sweet, isn’t it, to tear open Le sein désabusé d’un être qui vous aime ? The breast of a disillusioned being who loves you? N’est-ce pas ? il est doux de chercher dans ces yeux, Is it not? It is sweet to seek in her eyes, Ces yeux qui t’ont couvert de pleurs silencieux, Those eyes that for you silently wept, De chercher une larme, un signe de faiblesse To look for a tear, a sign of weakness, Pour aller… Vous pleurez ! ta pitié me blesse, To go… You weep! Your pity wounds me. Va trouver Haïdé ! Retourne sur tes pas. Go and find Haïdé! Retrace your steps. L’abandonner ainsi… non, tu ne le peux pas ! Abandon her so… No, you cannot! Eh bien, vous restez froid ? Va réchauffer ton âme Well, are you cold? Go warm your soul Au corps glacé de ce qui fut ta femme ! On the icy body of what was once your wife! Tu trembles maintenant, maudit ? Oui, mon poignard You tremble now, cursèd one! Yes, my dagger A vengé mon injure. Ah, tu l’apprends trop tard ! Has avenged my insult. Ah, you learn of it too late? Ah, si tu l’avais su, tu m’aurais fui plus vite… Ah, if you had known, you would have fled me sooner… Eh bien, tu me disais : « Il faut que je te quitte ». Well, weren’t you saying: “I must leave you”. Qui te retient ?… Va, donc ! – Who is keeping you back?… Go then! –

Hassan fit quelques pas… Hassan took a few steps… Écrasé sous ce coup, il ne comprenait pas, Crushed by that blow, he understood nothing; Ses yeux ne voyaient plus, sa pensée était vide, He was eyeless; his mind was empty. La vie abandonna son visage livide, Life abandoned his livid face; Il tomba sur le sol, sans pouvoir, étouffant… He fell to the ground, powerless, suffocating… Dilfiza le retint de son bras triomphant. Dilfiza held him with her triumphant arm. - À moi seule, à présent ! – Et l’enlevant sans peine, – Mine alone now! – And easily picking him up, Elle échauffe son front de sa brûlante haleine, She warms his brow with her burning breath, Elle presse son sein sur son sein qui bondit, She presses his breast against her own pounding breast, Elle baigne de pleurs celui qu’elle a maudit, She covers in tears the one she had cursed, Et retrouvant enfin ses rêves extatiques, And recovering her ecstatic dreams Elle couvre son corps de baisers frénétiques. She covers his body with frenzied kisses.

Un esquif a glissé sur le calme miroir A skiff slid on the calm mirror that the Que fait trembler à peine un souffle frais du soir… Evening’s cool breeze barely makes quiver …[Two words ………………… au jardin… La femme fugitive illegible because of burn marks]… to the garden… The fleeing Y emporte son amant… Tous deux quittent la rive. Woman carries off her lover… They both leave the bank.

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XI Chapitre Eleventh Chapter

LA FIN THE END

La barque se fait place en l’onde qui scintille... The boat makes its place on the sparkling water… Vous, dont le cœur est neuf et dont l’âme est tranquille, You, whose heart is new and whose soul is tranquil, Vous, qui ne savez pas ce que c’est que souffrir, You, who do not know what it is to suffer, Allez, allez ! Sans pleurs vous les verriez mourir. Go, go! Without tears you would watch them die.

L’eau bouillonne autour d’eux ; des lames vagabondes The water seethes around them; errant waves Quittent, en rugissant, leurs retraites profondes. Leave, roaring, their deep retreats. Toi, dont l’esprit blasé, saturé de bonheur, You, whose blasé minds, saturated with happiness, Frappe d’un lourd mépris le mal qui vient du cœur, Strike with heavy disdain hurt coming from the heart, Toi, qui sans passions épuises tous les vices, You, who without passion exhaust all vices, Toi, qui ne connais plus que de pâles délices, You, who know only pale delights, Du festin de ta vie à la fin dégoûté, Disgusted finally at the feast of life, Va-t’en, c’est le malheur dans sa virginité ! Go, it is misfortune in its virginity!

Non, ce n’est pas pour vous, viellard ou jeune fille, No, it is not for you, old man or young girl, Tronc mort de la maison, bourgeon de la famille, Dead trunk of the House, bud of the family., Non, ce n’est pas pour vous, que de crêpre entouré, No, it is not for you, who would have suffered my head Mon front aura souffert, ma lyre aura pleuré. To be wrapped in mourning crape, that my lyre would have wept. Mais s’il est, par hasard, en cette foule immonde, But if there is, by chance, in this vile mob, Un être qui la fuie et qui s’isole du monde, A being who flees and isolates himself from the world, Un être pur encore en cette impureté, A being still pure in this impurity, Qui garde encore en soi quelque naïveté, Who still keeps some naïveté, Un être chaste encor... que ce soit homme ou femme, A being still chaste… man or woman, Je lui donne aujourd’hui la moitié de mon âme. I give you today half of my soul. Certes, en lui les pleurs ne sont pas tous taris, In him tears certainly have not dried up, Par lui, mes chants de deuil doivent être compris. By him my mourning songs must be understood.

Ah, j’ai vu Dilfiza, du regard du poète, Ah, I have seen Dilfiza with a poet’s eye, Se pencher sur Hassan, palpitante et muette, Lean over Hassan, throbbing and mute, Et boire avidemente des mots inachevés And avidly drink unfinished words Qui parlaient de plaisirs et de malheurs rêvés. That spoke of dreamed pleasures and woes. Elle était là... baisant ce front où la folie She was there… kissing that brow where madness Avait écrit déjà sa sanglante ironie, Had already written its bloody irony, Ce front calme et serein quand le cœur était mort ; That calm, serene brow when the heart was already dead; Elle avait de l’espoir, elle pleurait encor. She had hope, she still wept. Hassan, en ce moment, la regarda... Son âme Hassan, looked at her at that moment… His soul Parut se réveiller. Il la nomma sa femme, Seemed to awaken. He named his wife, Il prit sa main et puis la serra dans ses bras, He took her hand and squeezed her in his arms, Et Dilfiza tremblait, mais ne résistait pas. And Dilfiza trembled but did not resist. Les yeux noirs de l’époux brillaient d’un feu sombre ; The husband’s black eyes shone with dark fire; - Dans le ciel, Haïdé, ne voit-on que de l’ombre ? - In heaven, Haïdé, can one only see shades? Qu’elle est noire la nuit ! Moi, je ne sais, j’ai peur. How black the night is! I do not know. I am afraid. Haïdé... que ta main est froide, mon bonheur ! Haïdé… how cold your hand is, my happiness! Ah, donne-moi ta bouche et ta lèvre de rose... Ah, give me your mouth and your rose lip… Dilfiza n’est plus là... Viens... Baise-moi... je l’ose. Dilfiza has gone… Come… Kiss me… I dare. Tu recules ? pourquoi ? Je sens un vent de mort You shrink? Why? I feel a wind of death Qui raidit mes cheveux... Est-ce la fée encor ? – Stiffening my hair… Is it still the fairy? -

Elle tordit ses mains... – Hassan, Hassan, de grâce, She wrung her hands… Hassan, Hassan, have mercy, Dégage de mon corps l’étreinte qui m’embrasse ! Free my body from this embrace! Je veux sortir, à l’air ; allons près du rameur ! I want to go out into the air; let us go close to the rower! Ah, quel bruit... écoutons... quelle sombre rumeur ! Ah, what noise… listen… what a dark sound! Je ne peux plus marcher, viens, viens donc, tu m’effraies ; I can no longer walk, come, come on, you frighten me; Hassan, n’entends-tu pas les plaintes des orfraies ? Hassan, do you not hear the osprey’s complaint? Sur la rive, ô mon Dieu, qui hurle ? c’est un chien ! On the bank, O my God, who screams? It is a dog! Je frissonne,... je tombe... ah, je n’entends plus rien ! – I shiver,… I fall… Ah, I hear nothing more! –

Et la barque flottait et passait sur l’écume... And the boat floated and passed on the foam… Tout à coup un long cri fit tressaillir la brume, Suddenly a long cry split the mist, Et dans la nuit épaisse et sur le flot noirci And in the thickness of the night and on the blackened wave Un spectre gigantesque apparut noir aussi. A gigantic spectre appeared, no less black.

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Il se tenait debout sur le frêle navire, He stood up in the frail vessel, Sa lèvre que bridait un effrayant sourire, His lip bridled a terrifying smile, Laissa tomber ces mots : - ô Péri, me voilà ! – And let drop these words: - O, Peri, I am here! – Et la Péri le vit, et la Péri trembla. And the Peri saw it, and the Peri trembled. La nef comme un coursier qui voit de loin la source, The ship like a steed that from afar sees the spring, Sous la main du génie accélera sa course... Beneath the genie’s hand accelerated its course… Et le bruit s’accroissait, le bruit plus furieux, And the noise grew, the ever more furious noise, De momens en momens s’augmentaient autour d’eux, Increased around them with each passing moment, Mais lui frappait l’écume et ses puissantes ailes But he struck the foam and his powerful wings Des flots accumulés tiraient des étincelles. Drew sparks from the accumulated water. Le bruit fut à son comble et le sombre nocher The noise was at its peak and the dark boatman S’abandonnant aux eaux courut sur un rocher... Abandoning the boat ran onto a rock…

-Adieu ! mais à cette heure où notre amour se brise... - Farewell! But at the moment when our love breaks... Il ne me comprend pas ! Hassan, regarde-moi ! He does not understand! Hassan, look at me! Hassan, Hassan, la mort va m’enlever à toi ; Hassan, Hassan, death will take me from you; Dans ce sombre moment, j’en jure par ton âme, In this dark moment I swear by your soul, Jamais une Péri, non, jamais une femme Never has a Peri, no, never a woman N’a donné plus d’amour au fils aîné d’un roi Has given more love to a king’s eldest son Que Dilfiza toujours n’en ressentit pour toi. Than Dilfiza felt for you. Pour toi j’aurais donné, si j’avais pu, ma vie ; For you I would have given, if I could, my life; Être belle à tes yeux était ma seule envie ; To be beautiful in your eyes was my only wish; T’entourer de mes soins, c’était mon seul désir, To surround you with care was my only desire, Te servir à genoux, oh ! mon plus grand plaisir. To serve you on my knees, oh, my greatest pleasure. Il me comprend ! mon Dieu, je puis mourir contente, He understands! My God, I can die happy, Ah, ton regard d’amour a passé mon attente. Ah, your look of love was more than I had hoped. Ô Dieu, tu m’aimes donc ? Au moment que tu meurs O, God, do you still love me? At the moment of your death Je puis mêler encor de la joie à mes pleurs... I can mingle joy with my tears… Tu parles, mon amant ? – Sous ta tresse soyeuse You speak, my lover? - Beneath your silken tresses Haïdé, je suis calme et mon âme est heureuse.- Haïdé, I am calm and my soul is happy. –

Ah, son cœur se brisa, sa main laissa sa main. Ah, her heart broke. Her hand released his. Le navire entrouvert se déchira soudain The torn vessel suddenly broke up Et jeté, tour à tour, de la base à la cime, And turning upside and down, L’onde en le reprenant l’engouffra dans l’abîme ; The wave reclaimed it and engulfed it in the abyss; L’œil fixe, le regard terne de désespoir, With staring eye, her gaze dull with despair, Dilfiza dans les eaux croyait encor le voir. In the water Dilfiza seemed to see him still. Tenant comme un aiglon ses ailes étendues, Holding like an eaglet her outstretched wings, Elle jetait au vent ses paroles perdues, She threw lost words to the wind, Et regardant les flots avec un rire amer, And looking at the water with a bitter smile, Pour ravoir son amant, elle invoquait l’enfer. To regain her lover, she invoked hell. Une robe paraît... un cadavre s’élève... A robe appeared… a corpse rises… Elle retint un cri que le rivage achève She stifled a cry that the banks complete Et s’abat sur Hassan. Son espoir était vain ! And swoops down on Hassan. Her hope was in vain! Son aile plie et rompt, le plumage divin Her wing folds and breaks, the divine plumage Sème ces flots blanchis par des flocons d’écume, Strewn in foamy flakes on the whitened waves, Le spectre qui la tient l’emporte sous la brume, The spectre that holds her carries her off in the mist, Et bien longtems ses cris emportés par les airs And for a long time her screams borne by the air Viennent épouvanter le calme des déserts. Return to affright the calm deserts.

Certes, le lendemain, l’eau porta sur la grève The next day, the river left on its banks Un jeune homme aussi beau que ceux qu’on voit en rêve ; A young man as handsome as those seen in dreams; Et son corps resta là, sans parens, sans amis, And his body remained there, without family or friends, Pour fermer ses yeux noirs, à jamais endormis. To close his black eyes, forever spent. L’onde qui l’apporta lui fit sa sépulture The wave that bore him made his grave De roseaux desséchés, de débris de verdure ; From dried reeds, from rotting plants; Et quelque tems après dans la fange arrêtés And some time later a few weak branches trapped in the mud Quelques faibles rameaux crûrent à ses côtés. Grew beside him. Parfois l’oiseau des champs se jouant sur les rives, Sometimes the bird of the field playing on the banks, Chanta tout près de lui ses romances plaintives, Sang its plaintive romances close to him, Mais homme, ange ou péri sur sa tombe appuyé, But no man, angel or peri, Ne vint jamais donner des pleurs à l’exilé. Ever wept on the exile’s grave.

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A Storm in Summer Tormenta de verano

Nature that day a woman was in weakness, Ese día la naturaleza mujer era en su flaqueza, A woman in her impotent high wrath. mujer en su suma ira impotente. At the dawn we watched it, a low cloud half seen Una nube baja, al alba la entrevimos Under the sun; an innocent child’s face bajo el sol; inocente cara de niño It seemed to us, rose-red and fringed with light, nos parecía, color de rosa y bordeada de luz, Boding no hurt, a pure translucent cloud, ningún mal agüero, una pura nube translúcida, Deep in the East where the Sun’s disk began. en el profundo Oriente, origen del disco solar. We did not guess what strengths in it were pent, No adivinamos su fuerza contenida, What terrors of rebellion. An hour more, sus terrores rebeldes. Una hora más tarde, And it had gathered volume and the form había cobrado volumen y la forma Of a dark mask, the she-wolf’s of old Rome, de una máscara oscura; de la loba de Roma la antigua The ears, the brow, the cold unpitying eyes, las orejas, la frente, y por los fríos ojos despiadados, Through which gleams flashed. relampaguearon sus destellos. And, as we watched, the roll Y, mientras mirábamos, retumbó Of thunder from a red throat muttering en su roja garganta una amenaza Gave menace of the wild beast close at hand. de fiera que se acerca. Anon a wall of darkness in the south, Luego un muro de lóbreguez en el sur, Black to the zenith, and a far-off wail, negro hasta su cenit, y un vagido lejano, The wind among the trees. – And then, behold, el viento en los árboles. – Y entonces, mirad, por delante, Flying before it a mad clamorous rout desparramándose por centenares una clamorosa Of peewits, starlings, hawks, crows, dishwashers, desbandada caótica de avefrías, estorninos, halcones, Blackbirds and jays, by hundreds, scattering cuervos, lavanderas, mirlos y arrendajos While the Earth trembled holding as it were its breath; mientras el planeta tembloroso contuviera la respiración; Till suddenly an answer from the ground, hasta que de repente contestó la tierra, And the fields shook and a new mighty roar se sacudieron los campos, un poderoso grito nuevo Crashed through the oaks, and in a pent-up flow chocó con los robles, y en un desbordamiento contenido The storm’s rage broke in thunder overhead, la rabia de la tormenta se reventó arriba en truenos, And all the anger of the passionate heaven y toda la cólera del cielo apasionado Burst into tears. se deshizo en lágrimas.

Wilfrid Scawen Blunt

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The Mockery of Life Vida burlona

God! What a mockery is this life of ours! ¡Diós! ¡Que burla que es nuestra vida! Cast forth in blood and pain from our mother's womb, Echados en sangre y dolor del útero materno, Most like an excrement, and weeping showers un excremento más bien, llorando lágrimas fútiles, Of senseless tears: unreasoning, naked, dumb, sin razón: desnudos, mudos, The symbol of all weakness and the sum: el símbolo de toda debilidad y la suma: Our very life a sufferance. -- - Presently, la vida misma un sufrimiento. --- Luego, Grown stronger, we must fight for standing-room más fuertes ya, tenemos que luchar por un pedazo Upon the earth, and the bare liberty de tierra, y la mera libertad de respirar, To breathe and move. We crave the right to toil. de movernos. Anhelamos el derecho de laburar. We push, we strive, we jostle with the rest. Empujamos, nos esforzamos, peleamos con los demás. We learn new courage, stifle our old fears, Aprendemos nuevo valor, viejos miedos reprimimos. Stand with stiff backs, take part in every broil. Derechos, rígidos, participamos en cualquier arengue. It may be that we love, that we are blest. Quizá amemos, seamos benditos. It may be, for a little space of years, Quizá por algunos años We conquer fate and half forget our tears. venzamos el destino y medio olvidemos las lágrimas.

And then fate strikes us. First our joys decay. Y entonces nos golpea el destino. Primero decayen las Youth, with its pleasures, is a tale soon told. alegrias. Un cuento breve los placeres de la juventud. We grow a little poorer day by day. Cada día estamos más pobres. Old friendships falter. Loves grow strangely cold. Viejas amistades vacilan. El amor se pone extrañamente frío. In vain we shift our hearts to a new hold En balde cambiamos la disposición del corazón, And barter joy for joy, the less for less. y regateamos alegría por alegría, lo de menos por menos. We doubt our strength, our wisdom, and our gold. Dudamos de nuestra fuerza, nuestra sabiduría, nuestro oro. We stand alone, as in a wilderness Nos quedamos solos, como en un páramo Of doubts and terrors. Then, if we be wise, de dudas y terrores. Si somos sabios, ponemos nuestras We make our terms with fate and, while we may, condiciones al destino, y, mientras podamos, vendemos el Sell our life's last sad remnant for a hope. último triste vestigio de nuestra vida por una esperanza. And it is wisdom thus to close our eyes. Y es sabiduría cerrar así los ojos. But for the foolish, those who cannot pray, Mas para los tontos, los que no saben rezar, What else remains of their dark horoscope ¿qué más se queda de sus horoscopios oscuros But a tall tree and courage and a rope? que un alto árbol y valor y una soga?

And who shall tell what ignominy death ¿ Y quién sabe qué ignominia nos reserva la muerte? Has yet in store for us; what abject fears ¿ Qué miedos abyectos esperan al más guapo? Even for the best of us; what fights for breath; ¿ Cuánto tendremos que agonizar? What sobs, what supplications, what wild tears; ¿ Cuántos sollozos, cuántas suplicaciones? What impotence of soul against despairs ¿ Cuántas lágrimas ardientes? ¿Cuánta impotencia del alma Which blot out reason? -- The last trembling thought contra una desesperación que borra el juicio? El último Of each poor brain, as dissolution nears, pensamiento tembloroso de cada pobre cerebro, mientras se Is not of fair life lost, of Heaven bought acerque la disolución, no es de la bella vida perdida, del Cielo And glory won. 'Tis not the thought of grief; comprado y de la gloria ganada. No es la tristeza Of friends deserted; loving hearts which bleed; de amigos abandonados; corazones que sangran; Wives, sisters, children who around us weep. esposas, hermanas, hijos que lloran. But only a mad clutching for relief Mas solo la necesidad importuna de la Naturaleza, From physical pain, importunate Nature's need; un loco afán de alivio del dolor físico; The search as for a womb where we may creep y de un útero adonde podamos volver Back from the world, to hide, -- perhaps to sleep del mundo, escondernos, -- quizá dormir. . Wilfrid Scawen Blunt (1840-1922) I came across Blunt because he wrote about Arthur Gobineau in his diary. I looked up his poetry and read what I could find out about his life. He seems to have been a passionate and interesting man, perhaps unfairly neglected. I wanted to include something of his in my book, as a homage, so I translated these two poems. Although a British diplomat, he supported both Irish and Egyptian independence, and spent time in prison for his beliefs.

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TRANSLATE INTO HINDUSTANI (British Army method 1890)

The Pandit is very ready-with-his-answers. Well, you and all of us alike are men. What is your father’s name and caste? The shape and colour of this horse are good. Daily quarrelling is never pleasant. Put into the Past Dubious tense. His oily tongue offends me. When was this new dodge of yours invented? Government interference in religious matters is inexpedient. His disposition is angelic. For God’s sake do not enter this quarter of the town. Some rascal must have gone and carried off my shoes. The river Indus falls into the Indian Ocean. How am I to ascertain the real cause of this emeute? Not one but three snakes came out of this very drain. With what face shall I encounter my elder brother? Never abuse a man behind his back. I went home and took fever. I admit the force of the Malauvi’s objection. Have the cricket-ground watered the first thing in the morning. I got myself laughed at to no purpose. Old age has made me useless. He shot four tigers in quick succession. Pray be not out-of-heart. There should be no parda between relations. My fingers are not under control on account of their trembling. Grief at my departure is still felt by them. His proficiency will be first-rate when he is grown up. How can you know the drift of the petition without reading it? Who can tell the breadth of the Ganges without crossing it? Mere disgust will be caused by such familiarity. I received this thriving business by inheritance from my forefathers. In illustration of this I remember a very amusing anecdote. Fill the bucket with boiling porridge. The coward in alarm retraced his steps. It is a vexation at my age to be learning the alphabet. Small and great have eaten nothing since this time yesterday. Who is that person with the lion-like countenance? Unseen by others the women were exposing their heads from inside the zenâna. The whole of them were left gazing at each other’s faces. I had made up my mind that this valley was my tomb. While I am here, do not speak of bribery even by mistake. After having been admonished he coolly committed another piece of villainy. Let the murderer of this woman be well searched for.

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The children were disgusted at the postponement of the story. Owing to your folly my character too will be lost. One by one the worthless servants were turned off. Undoubtedly female infanticide is practised in this district. On hearing the sentence the plaintiff and the defendant stared at each other in astonishment. How miserably passes the time of women who do not know how to read. The voices were quite inaudible owing to the cotton with which his ears were stuffed. It is very unkind to forget the past claims of servants who can no longer work. The more I cherished you, the lazier and idler you became. The wages which are due to anyone will be given to him. What I observed when I came to court was that hair-splitting was the fashion. It behoves you to be cautious in the adjustment of this dispute. You did a very prudent thing in setting him free without security. I am at a loss how to refute this calumny. He boasted that he would mate him without his queen. I have a strong suspicion that he, too, was concerned with you in this dacoity. I do not approve of your habit of flattering me at every turn. The four agreed among themselves to hunt in company. I entreat you to overlook this my first offence. You have no resource left but to take service. So far as it is possible to prevent it, do not let this secret get abroad. When you have wasted so many years already, a few more days won’t signify. When it was his turn to suffer, he roared out. His eyes were no sooner closed than he was in another world. Wherever you find any curiosity, bring it me just as it is. I should not wonder if he has deceived you, in order to win your good will. Write me word of his departure thence, in order that I may set on foot the preparations for his reception. Grease his palm a little, lest he put a spoke in your wheel. Chastisement ought to be inflicted, to the intent that people may see it and take warning. As he learned English in his childhood, he must be more or less a proficient in the language. If you ask me the truth, I should say he was a fool. I will get him shod somewhere, if possible. If you are not angry, why speak crossly? I shall certainly kill you, if you scream out. Whichever of the three I marry you to, the remaining two will be displeased. Leave off talking nonsense, if you wish to be respected. If an opportunity occurs, I will make good the deficiency tomorrow.

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