During wind and rain

Par un temps de pluie et de vent

 

Ils chantent leurs chansons les plus chères ;
Elle, lui, eux tous : oui,
Soprane, ténor et basse,
Alors qu'un autre joue ;
Et que les bougies font luire les visages...
Oh non... les années, hélas !
Comme les feuilles jaunes tombent en masse !

Ils nettoient la mousse insidieuse ;
Jeunes et vieux : ah !
Ils font le chemin net
Et le jardin clair ;
Ils encoignent un siège dans l'ombre...
Oh non... les années, les années ;
Regarde passer les oiseaux blancs de la tempête !

Joyeux ils se sont tous assis pour déjeuner ;
Hommes faits et jeunes filles : oui,
Sous l'arbre d'été,
Avec l'éclat de la mer au loin,
Et la basse-cour vient becquer à leur genoux...
Oh non... les années, hélas !
Et le rosier mort est arraché du mur.

Ils déménagent pour une grande et neuve maison,
Elle, lui, eux tous : ah !
Horloges, chaises et tapis
Sur la pelouse tout le jour
Avec toutes ces choses brillantes qui sont les leurs...
Oh non... les années, les années ;
Les gouttes de pluie sillonnent leurs noms gravés dans la pierre.

(D'après Thomas Hardy).

 

 

 

"These were the only Men I ever conversed with..."

"In Italy the Landlords are very silent. In France they are more talkative, but yet civil. In Germany and Holland they are generally very impertinent. And as for their Honesty, I believe it is pretty equal in all those Countries. The Laquais a Louage are sure to lose no Opportunity of cheating you: And as for the Postilions, I think they are pretty much alike all the World over. These, Sir, are the Observations on Men which I made in my Travels, for these were the only Men I ever conversed with. My Design when I went abroad, was to divert myself by seeing the wondrous Variety of Prospects, Beasts, Birds, Fishes, Insects, and Vegetables, with which God has been pleased to enrich the several Parts of this Globe. A Variety, which as it must give great Pleasure to a contemplative Beholder, so doth it admirably display the Power and Wisdom and Goodness of the Creator. Indeed, to say the Truth, there is but one Work in his whole Creation that doth him any Dishonour, and with that I have long since avoided holding any Conversation."

(Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, VIII, 15).

Cerises

...Oh quand vous parlez de votre Violaine, c'est comme du sucre,
C'est comme une cerise qu'on suce, au moment que l'on va cracher le noyau !

(Claudel, la Jeune Fille Violaine)

"One of those deep observations"

With reflections of this nature [Miss Bridget] usually, as has been hinted, accompanied every act of compliance with her brother's inclinations; and surely nothing could more contribute to heighten the merit of this compliance than a declaration that she knew, at the same time, the folly and unreasonableness of those inclinations to which she submitted. Tacit obedience implies no force upon the will, and consequently may be easily, and without any pains, preserved; but when a wife, a child, a relation, or a friend, performs what we desire, with grumbling and reluctance, with expressions of dislike and dissatisfaction, the manifest difficulty which they undergo must greatly enhance the obligation.

As this is one of those deep observations which very few readers can be supposed capable of making themselves, I have thought proper to lend them my assistance; but this is a favour rarely to be expected in the course of my work. Indeed, I shall seldom or never so indulge him, unless in such instances as this, where nothing but the inspiration with which we writers are gifted, can possibly enable any one to make
the discovery.

(Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, I v)

Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton believes himself invisible

Mrs Huth Jackson in A Victorian Childhood says: 'Lord Arthur Russel told me, many years later, that when a small boy he was taken to Knebworth by his mother. Next morning he was in the big hall having breakfast when a strange-looking old gentleman in a shabby dressing-gown came in and walked slowly round the table staring at each of the guests in turn. He heard his mother's neighbour whisper to her, "Do not take any notice, he thinks he is invisible." It was Lord Lytton himself.'

(Virginia Woolf, Flush)

Jude the Obscure

My children--

-- are dead

And it is right that they should be!

 

I am glad--

-- almost

They were sin-begotten.

They were sacrificed to teach me how to live! 
Their death was the first stage of my purification.
That's why they have not died in vain! 

 (Hardy, Jude the Obscure, les "stances" de Sue)

"Le monde a eu sa raison d'être"

Dimanche 19 mars [1893].

Je trouve Mallarmé au concert. On y joue la fin du Crépuscule des dieux et, en revenant, le long des Champs-Elysées, il dit, à propos de ce morceau : "Ah ! c'est extraordinaire de férocité. L'orchestre s'acharne autour de cette mourante, il hurle autour d'elle. Parfois, il la caresse sournoisement, la frôle, puis chaque instrument emporte d'elle comme un lambeau, une mélodie. Puis, Bünnehilde morte, tout continue, les instruments libérés se mêlent et ce sont des bruits de la nature, le vent, la foudre, la pluie qui lui survivent... Et tout peut recommencer : la grande épopée qu'elle a contenue, toutes les images de la nature qu'elle a crues des dieux et qui en étaient les grandes forces personnifiées."

"Oh ! ajoute-t-il, ce sont des pages décisives. Après cela, tout peut crouler Le monde a eu sa raison d'être."

(Henri de Régnier, Les Cahiers.)