Translations from the French
3 pieces from: Les mots endormis (iii)
THE THREE WITH THREE BRANCHES
Evening fell upon the houses in the rue de la Tronchet. In the window of one of the buildings two brunettes with very long hair and green eyes were cutting a red piece of material which fell in very small pieces at each cut of the scissors. One of the women had a green ribbon in her hair which blended in with her eyes. The other had whiter hands and did not carry a ribbon, but her eyes were covered with grey and opaque skin which disappeared at the back of her eyelids. They continued their work until a suffering voice rattled desperately from within the apartment. They then got up slowly, leaving behind material and scissors. They disappeared together in one movement. After a second the window was shut noisily and they were no longer seen.
Night came and a naked arm closed the venetian blinds over the window. All became black. No light illuminated the street.
Towards midnight a long, sinister cry issued from that window. Soon multitudes of small red squares flew through the air. One after the other they became flattened out down on the pavement and the salt water of the gutter carried them away. They disappeared down a black hole at the end of the street.
. . . . . . .
At dawn, a bare-headed man, dressed only in a rag wrapped around his thighs, was slowly walking along the banks of the Seine. Behind him on a string he pulled a large aluminum box filled with garbage. When he reached an arch of the wharf he sat down under it on the ground, on the stones. His naked body pressed itself against the coldness and he smiled. The smile remained on his flaccid, violet cheeks. His haggard eyes, like a blind man's, rolled around in their sockets, and in the end focussed on a distant object floating on the water in the river. It was something red, a shapeless mass of blood. A severed hand, livid, sunk its nails into a piece of soft materials, changing shape all the while.
The object passed.
The water rolled by.
Another object passed: long black threads, trailing hair. The breeze, skimming the water, touched the hair and brought it back.
The man saw a white ball with two grey holes.
As the day became brighter, the ball sunk slowly, followed by the black hair.
(1934)
Translated by Ellen Nations
Page(s) 60-1
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