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Max Jacob

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In Paradise

     Here I am in Paradise! Me, skinny black pumpkin? In Paradise? No! Don’t you see anyone you know, anyone you recognise? Everyone has long hair that has just been oiled and those who were the most bald on earth have the most hair here. But I have no right to joke about such a holy place: I can’t help it, unfortunately! It’s me, says Pierre Colle, who are you? Forgive my mistake, with your halo I took you for Miss Helyett (a heroine of operetta in 1891), you are too young to have known her. Good evening, Gertrude, the set represents a picture gallery: Gertrude is looking at me benevolently. Oh how beautiful you are! May I kiss you? So we kissed. Then Gertrude stepped back. “Oh, I say, who are you?” “Max Jacob.” I repeated my name several times in a very loud voice. Had she become deaf? Deaf but benevolent.

 

Translated by Michael Bullock

Page(s) 20

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