Max Jacob
Novel 1943
On horseback! It was on horseback that we left: my goodness, I managed pretty well. Are you surprised? Not as much as I was. The palace in the desert is covered in sculptures and inscriptions that preoccupied me less than my mount. I said to myself: who knows if in twenty centuries the Arc de Triomphe de l’Etoile won’t serve as a goal for tourist trips into the desert and if I myself.... But I don’t believe in reincarnation, what was I about to say? The profession of guide would suit me, if it weren’t for having to look after the horses before setting out and after coming back. I am helped in this by a fellow with a detachable collar and a pince-nez: “When I was a journalist in Paris....” He talks enthusiastically about the white coffee at Les Halles. The fine colours of my cheeks and the chubbiness of my shoulders once again got me out of the situation and the Transatlantic Company and here I am once more a millionaire in a capital living with an American woman, I am putting on weight, I am growing tubby under the fine cloth of my jacket, this is the moment to start collecting knick-knacks and writing my memoirs. Well, I declare, I’m ruined! Let’s go into business.
Translated by Michael Bullock
Page(s) 21
magazine list
- Features
- zines
- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The