Wednesday, June 25, 2014

 

A Dream

Eugène Seers, aka Louis Dantin (1865-1945), "You're Coughing!" tr. Patricia Sillers, in Richard Teleky, ed., The Oxford Book of French-Canadian Short Stories (Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1983), pp. 35-44 (at 44):
But as I strolled away I began to relive the scene in the Vaudreuil train, and then to dream of a world where each heart would be linked to every other; where sympathy would circulate like the air and radiate like sunshine; where all that dwells in the heart would rise to the lips, freed from the artificial barriers of etiquette; where one might freely go up to the passerby who seemed to be in pain; the red-eyed woman; the gaunt-cheeked old man, and say, 'Are you suffering?' Where one could share in other people's joy, crying out to the laughing couple, even though their names were unknown, 'Hey there! Here's to the lovers!' Or to the beautiful stranger that one chances to pass, 'You're gorgeous! I admire you!' To the carpenter, carefully moulding his lintel, 'What a skilful artist you are!' And all this would well up and burst forth from innocent brotherly souls, and it would become a part of etiquette and tact, and would be dignified, appropriate, and prescribed.
In French:
Mais, en déambulant, je me retraçais toute la scène du train de Vaudreuil, et je rêvais d'un monde où toute âme serait soeur de toute autre âme; où la sympathie circulerait comme l'air, éclaterait comme la lumière; où tout ce qui est dans le coeur monterait aux lèvres, libéré de barrières factices; où l'on pourrait aborder sans formes le passant aux traits altérés, la femme aux yeux rougis, le vieillard au teint hâve, et leur dire: «Tu souffres?»; où l'on partagerait de même le bonheur, où l'on crierait au riant couple dont on ignore le nom: «Évohé! joie aux fiancés!», à la beauté inconnue qu'on croise: «Tu es ravissante, je t'admire!» à l'ouvrier qu'on voit ciseler un linteau: «Tu es un chic artiste»;—et où tout cela jaillirait d'âmes innocentes et fraternelles, ferait partie de l'étiquette et du savoir-vivre, serait digne, convenable et prescrit.



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