She had a very thin face like the dial of a small clock seen faintly in a dark room in the middle of a night when you waken to see the time and see the clock telling you the hour and the minute and the second, with a white silence and a glowing, all certainty and knowing what it has to
tell of the night passing swiftly on toward further darknesses but moving also toward a new sun.
– What do we think of the boy?... Is he a captive like Smee in Nicholas Nickleby?... He looks lonely.
– You don't think he'll try to call?
– Maybe. He has a secret! A tragic, European secret.
– He's had no upbringing at all, they say. He was reared in Italy among artists and vagrants.
– Doesn't he have a noble brow? If I were a boy, I'd want to look just like that. Imagine, giving up Italy to come live with that awful old man!
– Jo, please don't say "awful". It's slang.
– I'd be terrified to live with him.
You look at enough faces, you're bound to find the one you're looking for.
J’attends vos doigts purs sur ma face,
Pareils à des anges de glace,
J’attends qu’ils mouillent mes regards,
L’herbe morte de mes regards,
Où tant d’agneaux las sont épars!
“Here at last is a true lover,” said the Nightingale. “Night after night have I sung of him, though I knew him not: night after night have I told his story to the stars, and now I see him. His hair is dark as the hyacinth-blossom, and his lips are red as the rose of his desire; but passion has made his face like pale ivory, and sorrow has set her seal upon his brow.”
Ton front marmoréen, ta démarche si fière
Et de tes yeux profonds l’insoutenable ardeur
Font plier mon orgueil sous ta calme grandeur
Je te crains et je t’aime ô douce meurtrière
You all have the same sunken look on your faces. You were all so ugly before. You shouldn’t let them sink any lower.
- 1
- 2