Fetching
One moment.
Fetching
One moment.
1— Oui, Minna, dit-il d’une voix dont l’accent paternel avait quelque chose de charmant chez un être encore adolescent, regarde-moi, n’abaisse pas la vue. — Pourquoi ? — Tu veux le savoir ? essaie. Minna jeta vivement un regard à ses pieds, et cria soudain comme un enfant qui aurait rencontré un tigre. L’horrible sentiment des abîmes l’avait envahie, et ce seul coup d’œil avait suffi pour lui en communiquer la contagion. Le Fiord, jaloux de sa pâture, avait une grande voix par laquelle il l’étourdissait en tintant à ses oreilles, comme pour la dévorer plus sûrement en s’interposant entre elle et la vie. Puis, de ses cheveux à ses pieds, le long de son dos, tomba un frisson glacial d’abord, mais qui bientôt lui versa dans les nerfs une insupportable chaleur, battit dans ses veines, et brisa toutes ses extrémités par des atteintes électriques semblables à celles que cause le contact de la torpille. Trop faible pour résister, elle se sentait attirée par une force inconnue en bas de cette table, où elle croyait voir quelque monstre qui lui lançait son venin, un monstre dont les yeux magnétiques la charmaient, dont la gueule ouverte semblait broyer sa proie par avance.
2— Je meurs, mon Séraphîtüs, n’ayant aimé que toi, dit-elle en faisant un mouvement machinal pour se précipiter. Séraphîtüs lui souffla doucement sur le front et sur les yeux. Tout à coup, semblable au voyageur délassé par un bain, Minna n’eut plus que la mémoire de ses vives douleurs, déjà dissipées par cette haleine caressante qui pénétra son corps et l’inonda de balsamiques effluves, aussi rapidement que le souffle avait traversé l’air. — Qui donc es-tu ? dit-elle avec un sentiment de douce terreur. Mais je le sais, tu es ma vie. — Comment peux-tu regarder ce gouffre sans mourir ? reprit-elle après une pause. Séraphîtüs laissa Minna cramponnée au granit, et, comme eût fait une ombre, il alla se poser sur le bord de la table, d’où ses yeux plongèrent au fond du Fiord en en défiant l’éblouissante profondeur, son corps ne vacilla point, son front resta blanc et impassible comme celui d’une statue de marbre : abîme contre abîme.
3— Séraphîtüs, si tu m’aimes, reviens ! cria la jeune fille. Ton danger me rend mes douleurs. — Qui donc es-tu pour avoir cette force surhumaine à ton âge ? lui demanda-t-elle en se sentant de nouveau dans ses bras. — Mais, répondit Séraphîtüs, tu regardes sans peur des espaces encore plus immenses. Et, de son doigt levé, cet être singulier lui montra l’auréole bleue que les nuages dessinaient en laissant un espace clair au-dessus de leurs têtes, et dans lequel les étoiles se voyaient pendant le jour en vertu de lois atmosphériques encore inexpliquées. — Quelle différence ! dit-elle en souriant. — Tu as raison, répondit-il, nous sommes nés pour tendre au ciel. La patrie, comme le visage d’une mère, n’effraie jamais un enfant. Sa voix vibra dans les entrailles de sa compagne devenue muette.
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
1Once more the snow hissed off from the long boards attached to their feet, and they presently reached the first angular crag which chance had thrown out boldly from the face of the precipice. The person whorn Minna had addressed as Seraphitus poised himself on his right heel to raise the lath of about six feet long, and as narrow as a child’s shoe, which was fastened to his boot by two straps of walrus skin; this lath, about an inch thick, had a sole of reindeer skin, and the hair, pressed back against the snow, brought him to a full stop. By turning his left foot, on 18 BALZAC’S WORKS é which this snow-shoe (or ski) was not less than twelve feet in length, he was able to turn nimbly round, he returned to his timid companion, lifted her up in spite of his awkward foot gear, and set her down on a rocky seat, after dusting away the snow with his pelisse. ‘*You are safe here, Minna, and may tremble at your ease.”’ ‘“We have already reached a third of the height of the Ice-cap,’’ said she, looking at the peak, which she called by its popular Norwegian name. ‘‘I do not yet believe—”’ But she was too much out of breath to talk; she smiled at Seraphitus, who, without replying, held her up, his hand on her heart, listening to its palpitations, as rapid as those of a startled fledgling. ‘It often beats as fast as that when I have been running,’’ said she.
2Seraphitus bowed, without any contempt or coldness. In spite of the grace of this reply, which made it almost sweet, it nevertheless betrayed a reserve which in a woman would have been intoxicatingly provoking. Seraphitus clasped the girl to him, and Minna took the caress for an answer, and sat looking at him. As Seraphitus raised his head, tossing back the golden locks of his hair with an almost impatient jerk, he saw happiness in his companion’s eyes. ‘“Yes, Minna,’’ said he, in a paternal tone that was peculiarly charming in a youth scarcely full grown, ‘‘look at me. Do not look down.” “Why ?”’ ‘Do you want to know ?—Try then.’’ Minna gave one hasty glance at her feet, and cried out like a child that has met a tiger. The dreadful influence SERAPHITA : 19
3of the void had seized her, and one look had been enough to give it to her. The fiord, greedy of its prey, had a loud voice, stunning her by ringing in her ears, as though to swallow her up more surely by coming between her and life. From her hair to her feet, all down her back, ran a shudder, at first of cold; but then it seemed to fire her nerves with intolerable heat, throbbed in her veins, and made her limbs feel weak from electrical shocks, like those caused by touching the electrical eel. Too weak to resist, she felt herself drawn by some unknown force to the bottom of the cliff, where she fancied she could see a monster spouting venom, a monster whose magnetic eyes fascinated her, and whose yawning jaws crunched his prey by anticipation. ‘“‘T am dying, my Seraphitus, having loved no one but you,’’ said she, mechanically moving to throw herself down. Seraphitus blew softly on her brow and eyes. Suddenly, as a traveller is refreshed by a bath, Minna had forgotten that acute anguish; it had. vanished under that soothing breath, which penetrated her frame and bathed it in balsamic effluence, as swiftly as the breath had passed through _ the air. . ‘“Who and what are you?”’ said she, with an impulse of delicious alarm. ‘‘But I know.—You are my life.—How can you look down into the gulf without dying ?’’ she asked after a pause.
Our translation, period-faithful. Citable as our translation, never as the source.
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