{"id":441,"date":"2023-12-07T14:43:00","date_gmt":"2023-12-07T14:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/prousty101.com\/?p=441"},"modified":"2024-02-22T20:13:51","modified_gmt":"2024-02-22T20:13:51","slug":"first-and-last-paragraphs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theproustquestion.com\/?p=441","title":{"rendered":"ISOLT Excerpt: First and Last Paragraphs"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

I figured it would be helpful here to include the first and last paragraphs of ISOLT, both in English and French, since I’m such a sucker for them, and since my whole theory is based on them.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

Swann’s Way – <\/strong>English
For a long time I used to go to bed early. Sometimes, when I had put out my candle, my eyes would close so quickly that I had not even time to say “I’m going to sleep.” And half an hour later the thought that it was time to go to sleep would awaken me; I would try to put away the book which, I imagined, was still in my hands, and to blow out the light; I had been thinking all the time, while I was asleep, of what I had just been reading, but my thoughts had run into a channel of their own, until I myself seemed actually to have become the subject of my book: a church, a quartet, the rivalry between Fran\u00e7ois I and Charles V. This impression would persist for some moments after I was awake; it did not disturb my mind, but it lay like scales upon my eyes and prevented them from registering the fact that the candle was no longer burning. Then it would begin to seem unintelligible, as the thoughts of a former existence must be to a reincarnate spirit; the subject of my book would separate itself from me, leaving me free to choose whether I would form part of it or no; and at the same time my sight would return and I would be astonished to find myself in a state of darkness, pleasant and restful enough for the eyes, and even more, perhaps, for my mind, to which it appeared incomprehensible, without a cause, a matter dark indeed.<\/p>\r\n

\r\n

Du Cot\u00e9 de Chez Swann-<\/strong> French<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

Longtemps, je me suis couch\u00e9 de bonne heure. Parfois, \u00e0 peine ma bougie \u00e9teinte, mes yeux se fermaient si vite que je n’avais pas le temps de me dire : \u00ab Je m’endors. \u00bb Et, une demi-heure apr\u00e8s, la pens\u00e9e qu’il \u00e9tait temps de chercher le sommeil m’\u00e9veillait ; je voulais poser le volume que je croyais avoir dans les mains et souffler ma lumi\u00e8re ; je n’avais pas cess\u00e9 en dormant de faire des r\u00e9flexions sur ce que je venais de lire, mais ces r\u00e9flexions avaient pris un tour un peu particulier ; il me semblait que j’\u00e9tais moi-m\u00eame ce dont parlait l’ouvrage : une \u00e9glise, un quatuor, la rivalit\u00e9 de Fran\u00e7ois Ier et de Charles-Quint. Cette croyance survivait pendant quelques secondes \u00e0 mon r\u00e9veil ; elle ne choquait pas ma raison, mais pesait comme des \u00e9cailles sur mes yeux et les emp\u00eachait de se rendre compte que le bougeoir n’\u00e9tait plus allum\u00e9. Puis elle commen\u00e7ait \u00e0 me devenir inintelligible, comme apr\u00e8s la m\u00e9tempsycose les pens\u00e9es d’une existence ant\u00e9rieure ; le sujet du livre se d\u00e9tachait de moi, j’\u00e9tais libre de m’y appliquer ou non ; aussit\u00f4t je recouvrais la vue et j’\u00e9tais bien \u00e9tonn\u00e9 de trouver autour de moi une obscurit\u00e9, douce et reposante pour mes yeux, mais peut-\u00eatre plus encore pour mon esprit, \u00e0 qui elle apparaissait comme une chose sans cause, incompr\u00e9hensible, comme une chose vraiment obscure. Je me demandais quelle heure il pouvait \u00eatre ; j’entendais le sifflement des trains qui, plus ou moins \u00e9loign\u00e9, comme le chant d’un oiseau dans une for\u00eat, relevant les distances, me d\u00e9crivait l’\u00e9tendue de la campagne d\u00e9serte o\u00f9 le voyageur se h\u00e2te vers la station prochaine ; et le petit chemin qu’il suit va \u00eatre grav\u00e9 dans son souvenir par l’excitation qu’il doit \u00e0 des lieux nouveaux, \u00e0 des actes inaccoutum\u00e9s, \u00e0 la causerie r\u00e9cente et aux adieux sous la lampe \u00e9trang\u00e8re qui le suivent encore dans le silence de la nuit, \u00e0 la douceur prochaine du retour.<\/p>\r\n

\"Marcel<\/p>\r\n

Time Regained – <\/strong>English<\/p>\r\n

I now understood why the Duc de Guermantes, whom I admired when he was seated because he had aged so little although he had so many more years under him than I, had tottered when he got up and wanted to stand erect\u2014like those old Archbishops surrounded by acolytes, whose only solid part is their metal cross\u2014and had moved, trembling like a leaf on the hardly approachable summit of his eighty-three years, as though men were perched upon living stilts which keep on growing, reaching the height of church-towers, until walking becomes difficult and dangerous and, at last, they fall. I was terrified that my own were already so high beneath me and I did not think I was strong enough to retain for long a past that went back so far and that I bore within me so painfully. If at least, time enough were allotted to me to accomplish my work, I would not fail to mark it with the seal of Time, the idea of which imposed itself upon me with so much force to-day, and I would therein describe men, if need be, as monsters occupying a place in Time infinitely more important than the restricted one reserved for them in space, a place, on the contrary, prolonged immeasurably since, simultaneously touching widely separated years and the distant periods they have lived through\u2014between which so many days have ranged themselves\u2014they stand like giants immersed in Time.<\/p>\r\n

\r\n

Le Temps Retrouv\u00e9- <\/strong>French<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

Je venais de comprendre pourquoi le duc de Guermantes, dont j’avais admir\u00e9, en le regardant assis sur une chaise, combien il avait peu vieilli bien qu’il e\u00fbt tellement plus d’ann\u00e9es que moi au-dessous de lui, d\u00e8s qu’il s’\u00e9tait lev\u00e9 et avait voulu se tenir debout, avait vacill\u00e9 sur des jambes flageolantes comme celles de ces vieux archev\u00eaques sur lesquels il n’y a de solide que leur croix m\u00e9tallique et vers lesquels s’empressent les jeunes s\u00e9minaristes, et ne s’\u00e9tait avanc\u00e9 qu’en tremblant comme une feuille sur le sommet peu praticable de quatre-vingt-trois ann\u00e9es, comme si les hommes \u00e9taient juch\u00e9s sur de vivantes \u00e9chasses grandissant sans cesse, parfois plus hautes que des clochers, finissant par leur rendre la marche difficile et p\u00e9rilleuse, et d’o\u00f9 tout d’un coup ils tombent. Je m’effrayais que les miennes fussent d\u00e9j\u00e0 si hautes sous mes pas, il ne me semblait pas que j’aurais encore la force de maintenir longtemps attach\u00e9 \u00e0 moi ce pass\u00e9 qui descendait d\u00e9j\u00e0 si loin, et que je portais si douloureusement en moi ! Si du moins il m’\u00e9tait laiss\u00e9 assez de temps pour accomplir mon oeuvre, je ne manquerais pas de la marquer au sceau de ce Temps dont l’id\u00e9e s’imposait \u00e0 moi avec tant de force aujourd’hui, et j’y d\u00e9crirais les hommes, cela d\u00fbt-il les faire ressembler \u00e0 des \u00eatres monstrueux, comme occupant dans le Temps une place autrement consid\u00e9rable que celle si restreinte qui leur est r\u00e9serv\u00e9e dans l’espace, une place, au contraire, prolong\u00e9e sans mesure, puisqu’ils touchent simultan\u00e9ment, comme des g\u00e9ants, plong\u00e9s dans les ann\u00e9es, \u00e0 des \u00e9poques v\u00e9cues par eux, si distantes \u2013 entre lesquelles tant de jours sont venus se placer \u2013 dans le Temps.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

\"shepherd<\/p>\r\n

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\"\"<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I figured it would be helpful here to include the first and last paragraphs of ISOLT, both in English and French, since I’m such a sucker for them, and since my whole theory is based on them. Swann’s Way – EnglishFor a long time I used to go to bed early. Sometimes, when I had … <\/p>\n

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