Mécanique verbale et don de soi
by Pierre ReverdyAucun mot n’aurait mieux pu, sans doute, exprimer sa joie. Il le dit et tous ceux qui attendaient contre le mur tremblèrent. Il y avait au centre un grand nuage — une énorme tête et les autres observaient fixement les moindres pas marqués sur le chemin. Il n’y avait rien pourtant et dans le silence les attitudes devenaient difficiles. Un train passa derrière la barrière et brouilla les lignes qui tenaient le paysage debout. Et tout disparut alors, se mêla dans le bruit ininterrompu de la pluie, du sang perdu, du tonnerre ou des paroles machinales, du plus important de tous ces personnages.
Verbal mechanics and gift of self
by Pierre ReverdyNo doubt about it; no other word could have better expressed his joy. Everyone who was waiting against the wall trembled when he said it. There was a large cloud in the middle—an enormous head—and the others stared at the slightest marks of footsteps on the path. Yet there was nothing there, and it was becoming difficult to know in the silence what attitude to strike. Behind the fence a train went by, blurring the lines that held the scene upright. Then everything disappeared, mingled with the unbroken sound of rain, lost blood, thunder, or the mechanical words that the most important of these characters said.
translated from French by Dan Bellm