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APPENDIX TWO
A MOST PARISIAN EPISODE |
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In which we meet a Lady and a Gentleman who might have known happiness, had it not been for their constant misunderstandings. |
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At the time when this story begins, Raoul and Marguerite (a splendid name for lovers) have been married for approximately five months. |
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Naturally, they had married for love. |
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One fine night Raoul, while listening to Marguerite singing Colonel Henry d'Erville's lovely ballad: |
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L'averse, chère à la grenouille,
Parfume le bois rajeuni.
. . . Le bois, il est comme Nini.
Y sent bon quand y s'débarbouille. |
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Raoul, as I was saying, swore to himself that the divine Marguerite (diva Margarita) would never belong to any man but himself. |
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They would have been the happiest of all couples, except for their awful personalities. |
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At the slightest provocation, pow! a broken plate, a slap, a kick in the ass. |
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At such sounds, Love fled in tears, to await, in the neighborhood of a great park, the always imminent hour of reconciliation. |
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O then, kisses without number, infinite caresses, tender and knowing, ardors as burning as hell itself. |
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You would have thought the two of thempigs that they were!had fights only so they could make up again. |
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Translated by Fredric Jameson. The epigraphs have not been translated because they play upon elements of slang, phonetic analogies, and so on. |
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