[LoGH] Guess who these sound like.....(very long!)
Thu, 19 Oct 2000 23:17:08 -0700
Thank you all for answering my question about Kircheis!
I have been in N.Y. for only for three days for a meaningless purpose.
I just came back to Tokyo yesterday evening.
I happened to visit a shop called "The Anime Crash" in Soho(is it in Soho?
I'm not sure). It seemed there were few merchandise to compare with
the capasity of the shop. There,I found a "Eatman" video series with
English subtitles! My recomendatin is "Berserk" though,it hasn't sold in
the states yet(I'm not sure...). It's so cruel and ugly,but it's worth to
watch once at least that please watch the series if you could get them
with English subtitles.
O.K. now I am going to write down the main subject here.
I wanted to report this for a long time, but I didn't have the
translation.
Fortunately, I could find the book at a book shop in 47th street.
It is "Les Miserable" by Victor Hugo.
I will transcribe some sentences below.
I would like to know who in LoGH you imagine.
from:[Book Fourth/The Friends of ABC]
Enjolras,whom we have named first,the reason why will be seen by-and-by,
was an only son and wa rich.
Enjolras was a charming young man,who was capable of being rerrible. He was
angelically beautiful. He wa Antinous wild. You would have said,to see the
thoughtful reflection of his eyes,that he had already, in some preceding
existence,passed through the revolutionary apocalypse. He had the tradition
of it like an eye-witness. He knew all the little details of the grand
thing, a pontifical and warrior nature, strange ina youth. He was
officiating and mulitant; from the immediate point of view, a soldier of
democracy; above the movement of the time, a priest of the ideal. He had
a deep eye, lids a little red, thick under lip,easily becoming desdainful,
and a high forehead. Much forehead in a face is like much sky in a horizon.
Like certain young men of the beginning of this century and the end of the
last century,who becameillustrious in early life, he had an exceedingly
youthful look,as fresh as a young girl's, although he hd hours of pallor.
He was now a man, but he seemed a child still. His twenty-two years of age
appeared seventeen; he was serous, he did not seem to know that there was on
the earth a being called woman. He had but one passion, the right; but one
thought, to remove all obstacles. Uppon Mount Aventine, he would have been
Gracchus; in the Convention, he would have been Saint Just. He hardly saw
the roses, he ignored the spring, he did not hear the birds sing; Evadne's
bare bosom would have moved him no more than Aristogeiton; to him, as to
Harmodius, flowers were good only to hide the sword. He was severe in his
pleasures. Before everything but the republic, he chastely dropped his eyes.
He was the marble lover of liberty. His speech was roughly inspired and had
the tremor of a hymn. He astonished you by his soaring. Woe to the love
affair that should venture to intrude upon him! Had any grisette of the
Place Cambrai or the Rue Saint Jean de Beauvais, seeing this college boy's
face, this form of a page, those long fair lashes,those blue eyes, that
hair flying in the wind, those rosy cheeks, those pure lips, those exquisite
teeth,felt a desire to taste all this dawn, and tried her beauty upon
Enjolras, a surprising and terrible look would have suddenly shown her the
great gulf, and taught her not to confound with the gallant cherubim of
Beaumarchais the fearful cherubim of Ezekiel.
Beside Enjolras who represented the logic of the revolution, Combeferre
represented its philosophy. Between the logic of the revolution and its
philosophy, there is this difference--that its logic could conclude with
war, while its philosophy could only end in peace. Combeferre completed and
corrected Enjolras. He was lower and broader. His desire was to instil into
all minds the broad principles of general ideas; he said ”Revolution ,
but civilisation;” and about the steep mountain he spread the vast blue
horizon. Hence, in all Combeferre's views, there was something attainable
and racticable. Revolution with Combeferre was more respirable than with
Emjolras. Enjolras expressed its devine right,and Combeferre its natural
right. The first went as far as Robespierre; the second stopped at
Condorcet. Combeferre more than Enjolras lived the life of the world
generally. Had it been given to these two young men to take a place in
history, one would have been the upright man, the other would have been
the wise man. Enjolras was more manly. Combeferre was more humane.
"Homo" and "Vir" indeed express the exact shade of defference. Combeferre
was gentle, as Enjolras was severe, from natural purity. (some lines
omitted)
He was learned, purist,precise, universal, a hard student, and at the same
time given to musing,"even chimerical," said his friends.
(some line omitted)
Enjolras was a chief; Combeferre was a guide. You would have preferred to
fight with the one and march with the other. Not that Combeferre was not
capable of fighting; he did not refuse to close with an obstacle, and to
attach it by main strength and by explosion, but to put, gradually, by the
teaching of axioms and the promulgarion of positive laws, the human race
inharmony with itsu destinies, pleased him better; and of the two lights,
his inclination was rather for illumination than for conflagration. A fire
would cause a dawn, undoubtedly, but why not wait for the break of day?
A volcano enlightens, but the morning enlightens still better. Combeferre,
perhaps, preferred the pure radiance of the beautiful to the glory of the
sublime.(to be continued to the third person)
O.K. I stop it once here. The third person is someone whom you do know
well but I dare write it in another mail as I'm afrraid it is still
included in "spoiler warning".
Rikako
