London Bridge (Translated by Dominic Di Bernardi 1995) by Louis-Ferdinand Céline

Author:Louis-Ferdinand Céline [Céline, Louis-Ferdinand]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Literature
ISBN: 9781847492449
Publisher: Alma Books
Published: 1964-01-01T16:18:29+00:00

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I didn’t act very curious. I asked next to nothing about how the experiments were going… like whether the masks were working smoothly? Or whether everything had been patched up?… Or whether they were sniffing correctly?… At any rate they’d stopped cursing each other out!… That was already a big improvement!… I didn’t hear them hollering at each other any more!… Just a lot of awful hammering… and streams of pressurized gas that came shooting out above the lawns, often all the way into the street… they had their breakfasts brought up to the lab… everything they put in their mouths was laced with Ferocious!… So they wouldn’t need to lose a single minute by coming down! They were in the full throes of creation, that’s how I sized up the situation… but I didn’t ask for any details! Any secrets!… The days went by, period!… I snored away the nights… or pretended to…

I didn’t want Sosthène to talk to me… when he’d come back down after midnight… not a peep… or a single sigh… I was absolutely determined… my way of buying time!… That was the only thing on my mind!… I’d had enough of wacky projects… I wanted to make it to the end of the war without getting hanged or arrested!… That was my supreme ambition!… I didn’t even look at Virginia any more… not even when we were both at the table… I kept looking straight ahead… I’d just peek a little out the window… whenever she’d be walking through the gardens… She couldn’t see me… As it was I had a hell of a time with my buzzing ears, my throbbing arm, not to mention Matthew! And Claben! And the Leicester!… And my one-track mind about that crowd!… Plus my obsession with not sleeping ever again, and the Consulate, and Ten-Paw! I wasn’t going to let some all-consuming love do me in a second time!… Ah! No way, just hold on one second! If I dragged that poor little girl into some wild and crazy scrapes… other calamities would be sure to follow! My dick had got me into enough jams like this one!… These days I was scared of my shadow!… Nobody ever died of a broken heart!… But if you fuck up you’ve got hell to pay!… Horrendous consequences… kidnapping a young girl… etc.

In England they’d throw you right behind bars!

Buy some time… that was my one and only obsession!… To make it to the end of the war without getting hanged or arrested… just a few days’ time… one more!… One less!… I was counting them!… To escape from this hellhole!… Everything else will fall right in place by itself!… No more mushiness!… No more recklessness!… Keep my nose clean, act sensible… No more complications in my life!… I was really sucked dry… Kidnapping that innocent girl again… getting the Colonel on my ass, high morals, the courts!… The birdies out in the garden who lost their little girlfriend… I

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