BY TH SAM AUTHOR

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Lm 1ututc8
The
Lesbian
Body
Monique Wittig
Tronlted /om the French by Dvid Le ly
, , HBAHY O`H
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English translation copyright 1975 by Peter Owen
Originally published in French under the title Le CorpsLesbc by
Les Editions de Minuit, copyright 1 by Les Editions de Minuit.
All rights resrved. No part of this bok may be reproduced or
utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, in
duding photocopying, recording or by any information storage and
retrieval system. without permision in writing from the Publisher.
Inquiries should be addresed to William Morrow and Company,
Inc . 105 Madisn Ave . New York, N.Y. 1016.
Printed in the United States of America.
Z 4 5 79 78 77 76 75
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 75-7738
ISBN 068802900
INTRODUCTION
In 1964 Monique Wittig, who wa then 28, won the Pr
Medicis in Frace with her frst noe, 1h6 Opopona.
The potry of it prsent-tense narrative and its evocative
word-building: immediately cught the attention of the
critic d the novel with it schoolgirl heroines enjoyed a
succh t esti"e. Five later cae 16t udnMr6:,
publishe with the admiring support of Mary McCarthy,
who found t1 second novel 'a surprise, almost a shoc ...
the only work 'of beauty to come out of Women's Lib.'
The scoolgirls had vanished and these girl guerilla,
'pearl-tsd, twobreasted Amaons', beautiful, brilliant
and dedly, despatced the rac of men and any belief in
crde, autoatic maIe sup. A fe rtrating male
critics ad raders uttered hoarse crie or crude wrds but
most of the wer impressed by the bok's originality and
the potry of its language, even if the concepts behind it
w hardly likely U please them. Mter rading and rlish
ing it, wondering u in some way it could be tered a
'conceit', trying to B the autor's attitudes and aIso her
undoubted sns of humour, I wondered U what Monique
Wittg would or could write next.
,In fact she strode over te dead bodies of men ad
devoted her net book to te feale bdy and U relation
ships, especially the love-rlationship, betwen women. Men,
and all recollections of ,any maIe sybl, had ced U
mL Wt W left? What w all these women going to
5
do with temselves? They were going t celebrate the
feale principle with an intesity that b probably never
ben achieved befor.
A great deal b ben sid ad wrtten durng the last
twenty ym about women and their place in the world.
No one bexplord this subject as passionately as Monique
Wittig; no one m established that other world created and
inhabited by women. It is no longer parallel to the male
world but evolves and revolves on its own in space and
time. In d book that world is endowed with the ideal
beauty of the Greek islands where women once knew a
culture of their own: but the starting point of life and
civiliztion cn after all only be the body.
Taken out of contet, some of the narrator's invocations
could se far-fetched. Clearly they should not be con
siderd out of their context or interpreted literally; just as
nobody would isolate a few square centimetres frm a
painting by PiC or Dali, or claim that the endless ertic
incident in The IRO Days 0/ Sodom were intended to be
realistic. Monique Wittig b cosen to celebrate the body
by crating a new version of the ecorchl and the skeleton
whic eist not for study but for lov, love which start
with the individual and extends to the whole species.
This much accepted, sme readers will ask why they
should have to tolerate such expressions as 'the tendon of
Achille' or the incident - inventive and ausing though it
.
H - about principle of 'Archimedea'. In Wittig's world
they must tolerate them, otherise they will b shut out.
Such adaptations & essential in a world where language
is te clue to spec, life ad the body itself. 'The body of
the text, the author b written, 'subsumes all the words of
the feale body. The Lesbian Body attempts t achieve te
6
afnation of its rality. Te lists of names cntribut to
d actvity. To recite one's own body, to recite the body
of the other, i t recite the word of which the book is made
up. The fascination for writing the neer previously written
and the fascination for unattained body proced from
the se desire.'
Monique Wittig then queries the whole concept of the
personal
.
pronoun which she maintains is impersonal, for it
is by implication 'human (masculine)'.
'I' Uel
:
oliterates the fact that elle or elles are submerge
in d or ils, i.e., that all the feinine persons are com
pleentary to the masculine persons . ... The 'I' Uel
who \rites is alien to her own writing at every word
becuse d 'I' U e 1 uses a laguage alien to her; this 'I'
U e 1 experiences what is alien to her since this 'I' U e 1
cnnot be 'un ecrivain' ... . I Ie is the sybol of the lived,
rending experience which is m I y writing, of this cutting
in whic thrughout literature is the exercise of a
language which does not constitute mle as subject.
The French Ie cn b transfored on these lines, as can
the French and English possessive adjective and pronoun
and the refexive pronoun, but the typographicl implausi
bility of splitting our English monosyllabic 'I' is obvious. It
has therfor been printed throughout as
David Yay, who is an einent practising anatomist
and surgen, has abandoned any male chauvinism long
eough to translate dbook. He has pointed out that over
te cnturies muc poetic energy has been dedicated to the
outside surface of the human body, but that nobody - with
te posble ecepton of crtain contributors to the Old
7
Testent - b celebrated with such fre dom whole
of te boy, it bones, orans, muscles, ner, scre
tions ad ecetons, en g that up to Iijt.
Life, j bt is d women's world self-destructive?
Sappho, ufoItely for her devtees, is roured U
have killed herslf for a man. Monique Wittig's personae
are in no danger of doing that, for whatever we feel about
the pr from which they start, their progrss uthat
point reveals a frightening logic. The implictions of a
petic anatoy of the female body are wider Ueen the
male cauvinist may tk. When such phrases no longer
have ay bitter relevance and the phrase 'two culturs' may
have a sexual connotation only, Th, Lesbian Body will still
prvide stimulating reading, for both women and men.
Margaret Crosland

AUTHOR'S NOTE
Corps Lesbien b lesbianis as its theme, that is, a
thee which cannot even be described as taboo, for it has
no real existence in the history of literature. Male homo
sxual literature has a past, it b a present. The lesbians,
for their part, are silent - just as all women are as women
at all levels. When one has read the poms of Sappho,
Radclyfe I Hall's Well of Loneliness, the poems of Sylvia
Plath and Anas Nin, La Bdtarde by Violette Leduc, one
b read everything. Only the women's moveent has
proved cpable of producing lesbian text in a context of
total rupture with masculine culture, texts written by
women exclusively for women, cless of male apprval.
Corps Lesbien falls into this ctegory.
The descriptions of the islands allude to the Amazons,
to the islands of women, the domains of women, whic
forerly existed with their own culture. They also allude
to the Amazons of the present and the future. We alrady
have our islets, our islands, we are already in prcess of
living in a cultur that beft us. The Amazons are women
who live among themselves, by themselves and for the
slves at all the generally accpted levls: fctional, sym.
bolic, actual. Because we are illusionary for traditional male
clture we make no distinction between the te levels.
L reaity is the fctional a it is socially accpted, our
sybols deny the trditional symbols and are fctional for
trditional male culture, and we posss an entire fction
9
1-
into which W project ourselves and which is already B
possible reality. It is our fction that validates us.
The body of the text subsumes all the words of the
female body. Le Corps Lesbien attempts U achieve the
afnnation of its rality. The lists of names contribute to
this activity. To recite one's own body, to recite the body
of the other, is to recite the words of which the book is
made up. The fascination for writing the never previously
written and the facination for the unattained body proceed
from the same desire. The desire U bring the real body
violently U life in the words of the book (everthing that
is written exists), the desire to do violence by writing to the
language which U/ e] cn enter only by force. '1' U e] as a
generic feinine subject can only enter by force into a
language which is foreign to it, for all that is human
(masculine) is foreign to it, the human not being feminine
grammatically speaking but he [il or they fils]. 'I' Ue] con"
ceals the sexual diferences of the verbal persons while
specifying them in verbal intercange. '' Ue] obliterates
the fact that elle or elles are submerged in il or iis, i.e., that
all the feminine persons B cmplementary to the mascu
line persons. Te feminine '1' Ue] who is speaking can
fortunately forget this diference and assume indif erently
the masculine language. But the '1'Ue] who writes udriven
bc t her specifc experience as subject. The '' U e] who
writes is alien to her own writing at every word because
this '1 U e] uses a language alien U her; this ' U e] experi
WVm tince t 'I' U e] cannot be 'un
ecrivain'. If, in writing : m language, this je
cnnot do so. 1/ is the symbol of the lived, rnding ex
periec which is m I y writing, of dcutting in O which
thrughout literature is the exercise of B language which
IO
dos not constitute mle as subject. J I e poses the ideologicl
and historc question of feminine subject. (Certain groups
of women have proposd writing iee or ieue.) If U Ie]
Cine mly specic situation as subject in the language,
Ule] am physiclly incapable of writing ` Ue],rUle]
have no desire t do w
11
The Lesbian Body
In t dark adored adored gehenna say your fareells
m/y very beautiful one m/y ve strng one m/y very
indomitable one m/y very leaed one m/y ve feroiou
one m/yi very gentle one m/y bet beoved to what they,
the wombt, call afeton tendeesor gracious aandon.
There is hot one who is unaware of what takes place here,
which h: no name B yet, let the seek it u they are
deterided to do so, let them indulge in a stor of fne
rivarie, : that which I so utterly dW, while you with
sr voice entreat some woman with shining knee to
come to your aid. But you know that not oe Wbe able
to be seeing you with eye tued up lids cut of your
yellow soking intetine spread in the hollow of your
hads your tongue spat from your mouth long green
string of your bile fowing over your breats, not one
will b able to bear your low freetic insistet laughter.
The gleam of your teeth your joy your sorrow the hidden
life of your viscera your blo your arterie your veins
your hollow habitations your organs your nere their
rupture ther spurting forth death slow decompoition
stech being devoured by wors your open skull, a will
be equally unbearable to her.
If some woman should spa your name 1 feel a umly
ea W about mfall hevily t the grund, I feel mly
blo w g in mly ae, I prceive at a glance the
networks it irgate, a cry ft to make mle burst is ue
from the depth of mly lungs, I repres it with difculty,
suddenly I become the place of the darket mysterie,
mly U bristle and becomes covere with s, I
the pitch that bur the asant' heads, I the knife
that sever the carotid of the newbor ewe-Iamb, I
the bullet of the submachine-gun that perforate the
intetine, I the pincer brought to re heat in the
D that tea the fesh, I the plaited whip that fagel
late the skin, I the electric current that blat and
convulse the muscle, I the gg that gags the mouth,
I the bandage that hide the ee, I the bonds
that tie the hads, I N the mad tormentor galva
by tortur and your crie intoxicate ml e mly bt be
love the more that you retrain the. At thi point I
invoke your help mly incomparable Sappho, give mle
by thousands the fnges that allay the wound, give ml e
the lips the tongue the saliva which draw one into the
slow sweet pisoned country from which one cannot
ru.
16
I discover that your U can be lifted laye by layer, I
pull, it lift of, it coils aove your ke, I pull stg
at the labia, it slide the length of the belly, fne to ex
treme tlparency, I pull starting at the loins, the skin
uncoves ,the round muscle and trapezii of the back, it
pels of uQ to the nape of the neck, I arrive under your
hair, mly fnges tavee its thicknes, I touch your skull,
I grap it with all mlY fnger, I pres it, I gather e
Uover the whole of the cranial vault, I tear of the skm
brtaly beneath the hair, I reveal the beauty of the shin
ing bone traveed by blo-vesels, mly two hands
ch the vault and the occiput bhind, now mly fnger
bu theselve in the ceebral convoluton, the men
inge a travered by cerebropinal fuid fowing from
all quarte, m I y hads are plunged in the soft hen
sphere I seek the medulla and the cerbellum tucke m
somewhe undeeath, now I hold al of you silet
immobi eery cry bloked in your throat your lat
tought belind your ee cught in mly hads, the
daylight i no purer tha the depths of mly heart mly
de one.
17
YOug8zc 8t m/c wtb yOur tco tbOm8od cy, yOu dO O
d t , dO oOt tr, m/y lcct 0OmglctHy O-
bcddcd o tbc grOuod, 8llOm/ycll tO bc rc8Obcd by
yOur tO tbOUBod gl8oO Or u yOu grNcr by tbc oglc
g8oO Ol yOur tco tbOU8od cy but t oOt tbc c,
u0bHC gc tOu0b m/c cVNwbN,bt8tc
tO mOVc, u D m/y B tOwd tbc uo yOu lBot
yOur cy tO 8djUt tOtbc lgbt, tbcy g8rklc but yOu lUk
8t m/c Or OcubOuld mOVc otO tbc b8dc am 0Old
yOUr cy B oOt Vblc tbcrc wbcrc yOu lOllOw m/c
8m UDcco by yOu, dumb o tb dccrt dcVOd
Ol yOur tO tbOUd cy d8rkO tb8o tbc d8rk wbOc
yOur cy wOuld 8ggc8r tO m/c tO-tbOUaod lOd blaOk
aodUg, a 8lOoc uoul tbc mOmcot wbO 1 bcar 8
V8rcty Ol Ouod Ol bcll Ol uouDo8bu8tOm, umblc,
Bm gddy, t rcObO8t wtbo m/c, t m8k m/c
guVcr, t tbc mUO Ol tbc cy 1 8y m m/ycl, ctbcr
tbQ 0lb tQctbO gcotly 8od wtb VOlOOc Ortbcy gm
du0c tbc m8oy OUDd by tbcmclV, Dg m/ycll
8t Oo m/y lmc o lmot Or bcbod tb dc Or tb8t ,
gtOul8tc wldly tO lcMtb8t0aooOt 08gc tbc mult-
gl0ty Ol yOur rcg8m, wbNcr m8y bc m/y Dch8blc
Ooc yOu @ 8t1n/c wtb yOur V tbOu8od cy.
t8
bBlloOtuttcr yOur 8d8blc oBmc. bu0btbcotQ0l
yOu b8Vc l8d Oo m/c, O bc t. H roOuot Ooly bOw
yOu 0Omc tO o m/c o tbc VN dcgtb Ol bc. YOu
wm aOn tbcmuddy w8tcNOl tbc rVcr bccdlcMOl tbc
M-lVog l tbc rOU tbc Qclm o8k. YOu og
wtbOut'g8uc. bc lO8lc gu8rd Ol tbc dcw mOll-
cd 0c tbcr g8gog mOutb. YOu Obt8o tbcr gcr-
mw Oo tO bnog m/ c b8Ok l8r tbc lgbt Ol tbc lVog
Oo 0OodtOo tb8t yOu dO oOt UDuod tO lOOk 8t m/c.
c mar0b 8lOog tbc mdc@rOuod g ag o-
8blc. C yOur brO8d b80k Ooc 0 OtbN m yOur
bU wbco yOur mOVOcoU bO yOu o grObl
yOur Uog d gwcrlul lc@ yOur u8gbt gOV,
tbc h tb8t rcmb yOur bOuldcN wbc 0btout
OlOur 1 bod O bc8utlul tO lOk 8t tb8t 8 g8o r o
m/y brc8t. YOu dO oOt OoOc tm rOuod. bc uok O
m/y bOwcl unUod u at m/y cVcry mOVOOt. YOu
om oOt tO oOtOc t, yOu w8lk Oo tc8dly C m/c
m 8 lOud VOOc 8ll tbc lOVc o yOu wOc u tO 0Ml
m/c. Fr tmc tO tmc m/y ycllOw dc08yog a lnm
wbOb lOog wOm OOc brub 8g8ot yOu, Omc Olmb
0o yOur b, yOu buddcr, C yOur U brtlc
Dgbt& yOur bOuldcN.Yc u8Vmtbc lOgtb Ol tbc
@BllO tbc uodc@rOUod tuoocl lbc OgU tbc 0aV
tbc 08tB0Mm yOu &g Wtb VOOrOm V0c tbc _Oy
19
of mly recovery. Mly kneecap appear at mly #U
frm which s of fe fall. Mly apits ar musty.
Mly brts are eten away. 1 have B hole in mly throat.
Te smel that ecape from mle is noisome. You do not
stop your nostrils. You do not exclaim with fright when
at a given moment mly putrecent and half-liquid boy
touche the length of your bae back. Not once do you
tu round, not eve when I begin to howl in depir the
tear tckling down mly gnawed cheeks to bg you to
leve mle in mly tomb to brutally decrbe to you mly
decompoition the purulence of mly e mly noe mly
vulva the carie of mly teth the ferentation of mly
vital or the colour of mly rtten-ripe muscle. You
interpt ml e, you sing with stident voice your cerainty
of trumph over mly death, you do not heed mly sob,
you drag mle to the surace of the e where the sun
is visible. Only thee at the et towards the tree and the
foret do you tum to face mle with B bound and l is
true that looking into your e I revive with prodigious
sped.
You are eguinate. Ayour blo to forcibly from
your limb is ue violetly from yur gins carotid a
teple leg ankle, the ae a cdely sver, it
20
,
. ,
involve the catids bra raial tepals, t 0-
volve the iac feora tibiaIs proneal, the v a
smultaneuly laid op. stumble a you, can
no lok at you, your blod dazle m/ e, your palor
plunge m/ e into confuion distraction ectay. b e
pd your lip baring your te your eye opeg ad
closing with dif culty, your brightnes elipe the sun.
A gentle wheeing is ue from your mouth. Each drop of
your blod each spurt from your aerie striking mly
ateie Vibrate throughout m/ e. I a unale to H, I
await aptheis a glorious ed in t place whee
the prim colour a not lg, 1 tble before the
brght rd Mu from your artere, I se it tum to black
in drng stains and patche all around you ad on mly
body, I see the dark blood eerge from the blue of your
veins, in place it is congealed violet, a illuminated
by the gld and black of your eye, I do not seek m/y
life from you, I follow you cloely, 1 hear yur mot
preciou blod B it leave yu, it make a lancinating
fabled music mly adored one to which your voice and
mline do not contribute.
21
Your hair is all black and shining. In the space b
your long jaw teth eed recognize your abiguou
musmile. Your tall move and quiver. M/y had
paced on yur sweat-coverd M ecite a brstling m
your U. D light fnger dow the legth of your
spine or else m/y hands bury theselve in your coat.
touch your bm bw, 1 squeee the in m/y hand.
You stand upright on your paw one of the intermit
tently scrtching the ground. Your head weighs on the
nap of m/y neck, your canine gash m/y O where it
is mot senitive, you hold m/ e betwee your paws, you
conain m/e to lean on m/y ebow, you make m/e
tu m/y back to you, your brea pres aainst m/y
bae skin, 1 feel your hair touching m/y buttock at the
heght of your clitori, you climb O m / e, you rip of
m/y Uwith the claws of your four paw, a great sweat
come ove m/e hot then son cold, a white foam spreas
the length of your black chop, 1 tum around, 1 clutch
at your coat, 1 take your head between m/y hands, 1
speak to you, your great tongue pas e over m /y
you lick m/y shoulde breasts M belly vulva thighs,
a moment come \hen frenziedly you take m/e on your
back m/y she-wolf m/y M round your neck m/y
breats m/y belly against your fur m/y legs gpping
your fa m/y se thrusting against your loins, you
begin to gallop.
zz
Happy ulike Ulys might retur from a long voyage.
The island's approaches are signalled to m/e before day
break. At news of lad all the women stand and prepar
themselve. Not one wears the previous day's garment.
Te trY of perume ar laid out on the decks. Tere is
sandalwo there is ambe ther is bezoin there is musk
thee is I opopona. Tey mix the with oils before
spreading them ove ther sun-tanned w. The tree to
prt and staboard are sprinkled wiped clean leaf by leaf.
Some of the women attach streamer to them with the
colour of the island. The mats to are laden with
deorations. All the musical iets are laid out on
the deck. In the background 1 attempt to recreate your
fae feture by feature, 1 remain silet in the joy of m/y
heart. But no 1 am well aware that 1 am not par of this
voyage, a on lad m the mot inhospitable land that
ests that which do not contain you, the land you have
let to mae your way elswhere. M/y fet ar heavy
whe 1 g to the prt in the eening. No sunset m/y
living one will illuminate the board where the nae of
your ship wbe ibed. 1 0 tear from m/y forehead
the violet bandeau that signals m/y liberty dearly
bought a for you all m/y dc one you you
love m/e to let m/e die one night far away in the M
%/y mml dclcOlblc Onc cl bOul lng yOu, m/y
lOnguc mOlcm lhc hcm O yOur cM dNOlcy gldng
rOund,m/y lOngucmmtUc n lhc utOlc, l lOuOh
lhc8nlhcm, m/ylcclh8cckthclOb, lhcy bcgn lO gn8w
ll,m/y lOnguc@tnlOyOure Oana.gl,byOu
wlh V. Vng bOrbcd lhc mlcml grl O yOut
e bunl lhc tymganum, ccl lhc tOundcd hmmm-
bOnc rOg bclwccn m/y g, m/y lccth Otuh l,1 bnd
lhc anVl aad lhc H g-bOnc, 1 OtunOh lhcm, Oragc
wth my hngcn, wtcnOh wy bOnc, 8 On lhc
ugcrb OOOhc bOnc 8ad mObr8nc B wraggcd rOund
lOgcthcr, dcVOur thcm, 1 bunl thc cmOtOular cal,
@Otc lhcmlOd,mcan Ogcnng nlOlhcm,
tudy lhc nlcrOr O yOur Ohk, lOOk l yOu tOm
ndcyOurcl,1 lOcm/ycl,gO lry,1 a gnOno
byyOu whOnOurhm/ c,1 hDVcl,bNOmc gulc8,
nOw a y, bOOk lhc wOrkag O yOur lOnguc,
Vnly yOu lty t gl m/c Oul, yOu OhOkc, 1 a
grnm,1 dhcrclOyOur gnk ndlOky gltc,aggly
m/y uOkcn lO yOur dclOOu uVul.
LlwOm w bc lbc dy whO yOu OOmc lO mccl m/c
l qe Oncd lm0ng lbc clOu wy
ftw lhc dcglh O lhc ky wlb yOut a ut h
24
ttrcd by lhc wnd yOur lcctb brcd nd OlcnOhcd wlh
mcrlOn yOut cy rdng m/c rOm 8r. YOu wc8t
buOklcd On yOur brchg lhc wOtd lhc wOmcn bmughl
lO rcd hcl m lhc htc bcOrc gVng l lO yOu, lhc Onc
se yOu brndh rOm lmc t lmc bOVc yOur hcd lO
kccg O oc Or Olbcr hdou mOalcr whOh gtn@ ug
lO lOkcn yOur dV8nOc. Bglutc bm m/c lO cc yOu O
gtOdgOmly hOl Orth yOur bOdy wllng guU O p
umc lOward m/c On lhc r-Our U On lh udc Md
lh8l gOurng Olr8Ol O MdwU gngm hNcbOrc
Mdgrndcc yOu, yOu OOmc lOwrd m/ c wlh
dOrbc gmOglnOy, Orngc ah OOmng mm yOut
brcl uttOund yOu, cr O ua rc cllng n gOld
grccn mn. YOut Vmy grcOc Vcty Ol Vmy lrdcnl
VOOcrcOh m/c Oncr thM 1 OlOh ghl O yOu Om-
ng m/c lO Ublc wth mglcnOc, whc m/y cN 8rc
rOlcd n lbc grOund, whlc a grycd by lhc ud
dOn O yOur dVcnl, 8lcr Omc OOnuOn rgdly
cXgcrcnOc VcttgO, m/y cycld tMlO ultcr nOcMnlly
OVm m/y cycb, ullctng ld rc bOm bOc8lh m/y
h n thc dcglh O m/y brn, wc8kn lakc m/y
hmttng OrOng m/c lO bNd m/y knc, arcdy yOu
dOcnd n ul8ncd mg, amdy yOu Nnd tghl
Ddc m/c, rdy yOur haad ll On m/y 8hOudcn
g g dOwnOnm/c lcdyng m/c bcOtc yOu, 8ltcdy
wc m fOc lO Oc nOw 8nd Or cVcr bc l.
Grat frgment of gelatine become detached trembling
taren. Te p lip tyran pink o the inside let
the frmet @ in ev-increang numbe. The
fnge caught in the fux move slightly elongate rela
draw their tip along the lip moe strighten out palpate
the mucous mebrane with dawdling movement. The
fow become cotinuous, the foay juice whitened in it
edie O to the shoulders, the head eeing hair
sprea out ceeks pale. Now the fnges tap continuously
on the mebrane. agitation disturbs the fow of
tasparnt juice fuid water. Abundant salty tea M
she into the fow, I dw, the wate r-enter by m/y
juice tea, in it I see blas glds light c
sale. I am seized with a great disturbace, m/y ea M
lifte, buzzing bruid concused. Te fngr form paI
to swim etede on either side of the great mas, they
touch make contact grap each other, the window opens
abrptly under the t of our lb foating on a great
body of bluish lactic liquid, the water O iodized tra
lucet, it reache the topmot branche of the lat visible
te, it bats warly against the legs of the swiming
wome, submerged up to m/y facial orce I se that
the liquid mas continue to inO with suspnded
mucus pearly eatc flaent, the glds the ro no
have the sae colour and coece a the clouds, the
r wave debouche in the sky, faewel black cotinet
of misery ad suferng faell acient cities we
ebaking fo the sg radiant isle for the @
Cye fo the dark ad gilded Le.
I sta to treble without beng able to stop, you m/y
iniquitu oe m/y inquists you do w w m/e,
you insist that I t, fe grip m/e m/y hair is shaken,
the sft hemisphe of m/y brain the dura mate the
cblum moe within m/y caium, m/y tngue uvula
jaws quiv, I canot ke m/y lip co, m/y U
cte, m/y ae tb in furious jeks in m/y w
g he m/y ee cops by their 0Q
m/y intesne lurch, m/y $ch Uove, te move
met sre t al m/y mucle, th tpi deltoids
ps adducto the it th ete
all shake by spas, the bone of m/y legs ko
a each ote when you do not sty te yo
Wu ther is a prou acelerato m moOt
t t pnt whe fre fr grvit I D up, I man
U m/yf at y eye-lee, the you m/y mo
mM oe jO m/ e brtly whle I fal se
k j hunt m/e dw m/y m & one j
Oain m/e to O out, you @t W in m/y mm
wh the in m/y er I sy, no D w
fo pty's se, do wM m/e, do w put m/e in Hm
do w mae m/y el burt, degn t C of your
do, 1 bg , spae m/e fo just a Bet loe.
THELESIANCDYTHE]UICETE
SPITLETHESALIVATHESNCT
THESWEATTHETAKSTHEWAX
THE UKINE THE AECESTHE
EXCKEMENTSTHELCCDTHE
LYMPHTHE ]ELLYTHE WATEK
THE CHYLETHE CHYMETHE
HUMCUKSTHE SECKETICNSTHE
PUSTHE DISCHAKGES THE SUP-
PUKATICNSTHEILETHE]UICES
THEACIDSTHELUIDSTHE
LUXES THE CAM THE SULPHUK
THEUKEATHE MILKTHE
ALUMENTECXYGENTHE
LATULENCE TE PCUCHES THE
PAKIETES THE MEMKANESTHE
PEKITCNEUM, TE CMENTUM,
THEPLEUKATHEVAGINATHE
VEINS TEAKTKIESTHE VESSELS
THENEKVES
Sp frm your epidens. You p prouce
tem m thounds, 1 watch the tny eploons, 1 se
ho the Qm deed at te ed of hy fet
without boming detached from the, the sk so,
the spore develop and become runded, the innumer
able sphere clashing together create stridece clickings
alia hap vibratons. Sloly you snd erct yo
B etende wm you your thigh rgid you ete
by in moveet, you moe forad supprted by the
fight of t sphe expading m the . Your cm
movemet pruc a haoy of sunds whic mae
the C sift m a direion. 1 follow you, 1 move for
ward m your gigatic shado sed dow prlong by
the sphe. u tds tey blur your outline or e
make it appa stippled whe they C te s m the
CU 0 ther gyratos. At eac m your stide you
pasabve wU walking. Your alw musc
fxe them on the spt, ten one o ote sed with con
VWM fals m a hep t the grund. Se be t
sre. You suprb you do not halt. 1 have difculty
m follong you. No 1 I beth you, your jog
sphe gleing mte s give m/ e veg but bm-
lw a 1 & 1 laugh freely, 1 anounce you to the im
moil O t tey my w y c, 1
bpt y fo cture m O0m M b it
29
by mc lOGb Mc m]y dcybbvcj
tuOcd yOu it tOm wbcD I Ovc yOu s RD0cry
YOut Out h b tbc 8 D Ol cw w yOut
br cy a tbc g blm tuc, i Ikgt
0 yOu t lcI d m]y bm a uh
b b0 d uM fo m ut vND, 0 n
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b a rd y OR i h kON, lbc WD
Ol yOut v@D a Nut lgbt d =. t i lM
t Omc lbt wO bvc buDRd m]c gmRd m]c
lt0Ou0&QO m]y dmbc vO0c lMy lOt cvO.
YOu dd DOt wtlMm]cwbOI wMkDgyOuOM-
wbO,I UvHOtbcid lDyODcDDcw
Ol yOu. c lmI tbc bDg s buD@t thc Oct-
0M Ol m]y mb m]y b lbc Og d0 lOt j mc
bUm gnvtOD, I OMD0t tbm t yOu s ymt
e a m 8tODc, wbt bvcI dODc mtbm btNu O
wbt bvc y dODc 0 tbmtht lbcy Oud tkc0b
dcOvc OUOD, i t gbc tbt DOI Oc m Ib0m 0D
O t, I M WtbOut a wtbOut b wIbOut
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b0Dg Ol m]yha I tl m]}l m vD lbt y0u a
tbc m dmbc m lu. Dd H m]y s ON

0 !
,
t d mt I se lbc tm 0 y cet
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bcd M U ce, & bmg DWt g Ovct m]c
Vc gQ a sfe j pv m]Q ym b m]q
yOu a Lvi t vDg tMc t m]y mOutb, I y
m]}l ty lot m]y8Ituc lbOugb yOu a Wt0ut
c d ttc. I ggcm tbc gOd tbt tbcy bOud
0bMgc m]c it IOc m]y fa gmDcd tO yOut f
tbQ kDOw DOc bggbO b wttcD t lOt c|OIy t
IOc a Ob Oc e OtbO wm tOdO Oc.
!
I se yOut bOD 0Ovcr0d wIb fe tbc ic thc kD0c-
0g tbc cbOw thc hOudO. I mOvc tbc muO
0utOuy O DOt tO dg0 tb0m, I tkc cOb ODc
bctwD m]yhDgO Ibc ODg muO tbc tOuDd muO
lbc hONmuO,I gu,I tctth0m by tbcrhbr lrOm
tbcr bO, I gc thm m bge lrQcDt mOvDg
gbtyguvcrDgwb0DI guttdOwD.I grduy 0Xtr0t
tbcbODc,I ot gg0zt gcrywbtcw|b rcd0ubse,
I Ok t, I 0M t, I gumOc t t gb t, I wt m t
m gDgbDc,I wtObtuUO0c,I bclhc
0 I yDg b m c m]c bOmt Oy gOlOuDd
dD , I yOut kcctOD cgto lr0 lbc z

1
bc bUm0UN bc v10cf8 Ibc b8f Ib0 0bcc Ibc m0Ub
U 0yM d8y 0 DgbImfc Ibc QM !b0 Vv8 10 mU0b
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0 y0Uf uc0k I0 0g I wIb U0I0 a. U08I gM

cloe by seeking the wome cr the monkeys. Te

woman ceaes rwing balancing the oar horizontally.
You lie down behind he in the btto of the boat. Te
little white mokey is seated between W You sugt
calling her Chloe. Above the side of the boat the already
sombre sky is visible, then the tops of the tree and the
hill whe we apprach welcome by shout songs laug
ter. Your palm m/y bet beloved separate frm mly
p.
Fire fre eve to the tendon of Achillea, the well
name she who s love Patroclea Inded the muscle
all catch fre simultaeously the trapei deltoids pectorals
srat oblique rct adductor 8O psoa. Te fball
spreads between the rb launching it eght otopu a
one tentacle gripping at once the vetricle ad auricle of
the hear another squeezing the W and the pulmona
aee, the plexus is caught, it bu slowly, the but
intetine disintegrate right to the tips of their villoite
innumeable a they may be, their unwinding coils ret
on m/y abdominal wall, mly clitoris touched by one of
the mouths is an intene irradiant irradiant sun, d O
the blowing of a forge from top mbottom of mly body
34
rucouses isuing frm mly that and mly parted
lip, a purpe m pas befo m/y gae, the darknes
of your eye touche mle engulfs mle, you appear pale,
you become blured, you become terribly diaphanous,
mly fnger make hole in you in various place m/y
mee surface mly fat one mly depthles one mly
w U Le your face all fat painted on the linen U
Vernica like the aguished feature of Christa the much
crucifed.
Ther is no trace of you. Your face your body your
slhouette & lot. In your place there is a void. In mly
boy there is a @m at the level of the belly at the
leve of the thora. Te is a weight on mly chet.
Initially thee phenomena intensely painful. Because
of the 1 sek you but without knowing it. For instance,
1 walk bede the 5y mly eti body is sick, mly throat
do not allow mle to spak, 1 see the sea, 1 @ at it,
1 search, I quetion m/yself in the slece in the lack of
trace, 1 quetion an abence so strange that it make a
hole within mly by. The 1 know in absolutely in-
35
fallible fashion that 1 am in need of you, require your
presce, 1 seek you, 1 implore you, 1 summon you to
appear you who are fetureles without hand brat
belly vulva lb thought, you at the very moment when
you are nothing more than a pres ure an insistece within
mly boy. You lie on the sea, you enter mle by the eye,
you arve in the 8 breathe, 1 sU on you to show
yourelf, 1 solicit you to emerge from this non-preence
which engulfs you. Your eye perhaps ae phophorecent,
your lip are pale mly much deired one, you torment
mle with a slow love.
Two black 8m swim in the solitary lake. The golden
light of the setting sun ha veiled the water. The two
8M glide gently side by side, you with bent head 1
ready to support the fall of your neck to touch the cure
of your brast with mly beak. Your eye are golden, they
do not regard ml e. You allo yourelf to fall behind,
then unhurriedly you rjoin mle your fank touching
mly fank, all mly feather rufe to the top of mly m.
hav fogotten the 8m

O of victory when the

move towar the shade to rt afte a day without com
bat. You spread your wings ove m I e. ud the
36
underside with m I y beak, B slight moisture come to
mly two repiratory orifce. Among the down 1 touch
the delicate s, 1 peck at it, you submit, then you stifen
briskly fapping your wings snapping your beak attempt
ing & cry. Then furrw your entire nek. sow disorder
m the B geent of your fether, 1 tum them the
wrong way, 1 detoy their seeknes. 1 try to force you
down inithe water by prsg with mly whole body on
the back of your. You reist. At a given moment you
conent to glide with only head and neck emerging, 1 see
them suddely strck by the glare of the light. Of your
boy 1 perceive nothing a blacknes merging with the
black waters. 1 commence B long decent mly neck
entwin your neck dragging you dragging you down
to the golde thicknes of the mud from which we can
not etricate ourelve because of our f entanglement.
1 epience the sng of the black 8m, at the dark
hour of ther death.
M/y clitoris mly labia ae touched by your hands.
Trugh mly vagina ad mly uteru you insert yourelf
breaking the membrane up to mly intetine. Round
your neck you place mly duodenum pale-pink well
veined with blue. You unwind mly yellow small inte
tine. b doing you speak of the odour of mly dap
37
org, you speak of their conistence, you speak of their
moveets, you spek of their tepeature. At dpint
you attept to wench out m/y kidnes. They ret you.
You touch m/y gren gallbladde. I have a deathly
chill, I moan, I fal into an abys, m/y head is awhirl,
m/y heart is in m/y mouth, it feels a if mly blod is al
congealed in mly arteie. You say nevertheles that you
reive a eonous quatity of it on your hands. You
speak of the colour of mly 0M. I cannot see the. I
hea your voice hs g in mly ea, I concentrate on
listening to you I se m/yself stetched out, al mly
entail a uwound. I ope mly mouth to sing a
cantata to the gddes mly mothe. M/y heart fails in
this efort. I ope mly mouth, I amit your lip your
tongue your palate, I @QMto die by your side adord
monste while you O incesatly about mly e.
I a U unde W intedict in the city where you live.
I have no right to @ there. The woen lOe your dog
O m/e whe I appr Eve i deie mle,
een the rght of aylum. I a oehelme by de.
3
8
ton whe I hear your voice saying to mle that I may
not come, that they a determined to prevent ml e in
eve way. I stay sitting weeping in the ditch, I lok at
the sun between the clumps of great foxgloves, it no
longer appear pleasingly mauve, I roll in the nettle,
mly whole bdy is covered with blisters, a sweat of blood
travere mly pore reddening the grass al round. I hea
the sound of the sea against the clifs of the island. I can
not raise mly eye to lok at the village even from a
distance, without their being at once bured reddened
afeted by a bundle of white rays whoe oigin is un
known to m/e. M/y hair tor out by handfuls lie in
heap beide m/e. M/y crie mly shrieks mly ululations
make your dogs shiver, they are at bay, I hear them
whimpeng, or ele one or the other start to howl at
death in broad daylight. But whatever the impatience I
prvoke among the by mly preence, they cannot gc
vent mle fro rmaining here, they cannot compel mle
m move m a place where mly voice would reach none
of you, I do not even speak of you mly best-beloved, in
mly ignorance of ther actions, of their power which
retrains you from running towards mle and raising mle
up by the elbows, or else it must be that your bloo is
stoppe in your veins by their activities, or else it is the
c that you a pitiles towads m I e putting m I e to a
severe tet making use of them to prevent mle from
joining you immune to my sob mouth closed blind and
superbly immured in yourelf.
3
9
THEPLEXUSESTHEGLANDS THE
GANGLIATHELCESTHE
MUCCSAETETISSUESTHE
CALLCSITIESTHECNES THE
CAKTILAGE THE CSTECIDTHE
CAKIESTEMATIEKTHEMAKKCW
THE ATTHE PHCSPHCKUSTHE
MEKCUKYTHE CALCIUMTHE
GLUCCSESTHE ICDINE THE
CKGANSTHEKAINTHEHEAKT
THLLIVEKTHEVISCEKATHE
VULVATHEMYCCSESTHE
EKMENTATICNSTHEVILLCSITIES
THE DECAYTHENAILS THETEETH
THE HAIKSTHEHIKTESKIN
THEPCKESTHESQUAMESTHE
PELLICULESTHESCUKTHESPCTS
Yo b feet touch the blue calyce of the anemone
a you walk. The pink violet white yellow snapdragn
come to your calve, some a far a your thighs. Scalet
orange yellow dahlia come up m your shoulders. The
cushed violet irise leave long stains on the inward of
your a- You advance along an ultramarine avenue.
The bee bumble-bee butteie expelled from the corol
la you seize in pas ing surround you. Rays of sunlight
traversing the tree touch your lips your hair your pubic
hair creating a dazzling efect. The shaken lilie amaryllis
BD loe the pollen from their pistils, it G yello on
your le and on your feet, [ see it, [ seyou nae in a
drift of cut fowers rd white black tulips mauve aster
pink yello columbine orange marigolds blue white pink
violet michaelma daisie pink pale-blue ultraarine
cowe tawny brown let yelow white madder
red chrysantheO, [ see you, you roll over and over,
you rub your cheeks your belly your 8 againt the
fower-heads, you seize the in fstfuls mcover yourself,
the it fy of buzzing aound you, you laugh with
mouth wide open, slowly you to and fro, you fall
backwad, you disappear completely one or othe B
emerging momentarily, or there may b glimpsed the
bulge of a thigh or the white glC of your belly or your
curved throat or the hair you tos mingled with the
fower-stalk, [look at you, [ am unable to stir, [ struggle,
[ a unable to reach you monter.
A I not Zeyna the all-pweful she who shake he
mane and grap the lightnings in her hand? I se
m/yseH seated rigidly before abundantly laden table
refusing althe victuals the women ofer m/ e cl for
the mof Ganymedea the absent. At lat you eege
huriedly from the avenue of chery-te in the midst of
the fet fushe breathles two aphorae supporte on
your staight hip eager to sere a the woen who await
you dry-throated, but it is by m / e that you frst halt. I
lok at the tickle of sweat between your breats and your
lifted ars the curled dap tufts of your armpit lit by
the sun, I grap your staight unwaisted toro between
m/y hands, you with a twist of the loins slipping from
my clutch pouring a great quantity of wine into my cup.
Your eye are hidden by their lids, no blush come to
your cheeks when I ak you to sit beide m/ e, your eye
do not see m/e, your C do not hear m/e, the order of
your gesture is undisturbed, the the fre of m/y light
nings epands in m/y breat ravaging m/y lungs m/y
ribs m/y shoulderblade m/y breats, m/y hands seiing
the to thunder from the height m m/y ange, mute
indif eent baely smiling you g and come soundles ly,
you do not k the nap of m/y neck when you pas
behind m/e. A growling r in m/y throat, a rumbling
deveop in the cloudles sky, m/y lightnings shake forth

z
se you in the belly the pubis s that you tum your
fae to the gund beor m/e m/y s frighteed one
m/y so troubled one your ee cloed your had over
your e, cg to m/ e for mecy in such w t
ultimately I ca lift you at a's legth to m/y mouth,
that ultimately I C laugh in your ear, that ultimately
I can tum you round and bite you in the hollow 0your
loin mly godes m/y so caIlipygous one mly adord.
Te temperature of the island. col. A great wind tae
hold of us, we are fung down. I se you dragged along
the shingle of the beach by a violent blast, I clutch hold
of you, I struggle with something an enorous fapping
wing with invisible claws a kind of thing of immeaur
able stegth engaged in dragging yu away, I beat the
air, I si you rund the waist, you spin round ad
round, you fy of raised fro the ground, you carry m/e
with you, with your B fly graping m/ine you pull
ml e, you exet taction on ml e, your teeth are clenched,
your hair is sake out around your head, the thing seek
t reach your ches, I fght it without fnding it, it lahe
your shoulder, the s of your back become striped
with long purplish maks. I a flled with hat, I clap
43
you with all mly might, you do not let go of mle, you
hold mle upright befor you, you Mon your bac lyng
m the foul thing that cannot be see, you bcome d
articulated, your bone in collision your muscle breaing
of a they come up against each other, one m your legs
falls tom of from the pelvis, you loe strength, you
weaken, ouly your strong and powerful hands your a
inured meertion continue car g ml C 1 ty to fatte
m I yself against you, 1 ty to envelop you, an immense
repellent force keeps m I e at a distance, 1 cry your name,
1 shriek with lip platered to mly teeth and jaws, the
sound of mly voice is shaky barely audible, 1 try to reach
your chet ad waist with mly hands, the second leg
falls of thigh tom and separated from the tibia and
fbula at the knee-joint, you hold your head up with
great difculty, you struggle against the thing's move
ments, now there is a gigantic eddy, you wave your
a eteded with increaing difculty no longer able
to support m I e, a violent gust atac your iliac bone.

1 lok at you mly unique one. Yo aitate the collectivity

of your vibratile cilia all over your surface. 1 approach
your fagella, m I y palms baely come into contact with
them ad withdraw. A violent movement travere you.
All your whip rtract and begin to whirl, 1 do nt finch
when at the next moment they fall brutally on mly
shoulder. The moveents ocur by helical rotations, 1
am touched only cyclically. Depite your gigantic size
the length of your fagella and the spee of ther propul
sion you touch ml e with great gentlenes , the silk of your
cilia make ml e shiver from hed to feet. In U furrw
of your cilia 1 perceive your wide-open mouth. The
slightet shock-wave taveres you entirely. Nowhere
within you is there a neutal circuit. 1 plug m/yeJf into
you, instantly your compoition change, you as ume a
ne shape appearance colour, a pas -by returning from
her walk would not rognize you. You move your mas
away from the point 1 touch whe mly fnge brush
at you. The moe you advace precipitately towads
mle the more you reoil rapidly ad move away. Or c
you bgin t spin on you in cOdirection. You &
agitate thrughout by a diturbance, you hurl yourelf
against the membrae which forms & & all rund you.
At a given moment you change direction, you prjet
yourelf abruptly towards mle, all at onc your bulk
surounds ml e burdeing mly mb your fagella de
sceding the length of mly back your mouth applied to
mly U0 it's then my fne prot mly ge in
furium mly violent vorticella tha slowly draw mby
the sucto of your mouth 1 faint away.
5
Uneable one you buzz in mly , the sound
spreads with celety beyond the cohlea, it gains the
ceebellum, it strike the cerebral heispheres, it insinu
ate itsef the whole length of the scalp so that I bristle
with horror, it decends the spinal cord, it hW er mly
ribs, it traverse m Iy lungs, I pant, I shudder. I treble.
I cannot keep mly mouth closed, I cry to you, I O to
you, you unnameable unnamed, she whoe name I may
not utter she whose unnaeable nae pronounced by
mle make the wap leave their hives, they ae on mle
in swars, they blind ml e, they stke ml e with their
bodie a they fall on ml e, they stab ml e with ther sting
in thousands, they stun ml e with their UO buzzing,
they enter mly ear-pas ages, they penetrate ml e, they
burst mly eardrums, they obstruct mly &u, they
inject the poison of their stings into mly tissue, they
insert your anger into m I e, cruel unnameable one C
of your waps, I beg for mercy, I a utterly conumed,
long long is the D the poison-hoarding white demon
have envenomed ml e in your nae, now I hate you mly
mot unnameable one, not once I swear to you wl I
utte your nae.
You ae face to face with mle sphinx of clay, as I follow
you eyeles grey crouched over m/e. The movements are
efected noiselesly, in B broad pale noctual space feet
touchingl the ground a clearing of chalky apect where
the two shape squat observing each other insubstantial
phantom, or else moving aong the clouds of the sky
in the white-coloqred substance of the atmopher. From
somewhere come a long sigh a groan a moan a whimpe
a laentation. Te two shape reoved from each othe
begin to stir. I know by heat the place where you ae,
thus it is I mae mly way in your direction without
making the leat halt yet without being able to see O
hea you. Fear coe to mle immobilizing m/e. You
likewise hat. A wind pas vigorouly shaking the tree
at the edge of the feld and the fsy bushe round
about. Tere is an ululation. The two barely visible
shap a recumbent behind a row of shrub. Quite a
space separte them the sum of several jets of spittle.
Ther face are indct confused at time with the
geneal greyish light of the place. Or else when they be
cme clea they a covered with a kind of hood identical
with that wor by B falcon at the w. Then aong
their bulk there ocur translation str gs writhings
swayings eve glidings. I begin msway before You while
you a in supne. I a taken with the desire to ente
47
into the darknes of your body your face your lb. A
hs g is audible. A continuous vibration travee m/y
body. [ approach you by ft and starts, whe at lat [
touch you or else it's you who doe it a diturbance shake
m/ e, the shok is simultaneously conveyed to you, [ col
laps from head to feet. At the moment when they come
together the two sphinxes disintegrate completely, ther
mas e Cble cave in founder totter grain of sand on
grains msand a heap vey quickly forming frst the heads
disapparing in a fah the shoulder collapsing inuei
aty afteards in the sae movemet, you ceae to
m/y mot shadowed one m/y most silent one [ like
wise.
Te refection of the moon on the sea ha not been visible
for a long time. A feeble white slightly bluish light
smoths the confused contour of island sea lad sky.
The fve black bitche lying half-submerged in the water
on the sand slowly begin to get up opening their mouths
wide shaking their fur stretching their paws their large
C pricked up on their heads. The felds of com whoe
lat rwsprouts in the sea are uncut, the dark splahe of
4
8
pppies appear in many place. Trough your parted lip
come the sound of a barely audible moulate song. 1
your teeth when your lp retract. The dak hole of
your eye ae tured toward the horizon sky or sea no
line marking the inteval between the two. Your stifened
seaing hair i stretche straight over your head behind
your ear on each side. A white vapour isues fro it on
al side and envelops you down to the feet concealing
the shape of your body. Sometime in their movement
your B your hands make hole in the thicknes of this
mist, [ ther gentle motion. The sole m your fee
your he ae not placed on the ground. You maintain
yourelf slightly above the surface rg on the air, you
move by glidings which to operate without your
str . You are mute save for d feeble rather d
modulation reaching m/y from time to time. You
ae seized by great activity. [ see you abreat of the
rounde bulk in the middle of the coreld the wild rose
bush as urdly laden with red fowers visible in broad
daylight. Contariwise [ you suddely above the sea
where you stay motionles , [ do not perceive you, you
have pas ed beyond the curve of the beach, the clamour
of your voice is perceptible to m/ e. A sudden breeze stirs
the coreld, rufe m/y hair, you are behind m/e, [ a
harhly aware of your presence, your breath is war on
the nape of m/y neck, the whitenes of the light is
dazzling now, the water of the sea shine milky barely
moving, the pae of co appea, you are eet before
m/e m/y mot radiant one carring the white swor of
the morg your boy suddenly eerd lnm U m
4
9
your stong leg visible and the sole of your feet, you
draw back ad advace on m/e U sg your cO
aaz le. It is only mly mot powerful one when one of
the women ove thee sing the msog of the day that
you decend to step away, 1 thrwing m/yself m the
grund claping your kne laughter tavesing m/y
lungs.
You 8 mly glory of cyprine mly tawny m purple
one, you purue m/e thrughout m/y tunnels, your wind
burst in, you blo in m/y ,you bellow, your ches
fushed, you m/yself you m/yself (aid ml e
Sappho) you m/yself, 1 die envelope girdled sup
p ipgt by your hads infltrated suave fux
infltated by the rays of your fnger frm labia mthroat,
m/y afeted liquey, fall 1 fall, dra you down
in t fall t hs g spiral, speak m ml e accursed
adord edying ma torment of pleaur joy joy
mof joy, drag you down, your mtwine rund
m/e ebrce two bodie lo in the silence of the ite
sphe, what & I, ayone standing at her window
sy 0dm/e _ gntle muzzled suckling-Ib
Cspit you out spit you out.
o
We deend dirctly leg toether thighs together
entwine m/y hands touching your shoulder m/y
soulder held by your hads breat agt breat open
mouth against open mouth, we dod slowly. The sand
swirls round our ankle, suddenly it surrounds our calve.
It's from then on that the decent is slowed down. At the
moment yur knee reached you throw back your
head, your teeth, you sile, later you lok at ml e
you speak to m/e without interruption. Now the sand
pes e onthe thighs. shiver with goefeh, feel your
sin sr g, your nails dig into m/y shoulder, you lok
ml e, youdo not stop loking at ml e, the shape of your
cheeks is! chagd by the greatet conce. Te engulf
met continue steaily, the touch of the sand is soft
a m/y leg. You bgin to sigh. When B sucked
down Vm/y thighs 1 start to O out, in a few moment
1 d be unable to touch you, m/y hands on your
soulde your neck w be unable to reach your vulva,
anguish grip ml e, the tiniet grain of sand beween your
bely ad mline sepaate u once for all. But you
fece joyfnl eye shining hold ml e against you, you pres
mly back with your lare hands, l begin to throb in m/y
eyelids, 1 throb in m/y brain, 1 throb in m/y thora,
thro in mly belly, throb m m/y clitoris while you
speak faster and faster clasping ml e 1 claping you clasp
ing eah othe with a marvellous stregth, the sand is
rund our waists, at a given moment your skin splits
fr throat to pubis, mline in tum from below upwards,
1 spill m/yself into you, you mingle with ml e mly mouth
fateed on your mout your neck squeezed by mly
5
1
ans, 1 feel our intetine uncoiling glidin aong UO-
MV, the sky darkens suddely, it contain orange
gleas, the outo of the mingle blo i not percept
ible, the most seere shuddering afect you afet mle
both toether, collaping you cry out, 1 love you mly
dying one, your eeget head i for mle most aorale
and mot fatal, the sad touche your cheeks, mly mouth
i flle.
1 retu to the city of night. The hot perume of the
fowe spread in coloured mi above the gardens. 1
M at mly eae. Some snatche of song are heard
coming from the terrace. Suddenly at one side of the
avenue 1 prceive tickle of your bloo. It fows making
a sall noe, 1 regnie it, its colour leap to mly eye,
there i no other like it. Exactly parallel in a gentle wave
fows the white of your eyes. 1 C no longe stand ug
rigt. opaque blackish hae come bfor mly eye.
M/y ears buz. Something that feels like a rap adhere
mmly lp.In the ed 1 begin to run. The pain mae
mly eyebal st frm their orbit. 1 bd dow M
pately to pick the up groping in the sand of the main
aveue. 1 cy out with impatience, 1 search on mly #O,
1 must wipe them bfor putting the bac in place.
5
z
THEAKECLAS THEECCHYMCSES
THEWCUNDSTHECLDSTHE
GKES THE WKINKLESTHE
LISTERSTHEISSUKESTHE
SWELLINGSTHESUNUKNTH
EAUTY-SPCTSTHELACKHEADS
THEHAIKCLLICLESTHEWAKTS
THE EXCKESCENCES THE PAPULES
THE SEUMTHE PIGMENTATICN
THE EPIDEKMISTHE DEKMISTHE
CUTANECUS NEKVES THE INNEK-
VATICNSTHEPAPILLAETHE
NEKVNETWCKKSTHENEKVE-
KCCTSTHEUNDLESTHE
KANCHESTHEPLEXUSESTHE
MCTCKNEKVESTHESENSCKYTHE
CEKVICALT PNEUMCGASTKIC
5
Whoeve ha dare lay hand on you, let he show he
, let her cure the day she wa bor. I run I run i
ploring you not to die, mly feet sink into the sand, they
C baely be lifted to carry ml e, I g towads the
sacrcia stone, the moon is not yet visible, it's not
psible U you are ay dead. I am moved to cat
m/yself down on the sand of the avenue because of a
pain I feel in mly belly. I Oout with rage, calling the
giraf e. Tey ae al aleep. Not one come nea mle
gambolling M that I may cling to it neck. Day of wth
it we bette that you w aldead.
I se you stading in the squae flled with sunlight. The
fie hum ove the stret-stalls. You tum your back on
m/e. Young girls cr g large baket pas beore you.
I app you fr beind, I touch your shoulder, you
lok at mle, I mae a sign for you to follow mle, you
do not acnowlege mle, yo continue to regard mle a
I were a stranger. Ten two of the woen ecort you
ad d you fODly away. You C for help. No one
OC to your aid. The woe continue to Oe go
peuly m the maketplace. You no longer N. You
54
lok at ml e uttering insults. The place you enter is dark,
coming in frthe sun one cannot distinguish anything
even though the light ae lit. A woman brings low table
lade with victuals. I invite you to eat. You do not say a
word. You sit down. You begin to eat. I sit oppoite you
ra mle fedly erec head high a half-smile on your
lip. I do not tell you who I am. At a given moment two
of the woen M theselve to wah you. The anoint
you wit4 oils and pefume of u, of bergaot, of vetiver,
of aI. Still s you submit. When you sit down
again oppoite ml e your cheut har glisten, your eye
lid & with a glitteng pwde, your bae breat
i bund with the leather stp you have always wor
wth ml e, the have fae idetcal stp to your
kne round your knecap. And yet you contnue to lok
at mle a at a stnger. Eve mly mot seuctive voice
doe not move you when I open mly mouth to quetion
you on your tavels. Later the light are etinguished
sve for a tumed-dow lamp. You stctly obe the
island rule of politenes whe you come to stretch out
at mly side. Tat is why mly delectable one I prceed
with the greatet jubilation when I B mly fnger with
mly m D, when I rae your bac ad your fa,
whe at U you tum towas mle crying mly nae.
55
M mouulcd Dy you DatcDmk. Yout tmb8 @g m]y
auk8. amcvr Wlb8Wcat. hc8mc om]y cmc-
ctoggcd hat WMt8 touud. cc thc 8ggctum o yout
Datc gmgtug 8ku. Yout B hod m]c Dy thc ucCk.
Yout DtcU yout Dy atc agau8t m]y 8guc. ]y Nu
8 agtatcd Dy CouVu8Vc ]ctk8. You kucad m]y mu8C
Wth yout a1g hd8, you 8gc8k to m]c, oh s 8Woty
M 8ccty. hcu 8lcu m]y C m]y umtt8 guVm-
ug. ]y hcad 8 8h8kcu tu@cd kc a mc Dy yout
baud8. 8cc oDgucy lbc ta gaut8 o thc Dk8 thc
@ u oWct thc gtcat mauVc oxgoV u u
uxutauCc. You dg yout hcc8 uto m]y Dy to 8gut
m]cou. 8tay gut. You8ttkcm]chatdct. t8tI DtaCc
m]y8c. cu you atm yout hcc8 8ud yout c@. You
gm uto m/c Wth al yout mght VoCc 8ttdcut you
aCctatcm]yauk8 Wlh yout uumcmu8 8tcc 8gk, you
ay thO, you cXgmc thO to thc guCk, you Comc d
goau_ytOm togtoDollom,youCtyout,you B yout
baud8, you t8kc m]yucCk, you Dtc m]c at thc cVc o
thc ttagcz, thc Dod oW8 oVm m]y 8ku mm a U
othC, u thOthuu0tc08 8ctlcthctcdcVoutugm]c.
hcu h d at cVO gout I auuCh m/ y8c utO a
utou8 g8og, m]yhoVVoOtyhammcttbc @ouud,
I ucgh uCm auly, I 8htck m]y hat Dt8tug, I Dcat
you aWay. You hod m]c u B Vcty tght gtg, Whc
DaCk tw hcad to ot d8tkumhug m]ycy I d88h
owatd Whc you oVc thc Wc8gOm tom yout hcc8
cg8 baud8 Bg Whc you Cautou8y Wotk yout lb
uto m]y Wouud8.
You 8mc motoum .I Mkuccug at thc 8ca8hotc, you
you atc 8taudug Dcotc m]c B odcd, m]y mouth
ogcu8tocuttcat thc0VucuComgataDc baggho. Lltct-
ug u8cCU g at u 8gccd u lhc ght o thc 8ctlug
8 Luco thcm C8tCh uyout hat, I hcat t Dm .
You 8mc motoum . hc ht8t 8tat 8 V8Dc oVct Whctc
d g thc 8uu m d8aggcatcd. I cuttcat baggho 8hc
Who gcam8 motc thau thc moou amoug thc Comtca-
tom o out hcaVcm. I mgotc baggho u B Vcty ud
VoCc. I k baggho thc a-QWctu to m8tk ou yout
otchcad ou m]uc thc 8gu8 o yout 8tat. I 8oCt l-
8mug baggho to chac oVct you oVct m]c thc
DtccWhChmakc mgacWhcuWcCoutcmgatc thc8ky
aud ught Com. cu I 8l8ud Ddc you aCug thc 8ca.
I aW8t tbc atDVothcComcU Wth thct8moky ,
thcy am hctc thauk8 Dc to baggho, thc 8tou o yout
8tat atcacu,thmcWhCh matkcd you aDoVcyoutChcck
a thc cVc o thc tOgc Wtb a Voct 8ca cxaCty kc
m]y oWu, goty tobagghoot ougWc 8ba Vc u
th8 dmk Coutucut.
5
7
have swalloe your an the weathe i clea the M
wan . The sun ente mly ey. Your fnge form a fa
in mly ophagus, the come togethe 0thrust furthe.
stggle against veigo. Mly optic nere start under
a vey strong pres ure. The shimmer of the light on the
wave inults mly entire boy. a penetrated endles ly
by you, you into mle, you impae mle, 1 begin an
extreely slow jouey, am thronged by roaings, mly
eas lengthen, they beat furiously at the wood of the deck,
they strike the sides of the boat, mly tongue cut against
mly teeth is carried away a you decend mle, mly vo
cords stetched by the pas age of your fngers tr&it
no sound, crie propagate theselves within mly artere
inces ant sren wailings alann sga. You do not stop.
peceive within fattened against mly skin the orga
raged one beside the othe all distended, the green bile
make hao, the stomach hangs eptied of it acid, the
live Dble a stranded turbot, the spleen has burst,
but you mly so atroious intractable implacable one you
still dOd. wait for you to perforate the membrane
of mly diaphrag, wait for you to touch mly pylorus,
wait for you to thread mly duodenum on your hand,
a enorous O accumulate at the cetre d your
an , the pres ure you eert on the sound-wave fnally
make mle eplode, know it by heart mly tormentor
mly mot baleful one, mly shadowy visage spakling
with black, the sea clo ove m I e, then draw you
0,drag you down, 1 tae you with mle foundering.
fi
You aog thoe woe who are feted the lat day
of the month the tenty-eighth, those whose periods
coincide with that date. The beach is coveed with ixia
fowe ;nged entire becaue of ther violet spike. Of
the othe the cayce corlla bulb scale raceme
bundle stes pistils petals throat have been tom of and
mon the sad. There white poppie pale blue
wisteria, pink blue ultraarine clematis blue centaurie
violet madder pink violet lupins safron water-lilie
mallows hyacinths w scarlet amaryllis and many
othe fowe which do not reognize because of ther
diseberent. Te women walk barefot their entire
boie painte diferet colour, some decorated with
deign of butterfie birds or fowe, some jump with
fet toethe on the heape fower, they exclaim that
they feel soft undefot. Most of them excitedly sing and
shout. You alone are silent with no orament other than
your vat rectangular pubic feece. You advace without
evincing impatiece O pleaure. You keep your eyelid
above your eyeballs. You do not look at any one of them.
treble that may not be deignated, when at nightfall
the lighte ad rected in the sea, to lick
your blo on the inward of your thighs along your vulva
btwen your labia within the oppoed wall of your
v The lmmaain mle, B no the oe.
59
You regad mle mutely without a smile. It is another
who approache, grap your knee squatting on her hees,
wipe her damp h against your legs, opns her mouth,
head tw back regarding you. Immediately I fall fat
on mly face, mly head violently stke the ground, I
a seized by convulsion, mly tear fow so copiously
that I cannot see, sob shake mle a I retrain mly cie.
Two of the women raise mle up and take mle away
singing m/e some song making m/e listen to their fute
and tom-toms in the cover of the pine-wod
. The reinous
odour makes mle giddy, I feel a jolt in mly liver, mly
sobs redouble, on mly chees and neck a gren vomit
mingle with mly tear drol sava, I fee their laughter
and their sngs running a far a the M into which I
hurl m/yself shrieking malediction mly mot execrable
one rt ing in loud and strident tone the day I met
] he.
Te water make the network of mly nere cackle the
DO pleuse the lumbar the sacral pleuse. Outsde,
whe the weather i danable, your hands proptly
opte O m/e. Te scalpel deftly manipulate by yur
adorable hads ha deached Dte the muscle. I am
a spider's web of nerve eactly reembling the drawings
60
of the anatom y texts. You say m I y beloved that you can
M rght tlu'ough ml e. You decribe to ml e the water
dripping from the leave of the tee and even their shape
and even their colour. It rains on mle, it i a music that
few feminine ears are in the habit of so hearing. Forgive
m I e I laugh, it i so enerating so teribly enerating
this rain while you, you fddle insanely with ml e with
the vey tip of your fngers, I am touched in m I y
brachial l'eres m I y circumfexe m I y ulnars m I y radials
mly terminal branches, I insist on telling you all that
that's where it's most exquisite, I am touched in m/y
facials r/y maxillaries, at that pint luminous water
spouts burst over ml e, I don't know whether it i the
stor outide or mesages from m/y brain from the eyes
that I cannot open, hundreds of orange globe a seond
depart and reprecipitate there, the intensity i too great,
I fee I cannot stand it, I faint away, but not before mly
saphenous neve are touched, who would have believed
it mly Sappho, .not before mly gret sciatics begin to
move or mly tbial nerves are seized with uncontrollable
convulsions, not before I speak to you I know not what
name to call you by you who at dmoment place your
two whole hands on mly brachial pleuse.
61
TEKACHIALSTHE CIKCUM-
LEXESTHEMEDIANSTHEULNAKS
THE SACKALS THE LUMAKS THE
SCIATICSTHE EMCKALS, THE
SAPHENCUSES THE TIIALS THE
PLANTAKSTEPATHETICSTHE
KECUKKENTS THE SYMPATHETICS
THE CAKDIAC THE DIAPHKAGMA-
TIC PLEXUSTHE UL THE SPINAL
TEACIALSTHEGLCSSCPHAKYN-
GEAL THE CPTICS THE ACCUSTICS
THECLACTCKIESTHENEKVE-
CELLSTHEGLCULESTHEKED
CCKPUSCLESTHE LEUCCCYTES
THEHAEMCGLCINTHEPLASMA
TESEKUMTHEVENCUS LCCD
The wind blows from the sea. Here in the midst of the
felds the gulls settle. I walk aong a little road. Night
doe not come. I do not lok at the sky. When I fall for
the frt tme the women support ml e under the B
with their aid I walk. Los of consciousnes fings m I e to
the ground again. I compres m/y lips when they caress
m/e and when they ply m/e with questions. I will not
say your name. It shal not issue bore on the air, it shall
not make its way outside of m/e. I B silent. Now I can
walk no further. I B lying on the bank. The grass
surrounds m I e scented cool stirred by the wind. I do not
look at the sky. The gradually assembled feature of your
face do not take shape in m/y meory. I do not see
the curve of your breat. I have no recollection of your
arms your shoulders your back your belly. I B unaware
that your hair when licked ha a delectable tate. Your
pubic hairs are not visible in their quadrangular feece,
your slender sex clitoris and hood prolonged by the
winged labia are not to be seen. I no longer see your
lungs your stomach your bone your blod-vessels. I B
stretched out on the bank. Evening doe not come. I ak
you al uyou love ml e, forget that I exist.
63
Fatal the day when I go to seek you in the sweet-smelling
sea your gae sliding over m/y shoulders and along m/y
fanks. I approach you quite suddenly, m/y hand touche
your blue glosy skin, a shudder seizes you from head to
tail the water agitated furiously a round. I commence
a long ululation when your fank adheres to m/y fank,
when I clasp you with both hands m/y legs entwining
you beneath your white belly m/y ke squeezing you
on either side. You drag m/e in your rapid progres , m/y
hair spreads away from m/y head, I do not see the sky
inverted in the depths of the wates. A glaucous light
surrounds you with a gren halo. Te white of your eyes
B not to be sen. While I grasp yu at the thrat m/ y
8 claped round your neck, I suddenly perceve the
portcullis of your teeth your wide-ope mouth. I am
seized by weaknes in m/y armpit and m/y lb. Your
teeth unclench only to tear m/ e to piece tearing of now
an arm now a breat now part of m/y cheek leaving m/y
face denuded of it muscles bone exposed, already I no
longer have strength to cry out, already m/y blood fows
in long rd streaks visible in the water, it make you all
the more bent on m/y masacre m/y beautiful accursed
shark, you reject m/ e depite m/y supplications, and
retreating into the distance you charge at m/e, m/y head
splits, I See you more ad more immense silet above
m/ e. One of m/y eye slowly disappear and Omilkily
without rotating. You lash m/ e with your tl in your
comings and goings, m/y face i stuck on either side,
m/y hads no longer able to raise themselve to ptect
m/y cheeks, all m/y scattere tom fragmets ae gathered
64
.
,
by you and frcnziedly devoured, I bCC you silently relish
some fake of m/y feh in your teeth, I've done with
watching you m/y eate of orure m/y mot nearious one
m/y Mdisquieting one, happy I L remain a refetion
that disturbs your gliding through the water.
I watch you, I watch you, I cannot refrain from crying
out, your face ha become inert, your cheeks pale in the
extree, sweat forms on the skin of your belly your
shoulders your loins, suddenly it covers your brow, your
hair i damp both in your armpit and at your pubis,
your lips do not move, they have a fxed smile, your eye
tum up, your body stifens, your muscle convulse, your
hands 8 clenched, you sigh lengthily, at lat you col
lapse, I am seize throughout with anguish, I shriek, I
weep, I shake you, you do not stir, I calI on you by the
sweetet name I can fnd, I k your wrists the inward
of your B your nape your feet, I caue m/y saliva to
fow inside your mouth, I eat your hair, I scrape with
m/y teeth at the s of your cranium, I lick you from
head to foot mouth slack, m /y tongue licks your knee licks
your thighs licks your vulva licks your belly licks your
6
5
breats lcks your shoulder licks your neck licks your
c lick your cloed lip, [ take your hands all cold in
m/y hands, [ lo the fnge oe by one, [ weep, [
lok at you lying beide you, [ a beet with such great
pain and N greater love that [ epeience repeated
orgas in great agitation, then all alive you lok at m I e,
you laugh, you spak again you most savage of the
savage mly so mad one.
You have placed your either ar around their necks. You
progres seated carried by the women on their cros ed
arms. Your knee and your armpits are painted. Leather
thongs girdle your toro your waist your arms leaving
your foras brea belly bae. You hold yourseH erct.
You look straight in front of you. You sing mouth closed
voice tenuous and modulate. Some of the wome leap
ing around you take up the tonality in voice of dif eent
pitch and fall back eect heels togther digging B hole in
the sand of the aveue. Your bearer begin to spin slowly
at f the fater and fater, their upswept hair i
horizontal. You, you eted your as behind their necks
your voice r your mouth expo your teeth. When
66
I
|

the women breathles come to B halt you begin to laugh
vey loudly hed thrown back the curve of your throat
eped. Tey put you down without roughnesstanding
beeath the tree with the slantg t an acacia whose
fowe have a heady perfume. [ a she who ha been
preent motonles at the performance. [ throw m/yseH
at your knee, [ clasp the one of mly arms behind your
knee the other behind your calve mly mouth coming
and going from the bith of your thighs to your round
knee-car mly lips applied mly tongue moistening you
with salia to make the roines of your knee shine. [ sit
bak o
l
m/y haunhe t ases the ses . You bend
forwards your hands resting on mly hair, you draw mle
to you, you attept to raise ml e up. Clinging to your
legs [ resist mly pres ure on your hams making you give
at the knee. You do not fall. Now you are holding your
seH very sf . [ decend the length of your legs touched
by mly hair. M/y head ret on your feet mly hair
spreads ove their bare to, mly arms stretch on either
side of your legs right behind you, sharply they embrace
your ankles approximatng the while you brace yourseH
increaingly. Flowers tom from the acacia by the wind
fall on us their perfume stimulated by the tree's motion
invading m/e. [ a seize with shuddering before you
s silent. The sound of the sa i heard. Te women run
and chase each other on the beach. Now they can baely
be se. You ae aone a [ a with you face to face.
1 have acces to your glottis and your la D with
blood voice stifed. 1 reach your trachea, 1 embed m/yself
B far B your left lung, thee mly so delicate one 1 place
mly two hands on the pale pink bland mas touched it
unfolds somehat, it move fanwise, mly knee fex, 1
gathe into mly mouth your entire reerve of air. Mixed
with it trace of soke, odours of hebs, the scent of
a fower, mit sees to ml e, the lung begins to beat, it
give a jump while the tears fow frm your wide-open
eye, you tap mly mouth like a cupping-glas on the
sticky mas of your lung, large soft sticky fragments
insinuate themselve between mly lips, shape themselve
to mly palate, the entire masis engulfed in mly open
mouth, mly tongue is caught in an indescribable glue, a
jelly descends towards mly glottis, mly tongue recoils, 1
choke ad you choke without a cry, at dmoment mly
most pleaing of all women it is impos ible to conceive a
more magistral a more inevitable coupling.
68
On the hl de the wome do round dances in the even
ing. Ofte and ofte lok at them without daring to
apprach. know them all by ther nae fr havig
studied the in the library book. list teir attribute,
conside their bearing, 1 a not sorry that their severity
should have remain attached to the books since they
here before mle so totally devoid of it. Mly heart beat
at time when see you among them mly bet beloved
mly unnameable one you whom 1 deire from the bottom
of mly stdmach H never die. 1 watch you holding the
hand of Arteis laced in leathe ove he bare breat
then that of Aphrodite, the black goddes with the fat
belly. Thee i also the triple Pesephone, there is sun
headed Ishtar, there is Albina eldet of the Danads, there
is Epone the great horeoman, there is Leucippa whoe
mare run in the meadow below white and shining, there
is dark Isis, there is red Hecate, there are Pomona and
Flora holding each other by the hand, there is Andro
meda of the feet foot, thee is blonde Cybele, there is 0
with the white cow, there m Niobe and Latone inter
twined, thee is Sappho of the violet brea, there i
Gurinno the swift runner, ther is Cere with the com in
her hair, there i white Leucothea, thee is moon-headed
u, you all dance, you all bat the grund with
the sole of your feet with incg force. None m
fatgue, while Minera the daughter of Zeyna blows
her fute and Atts beoved of Sappho beat the tom-tom.
If aongst all of the you are the only one to pespire
it beeks you mly unique one, their complt fnger
touch you, then you shine with many fre, rays leave
6
9
your body decending to the ground, hammered for the
nth time. I & toubled to see you at your eae aong
the woen ee sg loi twisted by spa your
pelvis thrust forard in the rhythm of the dance. Amic
ably you share the sacre mushroom, each one bite the
edge of the cap, no one asks mbecome bigger or smaller.
At a sign from bles ed Aphrodite around you exchange
their colours. Leucothea becomes the black one, Demeter
the white, Isis the fair one, 0the red, Artemis the green,
Sappho the golden, Persephone the violet, the trans
forations spread from one to the other, the rainbow of
the prism pas es acros their face while you unchanging
in the chestnut colour of your hair you start to cry out
while Iregard you in your great ecstay though deprived
of the sacred muhroom awaiting you in the laurels with
their hidden foer and you come near m/e at one
moment or another.
I take you by surprise, Itackle you, Itake pos es ion of
you, I bea you of into the cave all afre with the
mauve violet pink lights of the lanter. You resist, you
stuggle, you cry out in a strident voice. Te door of the
caver glide noiseles ly. You are laid down on the beaten
c at the threshold. Soe women appea fro the
oblique corridor and holding you frmly remove your
clothe. One of the having playfully placed her two
hands on your mouth because of your crie is inunediately
bitten. You thro your head back, you shake it from
side to side, you ceae stuggling only when they begin
to mas ag you, the the anger leave your eye. Standing
motionles Iwatch you. You poe no quetion. Four of
the women bring the grat silve tub full of steaming
wate. They plunge you in it, they wash you, they remove
the tace of dust and d on your skin. They envelop
you in large bath wraps, they perfume you, they anoint
you, they comb you, they give you a clean garment. Now
I take you by the hand and draw you down on to the
thick cat. You sit on your heels, you I your hands
fnger spread on your thighs, you regard m/ e in silence
you do not recognize m/e. A full censer swings.
The soil of the garden slides between your teeth, your
saliva moistens it, you feed m/ e with it your tongue in
m/y mouth your hads on m/y cheeks holding m/e still,
[ am transformed into mud m/y legs m/y se m/y thighs
m/y belly standing between your legs glutted with the
smell of the vaginal secretion rising from your middle, [
liquefy within and without. The mud reache the muscle
of m/y thighs, it touche m/y sex, it coats m/e cold and
slippery, m/y labia retracting it spreads to m/y abdomen
m/y kidneys m/y shoulderblade the nape of m/y neck
which is circumvented in its tur, m/y neck bows, you
still holding m/y cheeks in your hands flling m/e with
saliva and earth your tongue against m/y g. M/y
muscle separate from each other in sodden mas e. M/y
entre boy is overwhelmed. First to fall is m/y anus.
Some glute soon follow. M/y biceps abandon m/y arms.
Te B themselve fall entire to the ground. Only m/y
cheeks remain intact. A very strong selof moist earth
spreads around. [ see plant rooted in the fbre of m/y
muscle. [ loe heart, [ submit m/yself to your will m/y
deplorable one [ have no share in t systematic tran
foraton you impoe on m/e.
[ have long ben prepard for this phenomenon by
vaou palpitations taverng m/y body at eve instat.
urent wave dOds eitted by m/y brain under
the touch of your fnge on m/y shoulder. M/y back
open between the shoulderblade to releae the fan
shaped membrane compresed by the rb. Violet and
tanslucent they at once unfold and begin to quiver. You
ecite a new wave, your fnger ar e it at the leel of
m/y carotid. Now there is the gentle sound of a circular
wing in proesof beating, it surround m/y opened neck
round to the nape where it is attached. It etends over
m/y brea it black veins visible in the deep mauve of
the stretched N. The unfolded beating wing brush
against you not preventing you from drawing near, one
of the pasover your cheeks, another make you close
your eye. M/y brain as ailed prduce increaingly rapid
wave. Te wings ar DincO tly with ever-increa
ing spee. M/y are attached to m/y side by two
gigantic wing of a black colour, once folded they are no
thicke tha a knife-blade, their subtace is identical
with that silk fag ae made of. Ther shape is comparable
to that of the wings of bats. Ea of m/y rb is the shank
of a nely-created wing. Arranged in paallel the closed
wing see u profle reeble the antenae of a laelli
cor. Outpread they begin to rustle expoing the dull
gle of their indigo pink mauve violet colour. You stand
oppoite lashed by their rapid fapping your pro
tectng your face eye ope. The multiplication proceeds
the wing now extend a fa a m/y hip, at m/y feet two
mebrane M and op at once diaphano violet
7
palpitant transitting wave. A quiet hising issues from
your thrat while Istay motionles body petrifed before
you wings aloutspread traversed throughout by vertigin
ous moveent which at t moment make you Oout,
while sombrey mly so de one 1 enfold you.
W seated fmly on your hels mly dearet one, let your
thighs be of bronze, your kne of red mud of clay, your
adorable hads oppo to your vati eter whether
they b gold amethyst liquid merury, let your breat be
gren ad shinin of the same consistence as the under
side of the leave of tre, let yur bust be of tempered
se, your shoulders of copper, let your loins be iron,
neck silver, your nape tin, let your cheeks be
platnum, let your eye mly favoure one be of lead of
molten lead and milk, let your vulva be of fery infuible
violent iridium, let your vulva - labia heart clitoris B
crus -be of ooru racto omium, be strong mly
mot beautiful one the mot febrile the mot fagrant mly
hads brg on touching you mly voice seeking to
rho your voce.
79
I
M/y hand preses in insistent fashion at the top of your
left cheek at the place where the skin is marked by the
violet scar, 1 succeed thus in making your eyeball topple
out, 1 watch it hanging, 1 am gripped simultaneously by
eotion in the throat and by the pleasure of seeing
behind your eye. At once 1 test the elasticity of the optic
neve by pulling on your eyeball with mly fngers but
without letting go. Te muscular hinges that allow your
eyeball to move fascinate mle so much that 1 insert m/y
tongue at the points where they are attached to the
interal neve and exteral nerve by a single knot. In
these moreent Itouch the part of your eyeball which
i normally hidden, 1 spread m/y saliva over it, 1 lick it
1 take it betwee m/y lip, 1 squeeze it, 1 make it roll
entire within mly mouth, 1 suck it, 1 suckle at it, 1
swallow it, Ifnd m/yseH connected with your optic nerve
by suction, 1 apply m/yseH to the orbital aperture like
a cupping-glas , 1 am absorbed, 1 introduce m/yself into
the moto centre behind your eye, 1 insert m/yseH m/y
mouth m/y tongue mly fngr, 1 pass behind your
mirror, I spread out, 1 embed m/yseH, fnally 1 reach the
left heisphere of your brain, you repel m I e with all
your will-powe, now 1 cling on with both hands, under
m/y frantic presure your head becomes detached at the
level of the cervical vetebrae, it i immediately swept
away by a violent gust of wind, 1 do not let go of you,
you cary m/e with you suspended from your jugular
veins i space graped by your upswept hair mly ador
able one your mouth wide-open.
7
THEAKTEKIALLCCDTHEACKTIC
LCCDTHEVENULESTHE
AKTEKICLES THE CAIILLAKY VES-
SELSTEACKTATHECAKCTID
THECEIHALICTHE]UGULAKTHE
CCKCNAKY THE CESCIHAGEAL
THE IULMCNAKYTHEACIALTHE
TEMICKALTESUCLAVIANTHE
MAMMAKYTHE KACHIALTHE
MESENTEKICTHEKENALTHELUM-
AKTHE ILIACTHESACKALTHE
KADIALTHESAIHENCUSTHE
TIIALS THEVENACAVATHE
ICKTALVEINTEIULMCNAKY
THECCAGULATICNTHECLCTING
THE CCNCKETICNSTHE CLCTS
THESCLIDIICATICNS
The city where you live is surrounded by a labyrinth
where the unaccredited are lot who do not announce
theselve by blowing the siren-voiced crecent-aped
trumpt fatened aCl the b by a leather thon
W you all do. For a long time now have been walking
seking to fnd the way in ech of the slating paths ove
come by the scent of the fowe determined not to raise
m/y trmpt to m/y mouth to rejoin you in the utmot
secrecy. Grey-headed fnche with blue bellie are ranked
one agt the other on the spreading branche of the
lime at hand's heght. 1 have so often traversed t
garden eye bandaged you holding m/e by the shoulders
to guide m/e refusing whenever 1 aked you t give m/e
a clue to m/y whereabout. recall your bites on the
nape of m/y neck, the distresthat afict m/e each time
you halt leaving ml e alone in the dark, recall your
laughte m/y confusion when the bandage reoed
have lot sight of you, recall the torent that seize
m/e waiting for you seeing you along the sandy paths,
1 recall the cries you wrench from m I e surprising m / e
from behind the persistece with which you continue to
put the bandage round m/e forbidding m/e to dicover
how to arrive alone. Now 1 have lost heart, stay seated
m a grove of pink lilac. At a give moment some little
girls i the treeto &Utheve by throwing orae
at m/e. The anwe m/y plea with mokery. start
of again, se isand dwellings clealy visible in appar
etly quite aces ible place, see them withdraw when
eve 1 approach the. 1 loe patience at m/y inability t
draw near them on this horizontal surace where every
77
pint se given at the frst glance. A moment come
towards evening when m/y legs ca no longe cary m/ e,
then I lie down bringing the coiled trumpet t m/y
mouth to announce m/y surrender and fall aleep.
Te bandage keep m/y eyes cloed. I a in darknes.
A glitter sometimes an orange daz le enters betwee m/y
eyelids and m/y eye frmly presed on by the ligature.
Fr time to tme you m/y bet-beloved you increae the
pres ure by applying your two palms to m/y eyeball and
roIling them under your fngers. A great shudder seize
m/e in the fawles night in which I a plunged, m/y
thighs m/y legs m/y ankle a peraded by a tingling,
m/y se epecially i smarting, tiny movements take place
on m/y belly, there i a pullulation on m/y bret, the
movement invade m/y skin by thousands, an increas
ingly intoleable formication spreads over m/ e, it w cC
m/e up to the armpits, m/y a ae involved on both
their apects, it gains m/y neck m/y shoulders, m/y
mouth m/y fanks are asailed. I have goosefesh over
m/y entire surface. Suddenly Ia perforated by bite in
numerous place wher m/y s ha been touched. Then
you, you begin to sng in a vey soft voice m/y raviher
7
1
while I am no longer able to remain still, I begin to
struggle, while Iperceive the movement with heightened
intensity. The bandage i suddenly removed by your
hands. Idiscover that Ia absolutely covered over m/y
etire naked body with great black spides from the feet
to the hair m/y skin all eaten away creviced full of bite
of purpijsh swellings vile. Your fngers ret on m/y mouth
brushing away several of the cratures to prevet m/ e
from crying out. You look at m/e, you sile at m/e
infnitel, m/y eye a appoed t your eye, Ia seized
by unnapteable joy and horror, thus I abae m/yself m/y
head supported by your hands.
The women lead m / e to your scattered fragment, there
i an arm, there ua fot, the neck and head are together,
your eyelids are co, your detached e ae some
whee, your eyeballs have rolle in the mud, Isee them
side by side, your fnger have been cut of and thrwn
to one side, I perceive your pelvis, your bust is elsewhere,
7
9
8cvcta tagmcut8 O Otcam thc thgh8 aud tbac a
mMug. /y v8Ou but8 at d 8ght, thc WOmcu 8ug-
gtt m]cuudm thc 8hOudO, m]ykU gvc Way, m]y
Ct atc 8tm cd u m]ybtct, thcy k m]c Whctc yOu
8hOudbcutcDcduWhatOtdcttOCOcCtyOuttagcuU
WhCh makc8 m]c tcCO 8btckug, I gtOuOuuCc a bau Ou
thc tcCOtdug O yOut dcath s tbat thc ttattc tgOu8-
bc Ot yut bcug tOD tO gcC may uOt bc actto. I
auuOuuCc thatyOuatc hctc avc thOugh CuttO gcCc8, I
8catCh hty Ot yOut tagmcut8 u tbcmud,m]y 0
8Ctabbcatthca8tOu audgcbb, I DudyOut uO8c
a gatt O yOut vuva yOut aba yOut CtOt8, I ud yOut
C Ouc tba thcu thc Othm, I cmbc yOu gatt by
gatt, I tcCOB8ttuCt yOu, I gut yOut cy baCk u gaCc, I
aggc thc8cgatatcd s cdgc tO cdgc, I huttcdy @0
duCc tcan vagua uCc 8ava u thc tcgu8tc amOuut, I
c8tyOu Wth thcm at yOut aCctatOm, I gut m]y
btca!h uyOutmOu!h, I Watm yOutcanyOuthaud8yOut
btct8, I uttOduCc a m]y at utO yOut uug8, I 8taud
cCt tO 8ug, at O I gctCcvc thc 8aud 8hOtc aud !hc
8uu8buugOutbc8ca,I tuDaWaythcgOddc Odcath
8guattug Ou thct hcc8 atOuud yOu, I bcgu a vOcut
dauCc atOuud yOut bOdy, m]y hcc8 dg utO tbc gtOuud,
I taugc yOut hat Ou thc Cumg8 O gt,I Is thc al
gWctu 1dcCtcc thatyOuvc uthcgt L8t8 m]y
mt ChcD8ho m]y mO8t cuccbcd I 8ay tbat u thc
ga8t Wc 8ha 8uCCccd tOgcthct u makug thc !tc gt8
WhO wl COmc atct u8, thcu yOu m]y L8tu m]ymt
bcauUu yOu 8mc atm]c uudOuc cXhau8tcd.
80
YOutgam8 8tcagau8t m]ygam8 aautuUOvmCOm
m]c, Wcakuc cCU thc hOOW8 O m]y ko, yOu
aCc tO aCc Wth m]c thc 8Ot uWatd O yOut aD8
gtc cd agau8t my atm8, tbcu a OtmCatOu 8gtcad8 u
m]y cgdctm8, I 8cc m]y gOt datc, I 8cc yOut gOtm
dO kcW8c, Ogcu thcy 8cCtctc uc hat8 u thOu8aud8 thc
COOut aud COu88tcuCc O thc O thc Ctaua, thcy gtOW
at u 8gccd, 1cc thcm a tOm yOut aD8 Ou t m]y
aD8, I CauuOt d8tugu8h yOun tOm m]uc tbcyatcM
mugcd thcy mutgy, thc tWO aC tOau uako,
butthcydcvcOg bcOWthc Chu Ou thc 8hOudO Ou thc
btct8 tbcbaCk, thc atm8 thc OtC atc COvctcd Wth
thcm, thcy cmctgc tOm thc btcU, thcy cmctgc tOm
thc Ou8, thcy cmctgc tOm thc bc tbgh8 c@, thcy
tcaCh Out cct, Ouy thc Vv aud thc gubC ccC atc
uuatctcd, thcy a 8O uumcmm that thcy tcatc thc
ccCtOagctWthvctyOughat8OtcuuOu8COm8tcuCc,
I Ca8g yOu m]y haud8 butcd u yOut han, I bcgu tO
Wccg bcCau8c I CauuO Ougct tOuCh yOut batc s. YOu
Ou thc COuttaty yOu augh, yOu bcud m]c u yOut 8D8,
yOu8hOWm]chOWtOCatCh tbc Wud, yOu 8cck aCuHcut,
a thc hat8 8ttctCh Out Ou c!hct 8dc, thcy ta8c u8 ug,
thcycuabcu8t y aWay, I Wgc m]y tcM agau8tyOu
m]y uttcd Ouc, I hOat m]y atm Ou yOut atm8, thc
Wud mug Out hat8, t COmb8 thcm, t btu9 1hO,
1
it give them lustre, farewell dark continent you steer for
the isle of the living.
The tear fow fa on your cheeks, mly hands repair
there and are moistene there, the teas fall lager and
large tepid salt against mly mouth, they cover your neck
your shoulder your breat, 1 scatter them, 1 dispre
them ove your etire body, the tears continue to fow,
your brast heave with sobs, you begin to hiccup, the
saliva falls in great strings from your mouth, 1 hold its
elatic substance between mly fngers, 1 carry it on mly
mouth on mly forehead on mly eye on mly cheeks, 1
stop breathing, 1 roll you in your own tears, now they
make quite a pool around you, inces antly 1 utter words
to make you redouble your tears, you weep without stop
ping, you wep for you, you weep for mle with
marvellous force, your entire body is involved, your
shouldes heave, now you start you sob you cry out, your
tears fall all at once when you straighten your neck, you
implore ml e with strident voice but 1 reain uttery
ferious towards you, then you begin to weep harder
still, you make you d and you intoxicate ml e
while your wate mly inteperate mistres , mly mot
tormete one, deceds in runnels acros the beach of
the island to the sea.
i .
At the ft crecet of the rsing mon the women mae
holiday. The moonlight barely creates a refection in the
dark edie of the sea. The blue of the sky where several
sta are visible is pale sg and trembling round
the. 1 name the in a loud voice. A lapping disturb
the slence then ceang re-etablishe it. A warm gus
enter mly lung. The boats a range side by side. 1
recognize your bat next m mline swaying poised your
bumping mly f, our two mas e darker than
the other because of their black colour the violet insignia
invisible at t hour. Coming from the interior of the
island the wome approach the seahor in groups bear
ing lante and hollowed pumpkins with a fame barely
sr d by the wind lighting their orange interior. Some
of the beat the d. The majority ae covered with
garlands of fower on their breast round their B only
the clour of the white fowers adopted by those who are
black-skinned is visible, the rd orange violet pink parma
a black, they make moving stains on the white-skinned
boie. Some women blow VO stident a on futes.
Some wear on ther heads silve jewels in the form of a
cscet. Othe beat in their hands dancing a they move
forward. Ter a thoe who a silet two by two well
away from the middle of the proces ion holding each
other by the hand. Great circle form on the beach, white
83
candle arc groupd very cloely together in complex
araent which cove etesive aa. At a given
moment the entire beach i inveted. Not one epty dak
spot rema, thousands of cadle bum bure in the
sand. The wome move from one shape to another alte
ing some details in their B gement. You a not in any
group. I have long since abandoned the extree edge of
the sea, thee whee the wave dampen the sand and
make it shine. I you. You do not appear. Not one
fashing moving fame illuminate your sharp feature
your pale cheeks your abiguous smile. I erect once
more, I regard the sea. It i then I notice you, I do not
doubt that it i you, right out at sea lying on the water
in the refection of the moon ars stretched out on eithe
side of your pale body. I wak in the sea the water com
ing half-way up m/y body then covering m/y shoulders.
I swim stongly over to where you a, I stretch out be
side you, I hear you singing inces antly m/y eultant one
you do not lok at m/e, no more do I at you. A the
night wear on the women ove there draw near and cast
their galands on the MB
Black i the brok suddenly dividing your boy in two
thighs disjointe at their middle knee taut breated toro
in its two ,part, the left alone retaing the aorta ven
ticle auride the heart in it entirety. Violet is the wate
of the jet suring behind the cranium rund the lobe of
your brin. Gold i the river isuing from your eyes, it
divers ef uent irrigating your shoulder and B. I see
the moveent of the little crets, a saiva coe to your
lip half-pen mouth, a foa pas e between your teeth,
& hoarenesreche your high throat. inform you that
the woen boat the W0the bridge manufactured
by the little girls stud your suddenly cloed Q. A song
i br in m/y breast to acompay the slo glidings of
m/y boat W you, I sing the eddie which make it
deviate the sharp shards of light thrugh the tee the
milky sun falling on your pale brea the ambiguou
silent laughte on your parted lip the black violet golden
precipitaton of the cO t against your vulva the tran
gW men outpred on your palms, aleep. Black i
the je neklace acs your brt pas ing beneth your
bra surounding the the plished sphere of pearls
now lorlling WU your mouth your bare teth al
black eg ther rapid t&utation black black
M cngele sining.
85
You tum m/e inside out, a a glove in your hands,
gently frmly ineorably holding m/y throat in your
palm, struggle, 1 a frantc, 1 enjoy fear, you count
the veins and the artere, you retract them to one side,
you rach the vita organs, you breathe into m I y lungs
through m/y mouth, 1 stife, you hold the long tubes of
the viscera, you unfold them, you uncoil them, you slide
the round your neck, slopping you let the go, you O
out, yu say delightful stink, you rave, you see the green
fuid of the bile, you plunge your fngers into the stomach,
you O out, you take the heart in your mouth, you lick
it for B long tme, your tongue playing with the coronary
arterie, you take it in your hands, cannot speak, your
teth bitng m/y cheks your lips unscathed at the edge
of m/y lip you, your sovereign hair over m/y face, bent
over you lok, you, your eye not quitting m/y eyes,
coveed with liquids acids chewed digeted nouDent,
you full of juice corroded in an odour of dung and urine
crawl up to m/y carotid in order to sever it. Glory.
86
i .
i
l
,
|
,
,
'
fnd support for m/y ars on the gust of air under the
te where it blows most strongly. M I y forearms are
raised, they retur very quickly against mly body, th

they are raised anew, they fall back, and M on !u
sequence with the fnges of mly hands outspread. At B
given moment, all together, 1 take of from the ground,
feel the @ brush against m/y calves, at last 1 make
it, fy of, 1 follow the rising current which bears mle
up without mly having to make any exertion other than
to fap m/y forearms at full speed. This become eaier
a etablish the proper inclinaton of mly tunk and
pelvis. M/y legs are together. 1 look at he clouds a the
place where the sun fringe them. It there 1 direct
m/yself. 1 am hardly out of breath. A soon a 1 have
gained height 1 le m I yself go arms and egs extended
lying on the air, 1 see the felds, 1 see the nver, 1 s

e the
clouds below ml e. 1 eter into a cold cumulus which at
once sa m/e. Then 1 fap mly arms, 1 begin to fy
lengthily endles ly on the sunny aspect lip compres ed,
1 do not call your nae m/y most forbidden one, the
syllable would be lot in the whistling howlin

cg
ululation of the wind. 1 content m/yself With fY1g
aways further away from you.
THECCNGEALINGSTHECALCULI
TESTCNESTHENCDULESTHEIN-
DUKATICNSTHELAYEKSTHE
SCALESTHE IKESTHEIKILS
THELIGAMENTSTHETENDCNS
TEEXTENSCKS THE SUSIENSCK-
IESTHE LEXCKSTEADDUCT-
CKSTHEADUCTCKSTHE
SYNEKGISTSTHEANTAGCNISTS
TETENSCKSTHE KCTATCKS THE
ACCESSCKIESTHE KECTI THE
CLIQUESTHE CKICULAKS THE
TKANSVEKSE TE SIHINCTEKS
THEVISCEKAL MUSCLESTHE
SMCCTH MUSCLESTHE CAKDIAC
MUSCLETHE SKELETAL MUSCLES
THETAPEZIITHE PECTCKALS
88
M/y fnger grow at a crazy speed each of them reaching
a length fften time grater t its origina length. 1
abandon m I yself ma gentle exploration of your boy at
ft uncetain insidiou then increaingly inistent. You
O out, you utter all the words indicative of surprise
pain joy circulating from mly ear-faps to the deepet
convolution of mly brain traversing them in all direc
tion. The suret of mly fngers the inde insinuate itself
along your rectum, uncompresed a far a the colon u
force a pas age through the faece, it reache the bend
of the intestine, it enlarge, it turns twice on itelf, it
deceds the length of the acending colon, it bends
again, it gains the ileum of the sall intestine making
almot a complete circle girdling the small intetine like
a las o. Simultaneously the middle fnger is inserted into
the neck of your uters, it tavee the womb, it pefor
ate the bowel-wall introducing itelf into the small in
tetine Derange thus thrugh and through you have
stopped protetin, you Mcompletely immobilized trans
fxed, you faint repeatedly. The 1addres you, I demand
that you mle to continue, you do so, however your
stomach reolt, the vomitings that reach your belly ae
aborbe by mle accodingly a 1 wip your skin with
mly tongue with mly lip. M/y ring and little fnge
raining outide you having @wtogether with the
othe fnge are egage in caesing your loin your
soulder your nape while Ipurue mly slow ineorable
mWM of you. M/y W fnge within you have come
togeter, they attept the pas ae from the duoenum
frm te 8twMVyour oophagus, Itry to dyour
8
9
throat, then your mouth, from within, 1 arH to be
absorbe by you during m/y writhing in your interior
to b spat out rjected vomited entirely, I implore you
in a ve low voice, vomit m/e with all your might
muz led sucling-iamb queen cat spit m/ e out, vomit
m/e up.
It i not the gentle sound of the that Ihear just now,
but your blod falling on the metal, it spurts from the
seven openings, the tempora arteie are severed, the
cartd i cut through, the iliac arterie the radials are
holed, IB spatted from top to to. Your blod deert
it circuit. IB inundated, glory, a geat m decend
from you on m/e, the heavy beatng of your heart the
hur g of your aorta crdle m/ e, they make m/ e fall
into a let, a pallor overcome you, you smile in
efable untouchable as yet untouched. 1B gripped with
fea of loing you of failing to reach you. Bending ove
the metal mror Ifeverishly seek the opeings to make
at the teple the caotid the groins the wt, you ca
do no more for m / e, you raise your eyeids in order to
lok at m/e, Ibeg you mwait for m/e, IsU on you,
ICin your C Ifollow you in your jouey, the blod
spurt from m/y badly sectioned Ibecome im
patiet, Icut m/yeif to piece mm/y hate, & buzzing
90
comes and gos from m/y chest to m/y temple, !seek
you in the bleing glory of the sun, I come m/y adore
one Ifollow you I come to you Idraw nea you, Ihave
forced the pas ag, then m/y blood mingle with your
inundating you entirly, the inwards of our 8 fnding
ad pres ing each othe, ultimately deire fnds us, we
move towards each other in great travail.
Your scale are so apposed that your s reemble hard
and shining metal. I enjoy stroking your spherical sur
face, Itu you around, you are so big m/y most adored
one that I cannot form an overall perception of you. I
move to the level of your eyes each of them having the
breadth of thirty of m/y own. Ipas m/y hand beween
the supepo corolla which surround the. I can
not lok at you face to face. 1 see each of your eyes in
tum. One of the two yellow watche m/e, I begin m
stagger. Your delicate gigantic mouth open and shut
incO tly, I presm/y naked belly ag it and ag
it and against the single lip that bunds it, your soft cold
touch make m/e shiver. Imove unde your white belly,
91
I pres mly hands and mly bare feet against it slippery
surface, I swim the whole length of your body, I re
acend, Itouch one of the sall fn at the level of one
of your eye, I tr to unfold it, it reist, it palpitate
under mly pres ure. I let m/yseif sway on your fa
from one great fipper to the othe, Itry to stay balanced
while you move forard at full speed. Then I fall in
frot of you at mouth level. You in the inces ant move
ment of your single gaping curled lip mly mole you
swallow mle, at once I enter into your immense red
illuminated osophagus, I fall against its wal, I fnd
m/yself propelled from one point to another to the level
of the arterial arch, I am utterly shattered by it throb
bing, I am driven to the level of the auricle and the
ventricle of your heart only the membrane of the two
walls separating mle from the.
9
You ae the tallet, Ishtar goddes of godes you are
the powerful one, bles ed be your name over ceturie of
centurie. You B the pO r of al powe, you &
strong impas ive while you abide in the green in the
violet of the heaven while they all await you, head eect
you shine in the black night, you are blinding in the
days of sU er, deire for you overhelms mle once
for all together with terror a befts all your adorers, the
earth th te the water the rive the tO t the sea
the staI of the sky do they not teble at the mer
utterance the mere vibration of your foridable name,
Oh that might be dumb or mly tongue fall out when I
see your black shining visag your gilded lb your
vigorous ke, foolish I am I complain aloud of the
glorious supreely divine Atarte she who has no begin
ning who ha no end she who i, she who canot have
D that which she W not be. Ishtar Astarte mly be
loved eteral one I invoke you I implor you, Ithirst for
your benevolent tear W much a your W and your
feroity, not one ha prayed to you without your he
her voice you who have created all woman VDloved by
you, mly adorable one appear once more tonight that I
may lay m/yseif down beside you that mly hands may
touch you that mly pefume may pleae you, I d
speak or else not say a word a you W, Ishall sing or
else stay waiting fo your voice to isue from your mouth
mly soletial one mly celeial one mly soveign mi
U , bles Dthy name.
93
Your hair stf ene by the frst sparkle. Your hads are
stille against your uptured throat. Te gree and blue
dawn make a light tavel ove your naked unfolded
body. Your eye ae not cloed, they do not see. The
women bearing torche kneel beside you, your face i lit
by the gleams. Shadows pas over your teeth, in your
mouth I seyour palate. One of the women begs slowly
to mas age your breat back loins belly with he stong
hands. Aother wap you in sheepskins. Someone heats
water on a fre in the sow. The boiling water put into
the bottle warms your petried body at the places they
touch. I a paralysed, I a afraid. I begin to embrace
you a wamly as i in mly power. I pas mly breath
into your mouth hoping to reach your lung. Now I a
naked, I lie down on top of you, I roll on your body to
give you the warth of mly blod of mly muscle. Here
and there you soten. It i the muscle of one of your
ars. It i the hollow of oe of your shoulder, it i your
throat, it i your wrists and your palms. You are seized
by B tbling that I barely peceve. I cry out with M
mly might. The torche sway in the hands of the Dmm
bent ove you. Now a rattle issue from your mouth, I
receive it on mly lips, I wait for you to pronounce mly
nae. In mly impatience I begin to dig in the snow with
bare hands, I look for snowdrops and black hellebore to
place on you. You strive to raise your head, you move
your hands, you lok aound you, you ak to Um. The
s arund the island u froze.
94
I have discoved on your ars on your shoulders at the
top of your back on your loins on your chet violet marks
ranged .on the s of your boy. You, you do not conceal
them, you do not place your hands pas open over the
afecte pace indicang tha one o the women ha laid
claim to you. You stand oppoite mle every muscle tense
a smile. irradiating from your mouth over your entire
face a you look at mle. M/y fngers touch the rdges
one after the other, a swelling magnifying the point of
cotact as I peceive them. Ifeci a pain spreading from
mly fngertip to mly w etending the legth of mly
ars a far a mly throat making mly chet burt. It i
at that moment that I spit a pat of mly right lung B
sot bland mas to the back of mly throat and palate.
I take it betwee mly fnger, I pull, I wrench it out,
I hold it pale pink stll living before your eye, I shake
it, I squeee it, I crush it on your s against the pearl
sape weals ranged one beide the other. M/y left lung
come in it tum into mly mouth, in fragments, its bulk
choke ml e in pas age its elatic substance tuching mly
teth, I bite it, I chew it, Iswallow it, I spit it out, I
sprad it from the edge of mly lip ove the entir surface
of mly by. You a seized with convuIsions, Ipest.
I spread the pink pate ove the inward of your a-
Te i no s on yur face but the puckering that
95
precede tears. [ forbid you to weep. Untiringly [ anoint
you with m/y living cement, [ cradle you i m/y B
[ you, [ pres m/y lips to your lips m/y tongue
forcmg you to open your mouth, [ insert into you the
last pulverize vetige of mly lungs which you swallow
shrinking which you prepare to diget or to vomit whoe
intromision you a unable to refuse their evacuation
from m/y body being efected with the greatest violence
by the rending open of mly chet m/y eye fed un
tiringly on the long violet marks which reappear beneath
the br their sight tearing the most deperate crie
from m/e mly cruellet one that have eve is ued fro
m/e.
The temperture of the island cools. A sudden torado
sweeps the coat loseing the moorings of the boats in
the port. At sea-level the wind blows at a speed so great
a to be unrcordable. There are a great many fsher
women at sea. You are aong them. The frst wave to
oveow the beache cover the houses and their occu
pants at a bound. To-out woden stakes msuddenly
into the a.[ see some sme energetically attepting
to withstand the eddie. [ see nothing more. Kneeling in
9
6
the garden up above mly hands over mly ears m/y hair
tos ed [ bgin to pray to Sappho mly all-powerful one
save her frm dying. One afte the other the tide-race
carrie away the hut on the seahore where the nets dry.
If you must die m/y mot adored one let the entire island
be delivered to detuction, let not one of us remain alive.
A for ml e [ lok out to sea again, [ do not weep. [ se
the boat epty of their occupants fung up one after the
other ove the ruined dwelling-place. Then the ft
recues oranized. With ropes with cranes with boat
hooks it! i posible to evacuate the women coatguards
among whom fe los are to be deplored. Already the
boie of the drowned are laid out on the terace of the
uppe tow. Briskly the women mas in their hundreds,
song whoe beat i maked by the tom-tom aid the
quicket conduct of the operation. do not fnd you.
do not recognize aong the wrecks your black boat
marked with the violet sign you afect. move towad
the coral grotto where we often fall aleep from fatigue.
There away from the storm in an absolute calm with
none of the furious sounds of the wind with none of the
shouts or songs of mouing or songs of wok you a
aleep in the bottom of the boat mly tiumphant one
smiling, the orage refection of the coral ae sped over
your naked body by the moveent of the wave. So
Sappho the all-powerful ha allowed you to reach the
grotto which ha saved more than one woman in days of
tempe. Iswim up myou in al haste. Ilet m/yself faU
your side. begin to sing in 8 very low voice glory to
Sappho over centuries of centurie so be it.
97
Your hand followed by your U have etered into mly
t, y?u travee mly l, you arrive at mly lung,
you IteIZe mly orans, you make mle die ten thousand
deaths while Isile, you rip out mly stomach, you tea
mly intetine, you project the uttermot fury into mly
body, Icry out but not from pain, Iam overtaken seized
hold of, I g over to you entirely, I explode the small
unit of mly ego, Ia threateed, Iam desired by you.
A U shoot m mly boy, it move its branche with
etreme violence with extre gntlenes, or else it i a
bush of bug thor it tear the other side of mly
e muscles mly inside mly interior, I am in
habite, I am not dreaing, I am peetrate by you,
now Imut struggle against burting to re mly overall
peepton, Ir ble you in all mly organ, Iburst,
I re ble you, sometime your hand sometimes your
mouth sometime your shoulde sometime your whole
body, when m/y stoach i afected your stomach re
sponds when m/y lung rattle your lung rattle, fl y I
a without depth without place mly stomach appea
in betwe mly breats m/y lung traversing the skin
of m/y D
9
8
The U mare arrve abreast in broad daylight. On
their their coat i struck by sunlight. Ilok at the
mauve or pale-gree pols among the stetches of dap
sand. You amidst them you advance sombrely, you se
your mae, you begin to neigh, you draw near, your
yellow eyes fed on m/e. Now the pace of the three
unsaddled mare slows, their coat moistened by the sea
glisten, the skin quiver over their muscles, there are no
fie to stroke them only the wind and the insistent heat
of the sun. Teir legs bend with enormous slownes, I can
see for a long time the curve at their knees, then they
touch the ground again while another leg is lifted in it
tu. Fla to fa you all advance, you yourself, mouth
open not held by any bit teeth bared, you pant, your
no quiver. Coming up to mle you kneel before the
little girls like the mounts in painted picture, your head
beds and tose, I place botiI mly hands on your mane,
I hold your head, I pas mly tongue over your muzzle,
Iglide against your belly in order to mount you. Then
you bridle, your coat graes mly vulva and mly thigh,
when I lie down m/y belly is presed against your back.
You set oat a gallop towards the sea, you whinny with
all your might, the wind blows at mly ears, it upholds
m/y hair behind, mly breast judder, when I tum round
I see the island dwellings all small and distant, then I
begin to whinny in mly tum as loudly a I can, I slide
aong your lengti, Ilet m/yself fall to the ground, now I
gallop eve though it mean forcing the pace to keep up
with you, mly feet happily trample the sand, the sun on
the sea scorhes mly eye, we enter the sea head-on,
99
whover retrace their step it will not be you nor I mly
de your boy steas, your n0ts fare mly fa
touche your fa, coolnes come frm the water, &
dazzle come to mle from the sun and the sea, sound
reche ml e from the wave, a war breath touche mly
nek your.
Your hair i undone over your face. The hair are taken
one at a time and fed to a hoop in a half-circle al
around your head thus held away from your face by
their whole length. So stretched they reound beneath
m I y fngertip which slide along them. The infnitely
soft frgile sound can be varied over the whole etent of
the instrument. Your face i totally obcured by ts
obcure stif veil. I regard you frm below, your cheeks
a ve pale. Wheneve mly fnger make your hair
vibrate you begin to sgh. Now I follow them with some
deteity and fate and faster. The sound-wave create
a pres ur aound W a chang ocur in the at0phere,
& slow moveet commece, an edy develop, & cur
rt becoe appart. You drft of suddely, you sway
frm sde mside; you & uplifte. Your hd cling to
mly hair, now yo m up, you drag mle carie by
mly hair. You start m spin on yourelf, I copy your
O
THEDCKSALSTHEILIACSTHE
TEKESTHEQUADKATITHETKI-
ANGULAKTHE PYKAMIDALSTHE
ADCMINALSTHE GLUTEALSTHE
ICEPSTHETKICEPSTHETENDONS
OACHILLEATHESUPINATCKS
,
THETIIALSTHESULIMITHE
ADUCTCKS CTHE EYETHE
KECTI SUPEKICKESTHECCM-
ILEXESTHEDIAIHKAGMTHE
VAGINATHEANUSTHE SOT
IALATE THE CONNECTIVETISSUE
THE MENINGES THE DURA MATEK
THEAKACHNCID THEIIAMATEK
THE SCLEKATHE CCKNEATHE
KETINATHE CHOKCID THE GUMS
THEPLEUKATHEPEKITONEUM
THEOMENTLM
101
moveent, efect the sae slow rotation mly hands
seeking point of suppor. It is not the pos ible to arret
the moveent it is so slow. An irrestible force eaates
from you and sweeps mle away. Icloe mly eye. [ let
m/yseH go. Mly fng grope for your hairs which they
touch and cause to reonate. A very audible music now
make itseH heard. At the same time you sing. Te sounds
rise spread grow louder. The moveent with which you
spin a you b mle away grow fate. Now we a
spinning rapidly at the top of the palm-tre and sud
denly mly mot ravishing one you begin to laugh while
you draw ml e in a staight line above te island dwel
lings towards the MB
Mly vile one recall the sum e sky taversed by heat
hae in the black night where you have confned m/e.
Mly eye a covered, m/y ear ae stopped, m/y thrat
is gagged to my lips' edge, mly armpits are flled, mly
navel is knotted, m/y vagina is packed from mly utrus
to mly labia, mly colon is bloked to mly anus. Irecall
the clouds of dust, stll have mmind the reections of
102
l
I :.
the sun on the leaves of the trees, Irecall a river, I recall
the wild rae in the hot hay-covered meadows mly most
atroious one in the immobility you inpoe on ml C- At
m/y groins in m/y iliac arteries the needle introduce the
fuid which paralyse mle, mly kidneys a ft to burst,
they pres on m/y overheated intetine, in m/y throat
the fuid introduced into mly caotids spreads to mly
brain, it blows all m I y circuits, m I y tongue chokes m I e
striving to emerge frm mly mouth. I recall the soft
contact of br and bellie the slow sinuous comings
and goings the warmth of the skins the delicacy of touch
ing in the gehenna to which you have condemned mle
mly torentor without entrails a reas bled on m/e
horribly confne exploding into a thousand inIpotent
fragment to disjoin mle completely.
A great tumult on the circle awakens m/e. Already you
retu with the news. The ft women to awaken have
announced the pure and sinIple disappearance of the
vowels. Coustetion reigns. Numerous lamentations
are heard. You must write down the news for m/e if [
a to undertad it meaning. Your lip your tongue
modulate the new language in guttural sounds, the
I0_
uttered cononat jotled one against the other produce
gruntings gratings scrapings of the vocal cords, your voice
untied in U pronunciaton speeds up or slow dow
and yet you cannot stop talking. The novel efe of the
moveent of your cheeks and mouth the difculty the
sounds have in making their way out of your mouth a
so comical that [ choke with laughter, [ fall over back
wards, mly teas stream, [ regard you still and slent, [
am increasingly overcome by laughter, suddenly you to
B afected, you burst out, your cheeks colour, you fall
over backwards a the women's claour is heard outide
their interpellations the long incomprehenible phrase
pronounced by one of them and repeated interinably
by many other. A new ar ival make heard at regular
intervals the lugubrious sound of a tom-tom which she
beats to a funereal rhythm. The unwonted reonance of
the now transfored language repeated by more and
more voice produce uncontrollable wave movement of
mase of clouds. A heavy rumbling is heard, lighting
fahe follow each othe blindingly, the stor breaks
with such a din a at once to cover the sound of the
thousands of voice. Now the women fee along the sandy
island paths seeking the shelter of the open pavilions.
Te t ha begun to patte. The tom-tom is being
beaten vigorously somehere in the distance this time to
a rapid rhythm. Their voice join in song. Te smell of
the wet leaves and the grasin the garden come to ml e
overwhelmingly, you stand opposite mle, [ see you B
crying and laughing at the sae tme heifer suckling
lab mly best-beloved may grief abandon you for ever.
10g
[ leave you alone in the room where you have spoken t
mle a to a stranger where you have not recognied mle
depite the glare of the lanter. At mly order the women
prepare 'm/y severed limbs mly B mly thighs mly
legs whoe feh is meticulously reoved and boiled for
a long time, they ofer it to you surrunded by difeent
sauce on glitteing plate each plate bearing a diferent
name to pleae you. You conume them readily their
appellations do not strike you with atonishment. Bring
ing you a fnger-bowl and cl e fruit the women
infor you of what of whom yu have eaten. Im
mediately you begin to vomit, B pofuse perpiration
appea on your cheeks on your temple without your
shedding a tear, you fall fat your face your stomach
utterly revolted hiccup preventing you from reuming
breathing, the women support you beneath the B
they speak to you at length whispering enuerating each
of the parts you have eaten while without beging for
mercy you empty yourseH completely the nutriment now
replace by long gren spurt of bile the by splashe of
bloo your tongue outde your mouth, you choke, you
spit mle out, you vomit mle up, you loe all your colour,
moentarily yu faint crying that [ a accursed, whe
your conscoM ad memory retur you reject mle
anew with violence without inter ption.
10
The two black boat approach c other bearing a
identical violet sign. Te water of the sea bfat. It holds
a blue and golden light. Whe the one and the othe
boat B side by side you draw yourself up to your ful
height tued towards m/e. Without a signal the combat
bg, B seking B shoulder touching shoulders,
legs thighs presed aganst the sides of the boats, bare feet
srape the wo es aying rapid movements to staddle
bth boat at once. see that deep down sharks shadow
the 5 coming and going incesantly. Suddenly B
afraid, attept to rpel you, I pres with the fat of
mly hands on the side of mly boat, 1 push on yours, I
try to separate them, double up with the exertion. The
you, you strike a blow on the back of mly neck with the
edge of your hand. stive to stand up, you pres with
both pa on mly bare back, so raising yourelf up you
arch your back, you U yourself glide behind ml e to the
bottom of mly boat. star to teble, mly har stands
on end while both mly hads are grsped by your hands
behind mly loins. You encircle mle with one of your
B you lt mle up. One of mly les come in contact
with the water, it i brutaly tom of by the open mouth
of one m the shaks. M/y other leg i bent at a right
angle. Wel -brace against the side of mly boat you
U mle down, you cat both mly B to the shark
106
which devour the dragging mle down, later mly head
i tom of, mly eye momentarily tured upwards in
mly head a it fal see cruelet of al monsters the
beautiful moveent you employ to throw mIY mutilated
t mly pelvis a far as possible.
Cursed b the frenzy which grips mle on hearing your
voice naked detached from your boy fa from your
throat that emits it. Enough to burt the vessels of mly
teples behind m/y eye at the surface of the auricle of
mly heart, the sound-wave reache m/e. It afect m/y
ea the hammer-bone violently strike the anvils the
semicircular canals the cochlea begin to whirl, mly
entire brain reels, mly throat contracts, mly eye sub
jected to a enorou pres ure begin to fow, m/y tongue
isue from mly mouth. M/y lung expel g a their
contained a retract at an insane speed. Your voice
invaes m I e further stil, it decends le a tendril to the
bottom of mly stomach, it traverses the duodenum, it
folows cO convolution of mly intetine, it hunt ml e
down, it batters from within against all mlY paietes, I
B C ed to burting in almly holow place, B
10
7
fnally cut to piece, m/y B m/y legs dangle, B thc
pres ure mounts they eventually fall of. Daknes falls
in the orbits of m/y eye on m/y ea in m/y
l. M/y neck involved beds and sepaate from

/Y trunk, m/y entire body separated into its parts

direct black stomach black intetine black heart vulva
green bile into the black darknes inhabited only by your
voice, that hateful voice m/y dearet one puruing m/e
tracking m/c down loing m/e undoing m/e fnishing
m/e of.
Peforation occur in your boy a in m/y body joined
togethe, our homologusly linked muscle sepaate, the
frt curt of athat infltrate into the breach sprads
at a crazy speed, creating a squall within you and WU
mle smultaeously. You shae mle ad 1 do the se
V you. Your te d against m/y teth. A wheg
is ue frm your mouth ad maybe frm mly own. You
say frm side to side an M do 1. 1 perceive all the
108
various winds asailing us. The orifces multiply over our
two bodie causing m/y skin and your skin to burst alike.
They a prolonged by tunnels whence the blood dos
not spurt. The wind enters evewhere, in eery hole. 1
feel it pasing from your stomach into mline, it ha a
pasage at the level of the openings in our two throat,
it i engulfed in the galleries created in our joined
shoulde, it glide into the crevice of the muscle of our
joined r. It become M violent that it precipitate us
one against the other, it brings us down, it fatte us.
Under its presure there i nothing else to do but to
attept
'
to insinuate ourelve one into the other. Your
eye shine. Your h V , it fails against your cheeks,
it catche m le on the forehead. The openings are now
innumerable in the abdomen in your chest and mine
along our interwined lb, they are to be seen every
where, everywhere the sae wind traver you traverse
m/e. M/y fngers sink into the orifce in your back your
loins, your fnger are inserted into the holes in mly neck
m/y cau. the end a tepet arrive, it rushe right
through u, scattering the muscle. First 1 hea your
crie, the 1 hear m/yself cry out a you do, there i a
bellowing of siren, they reverberate within the gaping
tunnels on either side of our two bodie which now con
stitute a single organism peraded by vibrations quiver
ing full of it own curnt, i it not so mly dearet ?
tOg
Teror grip mle to se you so pitiles and so serene. I
drw near you, you do not lok at mle, I addres you
you do not answe m I e, Imake gesture of alegiace you
ignore them tued stolidly towards the feld of pumpkins
whoe number you eamine, fear decends to the hollows
of mly kne, IC harly stad, I sigh very loudly, the
greatet cold reache ml e between mly shoulderblades
at mly loins in mly pleus. Ibegin to groan, I complain
in a stident voice, I utter all the words I know. You
indiferet you move along the paths of the kitchen
garde. Already the notebok you hold at eye-level i
covere with sgns. Ibegin to dance very clumsily with
the jerky moveent of a puppet, you do not see m/e. I
sing a song which bknown myou, Ithrow m/yself fat
on mly face in your path, you step over mle and con
tinue your gaze fxed only on the vegetables which trail
Othe ground. Ispeak to you of mly long march of mly
unbroken zeal, you do not liste to ml e, only the feld
at your feet exact your attention. From time to tme you
br of B fy which alights on your cheek. At t
moment which I take B B signa1 1 repond with the
geture of reconciliation, you take no notice, you saunter
along the avenue unhurriedly gliding on your feet. At
a give moent Ilet m/yself fall on a cluste of pump
X which stike m I y stomach violently hiding them
1 10
from your sight. Ten I tear them up ve quickly, 1 pull
at the stalks, 1 throw them B far B !can crawling over
the vegetables while swallowing one inunediately vomited
whole cruing them between mly powerful palms caus
ing them to burst B water-pray ad pips, then I run
upright, Itrample them aU under your eyes, 1 come and
go ardently destroying the entire crop that you have
requisitioned for the island. Then you look at mle, then
you curse mle, you invoke against mle infeal Perse
phone th triple godes, your knees your fsts batter mle,
there i m exploion at mly temples, your hate-flled
words D in mly eas, I see your eyes and mly knees
m I y most intractable one buckle fnally before you.
Against your ankles deeply ebedded in the ground
there occurs a movement, particles separate, small stone
are loened. The frst snake to coil itself round one of
your ankle bblack glistening bearing orange bands. It
twines, it circle, it thrusts it fork-tongued mouth against
your calf, it gains the bed of your knee and there sup-
I I I
pr itelf, it winds aound your knee, it reaches your
thigh whee it touche the interal muscle a the
adductor on the inner side. Te debris accumulate
the bae of your legs. Your other leg is seized covere
with ring ligated. Hundreds of aperture now lead to
within the shifting ground. Tree snake, then eleven
then score crawl out. A a black and bear orange
bands. Tey prmptly advance their mouths over the
grund which they baely touch. Their writhings bring
the against your legs. They enlace you. At a given
moment they cover you 8 over. Some dangle slackly
from your immobilized forearms. Others decend on your
t, glide between your breat. Some wind between
your shoulderblade. One of the is wound right round
your neck. Another seeks to touch your eye coverd by
your hair. At the f contact a shudder spreads over the
surface of your s to your etire body, your hair
follicle erct and the tip of your brea. Your skin
register anothe serie of reaction a barely perceptible
watey oze above your lip at the bends of your elbows
and your knee then a streaming perpiraton a shower
of sweat soaking your hair your arpit and your pubic
feece trickling down your legs over the ma of snake
dropping to your feet moistening the shifted e.
Finally green violet red s appear in patches, your
throat is stained at the carotid, your s fake at a
growing numbe of place. Te snake have fnaly con
ceale evey pat of your boy. The in your tum you
begn slowly Vcoil and uncoil m/y mot foul one sinuou
black orange.
1 1 2
I walk ove the black e. It is strewn with cherry
blos om. lok at the black and humid earth touched by
m/y bare feet. I a halted by contact with something
soft. Unde the soles of m/y feet see your eyeballs thee,
I have embedded the somewhat. Deprived of eyeids
you gaze at m/e in the mounds of e your eye gaze
at m/e, start back, bend down, I throw m/yse1f fat
on m/y face to gathe them in the hollow of m/y hands.
It is your cloed lips thrown a little further of that m/y
hands touch. Your whole body is in fragments here,
pick up your hair in hadfuls, your nose is at some
distance, your face is a dispersed. begin to cry o

t
with 8 m/y might, crawl along the ground m/y h
on end. I recognize one of your arms then the other. I
fnd your two breats your severed throat, Itouch your
outspread hands, your thighs are here, your knee your
legs a intact. collape over your belly, tears of blood
fow over m I y cheeks, call to you in a strident voice,
m/y heart make m/e feel like death leaping into m/y
mouth. I perceive your ear. I cover them with kises.
Your body i spread still warm bleeding over the entire
surface of the ploughed feld. gather you up piece by
piece. reaMeble you. Ilick each of your part sullied
by the e. speak to you. a seized by'vomiting, 1
choke, 1 sriek, Ispea to you, 1 year for you with such
1 1 3
marellous strength that all of a sudden the piece fall
together, you don't have a fnger or 8 fragment missing.
Then 1 begin to breathe into your half-open mouth into
your noe your ears your vulva, 1 breathe without cea
ing lying here on you naked in the black earth. Cher
blosom falls on you, 1 brush it aside.
Sappho when 1 beeech her causes a violet lilac-smelling
rain to fall over the island. 1 do not seek the shelter of
the tre under pretext of ecaping the moisture O to
contemplate the diver signs multplying between earth
and sky. 1 stad hea eect, mouth open, thank Sappho
the ve tende goddes while you m/y very radiant one
hold m/y hands. Te clouds are hardly ay daker than
the water dripping from them, the sun light them tran
paetly, the hla their exact replica the other way
round violet rounded, the olive-tee seem paler by con
t more silver tha ge You UW m/y hands to
undo my girle, you reove m/y clothe, 1 watch you
dong this, you too are nake, your skin is white in the
1 14
THECCKICKI CAVEKNCSATHE
VAGINAL ULS THE SKELETCN
THEVEKTEKALCCLUMNTHE
CLAVICLESTHE KIS THE
STERUMTHEHUMEKITHEKADII
THE ULNAETHE CAKIALS THE
METACAKIALS THE IHALANGES
THE LIACCNESTHEIELVISTHE
SACKUMTHE CCCCYXTHE
EMCKATHEIATELLAETHE
IULAETHE TIIAE THETAKSALS
THEMETATAKSALSTHECKURALS
TEMASTCIDSTHECKITSTHE
IATELLAETHEMCNS IUIS TH
VULVATHE WCMTHELADDEK
T INTESTINES THE KIDNEYS
THE SILEENTHELIVEKTHE GALL-
LADDEKT STCMACH THE
LUNGST HEAKT
violet light, your lips ae mauve, the chetnut of your eyes
i mauve your hair is brown mauve, you r your B
you begin to stir singing, you whistle between your teeth,
you sing, loudly I p Sappho the all-attetive, you
recapitulate m/y phrae in your song, you spin the
out, you modulate them inteinably, you rotate on
yourself, the water strike your cheeks your shoulders
your breats your belly your back your buttoks your
thighs your calve, violet rings appear on your skin, they
enlarge progresively, immense circle cover your etire
body, m/y fngers touch them while you laugh, you lift
your fee so that their sole may be stained in their tum,
you fall backwards on the sand all violet, the inward of
your 8I and thighs is involved, Iinhale you m/y very
odoriferous one, you smell very headily of lilac, Sappho
could have done no better by claping you against her
violet breat, now I lick you, you roll ove ad over,
thousands of grains of violet sand sting your body, you
are aglow with all your fres, your hair your pubic feece
that of your armpits i defnitively violet and when a
they say I lok deep into your violet eye m/y adored
one I do not recognize the, you take hold of m/y
fngers Mthey may touch your boy so Imay failiarize
m/yself with your new appeaance so I may interpret
you m/y mot mauve one, glory to Sappho ove centurie
of ceturie.
1 1 b
.

I ' You a aong the lavender picker. The sun i already

high ove the plateau. I se the rectilinear moveent of
your fle over the red dry earth. The brims of the straw
hat do not fap in the wind. No bird crie. The sea is
visible right in front of you a uniform blue paed by the
light at the foot of the highet clif of the island. I have
abandoned the lookout for the fshing-boats whose arrival
I ought to anoounce with blast of the conch. M/y empty
place at the end of the mole can be seen from evewhere.
I progres in a serie of leaps, oftenet I lie fat on m/y
face at the edge of the feld. I canoot distinguish you
silhouette from the place I occupy. When at last it is
discerble, one of the women sigoals a ret pause. One
after the other they let the large jute sacks fall to the
ground. You, you reain standing turing your back to
m / e regarding the sea straight in front of you. At a given
moment you bring to your mouth the gourd fatened to
your belt and drink slowly. A woma begins to sng in a
very loud voice squatting on he heels. Another take her
fute to accompany the voice. The smell of the lavende
i heady, there is a great moveet of bee wap horet
butterfie. I have to stay quiet hidden. Prently whe
your column advance towas the sea I shall edevour
to apprach you from behind cl g V you ad making
you come to m/e without the other taking m/e Dy
I I7
surprise. I regard your back the nape of your neck your
hair. I experiece a wish to see your eye. Then you tu
round, you look acros to whee I B you march with
great stride, you move towards ml e, now you are run
ning, I hear you call out, you are above ml e, you
dominate m I e with your full stature, you laugh, you fall
on ml e before I have time to speak, your hair trails over
mly eye, the sky I see through it quivers, I feel you
stg mly rbs, you ask m a hising voice if Iwish to
be expelled from this land blesed above all other because
of mly very great folly, you condemn ml e to every hell,
you spit m mly eye, you mle how many times it
will be necesary to depart once more to travel to fd a
place to live, you ask m I e u ! w to die and at the
moent I say ye your strong hand falls on mle, dark
nes coves mly eye, I fee! the cold spreading up mly
thighs.
1 18
M/y fnger are sprea out nailed down, mly palms a
tued towards the sun, the metacarpals the phalage
etended. M/y hands are like star. I see at mly
wrist the blue veins, a broad network on the inside of
m/y m. You apply your new procedure to m/e to
inoculate the sun, the ve and artCrie of m/y wrists
acially dilated. You are obliged to hold m I e on the
ground because of the shaking of mly body. The tips of
your fnger sheathed msupple mirrors. They radiate
they cat,ch the heat they irradiate they bu. M/y veins
and arterie af ected gradually catch fre. A subtle
wath, reaches m/y palms m/y mm/y elbows under
m/y armpits. M/y hert ventricle and auricle suddely
begin to explode. Your lips applied frmly to mly
throat. The heat beome eploive. Colours violet orange
rd perade m/y etre body, m/y eye caught in the
overthrow the fall of inten colouration, the fall they
fall, I receive the on m/y belly. M/y ea lips tongue
abandon mle in ther tu, they bound hee ad thee
on mly breats ad mly thighs. You difue the sun's
fre over ml e, you impoe it on ml e without paus, d
pse throughout the circuit of m/y blood it fatens O
m/y liver m/y lungs m/y spleen. A sell of but
m, now you hold ml e rund the waist, the roating
reache you, a smoke-scree fors before your eye, the
muscle splutter disappearing arund our cheeks. At lat
our blackeed skulls clah together, at lat boneles with
black hole to see you with without hands to touch you
I B you you are m/e irveribly mly bet-beloved.
1 1 9
our
.
lb gatherd
.
under you you progres i mly
dUectiOn, your belly fush with the ground, your ear
are tued back ove your head, a growling isue from
your mouth while you advance slowly halting at OO
st to
.
take cover surveying ml e from abush your
O reting on your forepaws. Your fur bgey streaked
with pola blue save on the belly where it b a golden
beige, it esheathe your nek your skull all round your
cheeks, only your female face is expoed your forehead
n eye cheeks chin lips. At time you leap with your
felme bound to reach mle with your paws sg mle
by the neck, I struggle, I make you roll on mle mly
mouth seeking your mouth. You are the same size a all
the other. But you progres doubled up in kangaroo
fahion. I am seized with a kind of frivolity. I make
etravagant bounds which distance mle from you, they
are not the gambols of kids but precise calculated leap
which might equally bring mle near to you, enjoy mly
springines . And then I fnd it pleaurable when I touch
mly fur with mly mouth, then make m/y way towards
you, I begin to nibble the hairs of your neck of your loins
your belly your back. I lea with you the game cats
play whe they roll up into a ball when they curl up on
theselve when they prepare to pounce on each other.
The posible combinations are very many. A smile un-
120
. 'i
cove your teeth when you leap on mly back taking
m/e by surpriae your claws immediately gripping mle
unbalacing m/e. At B given moment go with you u
bathe. M/y fur impregnated with wate weigbs mle
down. cling to you until your grey hairs drip with water
i their tu. Only your face is dry and sleek, m/y lips
and tongue touch it W I take you in m/y a-
I begin with the tip of your fnge, che the phalange
I crunch the metacapals the carpals, slaver at your
wrists, dculate the ulna with great delicacy,
exert p| on the tochlea, tear away the biceps
from the humes, devour it, eat m/y fll of yo mly
delectable oe, mly jaws snap, swallow you, I gulp
you don. Separated from the acromion both your B
ae detached from your shouldes. You sovereign radiant
you regard m/e. M/y saliva spreds over your breats,
long fragments of feh separate from the muscle falling
over your neck staining your white throat, caefully I
take the btween m/y teeth, I chew them voraciously,
then lok at you and a overhelmed with great pity
toyou M mutilated deprived of both your 8 your
1 21
bust bloodied. The foo you are weighs on mle within
mly stomach, I am suddenly revolted, Ivomit you up,
& great liquid haf-digete stg steaming mas falls
on your belly. You become vey pale at U point you
trow yourelf back with a great cry, tear spurt strongly
from your eye spatteing ml e, you say it i unbearable
to see mle vomit you up, I am overcome by greater pity
than ever, Ibegin to eat you again as fat as I can mly
M adord one Ilick the lat scraps on your belly, Iget
rid of the trace of blood, I absorb you mly very precious
one, I rt you within ml e.
I am at the Glgotha you have al abandoned. You
sleep among the wome a paper tigres , you sleep one
ar folded ove your head your hair wildly dispoe
aund your face, you reemble one of the Gorgons
ter ible pweful ruddy m dream. During peiod
deprved of the aid of your st I lie face to mc
grund, fear grips ml e ad the deir to go on living
with you m garden, not one of you knows anything
O mly aguish, then I implore the great goddes mly
mother and I say mher mother mother why have you
foraken mle, she remains silent while you sleep, not a
breath of wind stir mlY hair, I cry out in mly distres
mother mother why have you forsaken mle, someone
tu over groaning in her sleep, I move crawling toward
the top of the garden, I leave you mly dearest, hardly
have Ileft the place where you lie than I can no longer
peceive you in the expanse of sleeping bodies, now I
shriek ft:to burst mly lungs, not one of you awakens, yet
mly voice isue M powerfully from mly throat that it
injure /e in pasage, I do not recogne it, a red m
come beore mly eye, a blody sweat traveres mly
pore, suddenly it cover mle entirely, mly very tears
dripping in great drop on mly B stain them with
blod, bloody mly saliva falling m strings from mly
mouth, red the mon when she appas uthe sky red the
eath red the night I see all red around m I e, I cry out
in mly great distres mother mother why have you for
saken ml e, I hear nothing but the continued stridulation
of the cricket, the lo cloe-packed crowns of the olive
tree do not separate to make way for her coming to mle
bare-footed her black hair and garments visible between
the pale leave, I tum towards you but you are al
aleep.
1 23
8WmMouttos thathcmDcM8thouaud8o8caWccd8
took ot you. am totay Ovcogcd uthc Dack bgud
O m/y Dody 8 tocd Dy thc Watct Dcd ug u thc
Wgctatou. Do moou, uo 8taM a V8Dc. havc t
8ght o thc 8aud ot, do uot gNcvc thc mhct-
Womcu8 Doat8 dtaWu ug Wth thct ckctug ght8. c
Wchaugugwvctadcm/cDcatm/caWay. bomc-
tm8 a D8h com aou@dc Dtu8h agau8t m/c, ouy
t8 motou 8 gOccgtDc, cauuot tmatc U 82c. hc
uud o thc s Domug8 tumDu@ tU mgacU
Qg8 8utgu@ cutcMm/ye makug m/ycatdmm8
Vtc, a gau at8 thctc, tcvctDOat Wthu m/y
Dtau. 8cck you u thc datk o thc8caaudthc datk 0
thcught Whch cuot d8tugu8h, OOgc tom thc
Watct, m/y hcad 8houdcM t0o mtc a at a m/y
w gu8hugdoWouthcWatOWtb m/yc@ wm/y
a 8ttauug m/you8 to ok a at a gm Dc. You
a uoWhctc udmyout WbtcDody 8gtcadouthc
W mthc WatO yout oudcM yout Dack yug thOc
yout ht dtaggug Dchud yout cy co. Ltcat 8ca-
Wco cbt1g to m/y ucck m/y 8houdctDad m/y Wa8t
m/y guDU m/y thgm. 8hout yout uMc WhOcVO
M uMmadc DtcathmDy mctuou. do uot hc yout
Vocc ctug m]c. c s mutmuM. hOc atc uo
Dtd-at th8 tmc. M 8c8cd Wth hoat8cumWhcb
gmvcuU m/y Vocc 88uug tom m/y thtoat. N]y
mu8c 8tcucd Dy atguc cvcutu0 y mmoD m]c.
hcu 1 8uDmt to tbc gWct o thc Wav. hc WatO
OtcM Dy m/y moutb Dy m/y uu@, 1 cuot 8gt t
out agau, a thc gtm utc @W m/y uttu m/y
8tomach a uvadcd, m/ygactDuMt, thc8kuom/y
y 8gU agM, thc WatO cutO aud cav m/ c. Pu
oD8cuttydcvcogtbc ught om/yDody tcdouDmg thc
othO, 8uddOy t m mm/c that you atc thc WatO
Whch com d gouthc co couDuom/yD0y
m/yvgotou8oucm/y mtctmaDcovcd,t se
that you 'a that Whch OgU m/c uoW aud ot cvct
Wthout m/y dm y o you othO m mgotc
thc @dmw m/c_
Abominable mU I a bled dry by you. Buzzings
afect mly ea the sound of your intennittent gasping
repiration the sound of your frenetic voice, still from
time to time I seem to hear your laughter. You shal not
wring from m le the crie of a sow whoe throat is being
slit. Beside it is too late. M/y areries have been severed,
my veins systeatical y dilated. The platar pene
tibia femoral iliac carotid ulna rad arterie are mot
rudely severed, slashed i the better word. M I y saphenou
feoral iliac axilliary baiIic cephac radial jugular
veins are kept open by glas pipette insere theren.
do not hear mly blood running away. M/y heart i
squeeed sponged, it bounds intennittently or else it
suddenly comes to a halt, it go by fts and start. M/y
blood quit mly brain, it i leached from my face by
mly temporal arterie by mly facial veins, mly cheeks
a hollowed, mly blod leave mly attached limbs mly
a legs groins, it dos not fow thrugh mly intetines,
I a no longer nourished, mly lungs a not oxygeated,
mly breathing is increasingly more difcult. I see how
completey emptie with no more thicknes tha a geo
graphical map mly skin is going to be strtched out taut
by you mly organ al fat fal g spontaneously mly
bone tured into powder crumbling, m I y entire body
now absolutely ready to be fatened with drawing-pin
on your wal , may you be accursed once and for al you
whom clearly see standing sometimes pas your
fnge ove mly fattened body seeking the tace of
foner cas of foner orce.
'
wrench out your teeth one by one, your minucule
short and square incisors your well-deveoped pointe
canines your premolars I arrange them in front of ml e,
one by one Isee the gleaming, they are removed with
their rot to whom should 1 ofer them if not to Sappho
,
,
the mot distant telling her that ras embled they con
stitute the mot living necklace ever to be seen by feale
eye. Iak you which of us shal wear it, you pa your
lip mly mutilated one over your bloodstained g
insert mly tongue into each socket in succes ion, prbe
your wounds, mly lips mly fnger receive your blood,
with mly mouth with mly hands 1 mae rd maks and
trace on your body, your mouth bleeds without stopping,
you do not complain mly so silet one, you regard mle
fxedly while in great hate Icover your body with great
signs, while I a all goosefeh, while seize the smal
sreds of your ripped fesh between mly intact teeth,
while you sile horribly at mle you mot beautiful of
all women.
127
THE CESCPHAGUS THERAIN THE
CIKCULATICNTHE KESPIKATICN
THENUTITICNTHE ELIMINA-
TICN THE DEIAECATICN THE KE-
PKCDUCTICN[X + X =X] THE
KEACTICNS PLEASUKE EMCTICN
VISICNSMELLTASTETCUCH
HEAKING THE VCCAL CCKDS THE
CKIESTHEWAILINGSTHE
MUKMUKSTHEHCAKSENESSTHE
SCSTHE SHIEKSTHEVCCIIEKA-
TICNSTHEWCKDSTHESILENCES
TE WHISPEKINGS THE MCDULA-
TICNS THE SCNGS THE
STIDENCIESTHELAUGHSTHE
VCCALCUTUKSTSTHE LCCC-
MCTICN
128
I
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The women carry m / e by force to the theatre in the
middle of the garde. I stugle. Mo t one mo
m/e and holds m/e sti1 Tee they lay m/e ea me
ground lb te togethe & gag in m/y mouth com
pelling m/ e to lok. Your entire boy i fe pte m
an iridecent block of plastic. I see your wide-pen eye,
I see your smiling mouth, I see your hair foating a when
you D I see your B spread on either side of you
your legs halted in mid-stride, I see your belly, I see your
M I your shoulder, I see your breat. The sun
make the whole block shine, your cheeks sparkle, your
eye Bdazling. Then I fant away. The women compel
m/e to go on looking at you making m/e regain con
sciousnes . I try with all m/y might to cry out. The gag
choke m/e, I struggle, I tug at m/y bnds, I weep with
great sb, I look at you in your full height you lom
over m/e, m/e cast at your feet, I lok at you and I se
that you lok at m/e too, m/y heart jolts, something
explode in m/y chet, s you are alive thee completely
imprisoned in that matrix by what mea goddes e, you
are alive, you look at m/e day of horor and joy, I
stuggle een a they fnaly unte m/ e, I r toards
you, I ebrace you, I spea uyou, you do not str, you
look at m/ e, I see your eye co enough to touch you.
I round towards the women groupe at the fot of
the statue, I clasp their knee, I implore the ve loudly
weepin to place m/ e with you thee inde that matx.
1 29
I amshe who holds the secret of your name. I retain its
syllables behind mly cloed mouth even while I would
rather cry them out over the sea so that they might fall
and be sombrely engulfed therein. The pitching of the
boat displaces the violet image of the moon from here to
there to one or other side of it . I sit up again, I
regard the sky, I implore you. I can no longer bear alone
the burden of the name which designates you mly very
beautiful one your neck your cheeks your gaze your
glance your shoulders your breasts your a your belly
your sex your back your buttocks your thighs your legs
your ankles your bare feet. You stand upright beside ml e
on the deck your ars folded aros your breat without
speaking challenging mle to break the silence brutally
to impres on it the syllable of your accured name. You
smile your lip baring your teeth your head fung back
now and again tos ing your hair. You have no fear of
mle, you say, now while the sharks cruse inces antly in
the d,eepst silence in the waters of the sea. Their violet
bulks move rapidly retung to their point of departur
making the boat the point of intersection of their com
ings and ging. At a given moment you illuminate the
with a powerful lap a luminous staf. Intantly they
scatte, then they T decribing ever-decreasing circle
around the boat. You M your submachine-gn, you
1 30
hold it straight before you ag it at the boie of the
sharks, you follow their movements the crackling of the
bullets mag your forC your arms your shoulder
shudder. Several of them are hit and collide in their
attempts to fee. The sea lit up by the lamp b stained
with their orange blood while they arive in increaing
number crowding now beneath the boat creating such
eddie that it i in danger of capsizing you fring on them
teth clenched a soft whistle issuing from your lips. I
begin to. sing in a loud voice carried away by the combat
with extravagant geture raising mlyself up and drop
ping down on to mly heels then suddenly upright again
erect tense mouth open to shout your name once just
once mly dearst one, you can prmit it before what I
know must be the deouring of our bodie by the im
patient creature. It bthen, changing your target divin
ing what I am about to do, that you tur the barrel of
your weapon againt ml e ferce silent cating ml e out
into the silence of the infite sphere sole bearer of the
secret of your name alone with you mly mot unknown
now and for ever, so be it.
DaVc u0t tDc tcc00m 0 !Dc CIly m tDc gaCc WDctc
y0u Vc. Dc W0mcu DaVc D0uc0 a 0IBmy 8tO
m]ym8_c. 0W t Um 0u !Dc V88t 8guaIc, I 8cc t, lDc
amm tcaCD m]ycct, !Dc 8m0kc cuVc0g8 m ]c, tbt0u_D
8ugDut-C00utc0 C0u08 I gctCcVc lDc 0cuc CI0W0 I
Dcat tDc 80tU 0 ]0y0u8 80u_8 WDCD tI8c t0 !Dct l.
Dcy baVc Uatc0 tDct UtcU 88 a 8_u 0 8a!8aC!0u.
30u B u0WDctc 0t c8c y0u & D0u_ 0VctC0mc Uy
08ttmau0 Duma!0u 8ccku_ tDc 8ba0c 0 tDc _aI0cm
M0 tDc 80uu0 0 WatO 0u tDc tctt8Cm, 0t c y0u atc
uu0ct 8ttCt 8uWcauCc Dc0 u 80mc gaCc C0u8ttauc0
t0 Dt tDO u tDct 80u_ m 0c8tD u WbCb tbcy U
m]c mU t0m bIDU. utt Wctc Ucttct m]y 80 8cmtVc
0uc tDat y0u WcD Um0 tatDO !D8u WatCb W0c-cyc0
WDat I O0utc at tDct UcDmL Dc amm DaVc tcaCDc0
m]y uaXO Ucy m]y Wa8t m]y Utct8, U8tO8 0D
WDctc !bc s Uut8t W!b a 08_u8tu_ 80uu0. ]y Uut
t0Ck8 m]yUaCk Dc0 at aWay g Uc atc uV07c0
u tDct tuD cuVc0gc0 u !Dc amm tDc cuttc 8ku
O_ ta_mOtc0, 0uy m]y tDt0at au0 aCc 8U
cmct@ utaCt. Dc tc !akm D00 0 m]y utm!um, I
WDtbc u 80W 8uw008 m0VOOU, I W ug, I 0f0g
00Wu, !Dc gcI0tatm m]y CDmt 8Daku_ m]c t_Dt
tDt0u_D, UO I HM t0 WOg tcM u 8uCOt guauIty
t0 m 8cVOa f, I C0gau u a Vcty 0u0
V0Cc u @tcat tcV0t au0 au_O a_8u8t tDc WQ tbcy
00 m]c Um0c y0u gM8t !bc uy !Dc 0ggt0Utum
W!b WDO !Dcy uODcm m]c at a tmc WDcu !DOc
& u0 0u_ct auy ca, I O 0ut ct tbO 00 t
tbQ m R tDO 0Oy m] c W!D 8uCb @cCt mO-
132
Cu0wum !bat u0 Dm 0 m]uc W Umau 0u tDc
c 0 ttaCm u !Dc mO0ty. ut u tbc 8cCtct gtVaCy
0 m]y U00y 1 DcaI a 80t au0 uI0u8 _I0Wb_, y0ut
uamc gOVa0m au0 M8tm m]c, _Vcu tbat y0u m]y
0c 0uc tctau 8u0 DatU0ut m]c WtDu y0u I bVc
0t cVct u tDc mcm0t 0 tDc CcutuIm, 80 Uc t.
c cyc 0 y0ut 8t0maCb 8 Cc0. k U WaUby 0.
Dc _t0c 0cym tDat 8ttctCbm t0 0uc Dg utbc 0tbO
Uc0W y0ut uaVc tc_at08 m]c WD0c. 1t0W8um 0Vct-
t8km m]c. 8Dc m]y ucCX M0 Dca0 Wtb a m]y
m_DL 1 aggy m]y m0u!D u tbc cym 0 y0ut UO y.
makc!bOt0 uu0ct m]y b_0uc U 0uc. Dcy WatCb
m]C tDcy al D_u t0 8Dc0 tar t0_ctDct, 1 8cc !Dcm
0W 0Vct y0ut tD_D8 au0 ko WDc y0u au_D Wtb
y0ut 8u_c m0utD, Cmg m]c W!D y0ut W_c DM0. 1
8uD0uu0c0 Uy tbc UD Cc m y0ut mutgc cym.
A Uuc Da0 m t0m U mau00 Wb!m. JDc cym
c0_u_ y0ut guU8 atc C0M. aCD cyc u tDc 00 m
t
yout cDoW WatChc8 m]c. Pt yout Wt8U thc d8 o thc
Q WhCb aCCwgauy thc movOcuU o yout haud8
uttct. 8cck yout mouth Wth m]y mouth. gctCcvc
thc tWo cyc8 o yout aCc, thcy WatCh m]c. cakum
ovctCom m]c. ovug aWay tom you 8cc that a
thc cy o yout Dody atc hXcd attcutvcy ou thc
dctcut autouomou8 gatt8 o m]y Dody u thct aCtOm
mtcatoutoouc auothct. ]ymu8C cCtcd8uddcuy
Couvu8c. 8cc d8tuCty thc gcam o yout cy taugcd
aoug thc u8dc o yout thgh8, thcy 8tatc at thc 8ku o
m]yDcy Co8c Dy. sethcvgo thc oCuat DtaCc-
cU atyoutauk. 8o thctWoougtow WhCh dCcud
tom yout 8houdct5 to thc tg o yout Dtct8. ]y
cttc Dody8tddcd Dy yout gaZc. tmmoDZc8 m]c.
Pm8t ComDOotc m]y cy. baCkumt m]c tOm
thc Dutothc hooWo m]you8, am dZZy, tottct,
U to Comgc yout cy m a Couvc@cuCc, Dut at U
gut m]y a g ouc you 8uddcuy d8utcgtatc m]c
youtcy hXcoum]c.
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1 havc 8uCh a dc8tc to Wccg that a gau CatCh thc
utcDot o m]y thot m]y aDdomcu, thc tc 8tatt
tomm]ycy, thcy uuudatc youtomaDovcdoWWth
matvcou8 otCc, thcu ok at you, you atc ou thc
othct 8dc o th8 Watct, 8oou you ucat m]c m]y
tca hcaVy ou yout cct makug you 8t, thcj
8oakyouthatyoutguDChat8 youtatmgt8, yout damg-
cucd s CIaDgc8 U 8mc. Dcgu to hod you at atm8
cugth, Comgc you tomovc aWay tom m]c. Yout g8
gatt ovct yout Wc-8guattd tccU, thcu 8omcthDg gto-
vokc8 mc to gut yout gct8ou atogcthct 8cc What
you a cugagcd u doug, you hc yout tccth uudct yout
tcttaCtcd g8, thc du Wht8h du8t o thc cuamc Mu
nm yout mouth, you 8hatgcu yout tccth, you 8tog to
ok at m]c, a thc Whtc dcDtu cXhacd Dy you CatCIc8
m]c u u aCc, huttcdy ogcu m]y cy to ok at
you, you atc8tucatDy, you 8mc uCcMauty Wthyout
goutcd tccth, m]ytcat8 hoW aucW, Wccg Wth uCtc-
ug atdout Whc yout haud8 touCh m]c, Whc you gto
vokc m]cWth yout 8m aud Wotd8 toWccg 8t motc,
Dut you kuoW t you kuoW t, CatCh yout 8Ckuc88, you
XuoW t M 8o 8Ck tom you that am cXttcmcy
haggy.
You atc gcut at thc CctOouy o thc vuv mt aud
ouud. WcWy-attvcd u thc 8aud you a uuamat
Wth thc ttua. mc you 8t ou thc gt Ddc m]c,
13
5
try to keep you infollled mly voice barely making
it he adst the sund of the mthe fute the
sident voice. Te vulva are repreented by blue yellow
gree black violet red butterfie, their boie are the
clitorise, their wing are the labia, their futtering repre
sts the throbbing of the vulva. Like you mly refound
one mly dearet the butterfie retur from a long
jourey. Te brown and yellow Caberwell beautie the
beautful violet and pink paas ians the modet grey
yellow alucite the snowy bombyxe the giant orange
blue ultaarine yellow pink violet urania the blue
M the peacocks with their lare ocelli the swallow
W splashed with black red blue the mauve orange
violet ge red admirals barely visible for a moment so
rapid is ther fight, the prietes welcome the on the
island shore. Tey we violet dalmatic. They dance
clapping their hands their bare feet touching the sand
slowly rsing and falling. Te butterfie implore e
treated not to make the fatal voyage acrosthe 5 retu
in clouds, they obcure the M until dispersed over the
gardens their separate colour become appaent. Te
prietes e W the welcome and long life. Te C
hauste butterfie alight on the shoulder of the wome
preent. Your a ae covered with the. Then mly
adored mly mot marellous one I show you how to
pick the up without spoiling their wings, 1 lick their
be delicately to give them new strength. Five blue
a
g
pise on your spread fnge. Te crie the
laughter the songs make it difcult mhear you when you
begin to sng in a very low voice
136
They let their ears drop on their shoulder, you, you
approach, you toch their lobe, the they move them
against their c1Ieeks their shoulders and further back
against their hair and necks. You teae the, you nibble
their ear. you lick them, you blo on them, with angelic
patience they move the U of their mouths sucking
you on the lip the c1Iee ad brat addres ing you,
you do not undetand them, you take mle to tak,
laugh, 1 se their gae fed centre on you, sme of
the are compelled to move ther heads i orde to
you for their pupils are immobile, whe you start to leap
m the they tu from side to side to follow your
moveent, you tug at ther neklace of teth, your
hands C the fece of ther bI whic1I reeble
that of your pubis. You I your fnger on the butte
fie stuck to their shoulder, one of the ma Mrat
applie to he c1Ieek, se take your hand that you may
cares it, a you finc1 she make you induceet with
her mouth ad it suctorial Um, and 1, 1 laugh leaning
backwars bcause of U, irritated, you jotle ml e, you
thro you on their group, you tug at their long
lobe C with the grate ee, some of the utte
plaintve cre, they attempt u push you away without
vioece, but by dint mproking te you obtain that
whic1 you dere and speak m i a W loud voce
1
3
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inviting them to do it, it is posible that they have under
stoo since they suddenly fy away holding each other by
the hand in heavy fight fapping their ears at full speed
while you all excited cal to them to wait for you, you
begin to r beneath them, I r to catch up with you,
they are just above our heads in a cloe rank, we run B
fast B they fy, we rival their speed our lung ready to
burt with the eertion, they poise at a given moment
above the ,I se that the B not at all out of breath,
we throw oureve in their a rolling on the ground,
they crush our wheeing chest against the soft tufted
h of their brea, their t nuzle at our ears our
necks blow in our hair to spread it out, I sile mly
marellous one when you ofer your very humid vulva
to their mouths. We Oout and laugh so loudly that the
othe inhabitants of the islad come rn g to join W.
I fall into & deep sleep, I fall into a well full of peume,
mly lids ar before mly eye, I fall into & somnolence
whee m/y meory fail. I do not know your shouldes
your white neck your shadowed eye, I do not know your
138
palms your mOcheeks, I do not know your belly, I do
not know your breat your light brown nipple, I do not
know your back your wide shoulderblade your well
developed buttoks, I do not kno your brown armpits
your pubis your quadrangular feee, I do not know your
vulva, I do not know your square teeth, I do not kno
your wrists, I do not know your sharp voice, I do not
know your staight noe, I do not know your lip, I do
not know ,your C I do not know your h, I a
detoye for you, !sleep, I dream O cI am awoke,
I brathe, II produce cyprine, I do not deire you, I a
forgetful m everything and of eveg that conce
you, I am not mO ,I am calm peaceful faccid quiet
incurious neutra full of compoure. ! a an integral
by bloke of fro itself, I do not hear mly blood
circulate mly heart beat, I do not experience the writh
ing of mly V I have not the sallet shiver in mly
ha in mly nape in mly back or in mly loins, no throb
bing grip ml e in mly clitoris, I am perfectly at W, I
a unchoke, I a untouched at ay pint of mly bdy
and at t point in mly discoure I laugh with ferce
inane slet laughte mly mot unknown one, I do not
bae mly te -
1 3
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Your mud-fahioned rise and fall, 1 see sticking out
of their clay the heads and tails of violets, the sky i
visible through the holes which indicate the poition of
the eye in your face. The smells of wet @of sprouting
tubs of rots of rotting bak of leaf-humus excite m/y
sense of smell. Long shudde move and crawl from the
roots of mly hair to the sole of mly feet. M/y lips slide
over your clayey cheks. Your teeth each with the round
nes and plish of pebble in a strea fall one by one
into mly mouth. You move gliding on your haunche
the iliac bone visible made of hard wo of box or iron
wod. You exhale an acrid sulphur-tating smoke in
which move ohre gleams. Grains of sand isue in thou
sads from your open belly. Your hand covers mly hand
with glistening trails silvered with a kind of drool. !
adore you like a gdes monstrous with rttennes, you
torent ml e with a slow love, deire for you grip ml e
with each of your writhing, 1 recall your pale cheeks
your sombre gae your white belly. Then 1 tear the
fowe of the daise in hadfuls frm the feld where
they have sprung up high, running come to you, 1
anoint them with saiva, 1 bury them in your breat of
soft e, 1 spit on your thighs, make them shine by
rubbing, 1water your brwn back your loins your but
tu with urine, mly palms smoth you from above
dow, veneate you, enteat you, 1 fxedly rgard
your jaw opning ad cloing in rgula noiselesmotion
without ay sound reaching mly C The over-dry
fnger bgin to drp from te ends of your arms. A pain
gp mly breat, C no long bear your gaze mly
t

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THEOAITTHEWKITHINGTHE
KUNNINGTHE LEAIS THE CUNDS
THERETKEATS THE GESTICULA-
TCNTHETKEMCKSTHECCN-
VULSICNSTHETHKCWNGTHE
KAWLINGTHE TUSSLE THE GKII-
INGTHEHAMMEKINGSTHE
LCWSTHEEMKACESTHE MCVE-
MENTSTHESWIMMNGTHE
SHCULDEKS THE NECKT
CHEEKSTHEAKMIITSTHEEND
CTHEELCWSTHEAKMSTHE
WKISTS THEHANDSTHEISTSTHE
KNUCKLES THEANKLES THE
KNEESTHECLAVICLESTHEEYES
mot perfect one, I make hole in you with mly fsts, I
piee yu through and through, cure you in the eces
of mly adoration, dismantle you, I tear from your
shoulder the great tee-branche all covered with wet
leave, I cat you in pieces to the ground, I crush your
neck your face, I make you re-enter the ground whence
you spring s a never to retu, puncing on you !u -
ened dry-eyed fallen from the top of the grave, thus I
you mly most handsome monster and I feel the long
worms attacking mly belly sucking at mly viscera in
succes ion.
A salt fals on you multiple disp, reache you
O by cell, the water faIls gently, your skin stuck
multiply taute, you contact, your loins stir, long move
ment travee the length of your back to the throat the
plexus the belly, grow, I fall on you with redoubled
blows, sto lightings tavere ml e, your s cackle,
your whole body t to water, I spread out over you
from top to bottom, I spill like a fountain, I H poured
142
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ove you with a great noie, the entire cumulo-nimbus
burts, the m of wate spreads, the shower grows, the
water fows in long jets in drops M close a to be in
divisible, eddies form at numerous place in your body,
your s become hollowed, it elaticity allows craters
to develop, at lat I roll in geat globule on your body,
I hurl m/yself slapping at your shoulder, 1glide around
your iliac bone, make hollows above your breats,
I str areund in your belly whee U new-fored pols
tickle and overfow on to your fanks while eyes cloed
muscle ;tense you reist with all your might, begin a
brief O, emit a sudden cry, I make a modulation,
ululate, suddenly I B become a stor, I menace you.
Then you spring up, you halt, you move, you edeavour
to ecape, you are m again, you strugle, but already
the lightning faIls on u in daz ling fahe, fah fash
blinding your blod mly bloo, it spills from its conduit,
it spreads ove our eye, our hearts begin u throb to
gether in our citori.
14
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The women C all 5 you stding before mle, looking
at
.
mle your norils inhaing mly peume sreading
Wde whenever you do s and your head bthrow back
the blue sunlight falls on mly pale blue fowe, th
sound of the inects buzing i suddenly mufed, you
approach your hand to touch the petals nearet you but
you immediately withdraw it, the of mly fower
tautens spreads on evey aspect, mly calyce closed like
a beak like the lip of the vulva Bsurrounded by a fat
blue completely diaphanous aureole Your fnger slay
out, thu they alight on a heap of mly fowers a cluter,
you utte B cry, you lack the impulse to withdraw your
hand, your fngeip the dm of your palm a touched
by the N of mly sieck fower, then your entire hand
plunge into them up to the wrist then the other now
.
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you progres Wth both hands aong the cluster, when
fnally your whole boy advance both a plunged up
to the shoulde in the thick of mly fowe, take you
utterly by surprise, your breats are touched your throat
btouched, your belly i touche, your loins are touche,
your buttocks are touched, suddenly the nape of your
neck i very heavily burdened with an arful of mle a
mas ive branch, a you advance the cacade of mly
fowe clo over you, your head to become sub
meged, a terribly tal big strong, you do not cm
plain while tickle over you M fowers all colours all
oours. You mly so deired one legs pliant you submit,
e bt you sy L WU while surfeit you ad
rttcm mlemam, amen.
'44
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I am she who bellows with her three hor, am the
tiple one, am the formidable benevolent inferal one,
a the black the red the white, am the very great
Upwerful one she whose noxious breath ha poisoned
thousands of geneations so be it, am seated in the
highet of the heavens in the starry circle where dwells
Sappho of the violet cheeks, as with her the stars' daz le
pale mly cheeks, am the soereign one, thunder with
mly three voice the clamorous the serene the strident,
but immediately relinquish mly indubitably hierarchi
cal position at your arrival, raise you from your kneel
ing poture, tear your mouth from mly knee, possesed
by a lively fever cat m/yself at your feet from which
mly tongue licks the dust, say blesed a thou among
women who a come the frst to release mle from mly
condition glittering maybe but sombr nonetheles
because of mly very great solitude, may you loe the
sense of moring and evening of the stupid duality with
all that fows threfrm, may you conceive yourself a
at lat see you over the greatet posible space, may your
undertanding ebrace the complexity of the play of the
star and of the feminine agglomerations, may you your
self i place strive in a frenzied confrontation whether
i the shap of the angel or the shape of the deon, may
the muc of the sphee envelop your stuggle, may you
'45
not loe your way ill pursuing the stillbor, may the black
star crown you fnally, giving you to sit at mly side at
the apogee of the fguration of lesbian love mly most
unknown.
Your boy is bristling with it long i spike,
your evey moveent make the clash together, I re
gard you thu, you a immobile bizarre your eye quite
cloe, I have barely to touch one of the spike here or
thee, your s bgins to quiver, rapidly the gooefeh
spreads, it cover your etire boy, I touch the iron at a
increasng numbe of point, I do so a lightly a I Cg
your body come u life, in short I compel you to stir,
I ksyour eyelids, I compel you, I orde you u lok at
mle, whe your eye open oppoite mline vertgo take
ml e, I speed the movement of the wire, I pres them, I
push o the, I eve dig the in place into your
muscle, you quiver, you stifen, you do not Oout, mly
hands do ther work ove your body, your mouth
uncover your teeth, your neck tauten, your head falls
back, you a s with B slow soft moveent, the
146
bulge of your thrat is sucked by mly mouth, you are
agitate by violent teors, I see you all bristling with
the meta spikes, you resound, you are seized with
frenzied movement, you struggle until I fall on you, then
we writhe against each other, ! fnd m/yself wounded
in mly tur by the wire that pierce you, mly skin is
rapidly avulsed, I become red with blood, I am fayed
from top; to bottom of mly body up to mly neck, the
round Juscle the long muscles, al the fbres of mly
muscles laid bae can be enumerated, I begin U hiccup,
you do ot releae mle, you hold mle against you in
such fasion that I begin to be transfed mly most in
eorable ;one with such insistence that at this point I fnd
nothing to say, unles it sufce ustate mly mot memor
able one that I do not seek to ecape you.
Te kaledocope gae conist of inserting a handful of
yellow blue pink mauve orange green violet fies beneath
someone's eelids, mline for instance. They are really
14
7
!Dj m mDu!c u8cCt8, !Dct gcCuIatItj m u !Dc
UUD!cm!j0!Dct C00uM. 30u gaCc !DOUc!WcO
m]j cjcd aDd m]j cjcU8 dmg!c m]j gt0!m!at0m
aDd au_Dtct. A 800D m]j Id8 mcc! DcOc!Caj
0Vc aDd Uc0W !Dcj Uc_ID !0 d_ct. Dc mauVc 0Dc
0t D8!aDCc gt0_tm8m WtD cXttcmc 80Wum , aD0tDO
0Dc jc0W ct8 8aj Uc_D8 !0 dmCtIUc 2I_2a_8, aD0tDct
t0!a!m 0D tDc 8g0!, !Da! 0Dc8 0t8D_c, !Dctc8 0Dc tD8!
8j8tcma!Caj !taVcI8c8 !Dc u!ctI0t 0 tDc gctgDctj 0
m]j cjc, 8!Dc VI0ct 0Dc Dut t8c IuCcaD!j a_aD8t
tDc 8XD 0 m]j cjcId, a gDX 0Dc _c!8 Cau_Dt ug D a
Wc tcat. Dc 8amc tDD_ Daggcm D tDc 0tDct cjc.
YDcD j0u ga0c j0ut D_cttg8 8_am! m]j C08cd cjm
8cc !DO UcC0mD_ tcD2Icd, !ucj 8gD t0uDd D cVctj
dtcCt0D WDCD maXm !Dc C00ut8 CDaD_c tagdj, Vc
D0 !mc !0 gaj attcD!0D t0 a !ct 0ITatI0u8 !0 a
!Dct dI8g08t0m. YDcD j0u gtc 0D m]j cjcUa8 cVcD
WDcD j0u gtcVctj I_Dtj aDWuIaDm0VOcD! 0CCut8
UctWccD m]j cjm aDd m]j Id8, Uut 8DCc tDc Im atc
gt0tO!cd Uj !Dc m08tuc 0 tDc amUcD! mcdum tDctc
8 D0 m8D8g, a! a _VcD m0mcDt !Dc !D_D_ 0 !DcIt
mutIgc cc! !Dc 8uCtI0D 0 !DOt !D0u8aDd8 0 mICt0-
8C0gIC 8uCXcM ttIt8tc m]j C0Dc8 t8 mg0 Uc 0t
m]c !0 tctaD !DO aDj 0D_m, j0u C0cCt !DO m]j
Uc0Vcd 0D B 8Dcc! 0 _8 WDctc m]j!cat8 a.
I am ID tDc C0d 8trcam at uI_D D00D. ]j _uuU 8tc
_88Dcd, tDcj aIc 8D8 Wc8aj mOIc 0t c 8aWD !Dt0u_D
Uj !Dc Wa!ct, t maXm a Cu! a gtcC8c DC8I0D t_Dt
a0tm]jm0utD, m]j !cctD atc aId Uatc, dtaW ug
8uCX D tDc C0d, m]j WD0c 8Cc I8 taCXcd WItD gaD.
CtaW Iu tDc mud aDd !Dc Wccd, !Dctc tc8CD j0u m]j
8ctcDm! 0Dc, j0ut WD0c U0dj 8 Cj guItc at _I_aDtI0
d8!0tlcd Uj !Dc m0VcmcD! 0 !Dc Watct. 8taDd Uc0tc
j0u, m]jtW0 DaDd8 _t88g j0u t0uDd j0ut WaI8!, !Du8
D0d j0uUcDcatD !Dc 8utaCc, 8ccj0ut cjc8, 8ccj0ut
CDccX8, 8cc jOut m0utD, 8cc j0ut 8D0udm, 8ccj0ut
a j0ut c_8. c8gItc tDc da2ZIu_ 8uDI_Dt tDc W8tct
80IdIc8 gt0_rc IVcj 0D j0ut U0dj aDd 8t0uud m]j
c_8, 8_I!atc !Dcm uCm8aDtj t0 gtcVcDt cCc88Vc
DatdcuID_. Pt0uDd u8 tDc Watct 8 CDaD_D_ 8tatc at
CaD se . P!DCX ajct 0 0c D0W cXlcDd8 aU0Vc j0u,
UcDcatD 0Dj a 8I_D! Cuttcu! m0Vm, j0ut D0tI20Dtaj
cXtcudcd atm8 aDd c_8 atc 8tttcd t0m !mc t0 tmc.
YDcD tDc 80IdC8tI0D 0 tDc Watct aggcat8 m m]c
8umCcDtj adVauCcd 0t j0u t0 Uc D0 0D_ct aUc t0
UtcaX tcc, cml ttaCt0D 0D tuc mddc 0 j0ut U0dj,
!Dtu8t j0u a_aD8! tuc U0tt0m 0 !Dc aXc, 80 d0Iu_
ta8c m]j8c WIcDCDIu_ m]j8c t0m !DcCc, ata _VcD
m0mcDt ud m]yc jID_ aCc d0WDWatd u8t aUmc
j0u cD_a_cd D0Xu_ at j0utDt0u_D!Dc !tMgatcD0j,
tDc Watct 8tttcd ug Uj m]jm0VcmcDU 0Vct0W8 t0m
Uc0W 0D !0 lDc Ctu8! 0 Cc WDctc ! 8 Ut0XcD, Dctc
WDctc B cu_a_cd D Wa!CDu_ j0u t 8 !DCX cD0u_D,
jc! d0 D0! Q, D0!c !Dat j0ut m0VcmcDU c m0tc
tagd tDM tDcj Wctc c0tcd 80cj Uj tDc D0W uD-
1
49
d0uUcdj u0ucXl8ltul Cuttcu al lc g!aCc j0u 0CCugj,
j0u UcC0mc a_acd D0WcVO j0u 8tu__c m]j cj
agg!cd 0 Dc 8utaCc 0 Dc Cc 8cc j0uD 0gcu 0u Dc
0Dct 8dc j0u 0X a mc j0u ta8c j0ut Daud8 j0u
gu8D WD a j0ut m_D a_au8 Dc ajct 8U0Vc j0u
Dcat CtaCX WDc c Dc Walct t0uud m]c 8c aud
tcc Uutdcu j0u WD a! m]j Wc_D ju_ 0u j0u
1UcC0c uumUcd u m]jcutcU0dj Uu tcmau Dctc
80W m]y 0 UcC0mc mgt80ucd 80 a8 u 00X 8
j0u 0 UcC0mc uCtcu_j mm0Uc j0u UcC0mc t_d
j0u Nuc u Dc 8uu u DcU0CX 0ic m]jUc8 Uc0Vcd,
j0u atc U0Dc Uju0Cuttcu.
YDcu j0u 0tCc m]c 0 0gcu m]j m0uD j0u d8C08c
m]j8aWbXc cc. Y0u 8aj Da j0u cc uu8d 0 D8
uug_ mu_ a8gcC 0 m]jgct80u. Y0u a!0W m]c0
0t8W j0u 0 m c 0 8a8D @ j 8 j0ut Dt0a Dc
uagc 0j0utucCX j0u a0W m]c0 aj Uatc Dc mu8C
10
, :
0j0ut CDccX8 j0u a0W mc0uC8c Dc WD0c le
0 j0ut a mdc 8ud 0u j0u a0Wm]c0 se j00t
UtcM W0c U0 8gut8 ataM 0 8aN 1u0 m]j
cjc8, j0u a0W m]c0maXc 8u0gOu_ t0uud j0ut
Dcj j0u a0W m]c 0 8cc j00t Wu 8c8mu@
jc0W WDc @c, Dc du0dcuum c 8ma uluc Dc
a@c uuc u0W Dcat Dct 0ud u08 uud8_u8cd
j0u a0W m]c0 0uCD j0ut U8ddct j0u 0W m]c 0
aj U0lD j0ut _D8 j0ut s U uaC tc8dj a
C0Vctcd u j0ut U!00d m]j aCc m]j D8ud8 m]j U08
m]j Dt c m8lCXj. Y0u Uatcj 8_Dj gact ma_u-
Ccu Vctj tc_$ j0u au_D j0u c mc Da a
mgcu 0 maXc j0u 8uO.
YDcu ctDc d8WuDc 8uu 8Uudu_ j0u a tcVcac0
0 m]c u a j0ut _0tj 8Xlu madc 0 8C u Dc
dau_ _D U00d Va_lu uCc 0u_ C0u_ccd 8t8ud8
0u j0ut Ucj dtcd 8glc 0u j0ut CDccX matUc s
C0Vctcd WD 8au8 UaCX cjtmmc WD UaCX CDccX
UaCX dmtc m j0u _Dg m]c uC 8uj WDO D
t0u_ dta__u_ j0ut m 0 Dat j0u a Cau_D Uj
the sun, m/y BQsshoot, they become Belongated gutte,
the uppr lip clings to the lower lip, they fu, the lengh
of m/y single lip Usoon such that it coils on itelf for
ing a spiral crzier, it U a sucke a ver narow trunk, I
apply it lightly to your throat your shoulder your nipple
your belly your vulva, you sigh in your sleep, m/y
fexible antenae palpate in your hair in your ear on
your eyelids, suck up with m/y trunk al the fne
particles which have accumulated on your skin, absorb
the juice while grap you between mly six feet, the
frst two surround your head, the others immobilize your
pelvis against which I thrust mly segmented abdomen,
some of your convulsions split mly chitinous skeleton.
Through the facets of mly eye have no unitary vision
of your body, you are diverifed, you are diferent,
suddenly embody signals from your B fragments of
your belly part of a shoulder one of your labia, 8you
everywher at once, 8 intoxication grips mle, appre
hed you in innumerable morsels, loe m/yself in your
geography, mly trunk palpate you searchingly, clinging
to you thus by mly H feet begin mly delectable one
to fap mly wings against your back, a fne powder of a
dazzling blue spreads over your shoulders into your hair,
mly moement gains efect, disengage you from the
ground, l lift you up, I tear you away, carry you of
fying sound aleep above the sea.
THE MCUTHTHELIPSTHE]AWS
THEEAKSTHEKIDGESCTHEEYE-
KCWSTHETEMPLESTHENCSE
THE CHEEKSTHE CHIN THE CKE-
HEADTHEEYELIDSTHECCM-
PLEXICNTHEANKLETHETHIGHS
THEHAMSTHE CALVESTHE HIPS
THEVULVATHEACKTHECHEST
THEKEASTS THE SHCULDEK-
LADESTHEUTCCKSTHE
ELCWSTHELEGSTHETCESTHE
EETTHEHEELSTHELCINSTHE
NAPETHETHKCATTHEHEADTHE
INSTEPSTHE GKCINSTHETCNGUE
THECCCIPUTTHE SPINETHE
LANKSTHE NAVELTHE PUIS
THELESIANCDY.
1
53
M/y cells enlarge beneath your fnger mly most
atrocious one. M/y skin is covered with ocelli red light
brown plaque, the globule of the cell-nuclei enlarged
thousands of times prvoke considerable perturbation,
they transgres the nuclear membrane, they rll around
in the cytopla of their cells, they emerge frm it by
brute force, see enormous quantitie of shining nucleoli
leaping all around mle, some have dragged with them
the nuclei in which they were imprisoned, from mly skin
ther emerge bodie comparable for the mot part to
glas marble other to taws, bubble for continually at
the surface of mly body touched by your fnger, see
the burt silently on mly a in long orange green
spurt, mly N U etirely covered with water, the
el ed cytoplam fows, M, depressions wells are
dug, your fnger plunge therein precipitately abandon
ing the for other newly-fored, the eddie of arush
in, a slight noise a hssusurations become perceptible,
a the pheomeon accelerates and continue the sound
become a srie of bellowing of whistlings ceasing
aruptly then beginning again, B the site of a great
hubbub, thus become increaingly immobile while you
mly M feocious one mly frenzed one you have an
incomparable speed, you come and go in mly widened
pe in mly alveli in mly cavitie in mly furws in
1
54
mly trenche in mly crevice, you mine mle, mly
surface cave in, step by step it afect mly entire body
mly muscle mly blood mly bone mly vital orga
mly subtance until decomposition is complete. When
you stop mly darling, you will have spongy matter on
your hands and on your arms viscoitie pitch putrecence
bloo lymph bil you mly mot intact.
se the sun shining beten your ribs. The sky of an
intense blue is visible in certain interals of their
arangeent. M/y head is placed on the ground against
you reting the level of your seventh right rib. At this
point the bulge of your thorax is already beginning to
diminish following the decending scale of your ribs.
Ha u come here thousds of time should still run
to the bend in U path from which can see your
skeeton white lying on Uc hilltop. C mc out
!__
the parallel diposition of your rib from afar. A I
approach can distinguish your skull your pelvis your
humeri your ulnae your radii your femora your tibiae.
You are lying on your shoulderblade and on your verte
brae, your iliac bone are prominent. fing m I yself
down beide you m/y bet-beloved, I kis the phalange
of your hands, I look sideways at you just B when we
used to run a long while on the moor of the island and
fing ourselves dow all heated breathles you perfectly
still watching the sky, now your orbits are expoed nose
indented, your small square teeth prolonged by their
bos e over your jawbones. The pink fower of the
heather are visible in the spaces between your bone and
all around you. Once again I a seized with the deire
to take you in m I y BIto kiss your eye your mouth
your clavicle your sternum. L else I hold you vey
close m/y legs againt your legs your ams around m/y
neck, I stay still even when night i come when the chill
and the dew make m/e shiver when no warmth from
you reache ml e while a in life while wait for the
cold to overcome mle so B to remain here with you mfy
so adorable one in U cemetery in the open air m/y
bone mingled with yours.
A solitay mon U sining while I await you beneath
the tall sorb-apple tree. Te white fower of the tree are
brightly illuminated by its violet light. I have hidde
m I yself to watch you ar ive. The sea urugh, it u visible
in the les dak place under the light of the mon there
whee violet po l inces antly for and change. I can t
make out th innumerable light of the fsherome's
I
boats. Yet the must have left gD B the colour of the
beacons indicate. You do not come. Some of the women
pas cloe to m/e without seeing m/e, they sing, Q
dance a they @ ther voice mand break of aruptly,
one of the plays a musica instrment, a fute held
cros-wise I believe. Tey halt under the sorb-apple and
kis each other on the mouth one after the other, then
all together foring a single mouth wish each other a
happy night. A g of wind cause numerous white
mauve peals to fall on their hair and shoulder. They
rpat & phrae stres ing the sound s, vow by the tal
sorb-apple or something like that. The second moo
bcoe visible in its I- Its colour U orange. Very
rapidly it cover twot of the path of t violet
moon. Their two sphere a identica in size. But one
move more rapidly than the other. The colour they
eit do not bled. When the a next m one aother
they a pologed by two luminous cone one violet the
15
7
other orange, they a supeimposed at the brief moment
whe they intersect. You do not come. Unles you a
actually aong the here engaged in singing and danc
ing. [ fing out bth mly a a quickly a [ ca, [ grab
someone whom [ drag acros the gleaming mas of the
rhoodendrons towards mle, [ look at her, [ touch he
bare s, she loks at ml e laughing, it is not you mly
bet-beloved her hair is another colour red or perhaps
orange in the moonlight, he eye are a strager's, she
take mle by the neck and kisse mle, [ do not retrain
her departure. [ catch fve of them i this way, one is
fair her s is white, the othe three are dark ther skin
is black, one alone m the prperty of retaining the
gleas of both mons. P the wome make mocking
geture at ml e, one bites mly neck, another drools her
saliva into one of mly ear, another fegning to depart
leap O mly back, her feet digging into mly loins she
make of mle a gf e to carry he, now [ hea the
singing about someone who confuses esence and appear
ance. [ spit on the ground, [ fing out mly arms for the
l time, it is you you cheat whom [ haul in at lat
silet cold addres ing ml e saying that [ have been kissed
eoug for the night, [ swear by the taIl sorb-apple that
[ sa't be caught again.
!i
.'
Is there no Archimedea to be encountered anywhere that
the baths are so perfumed with eau de Chypre [ never
see you in the cool dark-blue pine-groves which fank
the island, shore, but there in the gloom mly eye relax
from the aylight's dazzle the weight of mly & mly
legs burdens mle no longer when [ ret them on the
pine needles, the mingled odours of the warm resin and
the sea lead ml e to seek you lying beside ml e. But i
fact you are at the baths, it's there [ rejoin you, you are
engaged in foating fat on the war water, [ look at
you, your body stands out against the orange and violet
mosaics, I anoint m/yself with oils and es ences, [ swim,
[ pres mly belly against your back, [ sing, I foat the
now empty perfume vases, I fn them with handfuls of
wate, they remain at the surface though haf-full, then
I add the water in smaller and smaller amounts, slowly
they submere all round you, they are full to the brim,
they sink and yet they remain at the surface, a single
dro would make them founder. [ begin the game all
over again seveal time. Suddenly emerging from your
torr you empty them a fat as pos ible, you place
them on the surface of the water, you cause m I e to
oberve that a body immersed in a liquid sustains B
vetical thrust directed from below upwards, that mly
dearet is manifest to anyone who spends three-quarters
1
59
of the day plunge in the water, but you insist, you say
that the t may be meaured in tenns of the weight
of water displaced, you say' that you have dicovered
therein a fundamental law of our pl)ysical universe, at
thee words can no longer contain m/y laughter, I s
therefore, emerge to thank the Bles ed One the thrice
august since you wman of little faith do not think of
s doing.
She ha let herself be caught in the race tackled by you
loing. Now she sd between you and m/e eye band
aged she b laughing. I touch her shoulder her bU
her neck her hair. You hold her with her back against
you. At a given moment you lift her under the arpits
while I grap her legs. She b bore thus towars the
squar whee the galley of your dwelling opens. In the
galey thee ar simila grup with bearrs and bre.
From time to time a single bearr carrie someone
strtched out between her a. It b the day of the
puruiL It b carried out by drawing lot. Te eye of
thoe who I are bandaged. Tey depa at the trum
pet's sgnal straight before the in the mot ope space
m the island. They can run at full sped without W
160
But thoe who ecape their purue are I. Stone rot
make the stumble and slow the down. Or else the
unaccustomednes of moving so rapidly without looking.
The place where you live ba sort of enlargement of the
galery, smicircular, opening on the sea completely op
with a great circulation of wind of 8of sound. It Uthee
that the pursued ha cat heelf down. She attept to
rse the to fee. You hold he againt the paved for. I
remain lying down. The swet streas on m/y cheks
on m/y back. The sea-breeze cool m/e. her name,
but eraged lat having lot the race she refuse to ae.
I watch he stuggling in your B hear her cl g
for m/y help, I roll against he to ty to grasp he B
her shoulder Oher legs. Finally she burts out laughing,
he muscle rela, she ass for her bandage to be reove
so she may where she U. You m/y incomparable one
you ks her chee wmouh. Nigt fa. One C hear
the sa.
Your B of white-hot steel bur m/y arm, m/y mot
fey one, the fnger of your hand make the feh of mzy
fnger splutter, m/y nails shrivel, m/y Nfae, faIls U
161
g . Yet your contacts with mly boy multiply, you
rard ml e your jet teeth clenched, your bug breath
reache mly lip mly tongue mly palate, soon I a
grippe by thirst. Unde your mouth mly ears shrivel,
mly br mly thighs mly buttocks mly back mly
vulva char. A thick malodorous soke surrounds m/e.
Te mor Ishrivel the moe Ishrink, the more you grw
and develop, your shoulder are immense, your hair of
U foat outpread, your a and hands grow longer,
your head swells, you dominate ml e by your sheer U.
M/y muscles begin to roat, the D soulde in place,
ravage in other, it is fanned by your feverish move
ment, it attacks mly fesh everywhere, mly blood isuing
al solidifed at varous breache fal to the ground a
clot of black red phoporscent stone. You chew mle
up, your lips of radiant tungsten perforate m I e, the long
mucle of mly foreams of mly thighs appear through
the burt s. Under the influence of the intense com
bustion certain vital ors mly liver lungs heart
abruptly petrify and begin to fal. M Iy hair cols in long
steamer on your thighs, your hands are fled with it,
the % it able and char it. M/y bone laid bare be
coe incandecent then fall in pwde. M/y ctoris
detache from its burg hod rolls glinting at your feet
ready to ador one of your fngers in the setting of a ring.
M/y eye ofered to you on a plate ae, you say, delicious.
M/y hair fallen in tufts stcs in your throat choking you,
I melt I dintegrate I a but up mly wretched
Bm yu devour ml e too precipitately.
Tee where the sun can melt the wings of wa you bear
ml CL radiant Felise in the wavering jourey you unde
take with some temeity. It did not sufce for you to
transfonn /e into a fying-machine two pairs of wings
attache tom/y shoulders, and in fact I do fy, you have
take greati Pains to fnd the right viaticum to give mle
stength. That is why you have choen to be on the
jourey holding mle by the nek bore on mly a.
Thus you ecourage mle with your words your kis e
your honee saliva in mly mouth to redouble mly
eforts at intervals to distance m/yseif from the island.
Depite eeg I weaken, I do not know when thi
wl prove fatal. At non maybe when mly breat C
ped mly s but by the sun a at the end of mly
ability mly so black one to cr you in mly a. Or
else at the hour of the sieta when al the women are to
b see reumbent in the shade-fled pine-grove while
I stugge with you against the law w gravity. have
begun to melt. You lick mle alover, al mly h stuck
to yor teeth, you suck up mly boiling ee, you squee
mly breat with one poweful a while with the
othe you hold mle aganst yu u mly now slackeuing
fight. But yu cannot sustain ml C Now instead of rising
I fal le together. M/y a releae you. Not o of
thoe eagle with the menacing eye come to supprt
163
you. ] a the m to succumb, ] fall backwads mly
wings broken you following ml e cloely headft the
woen all very far-of down below standing watching
the mot irremediable fall of all, may the goddes e ensure
that ] that you will be able to hea their crie on reaching
the sea.
It i the woe of group numbr seven who the
mountebanks. Ther cape ther geticulaton ther jugg
ling their eclamation their song ther garent made
of a pachwork of bright colour produce an eddy in the
midt of the bly. incaingly la circle fo
arund the. Each bear the numbe seven make on
Ufrnt of her shoulder. You are one mthem. Among
the spectator ] can like evone else conteplate your
nek your slender nape the efect produced by the volet
inription of the number seven on your tlucet N
16
4
You hold a musical instrument in your hand, a gituit
sees to m/e. Your mouth utte modulation and strid
encie. One wthe women marks the rapid rhythm of the
music by beating the of a tom-tom. You do not lok
at m/e. Your eye are tured in the direction of the sea
which prolongs the principal squae of the island, it is
visible a B pastel blue beteen sno-foeg
cher-tree se in the architecture of their branche
and their infocence. A sudden g of wind shake
them causin the to sed a great quantty of ptals,
their slow fali continue between the now stationary
At a given nomet the song of the group nuber sevn
rises loud, s m0 to all the woen that it U taken
up in unison', ove ad ove again. The circle yield, the
trouper of group number seven led their ball to tho
who W to jugle. Capers are cut by the majority of
the as embly. P are to be M head-ver-heeIs btween
the m the fowebds the fountains. Laughs shout
collon are hea. Someone begin a standing double
smerault. The SO of praline mingled with that of
fowe pceptible thrugh the change of the wind U
very strong. ] you mly radiant one acros the throng.