""""ces quelques pas du palier a la chambre d'albertine ces Quelques pas que person ne ne pouvait plus arreter je les fis avec Delices avec prudence comme plonge dans un element Nouveau comme si en avancant j'avais lentement deplace Du bonheur et en meme temps avec un sentiment inconnu de Toute-puissance et d'entrer enfin dans un heritage qui M'eut de tout temps appartenu.""* A winter's night The northern quay The isle of dogs The rabid one is me You sip your drink Undismayed And I just said ""these days my heart seems to be a kind of hand grenade"" Nothing in the air tugs at the tower blocks As you raise your finger and pull the pin Nothing much on earth moves down these desolating docks Do you really think you just scratched your chin? But you were never albertine And I was never poor marcel Who were you that time round Mademoiselle? Monsieur a peur du parfum des princesses And now I act up And you've a winning frown I've contracted love As I'm devoured down Blame my deadening intensity And tell me how you got the part in this My own illicit agony I lay it on pretty thick You spread yourself pretty thin Ducking and dividing under every skin And my final words as you get up and leave ""if you're free as air I don't want to breathe"" Good evening I am the madman in love with your daughter We need to talk Just you and me I saw her last in eden Or some other far eastern quarter Where the river snakes it's way out to sea But you were never albertine And I was never poor marcel Who were you that time round Mademoiselle? * marcel proust - a l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs Those few steps from the landing to albertine's door Those few steps which no one now could prevent my Taking I took with delight with prudence as though Plunged into a new and strange element as if in going Forward I had been gently displacing the liquid stream Of happiness and at the same time with a strange feeling Of absolute power and of entering at length into an Inheritance which had belonged to me from all time. Translated by c k scott moncrieff""