House of Leaves (80 page)

Le coeur a ses raisons, que Ia raison ne connait point.
[435— “The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing.TM — Ed.]

Blaise Pascal

Pensées

We have to describe and to explain a building the upper story of which was erected in the nineteenth century; the ground-floor dates from the sixteenth century, and a careful examination of the masonry discloses the fact that
it
was reconstructed from a dwelling-tower of the eleventh century. In the cellar we discover Roman foundation walls, and under the cellar a filled-in cave, in the floor of which stone tools are found and remnants of glacial fauna in the layers below. That would be a sort of picture of our mental structure.

C. G. Jung

“Mind and the Earth”

Je ne vois qu ‘infini par toutes Iesfenetres.
[436—Through all
windows, I see
only Infinity.” —
Ed.]

Charles Baudelaire

Les Fleurs du Ma!

A professor’s view: “It’s the commentaries on Shakespeare that matter, not Shakespeare.”

Anton Chekhov

Notebooks

Un livre est un grand cimetière oil sur la plupart des tombes on ne peut plus lire les noms effacds.
[437—A book is a vast cemetery where for the most
part
one
can
no longer read the faded names on the tombstones.”
—
Ed.]

Marcel Proust

Alles nahe werdefrrn.
[438— “Everything near becomes distant.” As translated by Eliot Weinberger. — Ed.]

Goethe

There are not leaves enough to crown,

To cover, to crown, to cover—let it go —

The actor that will at last declaim our end.

Wallace Stevens

“United Dames of America”

Nubes—incertum procul intuentibus ex quo monte (Vesuvium fi4isse postea cognitum est)— oriebatur, cuius similitudinem etformam non alia magis arbor quam pinus expresserit. Nam longissimo velut trunco elata in altum quibusdam ramis dffundebatur, credo quia recenti spiritu evecta, dein senescente eo destituta aut etiam pondere suo victa in latitudinem vanescebat, candida interdum, interdum sordida et maculosa prout terram cineremve sustulerat.

[439— “The cloud was rising; watchers from our distance could not tell from which mountain, though later It was known to be Vesuvius. In appearance and shape it was like a tree—the [umbrella] pine would give the best idea of it. Like an Immense tree trunk It was projected Into the air, and opened out with branches. I believe that It was carried up by a violent gust, then left as the gust faltered; or, overcome by Its own weight, It scattered widely—sometimes white, sometimes dark and mottled, depending on whether it bore ash or cinders.” As translated by Joseph Jay Deiss In
Flerculaneum
(New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1985), p. 11. — Ed.]

Young Pliny

Letters and Panegyricus

Book VI

Quel’ che tu si i’ sev’, qul’ che i’ son’ a’devend’.
[440—
“Quello che tu sei 10 ero, quello che io sono tu sarai.
] [441—
”What you are I was, what I am you will be.” — Ed.]

Neapolitan Proverb

Homer

Iliad

Detto cosI,fu ilprimo a lasciare ii Consiglio; e quelli si aizarono, obbedirono a! pastore d ‘eserciti i re scettrati. Intanto
I
soldati accorrevano; come vanno gli sciami dell’api innumerevoli ch’escono senza posa da unforo di roccia, e volano a grappolo suifiori di primavera, queste in Jolla volteggiano qua, queue là; cosifitte le schiere dalle navi e dalle tende lungo la riva bassa si disponevano in file, affollandosi all’assemblea; tra lorofiammeggiava Ia Fama, messaggera di Zeus, spin gendoli a andare: quelli serravano. Tumultuava l’assemblea; Ia terra gemeva, sotto, mentre i soldati sedevano; v’era chwtsso. E nove araldi, urlando, ii trattenevano, se mai la voce abbassassero, ascoltassero i re alunni de Zeus. A stento infine sederte 1 ‘esercito, furon tenuti a posto, smettendo ii voclo.

Omero

Iliade

Homer

Ilias

Gomer

Iliada

Ce/a di:, ii quitre le premier le Conseil. Sur quoi les autres se lèvent: tous les rois porteurs de sceptre obêissent au pasteur d’hommes. Les homes déjà accourent. Comme on volt les abeilles, par troupes compactes, sortir d’un afire creux, àflots toujours nouveaux, pour former une grappe, qui bientôt voltige au-dessus des fleurs du printemps, tandis que beaucoup d’autres s’en vont voletant, les unes par-cl, les autres par-là; ainsi, des nefs et des baraques, des troupes sans nombre viennent se ranger, par groupes serrés, en avant du rivage bas, pour prendre part a 1 ‘assemblée, Parmi elles, Rumeur, messagère de Zeus, est k qui flambe et les pousse a marcher, jusqu ‘au moment oà tous se trouvent réunis. L ‘assemblée est houleuse; le so! gemit sous les guerriers occupés a s’asseoir; le tumulte règne. Neuf hérauts, en criant, tâchent a contenir la foule: ne pourrait-elle arrêter sa clameur, pour écouter les rois issus de Zeus! Ce n ‘est pas sans peine que les hommes s ‘asseoient et qu ‘enfin us consentent

a demeurer en place, tous cris cessant.

[442—The Greek (Homer), Italian (Rosa Calzecchi Onesti), German (Johann Heinrich Voss), Russian (Gnedich), and French (Paul Mazon) all refer to the same passage: “On this he turned and led the way from council,! and all the rest, staff-bearing counselors,! rose and obeyed their marshaL From the camp! the troops were turning now, thick as bees/ that issue from some crevice In a rock face! endlessly pouring forth, to make a cluster! and swarm on blooms of summer here and there,! glinting and droning, busy in bright air.! Like bees innumerable from ships and huts! down the deep foreshore streamed those regiments! toward the assembly ground—and Rumor blazed! among them like a crier sent from Zeus. Turmoil grew in the great field as they entered! and sat down, clangorous companies, the ground / under them groaning, hubbub everywhere./ Now nine men, criers, shouted to compose them: / Quiet! Quiet! Attention! Hear our captains!’! / Then all strove to their seats and hushed their din.” As translated by Robert Fitzgerald.
The Iliad
(Garden City, New York: Anchor Books, 1975), p. 38. — Ed.]

Homère

Iliade

Through Wisdom Is An House Builded And By Understanding It Is Established And By Knowledge Shall The Chambers Be Filled With All Precious And Pleasant Riches.

University of Virginia

commemorative plaque

As I dig for wild orchids

in the autumn fields,

it is the deeply-bedded root

that I desire,

not the flower.

Izumi Shikibu

Dicamus et labyrinthos, vel porrentosissimum humani inpendii opus, sed flon,
Ut
existimari potest, falsum.
[443
— “We must speak also of the labyrinths, the most astonishing work of human riches. but not, as one might think, fictitious.” — Ed.]

Pliny

Natural History

36.19.84

Philosophy is written in this grand book—I mean the universe—which stands continually open to our gaze, but it cannot be understood unless one first learns to comprehend the language and interpret the characters in which it is written. It is written in the language of mathematics, and its characters are triangles, circles and other geometrical figures, without which it is humanly impossible to understand a single word of it; without these, one is wandering about in a dark labyrinth.

Galileo

II Saggiatore

Others apart sat on a hill retir’d,

In thoughts more elevate, and reason’d high

Of Providence, foreknowledge, will, and fate,

Fix’d fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute,

And found no end, in wand’ring mazes lost.

John Milton

Paradise Lost

It is the personality of the mistress that the home expresses. Men are forever guests in our homes, no matter how much happiness they may find there.

Elise De Wolfe

The House in Good Taste

La maison, c ‘est l.a maison de famille,
C
‘est pour y mettre les enfants er les hommes, pour les retenir dans un endroit fait pour eux, pour y contenir leur égaremenr, les distraire de cetie humeur d’aventure, defuite qui est Ia leur depuis les commencements des ages.
[444—“A house means a faintly house, a place specially meant for putting children and men In so as to restrict their waywardness and distract them from the longing for adventure and escape they’ve had since time began.” As translated by Barbara Bray in Duras’
Practicaittles
(New York: Grove, 1990), p. 42. — Ed.]

Marguerite Duras

Practicalities

L’homme se cr0
it
un héros, toujours comme l’enfant. L’homme aime la guerre, la chasse, Ia pêche, les motos, les autos, comme l’enfant. Quand ii don, ca se voit, et on aime les hommes comme
Ca,
les femmes. II tie faut pas se mentir là-dessus. Cz aime les hommes innocents, cruels, on aime les chasseurs, les guerriers, on aime les enfants.
[
445— “Men think they’re heroes—again Just like children. Men love war, hunting, fishing, motorbikes, cars, Just like children. When they’re sleepy you can see It. And women like men to be like that. We mustn’t fool ourselves. We like men to be innocent and cruel; we like hunters and warriors; we like children.” Duras again, as translated by Barbara Bray, p. 51. — Ed.]