FRENCH WRITERS
Looks tired and two different shades–
The wretch!-
The lady of the house from her bed
Affectionate looks on. She is as a painted
Dream to the dreaming peasant,
A mythical being, an instant's
Apparition, a tale princess
In this late late age, both fair and virtuous.
She drinks with her eyes
And shy, how she shines as she says
She loves the lady,
Her great happiness just to see her lady,
How else can it be
In this world of great compartments
That one such as she
Should see a lady so good and beautiful?
Unenvious, unresentful,
Handsome and thin,
Long-armed like a queen
She sits on the naked floor,
While her son sups like a disinherited heir
In his true princely estate.
French Writers, Summer 1941
Victor Serge
387
ARAGON: decorated-tricolored-lyric-Stalinist-G.P.U. Henri BE–
RAUD: proceeds sternly in
Gringoire:
"English, that patois horn of Saxon
and low Norman...." Julien BENDA: hiding in "free" France (Jew).
Andre BILLY: offers a shadow of resistance with
Figaro
(banned).
BERNANOS: in Brazil, thunders at times over the radio. Henry BOR–
DEAUX: continues to sing the praises of the marshall, etc. Andre
BRETON: has crossed the Atlantic with two works banned by the censor.
L.
F. CELINE: in Paris, official anti-Semitism- best selling. Roland
DORGELES:
Gringoire, Candide,
and all that. Blaise CENDRARS: in
the south of France. Paul CLAUDEL: blesses the New Order with the
Evangelist and the Apocalypse. Drieu LA ROCHELLE: is turning the
