478
PARTISAN REVIEW
repetition of ourselves, in retrospect always faithful to ourselves.
It is true, then, both that the life of an author teaches us nothing
:tnd that, if we knew how to read it, we would find everything there,
since it opens onto the work.
As
we observe the movements of some
unknown animal without understanding the law which inhabits and
governs
it,
thus Cezanne's witnesses do not guess the tra...'lsmutations
which he made events and experiences undergo; they are blind to the
significance, to this gleam from nowhere which envelops him at
moments. But he is never at his center, nine days out of ten he sees
around him only the misery of his empirical life and of
his
attempts
that have failed, crumb of an unknown festival. It is in the world
still, on canvas, with colors, that he must realize his freedom. It is
from others, from their assent, that he must await the proof of his
worth. That is why he questions the picture being born under his
hand, why he is on the watch for the eyes of others focused upon his
canvas. That
is
why he never finished working. We never abandon
our life. We never see the idea of freedom face to face.
(Translated by Juliet Bigney)
