THE HUMAN VOICE
imagine they'reJiving happily with the man they love and who learn
about the break with no preparation-!
knew- .
...
Why, I never
told you, but, heavens, it was right at the dressmaker's, in a maga–
zine: I saw her photo .... On the table, wide open at the right
page . . . . It's human, or anyway feminine . . .. Because I didn't
want to make a mess of our last weeks together .... no. Perfectly
natural .... Don't make me out better than I am .... Hello! ....
I can hear music .... I said, I can hear music .... Well, you ought
to rap on the wall and stop those neighbors from playing their ma–
chine so late at night. They've fallen into bad habits because you
haven't been living at home .... What's the use? Anyhow, Martha's
doctor is coming back tomorrow .... No, darling, no. He's a very
good doctor and I see no reason for hurting his feelings by calling
in another one .... Don't worry about me .... Why, yes ... .
why, yes .... She'll give you any news .... I understand .... I
understand .... Anyway, this time I'm being brave, very brave ... .
What? .... Oh yes, a thousand times better.
If
you hadn't called
me, I'd have died .... No . ... wait .... wait .... Let's find
some way ....
(She is pacing back and forth, moaning in agony.)
.... Forgive me. I know that this is an intolerable scene and that
you're being so patient, but believe me, I'm suffering, suffering so
much. This telephone cord is the last thing that connects me with
us .... The night before last? I slept. I had gone to bed with the
telephone .... No, no. In my bed .... Yes, I know. I'm very
silly, but I had the telephone in my bed because, after all, the tele–
phone connects us.
It
goes to your house and since I had your promise
to call me. Well, you can imagine all the silly dreams I had. That
phone-call turned into a real blow: you hit me and I fell down.
Or it was a neck, a neck you strangle,* or I was at the bottom of an
ocean that looked like the Auteu.il apartment, and I was attached to
you by a diver's air tube and I was begging you not to cut it-silly
dreams when they're told, but real enough in sleep, and terrible ....
Because you are talking to me. Here are five years that I've lived be–
cause of you, that you've been the only air
I.
could breathe, that I've
spent my time waiting for you; imagining that you were dead if you
*
The puns in this passage defy translation. The play is upon
coup
(phone–
call),
coup
(a physical blow) and
cou
(neck). The original: Ce coup de telephone
devenait un vrai coup que tu me donnais et je tombais, ou bien un cou, un cou
qn'on etrangle... . [D.F.]
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