They call me crazy! Yes! I hear the reader now–
Or blasphemous , you scold with furrowed brow.
Madmen yourselves, if truth can make you laugh.
The Lord is everywhere, and with the worst riffraff.
To feel God in oneself, to hear Him, to reply,
Whether at the movies, in the street, at a cafe ,
This common miracle shouldn't start a fuss:
Out of church , God's everywhere, and speaks with us.
My madness, if I'm mad, is of a different brand.
Listen: I've seen Him! Twice, close at hand :
It was October seven, rue Ravignan, in my room–
No! I wasn't drunk, nor in delirium-
In the year nineteen-nine, October seven;
I take you as witness, Lord, who put new leaven
Into me, sinning lump of filthiness;
You know what sins had seized me in their fists ,
What hell I lived in, what a squalid mess ,
What resolutions you raised up like yeast
In this Christian whom, thanks to you and the good priests,
I've become, endowed with sense and reason .
So, the first time, you appeared in my room.
And the second time it was at a fllm .
"You go to the movies , then?" with dumbfounded air
Demanded my confessor. - Yes , Father,
What if I did? Didn't Our Lord come there?"
Editor's Note: "Christ at the Movies· is translated from
La
Defense
de
Tartufe
by Max
Jacab and printed with permission. Copyright
C
1964 Editions GaIlimard.
