North

by Louis-Ferdinand Celine

  “Kracht … are you going to this shindig? … everybody’ll be there … we too … but there’s one thing I’d like to ask you …”

  “Please do, my dear Doctor …”

  In the intermission … sure they’ll have intermissions … I’d like you to come back for a second and see our patients … I don’t like to leave them alone for too long … see what I mean?”

  “Why, certainly, my dear Doctor!”

  I’ve made myself clear … nobody says a word … deep in their sandwiches … stowing it away … good! … Kracht looks at his watch … almost eight … we’ve been fortifying ourselves long enough … he’s got his flashlights … one great big one … as an SS-man, he’s entitled to these “torches” … we get going! … the Landrat’s supposed to preside … maybe he’s there already … this “Strength Through Joy” isn’t just a show, it’s a “Victory Demonstration” under the high patronage of Göbbels … well see … I’m not expecting to be entertained … but we won’t sulk! … well applaud like mad! … at the same time as Kracht! … I’m kind of worried … for one thing, leaving my patients there all alone … I can’t take them along! … it won’t be long till the intermission … I don’t think … I’ll come back and see them with Kracht, it’s all settled … the park again … the village, the alleys, all of us together … we pass the grocery store, the wirtschaft, the church … we stumble and stagger quite a lot, more than in the daytime … naturally … Kracht could give us a little light … he doesn’t, he’s afraid to use his “torches”… it seems they can be seen from way up in the clouds … I hear the typists’ voices ahead of us … I don’t hear Inge or the cripple, or Countess Thor von Thorfels … they must be there already … the Tanzhalle can’t be far … Kracht could give us some light, we’d see it from here … he refuses … we could fall into one of the ponds … or a beet pit … deep soft earth … but he won’t … on account of the Fortresses, he says … poppycock! … the lousy Fortresses know exactly where we are … if they don’t burn this lousy village down it’s because they don’t want to! … Kracht’s talking through his hat! … his Tanzhalle … after the place where the roads come back together … that’s it! … the guitar! … sure thing! … the music’s already started … “Hier! hier! this way!” they’re calling us … their door! not much light! a blowtorch outside the door! … we go in … the shack is brightly lit! at all four corners! acetylene lamps! … “the door! the door!” they’re chewing us out! what about their lamp? outside! to hell with that, who cares what’s going on outside, but we should shut the door! okay, okay, dumb Krauts! in the hall now, I see the whole stage … can’t see anything else … everything’s white … all I can make out of the audience is chignons and the backs of men’s necks … the glare of those acetylene lamps! black-and-white effect … we’re blinded … but we can see the Gypsies … men … women … kids … the old man with the white hair who was so interested in Lili … especially her castanets and her ring … the whole tribe seems to be there … bunched up, the old women in back, the young in front … looks like they’re going to dance … a fandango! … an old houri is singing … a Gypsy or Hungarian, old and fat … cushions of blubber … with arms like a man and a belly with room enough for at least three fibromas … tits like lifebuoys! … she’s singing a Brandenburg romanzo … according to Kracht … not a bad voice, light and clear … and charm … she lifts up her skirt … way up! … she’s going to dance … the old man announces: a seguidilla! … fast! … very fast! … heels! … boobies! … rat-tat-tat-tat! … the whole stage is shaking … she’s about fifty … not ugly, kind of pretty in fact … and temperament! … more fire than the young girls around her … those chicks may be out of a Gypsy wagon, but you can see they’re thinking of something else … no flame, none at all! … a nice little marriage, an attentive husband, the department stores, the hairdresser, dye their hair ash-blond … settle down, respected position, something in the civil service, maybe the post office, selling stamps … and not make fools of themselves for a lot of lugs! on the stage you see it all … their future, their desires … the theater tells the truth … maybe a little shoplifting first … to keep up with the family … but not too much, no scandal! … same with the boys, not the tragic Gypsy type … they’re dancing with each other, feeling each other up, the pansy jota … “the rabble will inherit the earth!” … no possible doubt … no need of Nietzsche, Zomhof told the story … Big Bazoom at the age of fifty still believed in the sacred fire, the young ones didn’t … the audience was ready and willing … they wanted the big booby baby to lift her skirts up higher … and higher! they wanted her to grab one of the fags and kiss him on the mouthl … küss! küss! they clamor! they insist! … she grabs one … he makes a face … she slaps it for him! what a show! whoopee! everybody howling! hurray! hurray! … boys dancing together! … girls dancing together! rubsie-rubsie! on with the dance! fire, passion, the genuine article! … they’re up-to-the-minute in Zornhof! … white heat! … who’d have thunk it! … the morale had been boosted all right! … sky-high! … the Propaganda Section has nothing to complain about! … in two seconds flat! … these Gypsies are good for something else beside mending chairs! …

  Oh yes, but I’m beginning to see better now … my eyes are getting used to the spotlights … I can make out faces in the crowd … everything was white before … now I recognize this one and that one … I look for Inge … and the Landrat … they must be in the front rows … I’d think … I can’t find them … the hall has been fixed up very nicely, plenty of benches … those bibelforschers are good workers … not luxurious, but good and solid … plus at least thirty rows of chairs, I count them … the whole thing looks like a Protestant meeting house … room for the whole village … and do they stamp! … and applaud the overstuffed mamma and her gigolo! and shout for more! … it’s true that her act would have been good anyplace! … this was something like enthusiasm … I join in … no time to be difficult … I egg the others on …

  “Give her a hand! … go on, Lili! … and you, Kracht! … aren’t you happy?”

  I’m sold on “Strength Through Joy”! … Le Vig is kind of sulking … why wouldn’t he recite something? … sulking makes a bad impression … they must be looking at us! …

  “Yes! yes! right you are!”

  He catches on … he joins in … we applaud! and Kracht with us, all out! … what bugged me was trying to find the Landrat … he must be here, in the shadow … or in one of the seats of honor … I can only see Inge and her little girl … I look … I look some more … ah yes! … the von Leidens between two women I don’t know … and a little closer to us Countess Thor von Thorfels all alone … little Gillie on a different bench … they seem to be keeping away from each other on purpose … the whole family’s there … dispersed … but none of them anywheres near, us … definitely! they’ve arranged not to know us! … we’re no good, we’re on the Index! … same ethical and sanitary code up there in Boche-land as in France … in Moorsburg as in Meudon …

  “Don’t associate with those people! those stinking pustulous reprobates!”

  Seen from a different angle, it’s not bad … you don’t need to gab and waste your time being amiable, the pariah status has its good side … when I see de Gaulle visiting Adenau … or Adolf and Philippe at Montoire ° … or Charles V calling on Elizabeth … all that chin-chinning and lipstick and face powder for nothing! … the “untouchable” doesn’t need to paint his face, all anybody wants of him is a little more shit … from top to toe!

  But let’s get back! I take you to this party and I get sidetracked on philosophy … you’ll say he’s putting the reader on … not at all! … I was showing you the hall … la Kretzer and her husband … and the Dienstelle personnel … I’m beginning to get my bearings, to spot this one and that one … the Kretzers are in a different row … a little behind us … they seem to be enjoying themselves … first time I’ve seen them laugh … things are happening on the stage … th
e old Gypsy women are coming up from the back … they cross through the couples and step up to the footlights … they’re going to sing … the chief with the earrings announces …

  “‘The Danube Chorus’ with guitar and castanets!”

  Bravo! … the big morale-building show has been going on for a good hour, and it’s not over … I ask Kracht …

  “Intermission?”

  “No, not yet!”

  “Then we’d better go!”

  “As you wish!”

  I’m thinking of the two old men … Le Vig’s not happy about our getting up … he grumbles something … Lili’s not happy either, she’s been waiting for the castanets … we leave very discreetly, edging our way from row to row … I don’t think they’ve noticed, the whole house is picking up the “Danube Chorus,” clapping their hands and stamping … “Strength Through Joy!” … here we are outside, it’s cold … nice if Kracht gave us some light, he’s got two “torches” … just for a second! … actually we’re all right … the sky does it … still that glow … pink and yellow … in the clouds … if you screw up your eyes you can see the road … the walls … the thatched roofs … not far to the manor … but all of a sudden: halt! … right after the grocery store … somebody in front of us! … a face! … Kracht points his flashlight … the face talks … to him, in a whisper … I don’t know this somebody … I don’t understand what they’re spying … it’s in German … dialect … a pale face, worse than pale, like smeared with plaster … with thick lips and long eyelashes … there are no searchlights outside … was it me, because my eyes had been blinded by the acetylene? I don’t think so … a pierrot? … a pack of pierrots? Kracht seems startled too … he’s talking with this whiteface … another face comes out of the darkness! … and another! … a whole string! … and they all whisper to him in dialect … I’ve never seen such white powdery faces … refugees? … from where?

  “What are they saying?”

  I can’t answer, Le Vig’s asking me, I haven t understood a thing … it must be serious …

  Just then Kracht fires his pistol … in the air … two shots! … where can these powdered men have come from? … I never found out … they beat it without saying goodbye … never ran into them again … now Kracht’s walking ahead of us with his two flashlights … he’s forgotten about the planes … big hurry about something … people are coming from all directions, out of breath … some from the village, I know them by sight … the two shots in the air have brought them running … “Kracht! Kracht!” … they’re calling him out of the night … they must have come from the show too … the show must have stopped sharp … I see members of the audience milling around and gibbering … “what’s happened?” … Kracht’s revolver shots … but we didn’t know anything either! … we’d soon see! … not a damn thing! … the copse … the park … and there’s the manor! … of course the people wanted to follow us! to go in with us … Kracht chases them away … doesn’t take him long! … a shot in the air! ping! … they all run away … Kracht’s not pussyfooting any more! … his heater and the flashlights! … we go in to see the sick men … him and Le Vig and Lucette and me … high time! … first the Revizor … he’s better … guten abend! good evening! … the pulse is feeble, but otherwise … I auscultate him … his breathing’s all right … the fever’s down … haven’t they been cold?… no! … his leg? it must be fractured … I tell him to lie still, well see about it later … the other one, the Uhlan count, doesn’t say a thing … I take the flashlight … I shine it in his face … he’s had it … Kracht asks me … “glauben sie? think so?” … “oh ja! ja!” … he’s been dead for more than an hour … I know, I’m used to inquests … the Revizor beside him is surprised, he hasn’t heard a thing! … not a moan! … Count von Leiden died quick … we’d been out about two hours … he was in bad shape, but I’d never have expected … so quick … heart failure? … well, anyway, we’ve got to announce it, then they’ll leave us in peace! … “Rittmeister von Leiden is dead” … died in battle, I suggest … no! no! Kracht is against it! … first we’ve got to notify Moorsburg! … notify? how? … he’ll go on a bicycle! … right away? … yes! … in the dark? … that road? … I object …

  “Kracht, we’ll go with you! we can’t stay here alone” … The whole lot of them gathered together there, housewives, moujiks, prisoners … all they were waiting for was a chance to catch us without our SS guard … they’d settle our hash! and empty the cupboard! …

  “Ja! ja! ja! sicher!”

  He agreed … Germans are full of faults, but they’ve got one good point, when you tell them something really reasonable, they believe you … the French, never! … Kracht agreed that if he left he’d find us in ribbons … country sausage! … the whole village would mob us! … we’re thinking it over … somebody knocks … “herein! come in!” … nobody! … yes, a face! … not powdery-plastery, an ordinary face, but not from the village … I know faces …

  “What is it?”

  Kracht shines his two flashlights … the stranger talks … dialect again … I understand a word or two … oh oh, complications! … seems there’s a man outside … where … at the farm? … in the yard? … and another! … right near here! … looks like they’ve taken advantage of our absence! … Kracht’s got to go! … oh no, you don’t! … not without us! … not much confidence in Léonard; that hayseed was certainly capable of anything … but one thing Leonard knew … that if they rubbed us out the pillage would be total! … the cupboard bare! … nothing left … either, for the swineherd or himself … there’d been sense in his “don’t let him out of your sight”! … when people take an interest in your welfare they’re thinking of themselves, they’ve got some idea … “don’t let him out of your sight!” … we certainly weren’t going to! let’s go see what’s happened! what’s this all about? … here we are outside with Kracht … okay! … they escort us … they lead us … they know where it is … on the plain side, in the pond, under Le Vig’s window, he didn’t sleep there any more, I’ve told you … this room, clay floor, bars on the window … more like a cell … there’s the pond, very little water, but plenty of weeds! … big tufts … clogged with grass and muck … with the flashlight we can see the bottom, trickles of water and the reflections from the clouds … the fires in the distance … pink and yellow lights … it would have been pretty … would have been, I say … but we’ve come to see something else … and we see it … on the plain side, deep in the weeds … boots! … the people point at them … I ask Kracht … “ja! ja! … right!” we understand each other … somebody down at the bottom! … I’ve got a hunch who it is … got to get him out of the water … this most be what the “powdered men” had been talking about … I hadn’t understood them … coming out of the Tanzhalle … Kracht calls for four bibelforschers! … they step forward, they understand, they see the boots … they wade … they sink into the muck … they grab the boots and pull, they pull the body out of the weeds … here it comes! it’s him, under the weeds, lying on his back … oh, it’s no surprise to me, I’d suspected! … Landrat Simmer … he’s dead … drowned, but not just drowned! … they’d strangled him too! … a cord around his neck … they undo the knot … a thick silk cord … where’d they find this silk? … mystery, I’ve never seen any silk in Zornhof and certainly no silk cord … or in Berlin! … but it’s silk all right … first they cracked him on the head … that deep gash, still bleeding … a pickax, I’d say … over his right temple … then they garroted and strangled him … but first the pickax … there’ll be an investigation … then they put him in this pooh under the weeds … where was he coming from? … where had he been? … he was supposed to preside over the entertainment … had he eaten dinner at the farm? probably … not sure but almost … anyway we’d been smart not to stay at the manor … or in the yard … I give them instructions … to press his belly, his stomach, hard … they turn him over to make him throw up! nothing! … he’s very cold … and wet,
naturally … and stiff, like he’d been dead for hours … I don’t get it … water dripping from his clothes and his boots … the face is calm, not convulsed … yellowish … no struggle … they’re all whispering like mad … they go on and on … they know everything! … the liars, they don’t know a thing! … we hadn’t expected anything like this … no, I can’t say we had … even the Landrat in the pool couldn’t have suspected … if he’d had the faintest glimmer he wouldn’t have gone out! … where does that leave us? … Le Vig’s squinting hard …

  Just then: vzzz! a small plane dives … from way high up … and passes over us before you could swat a fly! … another pass! … and another! … looping the loop! … I pull myself together … I see it… it’s a Marauder, they escort the Fortresses … it’s happened twice before … a month ago … they came down for a look-see … this time it’s Kracht’s “torches” … haven’t they got anything better to do? … why would the Fortresses be interested in us? … here they are again! … insistent buggers! … at every dive they drop twenty … thirty phosphorus flares! … they float and glide … from cloud to cloud … those boys want to see everything … the flares crackle and blaze … no secrets from them … plainer than day … the trees, the isbas, the Gypsy wagon, the pond, everything! … and the housewives, and the Landrat lying on his back in the grass … actually on a bed of wet leaves … the bibels have pulled him out of the weeds and put him down on the bank with his hands together … maybe these planes with their daylight lamps will decide to unload … on top of us… end it all! … one good boo-oom! the hamlet, the church and us! … wiped out! … and the Landrat! … the whole shebang! vzzz! boom!