Impressions of Africa

Raymond Roussel

Description

The first of Roussel's two major prose works, Impressions of Africa is not, as the title may suggest, a conventional travel account, but an adventure story put together in a highly individual fashion and with an unusual time sequence, whereby the reader is even made to choose whether to begin with the first or the tenth chapter.

Informations

• Publié par: Alma Books
• Date de parution: 01 janvier 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780714546537
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Impressions
of Africa
Raymond Roussel
Translated by Rayner Heppenstall
and Lindy Foord

ALMA CLASSICS




alma classics ltd
London House
243-253 Lower Mortlake Road
Richmond
Surrey TW9 2LL
United Kingdom
www.oneworldclassics.com
Impressions of Africa first published in French as Impressions d’Afrique in 1910
This translation first published by Calder & Boyars Ltd in 1966
This translation first published by Oneworld Classics Ltd in 2011
Translation © Lindy Foord and Rayner Heppenstall, 1966, 1983, 2001, 2011
Cover image © Getty Images
Printed in Great Britain By CPI Antony Rowe
isbn : 978-1-84749-168-8
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not be resold, lent, hired out or otherwise circulated without the express prior consent of the publisher.


Contents
Impressions of Africa
Notes


Impressions of Africa


1
A t about four o’clock on that 25th of June, everything appeared to be ready for the coronation of Talu VII, Emperor of Ponukele and King of Drelshkaf.
Although the sun was low in the sky, the heat was still overpowering in that part of Africa, near the equator, and the thundery atmosphere, untempered by the slightest breeze, weighed oppressively on every one of us.
Before me lay the vast expanse of Trophies Square, situated in the very heart of Ejur, a noble capital consisting of countless dwellings and washed by the Atlantic Ocean, whose distant roar I could hear away to the left.
The perfect square formed by the esplanade was outlined, on each side, by a row of sycamores planted some hundred years earlier. Thrust deep into the bark of each trunk were weapons, on which hung severed heads, tinsel and trappings of every kind, piled up there by Talu VII or his ancestors, returning from their many victorious campaigns.
On my right, in front of the trees, at a point in the middle of the row, stood a kind of red theatre, like a gigantic Punch and Judy show, whose façade bore the words “The Incomparables Club” arranged in three lines of silver lettering in a glittering surround of broad golden rays, spreading in every direction like those around a sun.
On the stage at present a table and chair were to be seen, apparently intended for a lecturer. Several unframed portraits were pinned to the backcloth and underneath was an explanatory label, worded thus: “Electors of Brandenburg”. *
Nearer to me, in line with the red theatre, was a broad wooden pedestal on which stood Naïr, a young Negro, barely twenty years old, bent over the absorbing task to which he applied himself. To the right of him were two stakes, each fixed to one corner of the platform and joined by a long slack string which sagged under the weight of three objects, hanging in a row and clearly displayed like lottery prizes. The first of these objects was nothing more nor less than a bowler hat with the French word “ PINCÉE ” * printed in white capitals on its black crown; the next one was a dark-grey suede glove with the palm turned outwards and a large “C” lightly marked on it with chalk; lastly there dangled from the string a fine sheet of parchment, covered with strange hieroglyphs and bearing as a heading a rather crude drawing of five figures, deliberately made to look absurd by their general posture and exaggerated features.
Naïr was a prisoner on his pedestal, his right foot held in a mesh of thick cords which formed an effective noose, firmly anchored to the solid platform; like a living statue he performed slow, regular motions, rapidly murmuring strings of words he had learnt by heart. All his attention was concentrated on a fragile pyramid, constructed from three sheets of bark, fastened together, which rested on a specially shaped stand in front of him; the base, which was turned towards him and tilted perceptibly, served as a loom; within his reach, on an extension to the stand, lay a supply of fruit husks, coated with a greyish vegetable substance, similar in appearance to the cocoons of larvae on the point of hatching into chrysalides. Taking a fragment of one of these delicate shells between two fingers, the young man slowly drew his hand towards him, to create an elastic thread, similar to the gossamer which drapes itself about the woods in spring. With these invisible filaments he wove a fabric, as fine and intricate as the work of a fairy, for his hands moved with unrivalled dexterity, crossing, knotting, intertwining the dream-like threads a thousand different ways to merge in a graceful design. The phrases he recited to himself helped to regulate his precise, delicate movements; the slightest mistake would have hopelessly endangered the whole work and, without the automatic guidance of certain formulae, memorized word for word, Naïr could never have accomplished his task.
Below him, to the right, other pyramids stood near the edge of the pedestal, with their apices pointing backwards so that it was possible to appreciate the full effect of the completed work; the base, placed upright and clearly visible, was delicately indicated by an almost non-existent tissue, finer than a spider’s web. At the back of each pyramid a red flower, attached by the stem, drew the attention irresistibly beyond the scarcely perceptible veil of the fairy fabric.
Not far from the stage of the Incomparables, to the right of the actor, two posts, four or five feet apart, supported an apparatus in motion; from the nearer of the two jutted a pivot, around which a strip of yellowish parchment was tightly wound; nailed firmly to the farther post to form a platform, a small square board served as a base for a vertical cylinder, which was being turned slowly by a clockwork motor.
The yellowish band, unfurling in a single coil which stretched, unbroken, across the space between, wrapped itself round the cylinder, so that as it rotated on its axis, it drew the parchment continuously towards itself and away from the distant pivot, which was thereby forced to participate in the gyratory motion.
A succession of crude drawings of groups of savage warriors, in various poses, followed each other across the parchment: one column appeared to run at breakneck speed in pursuit of a retreating enemy; another lay in ambush, behind a bank, patiently awaiting the right moment to appear; here, two armies, equal in number, fought fiercely man to man; there, fresh troops charged forward with great strides to fling themselves into the distant fray. As the reel continued to unwind, countless new and amazing strategies appeared, thanks to the infinite multiplicity of the effects obtained.
Opposite me, at the other end of the esplanade, extended a sort of altar, with several steps leading up to it, covered with a soft carpet; a coat of white paint, veined with bluish lines, gave the whole structure from a distance the appearance of marble.
On the sacred table, which consisted of a long board, fitted halfway up the erection and hidden under a white cloth, could be seen a rectangle of parchment, dotted with hieroglyphics, standing next to a massive cruet, filled with oil. Beside it, a larger sheet bore this title in careful Gothic script: Reigning House of Ponukele-Drelshkaf ; beneath the heading a round portrait, a delicately coloured miniature, represented two Spanish girls of thirteen or fourteen, wearing on their heads the national mantilla – twin sisters, to judge by the close resemblance between their faces; at first glance, the picture seemed to be an integral part of the document; but closer scrutiny revealed a narrow strip of transparent muslin which, adhering both to the periphery of the painted disc and to the surface of the stiff vellum, joined as perfectly as possible the two objects, which were in fact independent of each other; on the left-hand side of the double effigy, the name “SUAN” was written in widely spaced capitals; underneath, the paper was covered with a genealogical table comprised of two distinct branches, issuing in parallel descent from the two beautiful Spaniards who formed the top of the tree; one branch ended in the word “Extinction”, in letters almost as prominent as those of the heading and clearly meant for brutal effect; the other, on the contrary, a little shorter than its companion, seemed to defy the future by the absence of any final line.
Near the altar, to the right of it, grew a gigantic palm of remarkable foliage which testified to its great age; a board, fastened to its trunk, bore the commemorative phrase: Restoration of the Emperor Talu VII to the Throne of his Fathers. In the shelter of the palm, on one side, a stake had been driven into the earth and on its square top had been placed a soft-boiled egg.
To the left, at an equal distance from the altar, a tall plant, old and withering, offered a sad contrast to the splendid palm; it was a rubber tree which had no more sap and was almost rotten. A stretcher, made of branches, lay in its shade, bearing the recumbent corpse of the Negro king Yaour IX, wearing the traditional costume of Marguerite in Faust , * a pink woollen gown from which hung a short alms purse and a thick golden wig with long plaits which fell over his shoulders and came halfway down to his knees.
On my left, with its back to the row of sycamores, and facing the red theatre, stood a stone-coloured building which looked like a model in miniature of the Paris Bourse. *
Between this building and the north-west angle of the esplanade stood a row of life-size statues.
The first of these represented a man