I LOVE MAX JACOB

ADVENTURE NOVEL BY MAX JACOB

Then it's true! Here am I like Philoctetes! abandoned by the ship on an unknown cliff, because my foot hurts. The unfortunate thing is that my trousers were torn off by the sea. Upon inquiry I find that I am nowhere else but on the shores of chaste England. "I shall soon find a policeman!" Which is what happened: a policeman who spoke French. "You don't recognize me," he said in that language, "I'm the husband of your English maid!" There was a reason for my not recognizing him: I never had an English maid: he led me into a neighboring town concealing my nudity with leaves as well as possible, and there he took me to a tailor. And, as I was about to pay: "Quite unnecessary," he told me, "Secret fund of the police" or "Of politeness": I didn't quite catch the word.



-translated by John Ashbery