Guy de Maupassant - Boule De Suif: Bilingual Edition (English – French)

Guy de Maupassant

translated by
Ernest Augustus Boyd

BOULE DE SUIF

BOULE DE SUIF

For several days in succession fragments of a defeated army had passed through the town. They were mere disorganized bands, not disciplined forces. The men wore long, dirty beards and tattered uniforms; they advanced in listless fashion, without a flag, without a leader.

Pendant plusieurs jours de suite des lambeaux d'arme en droute avaient travers la ville. Ce n'tait point de la troupe, mais des hordes dbandes. Les hommes avaient la barbe longue et sale, des uniformes en guenilles, et ils avanaient d'une allure molle, sans drapeau, sans rgiment.

All seemed exhausted, worn out, incapable of thought or resolve, marching onward merely by force of habit, and dropping to the ground with fatigue the moment they halted. One saw, in particular, many enlisted men, peaceful citizens, men who lived quietly on their income, bending beneath the weight of their rifles; and little active volunteers, easily frightened but full of enthusiasm, as eager to attack as they were ready to take to flight; and amid these, a sprinkling of red-breeched soldiers, the pitiful remnant of a division cut down in a great battle; somber artillerymen, side by side with nondescript foot-soldiers; and, here and there, the gleaming helmet of a heavy-footed dragoon who had difficulty in keeping up with the quicker pace of the soldiers of the line.

Tous semblaient accabls, reints, incapables d'une pense ou d'une rsolution, marchant seulement par habitude, et tombant de fatigue sitt qu'ils s'arrtaient. On voyait surtout des mobiliss, gens pacifiques, rentiers tranquilles, pliant sous le poids du fusil; des petits moblots alertes, faciles l'pouvante et prompts l'enthousiasme, prts l'attaque comme la fuite; puis, au milieu d'eux, quelques culottes rouges, dbris d'une division moulue dans une grande bataille; des artilleurs sombres aligns avec des fantassins divers; et, parfois, le casque brillant d'un dragon au pied pesant qui suivait avec peine la marche plus lgre des lignards.

Legions of irregulars with high-sounding names "Avengers of Defeat, " "Citizens of the Tomb, " "Brethren in Death"passed in their turn, looking like banditti. Their leaders, former drapers or grain merchants, or tallow or soap chandlerswarriors by force of circumstances, officers by reason of their mustachios or their moneycovered with weapons, flannel and gold lace, spoke in an impressive manner, discussed plans of campaign, and behaved as though they alone bore the fortunes of dying France on their braggart shoulders; though, in truth, they frequently were afraid of their own menscoundrels often brave beyond measure, but pillagers and debauchees.
Rumor had it that the Prussians were about to enter Rouen.

Des lgions de francs-tireurs aux appellations hroques: " les Vengeurs de la Dfaite les Citoyens de la Tombe les Partageurs de la Mort " passaient leur tour, avec des airs de bandits.
Leurs chefs, anciens commerants en draps ou en graines, ex-marchands de suif ou de savon, guerriers de circonstance, nomms officiers pour leurs cus ou la longueur de leurs moustaches, couverts d'armes, de flanelle et de galons, parlaient d'une voix retentissante, discutaient plans de campagne, et prtendaient soutenir seuls la France agonisante sur leurs paules de fanfarons; mais ils redoutaient parfois leurs propres soldats, gens de sac et de corde, souvent braves outrance, pillards et dbauchs.
Les Prussiens allaient entrer dans Rouen, disait-on.

The members of the National Guard, who for the past two months had been reconnoitering with the utmost caution in the neighboring woods, occasionally shooting their own sentinels, and making ready for fight whenever a rabbit rustled in the undergrowth, had now returned to their homes. Their arms, their uniforms, all the death-dealing paraphernalia with which they had terrified all the milestones along the highroad for eight miles round, had suddenly and marvellously disappeared.

La Garde nationale qui, depuis deux mois, faisait des reconnaissances trs prudentes dans les bois voisins, fusillant parfois ses propres sentinelles, et se prparant au combat quand un petit lapin remuait sous des broussailles, tait rentre dans ses foyers. Ses armes, ses uniformes, tout son attirail meurtrier, dont elle pouvantait nagure les bornes des routes nationales trois lieues la ronde, avaient subitement disparu.

The last of the French soldiers had just crossed the Seine on their way to Pont-Audemer, through Saint-Sever and Bourg-Achard, and in their rear the vanquished general, powerless to do aught with the forlorn remnants of his army, himself dismayed at the final overthrow of a nation accustomed to victory and disastrously beaten despite its legendary bravery, walked between two orderlies.

Les derniers soldats franais venaient enfin de traverser la Seine pour gagner Pont-Audemer par Saint-Sever et Bourg-Achard; et, marchant aprs tous, le gnral, dsespr, ne pouvant rien tenter avec ces loques disparates, perdu lui-mme dans la grande dbcle d'un peuple habitu vaincre et dsastreusement battu malgr sa bravoure lgendaire, s'en allait pied, entre deux officiers d'ordonnance.

Then a profound calm, a shuddering, silent dread, settled on the city. Many a round-paunched citizen, emasculated by years devoted to business, anxiously awaited the conquerors, trembling lest his roasting-jacks or kitchen knives should be looked upon as weapons.
Life seemed to have stopped short; the shops were shut, the streets deserted. Now and then an inhabitant, awed by the silence, glided swiftly by in the shadow of the walls. The anguish of suspense made men even desire the arrival of the enemy.

Puis un calme profond, une attente pouvante et silencieuse avaient plan sur la cit. Beaucoup de bourgeois bedonnants, masculs par le commerce, attendaient anxieusement les vainqueurs, tremblant qu'on ne considrt comme une arme leurs broches rtir ou leurs grands couteaux de cuisine.
La vie semblait arrte; les boutiques taient closes, la rue muette. Quelquefois un habitant, intimid par ce silence, filait rapidement le long des murs.
L'angoisse de l'attente faisait dsirer la venue de l'ennemi.

In the afternoon of the day following the departure of the French troops, a number of uhlans, coming no one knew whence, passed rapidly through the town. A little later on, a black mass descended St. Catherine's Hill, while two other invading bodies appeared respectively on the Darnetal and the Boisguillaume roads. The advance guards of the three corps arrived at precisely the same moment at the Square of the Hotel de Ville, and the German army poured through all the adjacent streets, its battalions making the pavement ring with their firm, measured tread.

Dans l'aprs-midi du jour qui suivit le dpart des troupes franaises, quelques uhlans, sortis on ne sait d'o, traversrent la ville avec clrit. Puis, un peu plus tard, une masse noire descendit de la cte Sainte-Catherine, tandis que deux autres flots envahisseurs apparaissaient par les routes de Darnetal et de Boisguillaume. Les avant-gardes des trois corps, juste au mme moment, se joignirent sur la place de l'Htel-de-Ville; et par toutes les rues voisines, l'arme allemande arrivait, droulant ses bataillons qui faisaient sonner les pavs sous leur pas dur et rythm.

Orders shouted in an unknown, guttural tongue rose to the windows of the seemingly dead, deserted houses; while behind the fast-closed shutters eager eyes peered forth at the victors-masters now of the city, its fortunes, and its lives, by "right of war."

Des commandements cris d'une voix inconnue et gutturale montaient le long des maisons qui semblaient mortes et dsertes, tandis que, derrire les volets ferms, des yeux guettaient ces hommes victorieux, matres de la cit, des fortunes et des vies, de par le " droit de guerre ".