The Immortal Story Page #4

and now I'll lose my situation.

You're so sure that this comedy of his

will be the end of him?

I'm sure of it, too.

He was my father's deadly enemy.

This night will bring about

the final judgment.

My humiliation, my disgrace

will provide the conclusive

evidence against him.

You're the most

beautiful girl in the world.

How old are you?

Are you 17?

Yes.

Then you and I are the same age.

You're young. Both of you... young.

You're in fine health.

Your limbs don't ache.

You sleep at night because

you move without pain.

You think you move at your own will.

Not so.

You move at my bidding.

You're two young, strong

and lusty jumping jacks

in this old hand of mine.

I've got something to tell you.

Never...

I've never 'til tonight

slept with a girl.

I've thought about it often.

I've meant to do it many times.

But I've never done.

It wasn't all my own fault.

I've been away for a long time.

In a place a long way off,

where there weren't any girls.

- What's your name?

- Virginie.

When I was on that island...

...far from here...

I sometimes fancied I had

a girl with me who was mine

I brought her birds' eggs and fish and

some big sweet fruits that grew there

and she was kind to me.

We slept together in a cave that I found.

When the full moon rose, it shone into it.

But I couldn't think of a name for her.

I didn't remember any girl's name.

Virginie...

Virginie...

Virginie.

For god's sake! Get up! We must

get up. There's an earthquake.

Don't you feel the earthquake?

No. It's not an earthquake.

Tonight... in that room...

in that bed...

they, themselves, for that

same young, hot blood in them...

It's all nothing but a...

story.

My story.

Listen!

The birds are singing.

Yes, they're singing.

On the boats, I sometimes made a song.

What were your songs about?

About the sea and the lives of the sailors.

...and their deaths.

Sing one of them to me.

"As I was keeping the middle watch,

and the night was cold,

"three swans flew across the moon,

over her round face of gold."

Gold!

A 5 Guinnea piece is like the moon

and then not at all like her...

Did you make other songs?

"When the sky's brown and the sea yawns,

three thousand fathoms down,

"and the boat runs downward like a whale,

"still Paul Velling will not turn pale."

- Then... your name is Paul?

- Yes, Paul. It's not a bad name.

My father was named Paul

and his father, too.

It's the name of good seamen,

faithful to their ship.

My father drowned six months before I was born.

He's down there in the sea.

But... you're not going

to drown, are you Paul?

Oh, maybe not.

But I've many times wondered

what my father thought of

when the sea took him,

at last, altogether.

Do you like to think

of that sort of thing?

Yes.

It's good to think of

the storms on the high seas.

It's not bad to think of death.

I have to go back to my ship

as soon as it grows light.

Now there's one sailor

who can tell his story

from beginning to end

as it actually happened.

But what about those other sailors?

What ever happened to them?

And why did they tell it?

Maybe it's like that prophecy of yours.

How'd it go?

"In the wilderness shall waters break out

and streams in the desert,

the parched ground shall become a pool."

He must have lived in a country

where it didn't rain very much.

In England, where the ground is nearly

always a pool they wouldn't appreciate it.

Tell me the rest.

"Behold your God will come

with the recompense,

"and some in sighing shall flee away."

Prophecies! Get up a new financial

scheme and you must prove on paper

that the shareholders are gonna

double their money or triple it.

That never happens but you've got to

prove it or people aren't going to invest.

It's like that with the sailors.

They're poor, so they

tell about a rich house.

They're lonely, so they

tell about a beautiful lady.

That story couldn't happen.

But it's happened to them.

Say that again.

About the lame man.

"Then shall the lame man,

leap like a hart."

"The eyes of the blind shall be opened."

Prophecies!

You're coming home with me and

we'll sleep together every night...

like tonight.

You can't do that. He's paid you.

What?

Your man has paid you.

He paid you to go at dawn

and you took his money.

- You'll have your boat.

- Yes, I shall have the boat.

Was that what you said?

But you?

What is going to happen to you, my girl?

Old gentleman, will you remember

to do something for me?

She's got so many fine things, she would

not care to have a lot of shells lying about.

But this one is rare, I think.

Perhaps there's not another

one like it in all the world.

It's as smooth and silky as a knee.

And when you hold it to your ear

there is a sound in it.

A song.

You'll remember to tell her

to hold it to her ear?

Thank you, old gentleman.

And good bye.

- Now you can tell your story.

- What story?

All that's happened to you from

yesterday evening till now.

All that I've seen and done?

Why do you call it a story?

You are the one sailor in the world

who can tell the story truthfully

as it happened to you.

To whom would I tell it?

Who in the world

would believe me if I told it?

I would not tell it for

a hundred times 5 Guineas.

He's dead, Miss Virginie.

He's been waiting at sunrise

to drink of the cup of his triumph

but the cup has been too strong for him.

It's very hard on people who

want things so badly that

they can't do without them.

And if they can't get these things,

it is hard.

And when they do get them,

surely, it is very hard.

I have heard it before...

...long ago.

But where?

English transcript: depositio

Edited and resynched: HaraldBluetooth

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