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Les Misérables,Volume 3: Marius, Book First: Paris Studied in its Atom, Chapter 8: In which the Reader will find a Charming Saying of the Last King<br />
(Tome 3: Marius, Livre premier: Paris étudié dans son atome, Chapitre 8: Où on lira un mot charmant du dernier roi)

==General notes on this chapter==

==French text==

L'été, il se métamorphose en grenouille; et le soir, à la nuit tombante,
devant les ponts d'Austerlitz et d'Iéna, du haut des trains à charbon et
des bateaux de blanchisseuses, il se précipite tête baissée dans la
Seine et dans toutes les infractions possibles aux lois de la pudeur et
de la police. Cependant les sergents de ville veillent, et il en résulte
une situation hautement dramatique qui a donné lieu une fois à un cri
fraternel et mémorable; ce cri, qui fut célèbre vers 1830, est un
avertissement stratégique de gamin à gamin; il se scande comme un vers
d'Homère, avec une notation presque aussi inexprimable que la mélopée
éleusiaque des Panathénées, et l'on y retrouve l'antique Évohé. Le
voici:—''Ohé, Titi, ohéée! y a de la grippe, y a de la cogne, prends tes
zardes et va-t'en, pâsse par l'égout!''

Quelquefois ce moucheron—c'est ainsi qu'il se qualifie lui-même—sait
lire; quelquefois il sait écrire, toujours il sait barbouiller. Il
n'hésite pas à se donner, par on ne sait quel mystérieux enseignement
mutuel, tous les talents qui peuvent être utiles à la chose publique: de
1815 à 1830, il imitait le cri du dindon; de 1830 à 1848, il griffonnait
une poire sur les murailles. Un soir d'été, Louis-Philippe, rentrant à
pied, en vit un, tout petit, haut comme cela, qui suait et se haussait
pour charbonner une poire gigantesque sur un des piliers de la grille
de Neuilly; le roi, avec cette bonhomie qui lui venait de Henri IV,
aida le gamin, acheva la poire, et donna un louis à l'enfant en lui
disant: ''La poire est aussi là-dessus''. Le gamin aime le hourvari. Un
certain état violent lui plaît. Il exècre «les curés». Un jour, rue de
l'université, un de ces jeunes drôles faisait un pied de nez à la porte
cochère du numéro 69.—Pourquoi fais-tu cela à cette porte? lui demanda
un passant. L'enfant répondit: Il y a là un curé. C'est là, en effet,
que demeure le nonce du pape. Cependant, quel que soit le voltairianisme
du gamin, si l'occasion se présente d'être enfant de ch&oelig;ur, il se peut
qu'il accepte, et dans ce cas il sert la messe poliment. Il y a deux
choses dont il est le Tantale et qu'il désire toujours sans y atteindre
jamais: renverser le gouvernement et faire recoudre son pantalon.

Le gamin à l'état parfait possède tous les sergents de ville de Paris,
et sait toujours, lorsqu'il en rencontre un, mettre le nom sous la
figure. Il les dénombre sur le bout du doigt. Il étudie leurs m&oelig;urs et
il a sur chacun des notes spéciales. Il lit à livre ouvert dans les âmes
de la police. Il vous dira couramment et sans broncher:—«Un tel est
''traître;''—un tel est ''très méchant;''—un tel est ''grand;''—un
tel est ''ridicule;''» (tous ces mots, traître, méchant, grand, ridicule,
ont dans sa bouche une acception particulière)—«celui-ci s'imagine que le
Pont-Neuf est à lui et empêche ''le monde'' de se promener sur la corniche
en dehors des parapets; celui-là a la manie de tirer les oreilles aux
''personnes'' etc., etc...»

==English text==

In summer, he metamorphoses himself into a frog; and in the evening, when
night is falling, in front of the bridges of Austerlitz and Jena, from the
tops of coal wagons, and the washerwomen's boats, he hurls himself
headlong into the Seine, and into all possible infractions of the laws of
modesty and of the police. Nevertheless the police keep an eye on him, and
the result is a highly dramatic situation which once gave rise to a
fraternal and memorable cry; that cry which was celebrated about 1830, is
a strategic warning from gamin to gamin; it scans like a verse from Homer,
with a notation as inexpressible as the eleusiac chant of the Panathenaea,
and in it one encounters again the ancient Evohe. Here it is: "Ohe, Titi,
oheee! Here comes the bobby, here comes the p'lice, pick up your duds and
be off, through the sewer with you!"

Sometimes this gnat—that is what he calls himself—knows how to
read; sometimes he knows how to write; he always knows how to daub. He
does not hesitate to acquire, by no one knows what mysterious mutual
instruction, all the talents which can be of use to the public; from 1815
to 1830, he imitated the cry of the turkey; from 1830 to 1848, he scrawled
pears on the walls. One summer evening, when Louis Philippe was returning
home on foot, he saw a little fellow, no higher than his knee, perspiring
and climbing up to draw a gigantic pear in charcoal on one of the pillars
of the gate of Neuilly; the King, with that good-nature which came to him
from Henry IV., helped the gamin, finished the pear, and gave the child a
louis, saying: "The pear is on that also."[[19]] The gamin loves uproar. A
certain state of violence pleases him. He execrates "the cures." One day,
in the Rue de l'Universite, one of these scamps was putting his thumb to
his nose at the carriage gate of No. 69. "Why are you doing that at the
gate?" a passer-by asked. The boy replied: "There is a cure there." It was
there, in fact, that the Papal Nuncio lived.

Nevertheless, whatever may be the Voltairianism of the small gamin, if the
occasion to become a chorister presents itself, it is quite possible that
he will accept, and in that case he serves the mass civilly. There are two
things to which he plays Tantalus, and which he always desires without
ever attaining them: to overthrow the government, and to get his trousers
sewed up again.

The gamin in his perfect state possesses all the policemen of Paris, and
can always put the name to the face of any one which he chances to meet.
He can tell them off on the tips of his fingers. He studies their habits,
and he has special notes on each one of them. He reads the souls of the
police like an open book. He will tell you fluently and without flinching:
"Such an one is a traitor; such another is very malicious; such another is
great; such another is ridiculous." (All these words: traitor, malicious,
great, ridiculous, have a particular meaning in his mouth.) That one
imagines that he owns the Pont-Neuf, and he prevents people from walking
on the cornice outside the parapet; that other has a mania for pulling
person's ears; etc., etc.

==Translation notes==

==Textual notes==

==Citations==
<references />

Volume 3/Book 1/Chapter 8 - Revision history

Historymaker: Created page with "Les Misérables,Volume 3: Marius, Book First: Paris Studied in its Atom, Chapter 8: In which the Reader will find a Charming Saying of the Last King (Tome 3: Mariu..."

Historymaker: Created page with "Les Misérables,Volume 3: Marius, Book First: Paris Studied in its Atom, Chapter 8: In which the Reader will find a Charming Saying of the Last King
(Tome 3: Mariu..."