Le blog de maud.tardieu

The night kiss

Written by Maud Tardieu on a small piece of cardboard recently discovered:

«　Tonight, a boundless emptiness in me, I did not have your kiss.

Mummy　»

Remark by Patrice Tardieu: 

 those words of love-tenderness comes from an event symmetrical but in the reverse order, like in a mirror, of young Proust waiting in vain that his mother comes and kisses him in his bedroom, when Swann came to visit his parents, at the beginning of Remembrance of Things Past; here it is the mother that waits for the kiss of her son before going to sleep. She wrote it on a small piece of cardboard a Sunday evening.

That summer, Maud was already quite old, every morning I took a few drops of her blood at the tip of a finger to know the sugar ratio and I would do her insulin injection. I washed her as she had washed me when I was a child. I reproach myself not to have kissed her that night.

Keyword:

 mummy, dead, remark, words of Patrice Tardieu, sheet of paper, recently rediscovered, account, six years old, back from school, serious, flowers, to comfort, not yet the time, I would die, not possible to think otherwise, consolation, to bring flowers, to forget completely, story about the flowers, flowers deposited on her ashes, to be seen now on her blog.

Keyword of names:

 Patrice Tardieu, Maud Tardieu

Key word of places:

 Paris.

«　Maman, quand tu seras morte…　»

Présentation: concernant les mots de Patrice Tardieu, voici, toujours sur la même feuille récemment retrouvée, le récit par Maud elle-même:



«　Pat, six ans, à Paris.

En rentrant de l’école, un jour, il me dit sérieusement:

"Quand tu seras morte, maman, je t’apporterai des fleurs".

Je le consolais en lui disant que ce n’était pas encore le temps…

Mais si, assurait-il, que je mourrais. Il eut la difficulté de penser autrement et me consolait en disant: "Si, si, je t’apporterais des fleurs, tu sais".　»



Note de Patrice Tardieu: je ne me rappelais pas cette histoire de fleurs. Maintenant, des fleurs ont été déposées sur ses cendres. On peut les apercevoir sur son blog.

La malle de Maud (11)

Words of Patrice Tardieu (1)

La non-consolation dans laquelle je suis et veux rester, consolation est oubli , ne me fait pas tomber dans la hagiographie. J’ai hésité à traduire «　attachement mutuel　» par «　mutual fondness　» car dans «　fondness　», surtout en parlant d’une mère, il y a l’idée d’une indulgence excessive, ce qui n’était pas le cas, ma mère pouvait être très tranchante, critique, ironique même; un jour où, me présentant à une des épreuves de l’agrégation de philosophie portant sur Aristote, je n’eus pas la note escomptée, elle me nomma en revenant: «　Alors, Aristote!　».

Je n’ai pas traduit non plus par «　mutual attachment　» qui sous-entend, en anglais, une «　chaîne　» entre deux individus. J’ai donc choisi: «　mutual affection　» qui induit l’amour et la tendresse.

Patrice Tardieu

Keywords: preliminary remark, to find, directly written, words, mutual affection, mutual fondness, mutual attachment, wonderful love encounter, to account for, words of Patrice Tardieu, nine years old, left alone, father, without me, evening, to come back from, to put to bed, to sleep the night through, to kiss, not to shut one’s eyes anymore, to look at her always.

Key places: Hamstead Heath, London, England, Paris.

Preliminary remark by Patrice Tardieu: I have just found, written directly by Maud, those words of our mutual affection that Véronique, in a mail, called «　what a wonderful love encounter!　»,that I had previously accounted for.

Text by Maud Tardieu:

«　Words of Pat. Nine years old.

Left alone with his father, without me, at Hamstead Heath, an evening, as I came back from Paris to London, I put him to bed so that he sleeps his night through, and as I kissed him, he told me:

"Mummy, I don’t want to shut my eyes anymore, I want to look at you always".　»

Maud’s trunk (10)