The Enormous Room E. E. Cummings (snow like ashes TXT) đ
- Author: E. E. Cummings
Book online «The Enormous Room E. E. Cummings (snow like ashes TXT) đ». Author E. E. Cummings
âBoxe? Vous!â
The curser was apparently fast asleep, and even snoring. The Fighting Sheeney turned away disappointed, and had just reached his paillasse when he was greeted by a number of uproariously discourteous remarks uttered in all sorts of tongues. Over he rushed, threatened, received no response, and turned back to his place. Once more ten or twelve voices insulted him from the darkness. Once more The Fighting Sheeney made for them, only to find sleeping innocents. Again he tried to go to bed. Again the shouts arose, this time with redoubled violence and in greatly increased number. The Fighting Sheeney was at his witsâ end. He strode about challenging everyone to fight, receiving not the slightest recognition, cursing, reviling, threatening, bullying. The darkness always waited for him to resume his mattress, then burst out in all sorts of maledictions upon his head and the sacred head of his lord and master. The latter was told to put out his candle, go to sleep and give the rest a chance to enjoy what pleasure they might in forgetfulness of their woes. Whereupon he appealed to The Sheeney to stop this. The Sheeney (almost weeping) said he had done his best, that everyone was a pig, that nobody would fight, that it was disgusting. Roars of applause. Protests from the less strenuous members of our circle against the noise in general: Let him have his foutue candle, Shut up, Go to sleep yourself, etc. Rockyfeller kept on talking (albeit visibly annoyed by the ill-breeding of his fellow-captives) to the smooth and oily Judas. The noise, or rather noises, increased. I was for some reason angry at Rockyfellerâ âI think I had a curious notion that if I couldnât have a light after âlumiĂšres Ă©teintes,â and if my very good friends were none of them allowed to have one, then, by God! neither should Rockyfeller. At any rate, I passed a few remarks calculated to wither the by this time a little nervous Ăbermensch; got up, put on some enormous sabots (which I had purchased from a horrid little boy whom the French Government had arrested with his parent, for some cause unknownâ âwhich horrid little boy told me that he had âfoundâ the sabots âin a trainâ on the way to La FertĂ©) shook myself into my fur coat, and banged as noisemakingly as I knew how over to One Eyed Dah-veedâs paillasse, where Mexique joined us. âIt is useless to sleep,â said One Eyed Dah-veed in French and Spanish. âTrue,â I agreed; âtherefore, letâs make all the noise we can.â
Steadily the racket bulged in the darkness. Human cries, quips and profanity had now given place to wholly inspired imitations of various, not to say sundry, animals. Afrique exclaimedâ âwith great pleasure I recognised his voice through the impenetrable gloom:
âAgahagahagahagahagah!â
ââperhaps,â said I, âhe means a machine gun; it sounds like either that or a monkey.â The Wanderer crowed beautifully. Monsieur Augusteâs bosom friend, le Cordonnier, uttered an astonishing:
âMeeee-ooooooow!â
which provoked a tornado of laughter and some applause. Mooings, chirpings, cacklingsâ âthere was a superb henâ âneighings, he-hawing, roarings, bleatings, growlings, quackings, peepings, screamings, bellowings, andâ âsomething else, of courseâ âset The Enormous Room suddenly and entirely alive. Never have I imagined such a menagerie as had magically instated itself within the erstwhile soggy and dismal four walls of our chamber. Even such staid characters as Count Bragard set up a little bawling. Monsieur Pet-airs uttered a tiny aged crowing to my immense astonishment and delight. The dying, the sick, the ancient, the mutilated, made their contributions to the common pandemonium. And then, from the lower left darkness, sprouted one of the very finest noises which ever fell on human earsâ âthe noise of a little dog with floppy ears who was tearing after something on very short legs and carrying his very fuzzy tail straight up in the air as he tore; a little dog who was busier than he was wise, louder than he was big; a red-tongued foolish breathless intent little dog with black eyes and a great smile and woolly pawsâ âwhich noise, conceived and executed by The Lobster, sent The Enormous Room into an absolute and incurable hysteria.
The Fighting Sheeney was at a standstill. He knew not how to turn. At last he decided to join with the insurgents, and wailed brutally and dismally. That was the last straw: Rockyfeller, who could no longer (even by shouting to Judas) make himself heard, gave up conversation and gazed angrily about him; angrily yet fearfully, as if he expected some of these numerous bears, lions, tigers and baboons to leap upon him from the darkness. His livid super-disagreeable face trembled with the flickering cadence of the candle. His lean lips clenched with mortification and wrath. âVous ĂȘtes chef de chambre,â he said fiercely to Judasâ ââwhy donât you make the men stop this? Câest emmerdant.â âAh,â replied Judas smoothly and insinuatinglyâ ââThey are only men, and boors at that; you canât expect them to have any manners.â A tremendous group of Something Elses greeted this remark together with cries, insults, groans and linguistic trumpetings. I got up and walked the length of the room to the cabinet (situated as always by this time of night in a pool which was in certain places six inches deep, from which pool my sabots somewhat protected me) and returned, making as loud a clattering as I was able. Suddenly the voice of Monsieur Auguste leaped through the din in an
âAlors! câest as-sez.â
The next thing we knew he had reached the window just below the cabinet (the only window, by the way, not nailed up with good long wire nails
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