Week ending 09/06: The Captive, to page 93 / location 39780

[Dave]

Good research Jonathan! Now, in addition to all the other mysteries we must ponder about Albertine, we must wonder why she has bagpipes on her mind!

[Jonathan]

Dave wrote: "Good research Jonathan! Now, in addition to all the other mysteries we must ponder about Albertine, we must wonder why she has bagpipes on her mind!"

Can't a girl just like bagpipes!

If anyone's interested here are the full lyrics (translated by Google Translate):

My purse a little poor girl
Where boredom made ​​me search,
I allowed myself the emplette
On biniou dogwood
On our Breton moor
Oh, it sounds pretty tunes,
Oh, it lulls the hearts,
Fatigue and pain

{Refrain:}
The pain is crazy
And who listens is even crazier,
Between us, you who consoles!
Bagpipes, my bagpipes, my dear biniou

Near me everything he feast
This is the bird he pleased,
It is the echo repeats it,
It's the breeze that follows.
What is this magic
Which throws us, full life,
The smile in tears,
The gaiety of the pain?

{au Refrain}

But the amount it costs me
Will be slow to return,
Well rigors doubtless
Remember me leave,
My bag a little lighter,
Less than cider in my gourd
Then, who knows? days of misfortune
Hunger and his pain

{au Refrain}

[Dave]

Nice! But not this girl. ALBERTINE LIKES BAGEPIPES, FILM AT ELEVEN!

[Marcelita]

Sunny in Wonderland wrote: "Well, thanks for checking. I'll wait to see if Marcelita can help. :) I would have enjoyed listening to it as I read this section."

Not sure is you will enjoy listening to this recording...as much as Albertine's. ;)

OUR English translation:

"For melancholy is but folly,
And he who heeds it is a fool."

is translated from Proust's

"Les douleurs sont des folles,
Et qui les écoute est encor plus fou."
http://alarecherchedutempsperdu.org/m...

Google translates it as:
" "The pain is crazy,
And who listens is still more crazy."

So, Albertine is singing the chorus from...

"Le Biniou"
Chanson de 1856, paroles et musique d'Hyppolyte Guerin & Émile Duran
http://loic.fejoz.free.fr/biniou/

De ma bourse un peu pauvrette
Où l'ennui m'a fait fouiller,
Je me suis permis l'emplette
D'un biniou de cornouiller
Sur notre lande bretonne
oh ! Les jolis airs qu'il sonne !
Oh ! Comme il endort les coeurs,
La fatigue et les couleurs !

Refrain :
Les douleurs sont des folles !
Et qui les écoute est encore plus fou !

A nous deux toi qui consoles,
Biniou, mon biniou, mon cher biniou !

LISTEN here:
https://ia600400.us.archive.org/17/it...
Or
@:47
https://archive.org/details/AndrMarch...

Google translated:
"The pain is crazy,
And who listens is still more crazy."

"The Bagpipe"
Song of 1856, words and music by Hyppolyte Guerin & Émile Durand

Chorus:
The pain is crazy!
And who listens is even crazier!

Between us you who consoles
Bagpipes, my bagpipes, my dear bagpipe!
http://translate.google.com/translate...

"What a curious character a bit confusing that musician professor of harmony at the National Superior Conservatory of Music in Paris, his scholastic and very conservative nature makes him criticize his pupil Claude Debussy for his innovative spirit, so that he once wrote a friendly ditty entitled The Bagpipe, which was a great popular success!

"In 1856, Emile Durand wrote the song The Bagpipe , with words of Hippolytus Guerin. She obtained a huge success which forced the author to transcribe for different instruments. This is still reprinted today from Salabert! Its melody as 20 years, with lyrics by Emile Barateau, written two years later, will also get a popular and continued success."
http://translate.google.com/translate...


Scroll down to Emile Durand (1830-1903)
http://www.musimem.com/prix-rome-1850...

Emile Durand in 1860
(Photo E. Carjat, Paris, BNF / Gallica)



First measures of the song ""Le Biniou" -- "The Bagpipe" by Emile Durand
(Coll. DHM)

Aside....interesting:
Debussy enters Émile Durand's harmony class, November 1877.

"Programme, Volumes 1910-1911"
By Boston Symphony Orchestra
Page 811
http://books.google.com/books?id=TEQQ...

[Dave]

I knew Marcelita would not let us down - she's the best! And her info comes in time for our 11 o'clock ProustNews video lead story;)

[Marcelita]

The photo of Emile Durand...with his hands in his pockets. Almost like the pants were made from silk...unusual.

[Dwayne]

Jonathan wrote: "Renato wrote: "I wonder if he'll get creepier and actually tie her down or something so the title will be literal...."

I thought the part where he was watching Albertine sleep was quite beautiful ..."

Yep, I noticed the bit about the "less pure" pleasure. Definitely creepy! So he basically uses her sleeping body as a sex toy. Very creepy.

I did love this section and it feels really important. The narrator has been obsessed with (among other things!) the way people change constantly and the impossibility of truly knowing someone, because whatever you thought you knew was just a mirage or imperfect projection of the person, and even if it were authentic or perfect, the person develops into a completely different person with each passing second. And what's interesting here is that this problem sort of falls away for the narrator when Albertine is asleep and her fundamental nature seems to reveal itself. It's very interesting to me that at this point the ideas of knowing, loving and possessing get a bit muddled. And it's also interesting that the revelation, or the suggestion, of the narrator's name happens here as well. Is this when the narrator is most fundamentally himself, when he's just allowed to observe without actually interacting?

All in all I am pretty amused at how racy some of this stuff feels! I had no idea these things were in the book when I started reading.

Cheers! Plodding along behind you all!

[Dave]

Interesting observations Dwayne. The part about the name I had not thought about. Glad to see you are still reading along. Our little band of faithful are planning to read and discuss some of the bios and background books when we finish the book and discuss them in this group so we will still be around to discuss your comments.

If you have comments or questions about other's comments just give a shout.

[Dwayne]

Dave wrote: "Our little band of faithful " <--- haha!

Thanks! Yeah, I am going to try to finish by the end of the year as well ... I think I can get there on about 15 pages a day! Doable. And then I have some other Proust books lined up afterward as well --- Proust in Love, How Proust Can Change Your Life ...

[Jonathan]

Interesting points Dwayne. The narrator also likes watching Albertine awake. I'm not sure if he's enjoying her innocence or it's when he feels he can catch her off guard...maybe a bit of both?

[Renato]

Glad to see you're enjoying Vol. 5, Dwayne. It may be my favorite volume (I'll wait more time to judge that) and it is Marcelita's!

Another thing to add to your thoughts on the narrator's obsession about the impossibility of tryly knowing someone, along with the fact that the person changes with each passing second, we change as well, so the way we project our expectations on that person is also altered with time...

[Dwayne]

Renato wrote: "Glad to see you're enjoying Vol. 5, Dwayne. It may be my favorite volume (I'll wait more time to judge that) and it is Marcelita's!

Another thing to add to your thoughts on the narrator's obsessio..."

Oh yes, thanks for that addition Renato! It's like a game of pin the tail on the donkey, with a real moving donkey! :)

Also in this section is the bit about how the narrator's involvement with Mme. de Guermantes has changed. He even remarks on how he used to be so anxiously preoccupied with her but at this point says he is simply using her for nothing more than fashion advice.

And in the end of Sodome et Gomorrhe, the narrator's perception of de Charlus certainly seems to have changed as well -- and it looks like there more de Charlus in the second half of this volume. Should be interesting. :) So we've talked about how people percolate in and out of the story, and appear in different states (happy, powerful, ruined, etc.) and that of course also reinforces this constantly changing kaledioscope in which even the very pieces themselves change color.

Cheers!

[Dwayne]

Jonathan wrote: "Interesting points Dwayne. The narrator also likes watching Albertine awake. I'm not sure if he's enjoying her innocence or it's when he feels he can catch her off guard...maybe a bit of both?"

Ah yes. And something seems to click within him when he watching her sleep. It felt so intense to read this section ... I do still wonder what's up with that... and I think at this point in the book, it's painful for him to be awake with her, because he's over analyzing every single move, word and expression of her face. So intense. Such an intimate portrayal of deep and compulsive jealousy!

[Renato]

And expect more characters to 'change' a lot...! Although we can go back to 'are they really changing or we only knew what they chose to show us' (or, in this case, what the narrator chose...)