The Girl with the Golden Eyes

Name: The Girl with the Golden Eyes
Author: Honoré de Balzac

La Fille aux yeux d’or · French with an independent close English translation

The Girl with the Golden EyesNovella · ¶¶ 158–164

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Facing Pages · Branch 45 of 66

Novella · ¶¶ 158–164

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French

p. 92

Heureux en ce moment de son avenir, il redevint jeune et flexible, et ne songeait qu’à aimer en allant se coucher. Il rêva de la Fille aux yeux d’or, comme rêvent les jeunes gens passionnés. Ce fut des images monstrueuses, des bizarreries insaisissables, pleines de lumière, et qui révèlent les mondes invisibles, mais d’une manière toujours incomplète, car un voile interposé change les conditions de l’optique. Le lendemain et le surlendemain, il disparut sans que l’on pût savoir où il était allé. Sa puissance ne lui appartenait qu’à de certaines conditions, et heureusement pour lui, pendant ces deux jours, il fut simple soldat au service du démon dont il tenait sa talismanique existence. Mais à l’heure dite, le soir, sur le boulevard, il attendit la voiture, qui ne se fit pas attendre. Le mulâtre s’approcha d’Henri pour lui dire en français une phrase qu’il paraissait avoir apprise par cœur: - Si vous voulez venir, m’a-t-elle dit, il faut consentir à vous laisser bander les yeux.

Et Christemio montra un foulard de soie blanche.

- Non! dit Henri dont la toute-puissance se révolta soudain.

Et il voulut monter. Le mulâtre fit un signe; la voiture partit.

- Oui! cria de Marsay furieux de perdre un bonheur qu’il s’était promis. D’ailleurs, il voyait l’impossibilité de capituler avec un esclave dont l’obéissance était aveugle autant que celle d’un bourreau. Puis, était-ce sur cet instrument passif que devait tomber sa colère?

Le mulâtre siffla, la voiture revint. Henri monta précipitamment. Déjà quelques curieux s’amassaient niaisement sur le boulevard. Henri était fort, il voulut se jouer du mulâtre. Lorsque la voiture partit au grand trot, il lui saisit les mains pour s’emparer de lui et pouvoir garder, en domptant son surveillant, l’exercice de ses facultés afin de savoir où il allait. Tentative inutile. Les yeux du mulâtre étincelèrent dans l’ombre. Cet homme poussa des cris que la fureur faisait expirer dans sa gorge, se dégagea, rejeta de Marsay par une main de fer, et le cloua, pour ainsi dire, au fond de la voiture; puis, de sa main libre, il tira un poignard triangulaire, en sifflant. Le cocher entendit le sifflement, et s’arrêta. Henri était sans armes, il fut forcé de plier; il tendit la tête vers le foulard. Ce geste de soumission apaisa Christemio, qui lui banda les yeux avec un respect et un soin qui témoignaient une sorte de vénération pour la personne de l’homme aimé par son idole. Mais, avant de prendre cette précaution, il avait serré son poignard avec défiance dans sa poche de côté, et se boutonna jusqu’au menton.

- Il m’aurait tué, ce Chinois-là! se dit de Marsay.

The Girl with the Golden Eyes: Novella

p. 93

Happy at that moment with the future before him, he became young and supple again and thought only of loving as he went to bed. He dreamed of the Girl with the Golden Eyes as passionate young men dream. There were monstrous images, elusive oddities full of light, which reveal invisible worlds, but always in an incomplete manner, for an interposed veil changes the conditions of optics. The next day and the day after, he disappeared without anyone being able to know where he had gone. His power belonged to him only under certain conditions, and fortunately for him, during those two days, he was a simple soldier in the service of the demon from whom he held his talismanic existence. But at the appointed hour, in the evening, on the boulevard, he waited for the carriage, which did not keep him waiting. The mulatto approached Henri to say to him in French a sentence he appeared to have learned by heart: “‘If you wish to come,’ she told me, ‘you must consent to let yourself be blindfolded.’”

And Christemio showed a white silk scarf.

“No!” said Henri, whose omnipotence suddenly revolted.

And he tried to get in. The mulatto made a sign; the carriage left.

“Yes!” cried de Marsay, furious at losing a happiness he had promised himself. Besides, he saw the impossibility of coming to terms with a slave whose obedience was as blind as an executioner’s. Then, was it upon this passive instrument that his anger ought to fall?

The mulatto whistled; the carriage returned. Henri got in hurriedly. Already a few curious people were stupidly gathering on the boulevard. Henri was strong; he wanted to make sport of the mulatto. When the carriage set off at a fast trot, he seized the man’s hands in order to get control of him and, by subduing his guard, retain the use of his faculties so as to know where he was going. A useless attempt. The mulatto’s eyes flashed in the darkness. The man uttered cries that fury smothered in his throat, freed himself, threw de Marsay back with an iron hand and, so to speak, nailed him to the bottom of the carriage; then, with his free hand, he drew a triangular dagger while whistling. The coachman heard the whistle and stopped. Henri was unarmed; he was forced to yield; he held out his head toward the scarf. This gesture of submission calmed Christemio, who blindfolded him with a respect and care that attested to a kind of veneration for the person of the man loved by his idol. But, before taking this precaution, he had distrustfully put his dagger away in his side pocket and buttoned himself up to the chin.

“That Chinaman would have killed me!” de Marsay said to himself.

About This Reading Edition

Honoré de Balzac’s The Girl with the Golden Eyes turns Paris into a charged study of wealth, appetite, spectacle, secrecy, possession, and power. This exact page-aligned Literary Fiction edition presents the novella’s continuous movement in French with an independent close English translation prepared by Diotimos Editions.

Discussion Questions

Historical Text and Translation

The French reading text follows the 1843 Furne edition as presented in the Furne corrigé transcription at eBalzac and is checked, where needed, against the Gallica image of the volume. The original hierarchy, dedication to Eugène Delacroix, continuous sectioning, and closing 1834–1835 dateline are retained.

About Diotimos Editions

Diotimos Editions prepared this independent close translation directly from the French. Meaning, agency, logic, degree, reference, image, repetition, and ambiguity take precedence over elegance; Balzac’s clause order and long accumulations remain wherever grammatical English can bear them.