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 · ¶ 6

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English Page · Branch 6 of 66

Novella · ¶ 6

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French

p. 14

Et, d’abord, saluez ce roi du mouvement parisien, qui s’est soumis le temps et l’espace. Oui, saluez cette créature composée de salpêtre et de gaz qui donne des enfants à la France pendant ses nuits laborieuses, et remultiplie pendant le jour son individu pour le service, la gloire et le plaisir de ses concitoyens. Cet homme résout le problème de suffire, à la fois, à une femme aimable, à son ménage, au Constitutionnel, à son bureau, à la Garde nationale, à l’Opéra, à Dieu; mais pour transformer en écus le Constitutionnel, le Bureau, l’Opéra, la Garde nationale, la femme et Dieu. Enfin, saluez un irréprochable cumulard. Levé tous les jours à cinq heures, il a franchi comme un oiseau l’espace qui sépare son domicile de la rue Montmartre. Qu’il vente ou tonne, pleuve ou neige, il est au Constitutionnel et y attend la charge de journaux dont il a soumissionné la distribution. Il reçoit ce pain politique avec avidité, le prend et le porte. À neuf heures, il est au sein de son ménage, débite un calembour à sa femme, lui dérobe un gros baiser, déguste une tasse de café ou gronde ses enfants. À dix heures moins un quart, il apparaît à la Mairie. Là, posé sur un fauteuil, comme un perroquet sur son bâton, chauffé par la ville de Paris, il inscrit jusqu’à quatre heures, sans leur donner une larme ou un sourire, les décès et les naissances de tout un arrondissement. Le bonheur, le malheur du quartier passe par le bec de sa plume, comme l’esprit du Constitutionnel voyageait naguère sur ses épaules. Rien ne lui pèse! Il va toujours droit devant lui, prend son patriotisme tout fait dans le journal, ne contredit personne, crie ou applaudit avec tout le monde, et vit en hirondelle. À deux pas de sa paroisse, il peut, en cas d’une cérémonie importante, laisser sa place à un surnuméraire, et aller chanter un requiem au lutrin de l’église, dont il est, le dimanche et les jours de fête, le plus bel ornement, la voix la plus imposante, où il tord avec énergie sa large bouche en faisant tonner un joyeux Amen. Il est chantre. Libéré à quatre heures de son service officiel, il apparaît pour répandre la joie et la gaieté au sein de la boutique la plus célèbre qui soit en la Cité. Heureuse est sa femme, il n’a pas le temps d’être jaloux; il est plutôt homme d’action que de sentiment.

The Girl with the Golden Eyes: Novella

p. 15

And, first, salute this king of Parisian movement, who has subjected time and space to himself. Yes, salute this creature composed of saltpeter and gas who gives children to France during his laborious nights, and during the day remultiplies his individual self for the service, glory, and pleasure of his fellow citizens. This man solves the problem of sufficing, at once, for an amiable wife, his household, the Constitutionnel, his office, the National Guard, the Opera, God; but in order to transform into crowns the Constitutionnel, the Office, the Opera, the National Guard, the wife, and God. In short, salute an irreproachable holder of multiple posts. Risen every day at five o'clock, he has crossed like a bird the space separating his home from the rue Montmartre. Whether it blows or thunders, rains or snows, he is at the Constitutionnel and there awaits the load of newspapers whose distribution he has contracted for. He receives this political bread with avidity, takes it and carries it. At nine o'clock, he is in the bosom of his household, dispenses a pun to his wife, steals a big kiss from her, savors a cup of coffee, or scolds his children. At a quarter to ten, he appears at the Town Hall. There, placed upon an armchair, like a parrot on its perch, heated at the expense of the city of Paris, until four o'clock he records, without giving them a tear or a smile, the deaths and births of a whole arrondissement. The happiness, the unhappiness of the neighborhood passes through the beak of his pen, as the mind of the Constitutionnel lately traveled upon his shoulders. Nothing weighs upon him! He always goes straight ahead, takes his patriotism ready-made from the newspaper, contradicts no one, shouts or applauds with everyone, and lives like a swallow. Two steps from his parish church, in the event of an important ceremony, he can leave his place to a supernumerary and go sing a requiem at the church lectern, of which on Sundays and feast days he is the finest ornament, the most imposing voice, where he twists his wide mouth energetically while making a joyful Amen thunder. He is a cantor. Freed at four o'clock from his official service, he appears to spread joy and gaiety in the bosom of the most celebrated shop in the Cité. Happy is his wife, he has no time to be jealous; he is more a man of action than of feeling.

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.