Il nous faut mener double vie dans nos vies, double sang dans nos c艙urs, la joie avec la peine, le rire avec les ombres, deux chevaux dans le m锚me attelage, chacun tirant de son c么t茅, 脿 folle allure. Ainsi allons-nous, cavaliers sur un chemin de neige, cherchant la bonne foul茅e, cherchant la pens茅e juste, et la beaut茅 parfois nous br没le, comme une branche basse giflant notre visage, et la beaut茅 parfois nous mord, comme un loup merveilleux sautant 脿 notre gorge.
Christian Bobin is a French author and poet. He received the 1993 Prix des Deux Magots for the book Le Tr猫s-Bas (translated into English in 1997 by Michael H. Kohn and published under two titles: The Secret of Francis of Assisi: A Meditation and The Very Lowly
La Folle Allure = The Crazy Allure, Christian Bobin
We must lead a double life in our lives, double blood in our hearts, joy with sorrow, laughter with shadows, two horses in the same team, each pulling on its side, at breakneck speed. So we go, riders on a snow path, seeking the right stride, seeking the right thought, and beauty sometimes burns us, like a low branch slapping our face, and beauty sometimes bites us, like a wonderful wolf leaping at our throat.
My name is Prune. Prune Armandon. My real name is Lucie. I am a child. I live in a caravan with my parents. My father is French, my mother Italian. They work for a circus. A Polish circus. Today we are live outside of Arles in France. There is a wolf that frightens the town. It鈥檚 from Poland. My first love is the wolf. The people set a trap to catch it. One day it works. The wolf dies but I never truly get over it. I run away.
My parents find me at the Hotel of Bees in the town of Jura. I love bees. The birds sing in German. I also discover Johann Sebastian Bach. He is German. I really like his fugues. A fugue is another term for flight. Something that I am good at.
I become a woman and meet a young man, Roman. He seduces me. I meet his parents. They live in a Paris in a big house with a big fish tank. Roman is in love with me but what is love? His parents want someone better but Roman gets his way. He always does.
We marry. It鈥檚 stifling being married. Roman is writing his first novel. A romance. He calls me his Angel, he believes in angels. I don鈥檛 believe in angels. They have red hair and run around in their pijamas. I am a clown.
I want something else. The circus is in town. I demand a visit. Roman allows it because he is busy writing. He is always writing. I meet another young man. I call him ogre. He like Bach. He doesn鈥檛 believe in angels. I need to run away.
La Folle Allure or 鈥淭he Crazy Look鈥� takes a look at a young woman鈥檚 desire for freedom, to run, to be herself when so many expect something else from her. Lucie escapes into her world of Bach. She escapes into nature and the world of animals. Christian Bobin writes in a wandering, sparse, slow style. It鈥檚 almost magical in its tone. You keep expecting something to happen, but like life, it never goes as expected. Maybe that is a good thing.