TE20 Migrant Mosaics

A Girl’s Story (memoir excerpt) Annie Ernaux Translated from French by Alison L. Strayer

At dawn, when he does not come to her room, she goes to his and knocks on the door. Silence. She thinks he must still be sleeping. She returns several times (I’ve forgotten how many). The last time, after knocking, she tries the door. It is bolted. She looks through the keyhole. He is directly in her field of vision with his back to her, in pajamas, stretching. He does not answer the door. Even if it had crossed her mind (and I think it probably did) that by promising to come and say goodbye, he was simply trying to shake heroff, noobjective signof reality—the fiancée, the unkept promise, the lack of a meeting arranged for later in Rouen— can possibly compete with the novel that wrote itself in a single night, in the spirit of Lamartine’s The Lake, or Musset’s Nights, or the happy ending of the film The Proud and the Beautiful, with Gérard Philipe and Michèle Morgan running toward each other, or the songs (that Esperanto of love) I can list without a second thought:

Un jour tu verras / On se rencontrera — One day you’ll see / we will meet again (Mouloudji)

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