Vulgar words in The Enormous Room (Page 1)
This book at a glance
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~ ~ ~ Sentence 104 ~ ~ ~
We were in fundamental disagreement as to the attitude which we, Americans, should uphold toward the poilus in whose behalf we had volunteered assistance, Mr. A. maintaining "you boys want to keep away from those dirty Frenchmen" and "we're here to show those bastards how they do things in America," to which we answered by seizing every opportunity for fraternization.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 439 ~ ~ ~
At the bottom reposefully lay a new human turd.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 1,311 ~ ~ ~
Those bastards doughno what a bath means.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 1,317 ~ ~ ~
We Americans are over here to learn them lousy bastards something."
~ ~ ~ Sentence 1,320 ~ ~ ~
"_Par ici!_"--"Get out of the way you damn Polak!"
~ ~ ~ Sentence 2,407 ~ ~ ~
And after the last head had disappeared, Monsieur le Directeur continued to rave and shake and tremble for as much as ten seconds, his shoebrush mane crinkling with black anger--then, turning suddenly upon _les hommes_ (who cowered up against the wall as men cower up against a material thing in the presence of the supernatural) he roared and shook his pinkish fist at us till the gold stud in his immaculate cuff walked out upon the wad of clenching flesh: "AND YOU--TAKE CARE--IF I CATCH YOU WITH THE WOMEN AGAIN I'LL STICK YOU IN CABINOT FOR TWO WEEKS, ALL--ALL OF YOU--" for as much as half a minute; then turning his round-shouldered big back suddenly he adjusted his cuffs, muttering PROSTITUTES and WHORES and DIRTY FILTH OF WOMEN, crammed his big fists into his trousers, pulled in his chin till his fattish jowl rippled along the square jaws, panted, grunted, very completely satisfied, very contented, rather proud of himself, took a strutting stride or two in his expensive shiny boots, and shot all at once through the open door which he SLAMMED after him.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 2,595 ~ ~ ~
The Fake French Soldier, alias Garibaldi, beside him, a little face filled with terror ... the Bell cranks the sharp-nosed priest on his knees ... titter from bench of whores-- And that reminds me of a Sunday afternoon on our backs spent with the wholeness of a hill in Chevancourt, discovering a great apple pie, B. and Jean Stahl and Maurice le Menusier and myself; and the sun falling roundly before us.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 2,596 ~ ~ ~
--And then one _Dimanche_ a new high old man with a sharp violet face and green hair--"You are free, my children, to achieve immortality--_Songes, songez, donc--L'Eternité est une existence sans durée----Toujours le Paradis, toujours L'Enfer_" (to the silently roaring whores) "Heaven is made for you"--and the Belgian ten-foot farmer spat three times and wiped them with his foot, his nose dripping; and the nigger shot a white oyster into a far-off scarlet handkerchief--and the priest's strings came untied and he sidled crablike down the steps--the two candles wiggle a strenuous softness....
~ ~ ~ Sentence 2,839 ~ ~ ~
The Black Holster turned to the room at large and roared: "You children of _Merde_ don't let this happen again or I'll fix you every one of you."
~ ~ ~ Sentence 2,851 ~ ~ ~
A really ugly person, with a hard knuckling face and treacherous hands, whose daughter lived downstairs in a separate room apart from _les putains_ (against which "dirty," "filthy," "whores" he could not say enough--"Hi'd rather die than 'ave my daughter with them stinkin' 'ores," remarked once to me this strictly moral man, in Cockney English) and whose daughter (aged thirteen) was generally supposed to serve in a pleasurable capacity.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 3,056 ~ ~ ~
Second, a palish, foppish, undersized, prominent-nosed creature who affected a deep musical voice and the cut of whose belted raincoat gave away his profession--he was a pimp, and proud of it, and immediately upon his arrival boasted thereof, and manifested altogether as disagreeable a species of bullying vanity as I ever (save in the case of The Fighting Sheeney) encountered.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 3,074 ~ ~ ~
"Take off your hat, you son of a bitch," the _planton_ yelled.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 3,225 ~ ~ ~
O Monsieur le Gestionnaire, I should not have liked to have seen those names in my book of sinners, in my album of filth and blood and incontinence, had I been you.... O little, very little, _gouvernement français_, and you, the great and comfortable _messieurs_ of the world, tell me why you have put a gypsy who dresses like To-morrow among the squabbling pimps and thieves of yesterday....
~ ~ ~ Sentence 3,309 ~ ~ ~
The Fighting Sheeney temporarily took him down a peg by flooring him in the nightly "_Boxe_" which The Fighting Sheeney instituted immediately upon the arrival of The Trick Raincoat--a previous acquaintance of The Sheeney's at La Santé; the similarity of occupations (or non-occupation; I refer to the profession of pimp) having cemented a friendship between these two.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 3,311 ~ ~ ~
He set about cleaning and polishing himself, combing his hair, smoothing his cap--and was as cocky as ever next morning.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 3,322 ~ ~ ~
The Zulu was, to all intents and purposes, gazing at the ceiling.... Bill The Hollander, clad only in his shirt, his long lean muscled legs planted far apart, shook one fist after another at the recumbent Young Pole, thundering (curiously enough in English): "Come on you _Gottverdummer_ son-of-a-bitch of a Polak bastard and fight!
~ ~ ~ Sentence 3,323 ~ ~ ~
Get up out o' there you Polak hoor and I'll kill you, you _Gottverdummer_ bastard you!
~ ~ ~ Sentence 3,450 ~ ~ ~
And now I must chronicle the famous duel which took place between The Zulu's compatriot, The Young Pole, and that herebefore introduced pimp, The Fighting Sheeney; a duel which came as a climax to a vast deal of teasing on the part of The Young Pole--who, as previously remarked, had not learned his lesson from Bill The Hollander with the thoroughness which one might have expected of him.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 3,680 ~ ~ ~
"The son of a bitch is crazy," one said.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 3,757 ~ ~ ~
For at least three-quarters of an hour this game went on.... Another day Jean, being angry at the weather and having eaten a huge amount of _soupe_, began yelling at the top of his voice: "_MERDE à la France_" and laughing heartily.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 3,759 ~ ~ ~
Then The Trick Raincoat (that undersized specimen, clad in feminine-fitting raiment with flashy shoes, who was by trade a pimp, being about half Jean's height and a tenth of his physique,) strolled up to Jean--who had by this time got as far as my bed--and, sticking his sallow face as near Jean's as the neck could reach, said in a solemn voice: "_II ne faut pas dire ça._" Jean astounded, gazed at the intruder for a moment; then demanded: "_Qui dit ça?
~ ~ ~ Sentence 3,763 ~ ~ ~
MERDE à la France!_" nor would he yield a point, backed up as he was by the moral support of everyone present except the Raincoat--who found discretion the better part of valour and retired with a few dark threats; leaving Jean master of the situation and yelling for the Raincoat's particular delectation: "_MAY-RRR-DE à la France!_" more loudly than ever.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 3,766 ~ ~ ~
Jean noticed this; got a chair; mounted on it, and by applying alternately his ear and his mouth to the end of the pipe created for himself a telephone, with the aid of which he carried on a conversation with The Wanderer (at that moment visiting his family on the floor below) to this effect: --Jean, grasping the pipe and speaking angrily into it, being evidently nettled at the poor connection--"Heh-loh, hello, hello, hello"--surveying the pipe in consternation--"_Merde.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 3,921 ~ ~ ~
--The Surveillant was waving his wand and cooing "_Je comprends, je comprends, c'est malheureux._"--"You're god damn right its _malheureux_" I said, forgetting my French.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 4,091 ~ ~ ~
I had not time to exchange a look with him--let alone a word--for the Wooden Hand said from the doorway: "_Allez, l'autre américain,_" and I entered in more confusion than can easily be imagined; entered the torture chamber, entered the inquisition, entered the tentacles of that sly and beaming polyp, _le gouvernement français_.... As I entered I said, half aloud: The thing is this, to look 'em in the eyes and keep cool whatever happens, not for the fraction of a moment forgetting that they are made of _merde_, that they are all of them composed entirely of _merde_--I don't know how many inquisitors I expected to see; but I guess I was ready for at least fifteen, among them President Poincaré Lui-même.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 4,092 ~ ~ ~
I hummed noiselessly: "_si vous passez par ma vil-le n'oubliez pas ma maison; on y mang-e de bonne sou-pe Ton Ton Tay-ne; faite de merde et les onions, Ton Ton Tayne Ton Ton Ton,_" remembering the fine _forgeron_ of Chevancourt who used to sing this, or something very like it, upon a table--entirely for the benefit of _les deux américains_, who would subsequently render "Eats uh lonje wae to Tee-pear-raer-ee," wholly for the gratification of a roomful of what Mr. Anderson liked to call "them bastards," alias "dirty" Frenchmen, alias _les poilus, les poilus divins_.... A little room.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 4,215 ~ ~ ~
"_c'est malheureux_," he repeated over and over, wagging his poor little head in rage and despair--"it's no place for a young man who has done no wrong, to be shut up with pimps and cutthroats, _pour la durée de la guerre; le gouvernement français a bien fait!_" and he brushed a tear out of his eye with a desperate rapid brittle gesture....
~ ~ ~ Sentence 4,280 ~ ~ ~
At the time I gave neither an extraordinary nor a particular damn about Monsieur le Surveillant, nor indeed about "_l'autre américain_" alias myself.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 4,511 ~ ~ ~
No, I must change at a station called Briouse did you say, Good-bye, _mes amis, et bonne chance!_ They disappear, pulling and pushing a cart _les deux balayeurs ... de mes couilles ..._ by Jove what a tin noise is coming, see the wooden engineer, he makes a funny gesture utterly composed (composed silently and entirely) of _merde_.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 4,512 ~ ~ ~
_Merde!_ _Merde._ A wee tiny absurd whistle coming from nowhere, from outside of me.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 4,548 ~ ~ ~
Third is more amusing certainly, though god-damn hot with these sardines, including myself of course.