DESPAIR
I resumed my work, but with repugnance, and was weary from the
commencement. Now that I had lifted a corner of the veil, I had neither
the courage to let it fall again nor the boldness to draw it away
altogether. When I seated myself at my table, I leaned sadly on my
elbows, letting the pen slip from my fingers and muttering: "What is the
good!" My intelligence seemed worn out; I dare not re-read the few
phrases I had written; I no longer felt that joy of the poet, whom a
happy rhyme fills with unreasoning and childish laughter. Scold me,
brothers, for limping verses are shorn of their power to keep me awake.
My slim resources are diminishing. I can calculate the hour when
everything will be gone. I eat my bread, being almost in haste to finish
it that I may no longer see it melt away at each meal. I am surrendering
to want like a coward; the struggle for food terrifies me.
Ah! how they lie who assert that poverty is the mother of talent! Let
them count those whom despair has made illustrious and those whom it has
slowly debased. When tears are caused by a heart wound, the wrinkles
they dig are beautiful and noble; but when hunger makes them flow, when
every night a baseness or a brutish task drys them, they furrow the face
frightfully, without imparting to it the sad serenity of age.
No; since I am so poor that I may, perhaps, die to-morrow, I cannot
work. When the closet was full I had great courage. I felt the strength
to gain my bread. Now it is nearly empty and I am given over to
lassitude. It would be easier for me to endure hunger than to make the
smallest effort.
I well know that I am cowardly and false to my vows. I know that I have
not the right already to take refuge in defeat. I am only twenty: I
cannot be weary of a world of which I am ignorant. Yesterday, I dreamed
of it as sweet and good. Is it a new dream which makes me form a bad
opinion of it to-day?
Oh! brothers, my first step has been unfortunate: I am afraid to
advance. I will exhaust my suffering, shed all my tears, and my smiles
will return. I will work with a gayer heart to-morrow.