or four times a day to see if he needed anything. He used to give them the
notes which, up to the last, he exchanged with Emmanuel. They were
almost equally ill, and were under no illusion as to their condition. By
different ways the free religious genius of Christophe and the free
irreligious genius of Emmanuel had reached the same brotherly serenity.
In their wavering handwriting, which they found it more and more
difficult to read, they discoursed, not of their illness, but of the
perpetual subject of their conversations, their art, and the future of
their ideas.
This went on until the day when, with his failing hand, Christophe wrote
the words of the King of Sweden, as he lay dying on the field of battle:
_"Ich habe genug, Bruder: rette dich!"_
[FOOTNOTE: "I have had my fill, brother: save thyself!"]
* * * * *
As a succession of stages he looked back over the whole of his life: the
immense effort of his youth to win self-possession, his desperate struggles
to exact from others the bare right to live, to wrest himself
from the demons of his race. And even after the victory, the forced
unending vigil over the fruits of conquest, to defend them against
victory itself. The sweetness, the tribulation of friendship opening up
the great human family through conflict to the isolated heart. The
fullness of art, the zenith of life. His proud dominion over his
conquered spirit. His belief that he had mastered his destiny. And then,
suddenly at the turn of the road, his meeting with the knights of the
Apocalypse, Grief, Passion, Shame, the vanguard of the Lord. Then laid
low, trampled underfoot by the horses, dragging himself bleeding to the
heights, where, in the midst of the clouds, flames the wild purifying
fire. His meeting face to face with God. His wrestling with Him, like
Jacob with the Angel. His issue, broken from the fight. His adoration of
his defeat, his understanding of his limitations, his striving to fulfil
the will of the Lord, in the domain assigned to him. Finally, when the
labors of seed-time and harvest, the splendid hard work, were at an end,
having won the right to rest at the feet of the sunlit mountains, and to
say to them:
"Be ye blessed! I shall not reach your light, but very sweet to me is
your shade...."
Then the beloved had appeared to him: she had taken him by the hand; and
death, breaking down the barrier of her body, had poured the pure soul
of the beloved into the soul of her lover. Together they had issued from
the shadow of days, and they had reached the happy heights where, like
the three Graces, in a noble round, the past, the present, and the
future, clasped hands, where the heart at rest sees griefs and joys in
one moment spring to life, flower, and die, where all is Harmony....
He was in too great a hurry. He thought he had already reached that
place. The vise which gripped his panting bosom, and the tumultuous
whirl of images beating against the walls of his burning brain, reminded
him that the last stage and the hardest was yet to run.... Onward!...
* * * * *
He lay motionless upon his bed. In the room above him some silly woman
would go on playing the piano for hours. She only knew one piece, and
she would go on tirelessly repeating the same bars; they gave her so
much pleasure! They were a joy, an emotion to her; every color, every
kind of form was in them. And Christophe could understand her happiness,
but she made him weep with exasperation. If only she would not hit the
keys so hard! Noise was as odious to Christophe as vice.... In the end
he became resigned to it. It was hard to learn not to hear. And yet it
was less difficult than he thought. He would leave his sick, coarse
body. How humiliating it was to have been shut up in it for so many
years! He would watch its decay and think:
"It will not go on much longer."
He would feel the pulse of his human egoism and wonder:
"Which would you prefer? To have the name and personality of Christophe
become immortal and his work disappear, or to have his work endure and
no trace be left of his personality and name?"
Without a moment's hesitation he replied:
"Let me disappear and my work endure! My gain is twofold: for only what
is most true of me, the real truth of myself will remain. Let Christophe
perish!..."
But very soon he felt that he was becoming as much a stranger to his
work as to himself. How childish was the illusion of believing that his
art would endure! He saw clearly not only how little he had done, but
how surely all modern music was doomed to destruction. More quickly than
any other the language of music is consumed by its own heat; at the end
of a century or two it is understood only by a few initiates. For how
many do Monteverdi and Lully still exist? Already the oaks of the
classic forest are eaten away with moss. Our buildings of sound, in
which our passions sing, will soon be empty temples, will soon crumble
away into oblivion.--And Christophe was amazed to find himself gazing at
the ruins untroubled.
"Have I begun to love life less?" he wondered.
But at once he understood that he loved it more.... Why weep over the
ruins of art? They are not worth it. Art is the shadow man casts upon
Nature. Let them disappear together, sucked up by the sun's rays! They
prevent my seeing the sun.--The vast treasure of Nature passes through
our fingers. Human intelligence tries to catch the running water in the
meshes of a net. Our music is an illusion. Our scale of sounds is an
invention. It answers to no living sound. It is a compromise of the mind
between real sounds, the application of the metric system to the moving
infinite. The mind needs such a lie as this to understand the
incomprehensible, and the mind has believed the lie, because it wished
to believe it. But it is not true. It is not alive. And the delight
which the mind takes in this order of its own creation has only been
obtained by falsifying the direct intuition of what is. From time to time,
a genius, in passing contact with the earth, suddenly perceives
the torrent of reality, overflowing the continents of art. The dykes
crack for a moment. Nature creeps in through a fissure. But at once the
gap is stopped up. It must be done to safeguard the reason of mankind.
It would perish if its eyes met the eyes of Jehovah. Then once more it
begins to strengthen the walls of its cell, which nothing enters from
without, except it have first been wrought upon. And it is beautiful,
perhaps, for those who will not see.... But for me, I will see Thy face,
Jehovah! I will hear the thunder of Thy voice, though it bring me to
nothingness. The noise of art is an hindrance to me. Let the mind hold
its peace! Let man be silent!...
* * * * *
But a few minutes after this harangue he groped for one of the sheets of
paper that lay scattered on his bed, and he tried to write down a few
more notes. When he saw the contradiction of it, he smiled and said:
"Oh, my music, companion of all my days, thou art better than I. I am an
ingrate: I send thee away from me. But thou wilt not leave me: thou wilt
not be repulsed at my caprice. Forgive me. Thou knowest these are but
whimsies. I have never betrayed thee, thou hast never betrayed me; and
we are sure of each other. We will go home together, my friend. Stay
with me to the end."
_Bleib bei uns...._
[Illustration: Musical notation]
He awoke from a long torpor, heavy with fever and dreams. Strange dreams
of which he was still full. And now he looked at himself, touched
himself, sought and could not find himself. He seemed to himself to be
"another." Another, dearer than himself.... Who?... It seemed to him
that in his dreams another soul had taken possession of him. Olivier?
Grazia?... His heart and his head were so weak! He could not distinguish
between his loved ones. Why should he distinguish between them? He loved
them all equally.
He lay bound in a sort of overwhelming beatitude. He made no attempt to
move. He knew that sorrow lay in ambush for him, like a cat waiting for
a mouse. He lay like one dead. Already.... There was no one in the room.
Overhead the piano was silent. Solitude. Silence. Christophe sighed.
"How good it is to think, at the end of life, that I have never been
alone even in my greatest loneliness!... Souls that I have met on the
way, brothers, who for a moment have held out their hands to me,
mysterious spirits sprung from my mind, living and dead--all living.--O
all that I have loved, all that I have created! Ye surround me with your
warm embrace, ye watch over me. I hear the music of your voices. Blessed
be destiny, that has given you to me! I am rich, I am rich.... My heart
is full!..."
He looked out through the window.... It was one of those beautiful
sunless days, which, as old Balzac said, are like a beautiful blind
woman.... Christophe was passionately absorbed in gazing at the branch
of a tree that grew in front of the window. The branch was swelling, the
moist buds were bursting, the little white flowers were expanding; and
in the flowers, in the leaves, in the whole tree coming to new life,
there was such an ecstasy of surrender to the new-born force of spring,
that Christophe was no longer conscious of his weariness, his
depression, his wretched, dying body, and lived again in the branch of
the tree. He was steeped in the gentle radiance of its life. It was like
a kiss. His heart, big with love, turned to the beautiful tree, smiling
there upon his last moments. He thought that at that moment there were
creatures loving each other, that to others this hour, that was so full
of agony for him, was an hour of ecstasy, that it is ever thus, and that
the puissant joy of living never runs dry. And in a choking voice that
would not obey his thoughts--(possibly no sound at all came from his
lips, but he knew it not)--he chanted a hymn to life.
An invisible orchestra answered him. Christophe said within himself:
"How can they know? We did not rehearse it. If only they can go on to
the end without a mistake!"
He tried to sit up so as to see the whole orchestra, and beat time with
his arms outstretched. But the orchestra made no mistake; they were sure
of themselves. What marvelous music! How wonderfully they improvised the
responses! Christophe was amused.
"Wait a bit, old fellow! I'll catch you out."
And with a tug at the tiller he drove the ship capriciously to left and
right through dangerous channels.
"How will you get out of that?... And this? Caught!... And what about
this?"
But they always extricated themselves: they countered all his audacities
with even bolder ventures.
"What will they do now?... The rascals!..."
Christophe cried "bravo!" and roared with laughter.
"The devil! It is becoming difficult to follow them! Am I to let them
beat me?... But, you know, this is not a game! I'm done, now.... No
matter! They shan't say that they had the last word...."
But the orchestra exhibited such an overpoweringly novel and abundant
fancy that there was nothing to be done but to sit and listen
open-mouthed. They took his breath away.... Christophe was filled with
pity for himself.
"Idiot!" he said to himself. "You are empty. Hold your peace! The
instrument has given all that it can give. Enough of this body! I must
have another."
But his body took its revenge. Violent fits of coughing prevented his
listening:
"Will you hold your peace?"
He clutched his throat, and thumped his chest, wrestled with himself as
with an enemy that he must overthrow. He saw himself again in the middle
of a great throng. A crowd of men were shouting all around him. One man
gripped him with his arms. They rolled down on the ground. The other man
was on top of him. He was choking.
"Let me go. I will hear!... I will hear! Let me go, or I'll kill
you!..."
He banged the man's head against the wall, but the man would not let him
go.
"Who is it, now? With whom am I wrestling? What is this body that I hold
in my grasp, this body warm against me?..."
A crowd of hallucinations. A chaos of passions. Fury, lust, murderous
desires, the sting of carnal embraces, the last stirring of the mud at
the bottom of the pond....
"Ah! Will not the end come soon? Shall I not pluck you off, you leeches
clinging to my body?... Then let my body perish with them!"
Stiffened in shoulders, loins, knees, Christophe thrust back the
invisible enemy.... He was free.... Yonder, the music was still playing,
farther and farther away. Dripping with sweat, broken in body,
Christophe held his arms out towards it:
"Wait for me! Wait for me!"
He ran after it. He stumbled. He jostled and pushed his way.... He had
run so fast that he could not breathe. Has heart beat, his blood roared
and buzzed in his ears, like a train rumbling through a tunnel....
"God! How horrible!"
He made desperate signs to the orchestra not to go on without him.... At
last! He came out of the tunnel!... Silence came again. He could hear
once more.
"How lovely it is! How lovely! Encore! Bravely, my boys!... But who
wrote it, who wrote it?... What do you say? You tell me that
Jean-Christophe Krafft wrote it? Oh! come! Nonsense! I knew him. He
couldn't write ten bars of such music as that!... Who is that coughing?
Don't make such a noise!... What chord is that?... And that?... Not so
fast! Wait!..."
Christophe uttered inarticulate cries; his hand, clutching the quilt,
moved as if it were writing: and his exhausted brain went on
mechanically trying to discover the elements of the chords and their
consequents. He could not succeed: his emotion made him drop his prize.
He began all over again.... Ah! This time it was too difficult....
"Stop, stop.... I can no more...."
His will relaxed utterly. Softly Christophe closed his eyes. Tears of
happiness trickled down from his closed lids. The little girl who was
looking after him, unknown to him, piously wiped them away. He lost all
consciousness of what was happening. The orchestra had ceased playing,
leaving him on a dizzy harmony, the riddle of which could not be solved.
His brain went on saying:
"But what chord is that? How am I to get out of it? I should like to
find the way out, before the end...."
Voices were raised now. A passionate voice. Anna's tragic eyes.... But a
moment and it was no longer Anna. Eyes now so full of kindness....
"Grazia, is it thou?... Which of you? Which of you? I cannot see you
clearly.... Why is the sun so long in coming?"
Then bells rang tranquilly. The sparrows at the window chirped to remind
him of the hour when he was wont to give them the breakfast crumbs....
In his dream Christophe saw the little room of his childhood.... The
bells. Now it is dawn! The lovely waves of sound fill the light air.
They come from far away, from the villages down yonder.... The murmuring
of the river rises from behind the house.... Once more Christophe stood
gazing down from the staircase window. All his life flowed before his
eyes, like the Rhine. All his life, all his lives, Louisa, Gottfried,
Olivier, Sabine....
"Mother, lovers, friends.... What are these names?... Love.... Where are
you? Where are you, my souls? I know that you are there, and I cannot
take you."
"We are with thee. Peace, O beloved!"
"I will not lose you ever more. I have sought you so long!"
"Be not anxious. We shall never leave thee more."
"Alas! The stream is bearing me on."
"The river that bears thee on, bears us with thee."
"Whither are we going?"
"To the place where we shall be united once more."
"Will it be soon?"
"Look." And Christophe, making a supreme effort to raise his head--(God!
How heavy it was!)--saw the river overflowing its banks, covering the
fields, moving on, august, slow, almost still. And, like a flash of
steel, on the edge of the horizon there seemed to be speeding towards
him a line of silver streams, quivering in the sunlight. The roar of the
ocean.... And his heart sank, and he asked:
"Is it He?"
And the voices of his loved ones replied:
"It is He!"
And his brain dying, said to itself:
"The gates are opened.... That is the chord I was seeking!... But it is
not the end! There are new spaces!...--We will go on, to-morrow."
O joy, the joy of seeing self vanish into the sovereign peace of God,
whom all his life he had so striven to serve!...
"Lord, art Thou not displeased with Thy servant? I have done so little.
I could do no more.... I have struggled, I have suffered, I have erred,
I have created. Let me draw breath in Thy Father's arms. Some day I
shall be born again for a new fight."
And the murmuring of the river and the roaring of the sea sang with him:
"Thou shalt be born again. Rest. Now all is one heart. The smile of the
night and the day entwined. Harmony, the august marriage of love and
hate. I will sing the God of the two mighty wings. Hosanna to life!
Hosanna to death!
_"Christofori faciem die quacunque tueris,
Illa nempe die non morte mala morieris."_
Saint Christophe has crossed the river. All night long he has marched
against the stream. Like a rock his huge-limbed body stands above the
water. On his shoulders is the Child, frail and heavy. Saint Christophe
leans on a pine-tree that he has plucked up, and it bends. His back also
bends. Those who saw him set out vowed that he would never win through,
and for a long time their mockery and their laughter followed him. Then
the night fell and they grew weary. Now Christophe is too far away for
the cries of those standing on the water's brink to reach him. Through
the roar of the torrent he hears only the tranquil voice of the Child,
clasping a lock of hair on the giant's forehead in his little hand, and
crying: "March on."--And with bowed back, and eyes fixed straight in
front of him on the dark bank whose towering slopes are beginning to
gleam white, he marches on.
Suddenly the Angelus sounds, and the flock of bells suddenly springs
into wakefulness. It is the new dawn! Behind the sheer black cliff rises
the golden glory of the invisible sun. Almost falling Christophe at last
reaches the bank, and he says to the Child:
"Here we are! How heavy thou wert! Child, who art thou?"
And the Child answers:
"I am the day soon to be born."
THE END
End of Project Gutenberg's Jean-Christophe Journey's End, by Romain Rolland