As a child, she was frail, thin, small, but a combination of illness and medication distorted her natural shape. For much of her life Mantel has felt she is inhabiting a stranger’s body. She looks in the mirror and can, sometimes, see the ghost of the person she once was, but it is concealed by flesh. And then there are the other ghosts: those of the children she couldn’t have.
Sophie Elmhirst: The unquiet mind of Hilary Mantel, via @JeffAbbott.
C’est surprenant de se retrouver si bien cerné dans la description qu’une femme fait d’elle-même.
Cela me rappelle les insupportables vers de Trakl, dont je vous parlai et même — téméraire andouille – que je traduisai, à l’époque :
Die heiße Flamme des Geistes märht heute eine gewaltiger Schmerz,
Die ungebornen Enkel.
(Georg Trakl, Grodek)