H North Mike James the jaypee in Hoggin Green going to the horse show with all the people over from England and American visitors all over in his grey half tall hat how do you and his fathom glasses how do you do Mr James to find out all the horses. >VF

And now that reminds me of poor Marcus Lyons and poor Johnny and the four of us and there they were now listening right enough the four saltwater widowers and all they could remembore long long ago with Lally when my heart knew no care the landing of Sir Arthur Casement in 1132 and the coronation of Brian by his grace bishop J.P. Bishop Senior in his shovel hat and then there was the drowning of Pharaoh and they were all drowned in the sea the red sea and then poor Martin Cunningham out of the castle when he was drowned off Dunleary in the red sea & thank God there are no more of us. Ay, ay. So he was. And then there was the Flemish Armada all scattered and all drowned off the coast of Cunningham and Saint Patrick & St Kevin & Lapoleon our first marents and all they remembored and then there was the French fleet in 1132 landing under general Boche in his grey shovel hat and there he was cuddling and poguing her in Arrahnapogue behind the queen’s colleges behind the century on the door in alice’s street. >VF

And then they used to give the grandest lectures by the picture postcard under the sycamore in Roman history to all the collegians green & the old Senate in the four trinity colleges Killorcure and Killthemall and Killeachother and Killkelly-on-the-Flure those were the four great history colleges of the Jane Aundersdaughter University for auld lang syne all the Roman history of the spirit of nature as divinely developed in time all history past and present and present and absent and past and present and future arma virumque romano. Ah dearo dear how it all came back to them to hear him there kissing her & cuddling her in the Roman arms by Cornelius Nepo. Nepos. Mnepos. Anumque umque. Queh? ah dearo dear it was so sorry for the four of us and Lally. And that reminds me of Tim Tom Tarpey & Lapoule and the four widowers the four waves in their tall shovel hat in Chichester College and thank God they were all summarily divorced by their dear poor shehusbands in dear bygone days but still they parted on the best of terms. And so they parted. Ay, ay. Ah, well, sure that’s the way. ay, ay. by decree absolute well they could remembore Mrs Justice Squelchman in her fullbottom wig & beard in 1132 at the Married Male Auctioneers’ Court in Arrahnapogue. >VF

Poor Johnny MacDougall & the four masters because he was so slow at backscratching all divorced by them dear faithful and poor Marcus Powerscourt persecuted by everybody he was by decree absolute all because he made wind & water and because he forgot to remembore to sign an old paper to hereby make a request to herself in writing on stamped parchment before saying his grace before fish and then there was poor Dion Boucicault all drowned too poor Dion before the world & her husband because he attempted to well he was a bit bad in his health he said with shingles falling on them he ah well now sure we won’t be too hard on him as a presbyterian & he well he went to confession to Mother Evangelist Sweeney well he ah now there were faults on both sides well he attempted some hunnish familiarities after eating a bad crab in the red sea and sure he was deadseasickabed in the hospice for the dying ah the poor fellow & trying to [hold] the nurse’s hand & dying ah dearo dearo dear and where do you leave Matt they were all so sorry for poor Matt in his saltwater hat too big for it and his overalls all falling over him in folds sure he hadn’t the energy to pull them the matriarch that queenly man sitting there with his head to the west in sight of the poorhouse with his can of tea & two bits of brown loaf & dilisk waiting for the end to come God of Heaven when you think of it all divorced by woman squelch and all on account of the dull brown loaf of his mouth watering by act of parliament. So now pass the face for Christ’ sake. Amen. And so. And all. Ah God be good to us. Poor Martin Cunningham. ay. ay. >VF

And still and all they were always up thinking of the auld man syne and up their four masters that were four up beautiful sisters and there they were always counting the lovely periwinkle buttons in the front part of their dresses up one up two up five up four and there she was the beautiful four sisters and that was her name and they used to be getting up and looking everywhere in all the fathoms when they couldn’t sleep changing beds and then they had their tentacles and they used to be all night hanging around all the waists of the ships the steamships and their bottlegreen eyes peering in through the steaming windows into the honeymoon cabins on board the big steamadory and the saloon ladies toilet apartments and rubbing off the salty cataract off the windows listening to see all the hunnishmooners and all the toilet ladies and their familiarities saying their grace before steamadory pass the jool for Christ sake Amen and watering and there they used to be all trembling and shaking & counting all their peributtons to remember her beautiful name in their dreams Greg Doug & poor Greg the four sisters and there she was now the lovely lady asthore as in days of yore of planxty Gregory they used to be always singing round the wet fire with their feet asleep in their blankets and shawls and bowls of stale bread & milky waiting for poor Mucus to pass the teeth for chokus sake amenschtrek when they had the phlegmish hooping cough from eating bad cramps and with a farthing dip reading a word or two about the lakes of Killarney through their green spentacles and so now they started singing the steamadorion and old Luke for auld luke syne and she wail a cupboar koiner set on the praze savole shanghai. >VF

>VF

Hear. Isolde la belle! Tristan, sad hero, hear! >VF

NOTES À LA VERSION FRANÇAISE

A) [PORTRAIT D’ISEULT]

A. Demon patience : une réussite semblable au jeu de Solitaire.

B. Harry Coverdale’s Courtship : and all that came of it, roman très populaire de Frank E. Smedley, publié en 1855. Smedley était un des auteurs favoris du père de James Joyce.

C. Sainte irlandaise légendaire du VIIe siècle. Elle dut fuir l’amour incestueux du roi son père jusqu’en Belgique, où elle est connue sous le nom de sainte Dymphne de Geel. Rattrapée par son persécuteur, elle fut décapitée à l’âge de quinze ans.

D. Créatures féminines de la mythologie celtique, semblables aux lavandières de nuit bretonnes. Elles accompagnaient traditionnellement les morts de leurs mélodies funèbres. Entendre les hurlements des Banshies annonce la mort d’un proche.

B) [TRISTAN & ISEULT]

A. Dans Stephen le Héros, Stephen Dedalus se réclame de ces même termes, empruntés à Thomas d’Aquin : « L’Église fait une distinction entre le bien que cherche un individu de ce genre et le bien que je cherche, moi. Il existe un bonum simpliciter. Ceux dont tu parles cherchent un bien de cet ordre parce qu’ils obéissent à des passions directes, même quand elles sont basses : luxure, ambition, gloutonnerie. Moi je cherche un bonum arduum. » Œuvres I, op. cit., p. 483.

B. Montagne dans le comté de Sligo.

C. Lac au nord de l’Irlande, le plus grand des îles Britanniques.

D. L’uranographie est la science de la description du ciel.

C) [TRISTAN & ISEULT, LE BAISER]

A. Dans les îles Britanniques on distingue traditionnellement le rugby football, notre rugby, et l’association football, notre football.

B. Il y a là une contradiction manifeste, puisque l’hexamètre iambique anglais fait normalement douze syllabes.

C. Célèbre vers extrait de Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage de lord Byron.

D. Silent, O Moyle est le titre d’un des poèmes les plus populaires des Irish Melodies de Thomas Moore (1779-1852). Joyce y fait allusion dans la nouvelle « Deux galants » de Gens de Dublin, dans Ulysse et à plusieurs reprises dans Finnegans Wake.

D) [LES 4 VIEILLARDS ET LE BAISER

DE TRISTAN & ISEULT]

A. Les vagues d’Erin (on en compte plutôt trois que quatre) sont des sites de la côte irlandaise où le bruit des vagues est particulièrement impressionnant. Toutes sortes de légendes leur sont rapportées et on leur prêtait une valeur prophétique. Elles ont été souvent célébrées dans la littérature romantique.

B. Sir Roger Casement fut capturé par les Anglais en 1916 et exécuté pour avoir organisé le débarquement d’armes allemandes destinées à un soulèvement irlandais.

C. Brian Boru, Haut Roi d’Irlande au début du XIe siècle, est au contraire tenu pour le grand ennemi des envahisseurs vikings.

D. Égyptianisation fantaisiste du patronyme anglo-irlandais Fitzharris.

E. L’Invincible Armada qui essaya d’envahir l’Angleterre en 1588 était une flotte espagnole, transportant des troupes venues de Flandres. Elle fut dispersée par la tempête au large des côtes irlandaises.

F. Saint Patrick, évangélisateur de l’Irlande, se rendit en effet à Tara pour y convertir le souverain, mais c’était au Ve siècle et il n’a pas pu y débarquer, car ce siège royal de l’Irlande est situé en