Georges Bataille - The Archangelical (new translation)

The Archangelical The Tomb1 Criminal immensity cracked vase of the immensity limitless ruin2 flaccid immensity which overcomes me I am spineless the universe is guity [coupable] winged madness my madness tears open the immensity and the immensity tears at me I am alone the blind will read these lines in interminable tunnels I fall within the imensity which falls into itself it is blacker than my death the sun is black the beauty of a being3 is the depths of caves a cry of definitive night what loves in the light is the desire of the night the shiver by which it is frozen

I lie and the universe nails itself to my demented lies the immensity and me we denounce the lies of one another truth dies [muert] and I cry that truth lies [ment] 1 Originally a separate poem, entitled “The Sorrow” 2 Limitless devastation (MS1) 3 the meauty of an angel... ...the cry(MS1) the beauty of a girl... ...the cry (MS 2) ...the cry (MS3 & TS)

my sugary head that fever wears out is the suicide of truth

non-love is truth and all lies in the absence of love nothing4 exists which does not lie compared to non-love love is cowardly and does not love love is a parody of non-love truth a parody of the lie the universe a gay suicide within non-love the immensity falls into itself not knowing what to do for the others everything is at peace5 the worlds turning majestically in their calm monotony the universe is in me as it is in itself nothing separates us any more I run into it within myself in the infinite calm where laws enchain it glides toward the impossible – immensely

horror of a world turning around the object of desire is more distant the glory of man is however great they may be in the will of an other I am the world is with me pushed outside of the possible6 4 ...in the world... (MS1) 5 to the others everything seems at peace (MS 1) 6 ...out beyond [par-delà] the possible (MS 1)

I am nothing but the laughter of the infantile night wherein falls the immensity I am the dead I am the lind the airless shadow like rivers in the sea the noise and the light in me lose themselves endlessly I am the father and the tomb of the heavens the excess of darkness is the burst of the star the cold of the grave is a die death rolls the die and the depths of the heavens jubilate the night which falls within me.

II Time oppresses me I fall and slide on my knees my hands touch the night adieu streams of light nothing remains to me but the shadow the dregs the blood I await the strike [coup] of the bell when crying out I entered into the shadow

III A long bare foot upon my mouth a long foot against the heart you are my thirst my fever foot of whiskey foot of wine foot mad to smash oh my horse whip my sorrow most high heels smashing me I cry of not dying7 oh thirst unappeasable thirst inescapable desert sudden gust of death wherein I cry on both knees blind and the eye-sockets empty [vides] corridor wherein I laugh from an insensate night corridor wherein I laugh within the slamming doors wherein I worship an arrow and I burst out in sobs the clarion call of death [coup de clarion] bellows in my ears.

7 “pleure de ne pas mourir” - allusion to a section of of Paul Éluard's book Capital of Pain [Capitale de Douleur, entitled “mourier de ne pas mourir” - Dying from not dying.

IV Beyond [au-delà] my death one day the earth turns in the heavens I am dead and the darkness alternates endlessly with the day the universe is shut off to me within it I remain blind given to nothingness nothingness is only my self the universe is only my grave [tombe] the sun is only death my eyes are blind lightning my heart is the sky wherein the storm bursts in my self at the depths of an abysss the immense universe is death I am the fever the desire I am the thirst the joy which removes your dress and the wine which makes you laugh at no longer being dressed

in a bowl of gin a festival night the stars falling from the sky I guzzle down lightning in great gulps I will burst out with laughter the lightning in my heart.

The Dawn Spit the blood it is the dew the saber by which I will die from the edge of the well behold the starry sky has the transparency of tears

I find you in the star I find you in death you are the frost of my mouth you have the scent of a dead woman your breasts gape like a coffin and laugh at me from the beyond [l'au-delà] your two long thighs rave deliriously your belly is bare like a death-rattle you are as beautiful as fear you are as nade as a dead woman. the affliction is unnameable the heart is a grimace that which curdles in the milk is the mad laughter of death.

A star is arisen you are I am the void a start is arisen sorrowful like the heart gleaming like a tear you whistle it is death the star fills the sky sorrowful like a tear I know that you do not love but the star that rises sharp [coupante] like death exhausts and twists the heart.

I am accursed voilà my mother that this night is long my long night without tears night greedy for love oh broken heart of stone [de pierre] hell of my ashy mouth you are the death of tears curse you my accursed heart my sick eyes search for you you are the void and the ash headless bird on wings beating the night the universe is made of your little hopes the universe is your sick heart and mine beating at brushing at death in the cemetery of hope my sorrow is the joy and the ashes the fire Tooth of hatred [haine] you are accursed [maudite] whomever is accursed will pay you will pay your share [part] of hatred [haine] you will bite the horrible sun which is accursed bites the sky with me you will tear your heart beloved by fright your being strangled by ennui you are the friend of the sun there is no rest for you your fatigue is my insanity From dung in the head I burst I hate the heavens who am I to spit out the skies it is bitter to be immense my eyes are fat pigs my heart is black ink my sex is a dead sun

fallen stars in a bottomless pit I cry and my tongue flows it matters little that the immensity is round and rolls in a guillotine basket I love death I invite it in the slaughterhouse of the Holy Father. [Saint-Père] Black death you are my bread I eat you in the heart terror is my tenderness [douceur] madness is in my hand. To knot the hangman's noose with the teeth of a dead horse. Softness of water rage of wind burst of laughter of the star morning of beautiful sun there is nothing that I do not dream [rêve] there is nothing that I do not scream [crie] in the space of your breasts. Limpid from head to toe fragile like the dawn the wind has broken the heart with the endurance of anguish the black night is a church wherein they slit the throat of a pig trembling from head to toe fragile like death agony my big sister you are colder than the earth. You will recognize happiness when you perceive it dying your sleep and your absence join in the grave. [tombe]

You are the beating of the heart to which I listen beneath my ribs and the suspended breath. My sobs on your knees I will shake the night shadow of wings on a field my lost child's heart. My laughing sister you are death failing heart you are death within my arms you are death we gave drunk you are death like the wind you are death like the lightning you are death death laughs death is joy. Alone you are my life of lost sobs separating me from death I see you through tears and I foresee my death if I did not love death sorrow and desire for you would kill me your absence your distress makes me nauseous time for me to love death its time to bite its hands. To love is to agonize to love is to love dying monkeys reek as they die enough I want myself dead I am too flaccid for that enough I am tired

enough I love you like a nut I laugh at myself the ass of ink braying to the stars of the sky naked you were bursting with laughter gigantic beneath the canopy I grovel so as to be no longer I desire to die of you I want to annihilate myself in your sick caprices.

The Void Flames encircled us beneath our footsteps the abyss opened a silence of milk of frost of bones enveloped us with a halo. You are the transfigured my destiny has broken your teeth your desire is a hiccup your nails have found the void you speak like laughter the winds stand your hair on end anguish wringing the heart precipitates your mockery. Your hands behind y head seize hold only of death your laughing kisses open only onto my infernal poverty beneath the sordid canopy where bats hang your marvelous nudity is nothing else than a tearless lie my cry calls to you in the desert where you will not come my cry calls to you in the desert where your dreams will come true. Your moth sealed to mine and your tongue in my teeth immense death will welcome you immense night will fall. Then I will have made a void in your abandoned head your absence will be naked like a stockingless leg While awaiting the disaster where the light is dying out I will be soft in your heart like the cold of death