Vigil

Allongé sur son lit de camp, il pense aux morts. Aux gens qu’il a connus dans sa vie et qui sont morts. Il commence à y en avoir beaucoup. Il pense que s’il comptait il y aurait plus de morts que de vivants mais il n’a pas le courage de compter. Il n’a pas envie de dormir non plus, seulement de rester là, de ne plus bouger. Il pense qu’il mourra lu

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He gulps down air, trying to fill his lungs, but the air feels heavier than it ought to feel. It doesn’t look like there’s anyone here to wake him up this time. In the old days there were bands of horsemen, sometimes even a king, in person, when the need was dire. Then it became army lorries, or circles of druids in white shifts, slightly surprised

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Now his body was laid out on a metal stretcher in a public hospital. A doctor told Bolbol, “People are dying in droves every single day. Be happy he managed to reach such an old age.” Bolbol wasn’t quite able to follow the doctor’s instructions to be cheerful at his father’s death, although he could grasp what was meant. He felt as though he were s

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With this consciousness, and with physical pain besides the terror, he must go to bed, often to lie awake the greater part of the night. Next morning he had to get up again, dress, go to the law courts, speak, and write; or if he did not go out, spend at home those twenty-four hours a day each of which was a torture. And he had to live thus all alo

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