Page 102 [102]
ENIKŐ SEPSI
in their ability to be set in correspondence with each other, and in their vari¬
ations."! After a similar set of 246 sentences placed one after the other without
any connection to each other, the character of the novelist in The Imaginary
Operetta symbolically purges himself,” and the Woman of Panagonia drenches
the Endless Novelist with water, baptizing him while saying: “Come and be
cleansed of this flood of words.”
In the comic supper scene of The Enraged Space, the black plate belongs to
Judas, while all the rest are white. The symbol of the Last Supper means that
by means of eating, God lives inside our bodies. In his essay Fragile Shelter
Novarina relates the word “stage” (skéné) to the Hebrew word meaning “divine
presence”:
Now let us examine the word éoxrvwoev (eskéndsen) more closely: He came to live
among us. Eskéndsen derives from XKnvn (skéné), and in the letters o, k, v (sigma,
kappa, nu) the rabbis quickly recognized in the word wn (sekina) the letters sin v,
kaf > and nun 3, which in the Kabbala mean DIVINE PRESENCE. The shadow of one
language behind the other always illuminates from within: one verb acts behind
another, a hidden tale beneath it, the Hebrew beneath the Greek, the Greek beneath
the Latin, the Latin beneath the French; the Septuagint, the Vulgate, the Masoretic
texts complement each other and respond to each other — this deeply embedded
counterpoint is what gives the speech of the Bible its depth, its entire perspective,
its temporal spectrum, and it is because of this that it very quickly branches out
in several directions like a fugal composition or mountainous terrain, where space
deepens, vanishes, and renews itself under the walker’s and listener’s steps. (...)
XKnvn, skéné, is also the theatrical stage, the theater’s volatile construction, its
graceful abode. The stage is a fragile shelter, an occasional mechanism, a hut — and
if it had a theatrical holiday in the year, says “Louis de Funés”, then one would have
to choose Sukkot, the holiday of tents. De Funés says, “The actor’s abode is always
an airy tent, a breathing house that he carries with himself. The flesh-and-blood
body, which is our light residence, tiny house, and our body, is nothing other than
the poor earth. Neither foundation nor plank, neither for people nor actors, nor for
the children, nor for anyone, ever.”°*
51 “C’est un livre quise dédouble, qui rime, qui miroite et refléte toutes les images, multiplie ses
échos jusqu’au profond du corps. On touche à la joie du pluriel ; on comprend que le pluriel
n’est pas incohérence, mais joie.” [It isa book which splits, which rhymes, which mirrors and
reflects all the images, multiplies its echoes down to the depths of the body. One apprehends
the joy of the plural; one comprehends that the plural is not incoherence, but joy.] (Valére
Novarina — Olivier Dubouclez: Paysage parlé, Chatou, Les Éditions de la Transparence, 2011,
131.)
5? [“Voyez” dit Jean ; “Soyez attentifs!” ajouta Jacques ; “S'arrêtera-t-elle?” demanda Pierre],
Valère Novarina: L’Opérette imaginaire [The Imaginary Operetta], Paris, P.O.L, 1998, 147.
53 Novarina: Opérette imaginaire, 160.
54 Valère Novarina: Demeure fragile [Fragile Shelter], in Devant la parole, Paris, P.O.L, 1999,
109. Trans. Peter Czipott.
+ 100 +