User:Dmitrismirnov/Sandbox

From Wikisource

This work has been identified as an English translation where the translator is unknown. Without information about the translator, it is impossible to determine the copyright status of this work, making it a potential copyright violation. By identifying the translator or locating another translation which meets Wikisource's Copyright Policy, you may remove this notice and prevent the deletion of this work. See also Wikisource:Translations.

Questionnaire by Marcel Proust

Marcel Proust was asked to fill out questionnaires at two social events: one when he was 13, another when he was 20. Proust did not invent this party game; he is simply the most extraordinary person to respond to them. The questions were made in English. First published and translated in 1924.

The dead brood over Europe, the cloud and vision descends over chearful France; O cloud well appointed! Sick, sick: the Prince on his couch, wreath'd in dim And appalling mist; his strong hand outstretch'd, from his shoulder down the bone Runs aching cold into the scepter too heavy for mortal grasp. No more To be swayed by visible hand, nor in cruelty bruise the mild flourishing mountains. ||5

Sick the mountains, and all their vineyards weep, in the eyes of the kingly mourner; Pale is the morning cloud in his visage. Rise, Necker: the ancient dawn calls us To awake from slumbers of five thousands years. I awake, but my soul is in dreams; From my window I see the old mountains of France, like aged men, fading away. Troubled, leaning on Necker, descends the King, to his chamber of council; shady mountains || 10

In fear utter voices of thunder; the woods of France embosom the sound; Clouds of wisdom prophetic reply, and roll over the palace roof heavy, Forty men: each conversing with woes in the infinite shadows of his soul, Like our ancient fathers in regions of twilight, walk, gathering round the King; Again the loud voice of France cries to the morning, the morning prophecies to its clouds. ||15

Contents 1 Questionnaire #1: 2 Questionnaire #2: 3 The answers of 13 years old Marcel Proust: 4 The answers of 20 years old Marcel Proust: 5 External links

[edit] Questionnaire #1:

1. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
2. Where would you like to live?
3. What is your idea of earthly happiness?
4. To what faults do you feel most indulgent?
5. Who are your favorite heroes of fiction?
6. Who are your favorite characters in history?
7. Who are your favorite heroines in real life?
8. Who are your favorite heroines of fiction?
9. Your favorite painter?
10. Your favorite musician?
11. The quality you most admire in a man?
12. The quality you most admire in a woman?
13. Your favorite virtue?
14. Your favorite occupation?
15. Who would you have liked to be?

[edit] Questionnaire #2:

1. Your most marked characteristic?
2. The quality you most like in a man?
3. The quality you most like in a woman?
4. What do you most value in your friends?
5. What is your principle defect?
6. What is your favorite occupation?
7. What is your dream of happiness?
8. What to your mind would be the greatest of misfortunes?
9. What would you like to be?
10. In what country would you like to live?
11. What is your favorite color?
12. What is your favorite flower?
13. What is your favorite bird?
14. Who are your favorite prose writers?
15. Who are your favorite poets?
16. Who is your favorite hero of fiction?
17. Who are your favorite heroines of fiction?
18. Who are your favorite composers?
19. Who are your favorite painters?
20. Who are your heroes in real life?
21. Who are your favorite heroines of history?
22. What are your favorite names?
23. What is it you most dislike?
24. What historical figures do you most despise?
25. What event in military history do you most admire?
26. What reform do you most admire?
27. What natural gift would you most like to possess?
28. How would you like to die?
29. What is your present state of mind?
30. To what faults do you feel most indulgent?
31. What is your motto?

[edit] The answers of 13 years old Marcel Proust:

1. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
   To be separated from Mama.
2. Where would you like to live?
   In the country of the Ideal, or, rather, of my ideal.
3. What is your idea of earthly happiness?
   To live in contact with those I love, with the beauties of nature, with a quantity of books and music, and to have, within easy distance, a French theater.
4. To what faults do you feel most indulgent?
   To a life deprived of the works of genius.
5. Who are your favorite heroes of fiction?
   Those of romance and poetry, those who are the expression of an ideal rather than an imitation of the real.
6. Who are your favorite characters in history?
   A mixture of Socrates, Pericles, Mahomet, Pliny the Younger and Augustin Thierry.
7. Who are your favorite heroines in real life?
   A woman of genius leading an ordinary life.
8. Who are your favorite heroines of fiction?
   Those who are more than women without ceasing to be womanly; everything that is tender, poetic, pure and in every way beautiful.
9. Your favorite painter?
   Meissonier.
10. Your favorite musician?
    Mozart.
11. The quality you most admire in a man?
    Intelligence, moral sense.
12. The quality you most admire in a woman?
    Gentleness, naturalness, intelligence.
13. Your favorite virtue?
    All virtues that are not limited to a sect: the universal virtues.
14. Your favorite occupation?
    Reading, dreaming, and writing verse.
15. Who would you have liked to be?
    Since the question does not arise, I prefer not to answer it. All the same, I should very much have liked to be Pliny the Younger.

[edit] The answers of 20 years old Marcel Proust:

1. Your most marked characteristic?
   A craving to be loved, or, to be more precise, to be caressed and spoiled rather than to be admired.
2. The quality you most like in a man?
   Feminine charm.
3. The quality you most like in a woman?
   A man's virtues, and frankness in friendship.
4. What do you most value in your friends?
   Tenderness - provided they possess a physical charm which makes their tenderness worth having.
5. What is your principle defect?
   Lack of understanding; weakness of will.
6. What is your favorite occupation?
   Loving.
7. What is your dream of happiness?
   Not, I fear, a very elevated one. I really haven't the courage to say what it is, and if I did I should probably destroy it by the mere fact of putting it into words.
8. What to your mind would be the greatest of misfortunes?
   Never to have known my mother or my grandmother.
9. What would you like to be?
   Myself - as those whom I admire would like me to be.
10. In what country would you like to live?
    One where certain things that I want would be realized - and where feelings of tenderness would always be reciprocated. [Proust's underlining].
11. What is your favorite color?
    Beauty lies not in colors but in their harmony.
12. What is your favorite flower?
    Hers - but apart from that, all.
13. What is your favorite bird?
    The swallow.
14. Who are your favorite prose writers?
    At the moment, Anatole France and Pierre Loti.
15. Who are your favoite poets?
    Baudelaire and Alfred de Vigny.
16. Who is your favorite hero of fiction?
    Hamlet.
17. Who are your favorite heroines of fiction?
    Phedre (crossed out) Berenice.
18. Who are your favorite composers?
    Beethoven, Wagner, Shuhmann.
19. Who are your favorite painters?
    Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt.
20. Who are your heroes in real life?
    Monsieur Darlu, Monsieur Boutroux (professors).
21. Who are your favorite heroines of history?
    Cleopatra.
22. What are your favorite names?
    I only have one at a time.
23. What is it you most dislike?
    My own worst qualities.
24. What historical figures do you most despise?
    I am not sufficiently educated to say.
25. What event in military history do you most admire?
    My own enlistment as a volunteer!
26. What reform do you most admire?
    (no response)
27. What natural gift would you most like to possess?
    Will power and irresistible charm.
28. How would you like to die?
    A better man than I am, and much beloved.
29. What is your present state of mind?
    Annoyance at having to think about myself in order to answer these questions.
30. To what faults do you feel most indulgent?
    Those that I understand.
31. What is your motto?
    I prefer not to say, for fear it might bring me bad luck.

[edit] External links

• The Infamous Proust Questionnaire
• Proust Questionnaire
• "Les questionnaires de Marcel Proust" (in French)

(POSSIBLE COPYRIGHT VIOLATION See "Discuss this page" for COPYRIGHT concerns.)