Edmond Jabès: Elya

In back of the book there is the ground of the book. In back of the ground there is immense space and, hidden in this immense space, the book we are going to write in its enigmatic sequence.

Everything is before Everything. The word is the day after the word, and the book the day after the book.

So that we turn forever around what was and will be and which, in the image of God's proud absence, stays what is, namely: the mysterious tie to the universe and the place where this universe waits to be discovered.

Let us perforate oblivion. Because oblivion is the thick rind around our origins.

The initial sin is a sin of memory. We will never get to the end of time.

I will end up with nothing saved out of this attempt to pull free of the yoke of words, attempt which, one day, got stuck in its own swamp.

The book belongs to the book.

Elya, it was written that we would rejoin you where we had thought we were leading you.

There is no help against this night.

Translated from the French by Rosemarie Waldrop