Cyril Connolly's The Unquiet Grave Translation Cheat Sheet (Part 1)

The Unquiet Grave is a book written by Cyril Connolly in 1944.  It is a book of self-reflection written by a writer in a time of propaganda, war, and private grief.  In this collection of musings, exploration, quotes and aphorisms, Connolly wishes to escape and show solidarity to France and to Western culture by "quoting as many passages as he could from the French".  And quote in French he did, and some Latin as well.  Because not all of us are polyglot like Connolly, I have made a collection of my own to help translate some of the original text from already translated sources, Wikipedia, Google Translate, and, my own rough translation and interpretation.  The page number is based on the First Persea Edition 1982 (and the fourth printing in 1999).

Original Text Ecce Gubernator "Les plus forts y ont péri. L'art est un luxe; il veut des mains blanches et calmes. On fait d'abord une petite concession, puis deux, puis vingt. On s'illusionne sur sa moralité pendant longtemps. Puis on s'en fout complètement et puis on devient imbécile." - FLAUBERT "Bien écrire c'est à la fois bien sentir, bien penser et bien dire." - BUFFON  Brevis hic est fructus homullis "... je t'aurais rendu un peu de service. J'y tiens TELLEMENT - si tu savais comme j'y tiens. ..."  - W. SICKERT (to Nina Hamnett). WISDOM of PASCAL 1623-1662 "Tout le malheur des hommes vient d'une seule chose, qui est de ne savoir pas demeurer en repos, dans une chambre." "Notre nature est dans le mouvement; les repos entier est la mort." Ennui: "Rien n'est si insupportable à l'homme que d'être dans un plein repos, sans passions, sans affaire, sans divertissement, sans application. Il sent alors son néant, son insuffisance, sa dépendance, son impuissance, son vide. Incontinent il sortira du fond de son âme l'ennui, la noirceur, la tristesse, le chagrin, le dépit, le désespoir." Misère: "La seule chose qui nous console de nos misères est le divertissement, et cependant c'est la plus grande de nos misères, car c'est cela qui nous empèche principalement de songer à nous, et qui nous fait perdre insensiblement." La Gloire:  "L'admiration gâte tout dès l'enfance: Oh! que cela est bien dit! Oh! qu'il a bien fait! Qu'il est sage, etc. ..." "Les enfants de Port-Royal, auxquels on ne donne point cet aiguillon d'envie et de gloire, tombent dans la nonchalance."

Translation to English Here comes the pilot. The strongest perished there. Art is a luxury; it requires calm white hands.  First you make a small concession, then two, then twenty.  You are deceived by your morality for a long time.  Then you don't give a damn and then you become an imbecile. - Flaubert's letter to Ernest Feydeau November 1859. To write well is to feel well, think well, and speak well. - Buffon (rearranged by Flaubert whom Connolly quoted) in a lecture on the style of pronunciation at the French Academy on August 25, 1753. Brief is this fruit of joy to paltry man. - Lucretius, De Rerum Natura I would have provided you some service.  I really like it - if you only knew how much I like it. All the misfortune of men comes from one thing, which is not knowing how to remain rested in a room. Our nature is in motion; complete rest is death. Boredom: "Nothing is so insupportable to man as to be in complete rest, without passion, without business, without entertainment, without use, He feels then his nothingness, his insufficiency, his dependence, his impotence, his emptiness.  Boredom, darkness, sadness, sorrow, frustration, despair will emerge unrestrained from the depths of his soul." Misery: "The only thing which consoles us from our miseries is entertainment, and yet that is the greatest of our miseries for that is what prevents us from self reflection, and which makes us lose indifferently." Glory: "Admiration spoils everything since childhood: Oh, that is well said! Oh, that is done well! That he is smart, etc..." The children of Port-Royal, who are not given this sting of envy and glory, fall into indolence.

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Part 2 of the Translation (Second half of Chapter 1)