ratsonjulia

from Tororo a little while ago, from a novel by Howard Buten:
Je n'aurais jamais cru que je finirais dans une suprette. Quand j'allais dans une suprette et que je voyais la personne derrire le comptoir dans sa blouse tristounette, je me disais: il faut qu'elle ait fait quelque chose de mal, sinon elle ne serait pas l. On peut faire quelque chose de mal, mais peut-tre qu'on ne l'a pas fait exprs. Ou peut-tre qu'on l'a fait exprs mais que c'tait la chose qui tait mal, pas de la faire; Les choses sont mal seulement aprs qu'on les a faites, au fond, alors comment est-on cens savoir? C'est a qu'il y a de bien en Amrique, les gens ne regardent pas derrire eux.

I hadn't before heard of Mr. Buten, but I gathered (& I hope that Tororo will correct me if I'm mistaken) that he writes in English & is translated into French--sort of a reverse Samuel Beckett.--a run thru the translator machine produced this:

I would never have believed that I would finish in a mini-market. When I went in a mini-market and that I saw the person behind the counter in his/her/its gloomy blouse, I told myself: it is necessary that she/it made something of pain, otherwise she/it would not be there. One can make something of pain, but maybe that one didn't make it intentionally. Or maybe that one made it intentionally but that that was the thing that was badly, not to make it; are The things badly only after one made them, to the bottom, then how is one supposed to know? It is that that there is good in America, people don't watch behind them.

--which I quite like (especially "gloomy blouse"--sometimes I think that that my computer is a much finer poet than I can ever be, but I also think that about my washing machine, which at least has a sense of rhythm...)--& expresses sentiments that seem to flit across my mind not just daily, but hourly, at least.

question: when were you at your lowest? (for me, looking back on my checkered career, it seems like it was at times when I was paradoxically--ahem--"highest"
another question: did you wear your gloomy blouse today?