The Quebec Anthology: 1830-1990

"Portraits of Elsa" 1990

Marie Jose Theriault Translated by David Homel PORTRAITS OF EISA Marie Jose Theriault was born in Montreal on March 21, 1945, the daughter of YvesTheriault. She attended the College Marie de France until 1961; after leaving school she worked as a salesperson, an interpreter, a proofreader,and, from 1964 to 1973, a professional dancer. In 1973 she became an editor and translator for the performing arts magazine Entr'acte, and in 1975 she began working for the publishing house Editions Hurtubuise HMH, of which she became literary director in 1978. She has served on the editorial boards of many literary magazines,including XYZ, Vice Versa, and Liberte. In 1987, she founded Les Editions Sans Nom, a publishing house devoted to art books. Her first book of poems, Poemes, was published in 1972. It was followed by Notre royaume estdepromesses (1974), Pourtant le sud... (1976), and Lettera Amorosa (1978). La Ceremonie, her first collection of short stories, appeared in 1979 (and was translated in 1980 as The Ceremony by David Lobdell). It was hailed as the brilliant investigation of "a mysterious world where men and women, sometimes disguised as animals or mythical beasts, engage one another in a ruthless struggle for survival." Her second short-story collection , Agneset lesingulier bestiaire, was published in 1982; UEnvoleur de chevaux et autres contes was published in 1986; and then came Portraits d'Elsa et autres histoires in 1990. Theriault has also written a novel, Les Demoiselles de Numidie (1984), and has translated works byJulia Sorel and Robert Kroetsch. The story included here is the title story of Portraits d'Elsa et autres histoires, translated by David Homel. A remarkably subtle yet powerful story about thedisappearance of the self, its effect is created by the gradual accumulationof images "of childhood and memory and dreams dug up." PORTRAITS OF ELSA 413 "Portraits of Elsa" is a translation of "Portraits d'Elsa" published in Portraits d'Elsa et autres histoires (Montreal: Les Quinze, Editeur, 1990). 414 MARIEJOSE THERIAULT First Portrait When she removes her stockings, Elsa does not roll them down to her ankle, then slide them over her foot. When she removes her stockings, Elsa pulls them off by the toes. To take them off, she has established a strict routine that gives the lie to her unfocused look as she sits on the edge of the bed, as though everything, the room itself, the particular time of day, the suspicious presence of a witness, as though all that, as I was saying, meant absolutely nothing at all. She sits and places her bag on the floor. She displays neither modesty nor passion as she unbuttons her blouse. The edges of it fall over her breasts that are no more impressive naked than clothed. Her eyes have no expression, her face no movement. Only the watcher's desire, his interest , could turn Elsa's careful way of taking off her stockings by the toes into something glorious. Observe her: first she lowers her head, then contemplates her feet, side by side on the floor. Then, gently, she slips one foot out of the prison of her shoe. Her leg is already half raised, and now she brings it up to her breast, widening the slit of her skirt and revealing the fleshy folds of her sex, while her other hand runs over her lower leg a time or two. Like a child making a discovery, Elsa's mouth opens half way; carefully, she examines her leg, as if seeking in a crystal ball some secret indication of her future. Once she has completed her curious caress, Elsa delicately takes hold of the amber nylon that cowls her toes. She pulls a little; the stocking resists. A light flares in Elsa's eyes—a light so discreet you'd have to be an intimate of hers to see it. Her right hand begins a series of movements under the elasticized top of her stocking, as she methodicallyloosens the nylon's hold on her thigh. In an astonishing suspension of balance—as though she were about to execute a kind of seated, impossible pirouette—she performs three simultaneous movements designed to complete the denuding of her leg. She presses down on the fabric with her palm, she pulls on the end with PORTRAITS OF ELSA 415 W the other hand, and she describes a circle with her ankle. Her foot turns and twists and pivots and...