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Les reponses d'un maitre / Answersfrom a Master LES REPONSES D'UN MAiTRE: UN CONTE ANSWERS FROM A MASTER: A SHORT STORY by Cyrille Fleischman Cyrille Fleischman, a Parisian writer born in 1941, is the author of five volumes of short stories.1 He has been translated into English, German, and Czech and has received several awards, including a prize from the Academie Fran~aise in 1995. 5 La premiere question que Martin Modenass posa a Geniuk fut: A quel moment etes-vous passe d'une reuvre purement scientifique a une interrogation metaphysique ? Et la reponse s'articula ainsi: - Quand rna femme a pris un amant! C'etait Ie tresorier de l'Association des amateurs de pickelfleisch universels. Modenass fut choque. QU'un erudit, presque un sage, qui avait ecrit de si belles pages sur l'histoire , sur les grands penseurs, sur tout ce qu'on honorait, fit cette reponse Ie perturba. II voulut rapidement donner a Geniuk l'occasion de se rattraper: - Vous voulez dire, monsieur, que metaphoriquement parlant. . . The first question Martin Modenass asked Geniuk was: "At what precise moment did you abandon your purely scientific work for metaphysical speculation ?" The response came forth in these terms: "When my wife took a lover! He was the treasurer of the Universal Society of Pickelfleisch2 Lovers !" Modenass was shocked. That a scholar, almost a sage, the author of such fine pages on history, on great thinkers, on everything one respected, should offer such a response disturbed him. Quickly, he decided to give Geniuk a chance to correct himself: "You mean, sir, that metaphorically speaking ..." 6 - Me brisez pas les os avec vos metaphores! Je vous dis: quand ma femme a pris un amant! Et meme pas un beau. Meme pas un intelligent. Juste Ie tresorier d'une association que vous avez peut-etre connue: la Societe des amateurs de pickelfleisch universels. C'etait lui Ie tresorier, qui m'a vole ma femme en 1946. Modenass fut interloque. Jamais aucun des biographes de Geniuk ni meme un journaliste n'avaient evoque cette association ou quoi que ce rut qui ait eu un rapport avec tout ~a. I.e journal communautaire qui avait envoye Ie jeune ecrivain Martin Modenass faire un article-portrait du vieil Adam Geniuk ne pourrait pas publier des choses pareilles. Il se dit que Geniuk devait etre fatigue et qu'il valait mieux poser une autre question. Son stylo ala main pour prendre des notes et Ie mao gnetophone portatif toujours branche, il demanda: - Et-passons aautre chosecomment concevez-vous les rapports entre la creation litteraire et votre appartenance spirituelle? - Ah, ce "schmendrick" qui etait a l'epoque Ie tresorier de l'association! s'exclama Geniuk sans repondre ala question. Modenass etait de plus en plus gene. II dit atout hasard: - En somme, vous avez ete marque par l'existence de cette association, I'Association des . . . SHOFAR Spring 1996 Vol. 14, No.3 "Don't break my bones with your metaphors! I'm telling you: when my wife took a lover! And not even a handsome one. Not even an intelligent one. Just the treasurer of an association that maybe you've heard of: the Universal Society of Pickelfleisch Lovers. The guy who stole my wife in 1946 was the treasurer." Modenass was nonplussed. None of Geniuk's biographers, or even a reporter, had ever mentioned this association or anything having to do with the whole affair. The community newspaper that had sent the young writer Martin Modenass to do a feature on old Adam Geniuk could not possibly publish such things. He told himself that Geniuk must be having a bad day and that he had better ask him another question. With pen in hand, poised to take notes, and with the portable tape-recorder still turned on, he asked: "And, moving right along, how do you see the relationship between literary creation and your spiritual background?" "Ah, the 'schmendrick'3 who was the treasurer of the association back then!" exclaimed Geniuk, without answering the question. Modenass grew more and more perplexed. He hazarded: "So, you were profoundly marked by the existence of that association, the Universal Society of Les reponses d'un maitre / Answersfrom a Master...

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