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Quotes, passages, and notes from Isabelle Eberhardt's Vagabond:
-Orschanow woke with a start, knowing that he had something important to do that
morning. Now he remembered. It was all over. He was going to leave. His heart
contracted a little for a second. Then he leapt up, ready to sing for joy. . .
he scribbled a few simple, sincere words of affection and farewell to Vera, and
then he left.
-The day was clear and brimful of beauty, and he strode out, feeling
long-forgotten reserves of energy and life rising in him. With his body's
strength and suppleness in harmony with this inner joy, he felt capable of
walking forever, in his quest for the world and its most far-flung horizons.
-Oh, to be alone, to be free, unknown, with no ties or attachments, treading the
traveller's welcoming, soft earth! To fall asleep in some chance spot,
possessing nothing, attached to nothing, and the next day to travel on into
different surroundings, amongst other people. . . and so on forever!
-So they fell asleep, with no regrets and no worries: they were young and
strong, and the road was there, welcoming anyone, leading off and away, it
didn't matter where to. And the sun shone on everything, and man had bread to
eat.
-This was certainly the classic sea, the glistening sea, revelling in the glory
of the sun, the deep purple sea-swell which had lapped against the sunny shores
where human thought was first born. It was the high road which led to all the
dream countries.
-A strong breath of life rose from Marseilles and its ports, and insistent call
towards distant horizons, like a subtle and irresistible magic spell. For the
first time, Orschanow realised that the universe did not end here on this
quayside, that out there, beyond the soothing sea, were lands of sun and
silence: Africa.
-To be free, you had to be alone, always,, everywhere, and above all amongst
people. . . Wandering and alone in a world in which he could always stay
unknown, Orschanow was really free. He thought and acted as he wanted to, and
now one could pretend to control his thoughts, since all he needed to do was to
leave, at the first clash of views, and set off on the road again.
-With his eyes closed, Dmitri again saw Vera, the lover he had so long and
ardently desired, with whom he had lived out his most erotic fantasies. . . At
the memory of it Orschanow was tormented with regrets. He stretched out and
opened his eyes to see the sun dancing on the ships and the harbour water. Then
he calmed down again and smiled: at life, at love, at the way things changed.
-Tears of contentment started to his eyes. Oh, the feeling of renouncing
everything, of being poor, of going through the world without family, without a
home and without friends . . . Nothing should be regretted or expected, you
should just let yourself be carried along by the waves of life, as the indolent
Berry was being carried along by the soft wash of the benevolent Mediterranean.
-'Listen, my friend, I gave up student life voluntarily, to become a labourer
and a vagabond. . . for two years I've been absolutely free and I haven't opened
a book, I haven't even had the urge to read a newspaper.'
'I don't understand you.'
'What's the point of reading? What's the point of even thinking about it? There
are other pleasures, better and more intense pleasures.'
Golden Legion- Russian slang for the "poor and down and outs"
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