5. i kiché ten ti si ké di êvé dé étéche mêné
Oh! pourquoi près de moi ne te tiens-tu toujours, amie
izé bénézée
enfin retrouvée!
Oh! Why dost thou not keep thyself always near me, friend, at last found again?
Auditive. December 4, 1896 (translated December 13). Fragment of a long discourse by Astané to Hélène, during an apparition which she had of him about nine o’clock in the evening, as she was about to go to bed. This sentence, which he uttered twice, is the only one which she has been able to recall with sufficient precision to note down immediately after the vision. She has the feeling of having understood Astané’s whole discourse while he was delivering it, and thinks she would have been able to translate it into French, perhaps not word for word, but in its general sense. She expected to transcribe it the following day, but in the morning when she awoke she was unable to recall either the words of Astané or their meaning, not even that of this sentence, written on the previous evening. Heard again, as the second part of the following text, in the seance of the 13th of December.
6. ti iche cêné éspênié ni ti êzi atèv astané êzi
De notre belle “Espénié” et de mon être Astané, mon
érié vizé é vi... i kiché ten ti si ké di êvé
âme descend à toi... oh! pourquoi près de moi ne te tiens-tu
dé étéche mêné izé bénézée
toujours, amie enfin retrouvée!
From our beautiful “Espénié” and from my being Astané, my soul descends to thee—Oh! why dost thou not keep thyself always near to me, friend, at last found again?
Auditive. December 13, 1896 (translated same seance).—Heard in the far-away voice of Astané, Hélène having all the while a painful sensation, as though the skin of her face around her eyes, on the back of her wrists and hands, was being torn off. In the translation the word Espénié remains as it is, being a proper name; the left index-finger (Leopold) points heavenward, and says that it might be rendered by terre, planète, demeure.
7. cé êvé plêva ti di bénèz éssat riz tès midée
Je suis chagrin de te retrouver vivant sur cette laide
durée cé ténassé riz iche éspênié vétéche ié ché atèv hêné
terre; je voudrais sur notre Espénié voir tout ton être s’élever
ni pové ten ti si éni zée métiché oné gudé ni zée darié
et rester près de moi; ici les hommes sont bons et les cœurs
grêvé
larges.
I am sorry to find you again living on this wretched earth; I would on our Espénié see all thy being raise itself and remain near me; here men are good and hearts large.
Auditive. December 15, 1896 (translated January 17, 1897).—Words spoken by Astané to Hélène in a morning vision. The following fragment of the letter in which she sent me this text merits being cited as an example of those quite frequent cases in which Mlle. Smith, without knowing the exact translation of the foreign words, nevertheless divines their general signification and comprehends them by their emotional equivalent. “This morning, at a quarter before six, I saw Astané at the foot of my bed. The general sense of his language was at that moment quite clear to my mind, and I give it to you as I understood it—that is, in as clear a manner as possible, having noted it down afterwards: ‘How much I regret your not having been born in our world; you would be much happier there, since everything is much better with us, people as well as things, and I would be so happy to have you near me.’ That is about what it seemed to me to mean; perhaps some day we may be able to be sure of it.”