The Breast (7 page)

And now to conclude the hour with the poem by Rainer Maria Rilke entitled “Archaic Torso of Apollo” written in Paris in 1908. Perhaps my story, told here in its entirety for the first time, and with all the truthfulness that's in me, will at the very least illuminate these great lines for those of you new to the poem—particularly the poet's concluding admonition, which may not be so elevated a sentiment as appears at first glance. Morons and madmen, tough guys and skeptics, friends, students, relatives, colleagues, and all you distracted strangers, with your billion different fingerprints and faces—my fellow mammalians, let us proceed with our education, one and all.

We did not know his legendary head,

in which the eyeballs ripened. But

his torso still glows like a candelabrum

in which his gaze, only turned low,

holds and gleams. Else could not the curve

of the breast blind you, nor in the slight turn

of the loins could a smile be running

to that middle, which carried procreation.

Else would this stone be standing maimed and short

under the shoulders' translucent plunge

nor flimmering like the fell of beasts of prey

nor breaking out of all its contours

like a star: for there is no place

that does not see you. You must change your life.

BOOKS BY PHILIP ROTH

Goodbye, Columbus

Letting Go

When She Was Good

Portnoy's Complaint

Our Gang

The Breast

The Great American Novel

My Life as a Man

Reading Myself and Others

The Professor of Desire

The Ghost Writer

A Philip Roth Reader

Zuckerman Unbound

 

PHILIP ROTH
was born in New Jersey in 1933. He studied literature at Bucknell University and the University of Chicago. His first book,
Goodbye, Columbus,
won the National Book Award for Fiction in 1960.
The Breast,
his sixth book, was first published in 1972, substantially revised in 1980, and appears here in the revised text. Philip Roth has lived in Rome, London, Chicago, New York City, Princeton, and New England. Since 1955, he has been on the faculties of the University of Chicago, Princeton University, and the University of Pennsylvania, where he is now Adjunct Professor of English. He is also General Editor of the Penguin Books series “Writers from the Other Europe.” Recently he has been spending half of each year in Europe, traveling and writing.

 

Copyright © 1972, 1980 by Philip Roth

Originally published in 1972,
The Breast
was substantially revised by the author in 1980. This is the revised text

All rights reserved

Published in Canada by McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd., Toronto

“Archaic Torso of Apollo” is reprinted from
Translations from the Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke,
by M. D. Herter Norton. By permission of W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. Copyright 1938 by W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. Copyright renewed © 1966 by M. D. Herter Norton

Library of Congress catalog card number: 81-70745

eISBN 9781466846401

First eBook edition: May 2013