Liberty Klee

-Your right, your right! I whimper, but I'm spoiled!
but were you there, in Claunau?...My ass you were!
doesn't stop you screeching your fucking lungs out
as if you were the first one in and the last one out!
-And in Brazzaville? And Chad? you weren't there
slogging away? and with such mosquitoes buzzing
around, madame! the lepers! the amoeba! the tsetse
flies! buffalo everywhere! crocodiles! and vamp-
ires!...While we're at it, I didn't see you in
Cameroon! What would you know, sweetie, of
such prodigious acts of valor? and not of recent
date! donkeys years! you have no idea! You
weren't even born yet! 17! Ha! it was us booted
out the Krauts that time! in 120 degrees in the
shade! oh,la,la and in white helmets! Bobillot
was my hero!

From Céline's
Fable for Another Time
Translation Mary Hudson