Ulysses

epub:type="z3998:persona">The Nymph Bends her head. Worse! Worse! Bloom Reflects precautiously. That antiquated commode. It wasn’t her weight. She scaled just eleven stone nine. She put on nine pounds after weaning. It was a crack and want of glue. Eh? And that absurd orangekeyed utensil which has only one handle. The sound of a waterfall is heard in bright cascade. The Waterfall

Poulaphouca Poulaphouca
Poulaphouca Poulaphouca.

The Yews Mingling their boughs. Listen. Whisper. She is right, our sister. We grew by Poulaphouca waterfall. We gave shade on languorous summer days. John Wyse Nolan In the background, in Irish National Forester’s uniform, doffs his plumed hat. Prosper! Give shade on languorous days, trees of Ireland! The Yews Murmuring. Who came to Poulaphouca with the high school excursion? Who left his nutquesting classmates to seek our shade? Bloom Pigeonbreasted, bottleshouldered, padded, in nondescript juvenile grey and black striped suit, too small for him, white tennis shoes, bordered stockings with turnover tops, and a red school cap with badge. I was in my tens, a growing boy. A little then sufficed, a jolting car, the mingling odours of the ladies’ cloakroom and lavatory, the throng penned tight on the old Royal stairs for they love crushes, instincts of the herd, and the dark sexsmelling theatre unbridles vice. Even a pricelist of their hosiery. And then the heat. There were sunspots that summer. End of school. And tipsycake. Halcyon days. Halcyon Days, high school boys in blue and white football jerseys and shorts, Master Donald Turnbull, Master Abraham Chatterton, Master Owen Goldberg, Master Jack Meredith, Master Percy Apjohn, stand in a clearing of the trees and shout to Master Leopold Bloom. The Halcyon Days Mackerel! Live us again. Hurray! They cheer. Bloom Hobbledehoy, warmgloved, mammamufflered, stunned with spent snowballs, struggles to rise. Again! I feel sixteen! What a lark! Let’s ring all the bells in Montague Street. He cheers feebly. Hurray for the High School! The Echo Fool! The Yews Rustling. She is right, our sister. Whisper. Whispered kisses are heard in all the wood. Faces of hamadryads peep out from the boles and among the leaves and break blossoming into bloom. Who profaned our silent shade? The Nymph Coyly through parting fingers. There! In the open air? The Yews Sweeping downward. Sister, yes. And on our virgin sward. The Waterfall

Poulaphouca Poulaphouca
Phoucaphouca Phoucaphouca

The Nymph With wide fingers. O! Infamy! Bloom I was precocious. Youth. The fauns. I sacrificed to the god of the forest. The flowers that bloom in the spring. It was pairing time. Capillary attraction is a natural phenomenon. Lotty Clarke, flaxenhaired, I saw at her night toilette through illclosed curtains, with poor papa’s operaglasses. The wanton ate grass wildly. She rolled downhill at Rialto Bridge to tempt me with her flow of animal spirits. She climbed their crooked tree and I⁠ ⁠… A saint couldn’t resist it. The demon possessed me. Besides, who saw? Staggering Bob, a whitepolled calf, thrusts a ruminating head with humid nostrils through the foliage. Staggering Bob Me. Me see. Bloom Simply satisfying a need. With pathos. No girl would when I went girling. Too ugly. They wouldn’t play⁠ ⁠… High on Ben Howth through rhododendrons a nannygoat passes, plumpuddered, buttytailed, dropping currants. The Nannygoat Bleats. Megegaggegg! Nannannanny! Bloom Hatless, flushed, covered with burrs of thistledown and gorsepine. Regularly engaged. Circumstances alter cases. He gazes intently downwards on the water. Thirtytwo head over heels per second. Press nightmare. Giddy Elijah. Fall from cliff. Sad end of government printer’s clerk. Through silversilent summer air the dummy of Bloom, rolled in a mummy, rolls roteatingly from the Lion’s Head cliff into the purple waiting waters. The Dummymummy Bbbbblllllbbbbblblobschbg! Far out in the bay between Bailey and Kish lights the Erin’s King sails, sending a broadening plume of coalsmoke from her funnel towards the land. Councillor Nannetti Alone on deck, in dark alpaca, yellow kitefaced, his hand in his waistcoat opening, declaims. When my country takes her place among the nations of the earth, then, and not till then, let my epitaph be written. I have⁠ ⁠… Bloom Done. Prff! The Nymph Loftily. We immortals, as you saw today have not such a place and no hair there either. We are stonecold and pure. We eat electric light. She arches her body in lascivious crispation, placing her forefinger in her mouth. Spoke to me. Heard from behind. How then could you⁠ ⁠… ? Bloom Pacing the heather abjectly. O, I have been a perfect pig. Enemas too, I have administered. One third of a pint of quassia, to which add a tablespoonful of rocksalt. Up the fundament. With Hamilton Long’s syringe, the ladies’ friend. The Nymph In my presence. The powderpuff. She blushes and makes a knee. And the rest. Bloom Dejected. Yes. Peccavi! I have paid homage on that living altar where the back changes name. With sudden fervour. For why should the dainty scented jewelled hand, the hand that rules⁠ ⁠… ? Figures wind serpenting in slow woodland pattern around the treestems, cooeeing. The Voice of Kitty In the thicket. Show us one of them cushions. The Voice of Florry Here. A grouse wings clumsily through the underwood. The Voice of Lynch In the thicket. Whew! Piping hot! The Voice of Zoe From the thicket. Came from a hot place. The Voice of Virag A birdchief, bluestreaked and feathered in war panoply with his assegai, striding through a crackling canebrake over beechmast and acorns. Hot! Hot! Ware Sitting Bull! Bloom It overpowers me. The warm impress of her warm form. Even to sit where a woman has sat, especially with divaricated thighs, as though to grant the last favours, most especially with previously well uplifted white sateen coatpans. So womanly full. It fills me full. The Waterfall

Phillaphulla Poulaphouca
Poulaphouca Poulaphouca

The Yews Ssh! Sister, speak! The Nymph Eyeless, in nun’s white habit, coif and huge winged wimple, softly, with remote eyes. Tranquilla convent. Sister Agatha. Mount Carmel, the