Z. Marcas(Z·马卡斯).pdf

Z. Marcas
Z. Marcas
Honore de Balzac
Translated by Clara Bell and others
1
Z. Marcas
DEDICATION
To His Highness Count William of Wurtemberg, as a token of the
Author's respectful gratitude.
DE BALZAC.

2
Z. Marcas
Z. MARCAS
I never saw anybody, not even among the most remarkable men of the
day, whose appearance was so striking as this man's; the study of his
countenance at first gave me a feeling of great melancholy, and at last
produced an almost painful impression.
There was a certain harmony between the man and his name. The Z.
preceding Marcas, which was seen on the addresses of his letters, and
which he never omitted from his signature, as the last letter of the alphabet,
suggested some mysterious fatality.
MARCAS! say this two-syllabled name again and again; do you not
feel as if it had some sinister meaning? Does it not seem to you that its
owner must be doomed to martyrdom? Though foreign, savage, the name
has a right to be handed down to posterity; it is well constructed, easily
pronounced, and has the brevity that beseems a famous name. Is it not
pleasant as well as odd? But does it not sound unfinished?
I will not take it upon myself to assert that names have no influence on
the destiny of men. There is a certain secret and inexplicable concord or a
visible discord between the events of a man's life and his name which is
truly surprising; often some remote but very real correlation is revealed.
Our globe is round; everything is linked to everything else. Some day
perhaps we shall revert to the occult sciences.
Do you not discern in that letter Z an adverse influence? Does it not
prefigure the wayward and fantastic progress of a storm-tossed life? What
wind blew on that letter, which, whatever language we find it in, begins
scarcely fifty words? Marcas' name was Zephirin; Saint Zephirin is highly
venerated in Brittany, and Marcas was a Breton.
Study the name once more: Z Marcas! The man's whole life lie