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Show FOUR? the truth as he sees it. 271 At other times he is quite frankly incoherent. . I will give, On another page, my impression of him when I saw him on my return to the Forest. I am, of (‘Il.\l"lllCll IV roi'n.' course, in no way responsible for inconsistencies or irrelevances. He had kept a diary since his first coming to the war and I have already given some extracts from it. The of his earlier diary, in one place only, namely his account deadventure during his night with Nikitin, is of the full FFORE I give the extracts from 'l‘i'enehard‘s diary that follow I Would like to say that l do not believe that. Ireuchard had any thought ulnum‘cr, as he wrote, of publication. llc says quite clearly that he wrote simply for his own satisfaction and later llll(‘l'l‘>t. At the same time I am convinced that he would not now object to their publication. If he had been here he would, I know, have supported my intention. 'l‘he diary lies before me, here on my table, written in two yellow. stillleoverml manuscript books without lines. 'l‘hey are written very unevenly and untidily, with very few erasures, but at times ineoherently and with gaps. In one place he has (,‘llt from the news- paper Rupcrt Brooke's sonnet. beginning: "Blow out, you Bug/(s, oi‘cr the rich Dead!" quoted scriptive order. That, one occasion I have already brief is diary early the in its entirety. With that exception After and concerned only with the dryest recital of events. er entirely the death of Marie Ivanovna, however, its charact have would I changes for reasons which he himself shows. in ty or even pomposi expected perhaps a certain solemnity of humour. But the style of it; he had never a strong sense fashion; words here I find it written in the very simplest is large and and there are misspelt and his handwriting round like a sehoolboy's. this diary with "Thursday, JMy 29th. I intend to write I the first place because great fulness for two reasons-in nce, if one is to get importa can see that it is of the greatest leave no hours empty. through this business properly, to is having nothing to dowThe trying thing in this affair nothing one can possibly do. They all, officers, soldiers, and pasted it on to the blank page. ht times he sticks on to the other pages newspaper descriptions that have pleased him. His own descriptions of the Forest seem to me influenced by my talks with him, and I remember that it was Nikitin who spoke of the light like a glass ball and of the green-like water. For the H10816 my Nikolai here, will tell from Nikolai Nikolaievitch to part he exhibits, from the beginning of. the diary to the end; of it into the world again I felt about it. \Vhen I come Out ul extreme practical common sense and he makes, I fancy, a Very strong effort to record quite simply and even naively 270 if I can help it. . . you that. No empty hours for me my experiences Secondly, I really do wish to record exactly out of it all, I'm when here. I am perfectly aware that mgard when it's even a day's march behind me, I shallthe way the thing itself but it as frankly incredible-film other people's impressions I shall be overwhelmed with |
