Dear Colleagues - yesterday I received from a correspondent in France - Mme
Janet Fernandez, 66 Rue Louis Braille, 59142 Dunkerque - a photocopy of a
printed poemm which had RK's name below. Its titel in French was "Le
Testament de l'initie" (sorry about the lack of accents) which she had
mentioned in a previous letter. I haven't been able to trace it - and Lisa
couldn't recall it either. There are aboutb ten stanzas of vaying lenghts.
The first staza goes;-
Je ne suis qu'un homme parmi les hommes,
Mais j'ai repondu sous le bandeau et j'ai gravi les trois marches.
J'ai vu l'etoile flamboyante, j'ai fait le signe.
Another verse has unusual references to great men:-
On trouve notre signe jusque sur les conquetes de l'espirit qui font
l'humanite meillure, sur la patition de Mozart, sur la page
de Goethe, le livre de Condorcet, les notes d'Aragon.
Any help gratefully received and with thanks for those who responded to my
requests over the cartoons some time ago.
If any of our members living in France (Max and Roy for example) feel like
contacting her she would be most grateful to hear from other Kiplingites in
the country.
Best wishes Michael Smith
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