The Annotated "Ulysses"/Page 037
Ineluctable modality of the visible : at least that if no more, thought through
my eyes. Signatures of all things I am here to read, seaspawn and seawrack,
the nearing tide, that rusty boot. Snotgreen, bluesilver, rust : coloured signs.
Limits of the diaphane. But he adds : in bodies. Then he was aware of them
bodies before of them coloured. How? By knocking his sconce against them,
sure. Go easy. Bald he was and a millionaire, maestro di color che sanno.
Limit of the diaphane in. Why in? Diaphane, adiaphane. If you can
put your five fingers through it, it is a gate, if not a door. Shut your eyes
and see.
Stephen closed his eyes to hear his boots crush crackling wrack and
shells. You are walking through it howsomever. I am, a stride at a time. A
very short space of time through very short times of space. Five, six : the
nacheinander. Exactly : and that is the ineluctable modality of the audible.
Open your eyes. No. Jesus! If I fell over a cliff that beetles o’er his base, fell
through the nebeneinander ineluctably. I am getting on nicely in the dark. My
ash sword hangs at my side. Tap with it : they do. My two feet in his boots
are at the end of his legs, nebeneinander. Sounds solid : made by the mallet of
Los Demiurgos. Am I walking into eternity along Sandymount strand? Crush,
crack, crick, crick. Wild sea money. Dominie Deasy kens them a’.
- Won’t you come to Sandymount,
- Madeline the mare?
Rhythm begins, you see. I hear. A catalectic tetrameter of iambs march ing.
No, agallop : deline the mare.