Cendrars' Ashes

On the Oregon coast, rain pouring down, but the mind is on Cendrars Ashes, and the Sargasso Sea. Cendrars expressed his wish in the following words:

"« …je serai un homme comblé si je pouvais aller mourir, le jour dit, au point choisi et disparaître anonymement, sans aucun regret du monde, à la source même du monde, en pleine mer des Sargasses, là où pour le première fois la vie s’est manifestée et jailli des profondeurs de l’océan et du soleil. »"

Here is what it means: I would be fulfilled if I can die on my chosen day, disappear anonymously, with no regrets remaining, at the very source of the world, in the Sargasso sea, there, where the world first appeared, bursting from the depths of the ocean and the sun".

Mare Sargassum is an oddity, an oceanographic abberation. The great tides, gyres and eddies of the Atlantic can take the embryonic larvae of eels across the entire ocean, but if a man driven vessel errs into its path, it will never be heard from again...

Cendrars, le Bourlingueur

This is Cendrars, alias Freddy Sauser, alias the Bourlingueur or vagabond. Cendrars, who understood the 20th century better than anyone, better than Einstein - because he understood truth is in action - better than Gandhi - because he knew life is war - better than Churchill - because he devoted his patriotism to a foreign land - better than the surrealists - because he knew the great works are accomplished alone and in obscurity. And, after having investigated Hollywood, and the two great wars, and having made a million and lost it three times over, and living with the gypsies, and suffered the loss of his writing hand, and his firing hand, and his son, and then the land he fought for, he withdrew in silence to Aix-en-Provence, to contemplate the folly of man. But, when that drippy pacifist Rilke started oozing his shite in his direction at the Closerie de Lilas one drunken afternoon, Cendrars cold cocked him with his one remaining hand. Cendrars is untouchable, and remains so in death, because ultimately, he never sought the approval of the world. His dialogue was with the gods.