"They wandered over the downs westward, among the wind. As they followed the headland to the Needles, they felt the breeze from the wings of the sea brushing them, and heard restless, poignant voices screaming below the cliffs. Now and again a gull, like a piece of spume flung up, rose over the cliff's edge, and sank again. Now and again, as the path dipped in a hollow, they could see the low, suspended intertwining of the birds passing in and out of the cliff shelter.
These savage birds appealed to all the poetry and yearning in Helena. They fascinated her, they almost voiced her. She crept nearer and nearer the edge, feeling she must watch the gulls thread out in flakes of white above the weed-black rocks. Siegmund stood away back, anxiously. He would not dare to tempt Fate now, having too strong a sense of death to risk it.
'Come back, dear. Don't go so near,' he pleaded, following as close as he might. She heard the pain and appeal in his voice. It thrilled her, and she went a little nearer. What was death to her but one of her symbols, the death of which the sagas talk—something grand, and sweeping, and dark."
(The Trespasser, 1912)
Il existe deux traductions françaises du roman, sous deux titres différents : Le Profanateur, trad. Jacqueline Gouirand (Julliard, 1988) et La Mort de Siegmund, trad. Hervé-Southwell (Gallimard, 1934).
Lire aussi : à propos du même auteur
The Fox (Le Renard, publié aux éditions Sillage en 2009)
D'autres informations en français sur l'auteur :
http://editions.sillage.free.fr/auteurs/lawrence.html
et en anglais : http://www.dh-lawrence.org.uk/