The Life of the Fly 



coming into the sun to shed her skin and take 

 on a new one. Man catches sight of her: 



'Ah, would you ?' says he. 'See me do 

 something for which the world will thank 

 me!' 



And the harmless beast, our auxiliary 1 in 

 the terrible battle which husbandry wages 

 against the insect, has its head smashed in and 

 dies. 



The two corpses, already decomposing, 

 have begun to smell. Whoso approaches with 

 eyes that do not see turns away his head and 

 passes on. The observer stops and lifts the 

 remains with his foot; he looks. A world is 

 swarming underneath; life is eagerly consu- 

 ming the dead. Let us replace matters as they 

 were and leave death's artisans to their task. 

 They are engaged in a most deserving work. 



To know the habits of those creatures 

 charged with the disappearance of corpses, to 

 see them busy at their work of disintegration, 

 to follow in detail the process of transmutation 

 that makes the ruins of what has lived return 

 apace into life's treasure-house: these are 

 things that long haunted my mind. I regret- 



'The author employs the term 'auxiliaries' to denote 

 the animals that help to protect the farmer's crops. — 

 Translator's Note. 



214 



