“The Darlette”
by
Henri Michaux
translated by Richard Ellmann
The Darelette is found in dry and sandy terrain. It is not a plant but an agile beast, corseted and boned unlike any insect, fat as a rat and long as one, if the tail is included.
If a man jumps on her last segment (there are three), it may well break if the animal has not arrived at adult age.
Since the inside, under walls as thick as a little finger, does not contain any essential organs, the wounded beast continues her walk with her abdomen pounded to jelly and her walls breached. She is a beast who fears no one, eats snakes, and goes to suck the udders of cows which do not dare move.
The ditch spider makes war on her successfully; it winds around her, overwhelms her with threads; as soon as she is paralyzed, it pumps her out completely through the ears.
Her rosy ears and her eyes and her internal organs are the only tender parts of her body.
It pumps her out completely through the ears.
Biblioklept 