Page:Thea von Harbou Metropolis eng 1927.pdf/39

 METROPOLIS There was a word which always recurred. From an invisible source there shot up a sheaf of light, which bursting apart at the highest point, dropped down letters in all colours of the rainbow from the velvetblack sky of Metropolis. The letters formed themselves into the word: Yoshiwara. What did that mean: Yoshiwara-? From the iron-work of the elevated railway-h'ack a yenow~ skinned fellow hung, head downwards, suspended by the crocks of his knees, who let a snow-stonn of white sheets of paper shower down upon the double row of motor-cars. The pages fluttered and fell. Georgi's glance caught one of them. Upon it stood. in large. distorted letters: Yoshiwara. The car stopped at a crossing.....Yellow-skinned fellows. in many-coloured embroidered silk jackets. wound themselves. supple as eels, through the twelve-fold strings of waiting cars. One of them swung himself onto the foot-board of the black motor-car in which Georgi sat. For one second the grinning hideousness stared into the young, white. helpless face. . A sheaf of hand-bills were hurled through the window, falling upon Georgi's knee and before his feet. He bent down mechanically and picked up that for which his fingers were groping. On these slips, which gave out a penetrating, bitter-sweet. seductive perfume, there stood, in large, bewitched-looking letters, the Vord: Yoshiwara.... Georgi's throat was as dry as dust. He moistened his cracked lips with his tongue, which lay heavy and as though parched in his mouth. A voice had said to him: «You will find more than enough " money in my pockets Enough money what for? To clutch and drag near this city-this mighty, heavenly, hellish city; to embrace her with both arms, both legs, in the impotence of mastering her; to despair, to throw one-self into her-take mel-take mel -To' feel the filled bowl at one's lips-gulping, gulping-not drawing breath, the brim of the bowl set fast between the

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