Bukowski (supplément 1)

A propos de la nouvelle de Charles Bukowski “Bouffe la poussière, chien menteur !” publiée récemment dans Silo.

En 1977, Carl Weissner était l’agent européen de Charles Bukowski. C’est lui qui m’a communiqué ce texte que Bukowski venait de lui envoyer et qui était encore inédit aux Etats-Unis. C’est également Weissner qui m’a suggéré de traduire « CRAWL, YOU LYING DOG ! » par «aBouffe la poussière, chien menteur ! ». Le tout premier titre, raturé par Bukowski sur le manuscrit original, était « YOU KISSED LILLY ».
Cette nouvelle a été écrite d’après le compte-rendu d’un fait divers paru dans le Los Angeles Times. Je suis heureux en complément à la publication de vous présenter cet article. (L.S.)

HOMEWOOD, Ill. (AP) - A depressed and jealous wife shot her husband while he slept, but he revived nearly 20 hours later and the couple then took turns shooting each other with her gun, police said. It began in bed and went on as they crawled bleeding from room to room.
It ended after police arrived. They said the woman, who had turn the gun on herself by that point, fired a final shot at her husband, collapsed and died.
Her husband was hospitalized in critical condition.
Police gave this account of the bizarre episode in a condominium in the suburb of Homewood, south-west of Chicago.
Margaret Radovich, 50, shot her husband, Theodore, 56, twice in the chest while he slept Tuesday morning and later, for some unexplained reason, returned to the bed.
When he regained consciousness early today, he found his wife next to him in bed, pulls the gun out of her hand and shot her once in each leg. He also fired a shot out of the window to attract attention and tried to throw the gun through a closed window. The window broke, but the gun fell back inside the room. Mrs Radovich found it and reloaded it.
Radovich managed to crawl to another room, followed by his wife, who then shot him in the mouth. He still was able to make his way to another bedroom, where he broke a window in another attempt to attract attention.
Meanwhile, Mrs Radovich shot herself just before police arrived.
Before they could reach Mrs Radovich, she took one more shot at her husband through the doorway. The bullet missed, she fell unconscious and was dead on arrival at a hospital.
Authorities found notes apparently written by Mrs Radovich that "said such things as life being tough and difficult, and one note made reference to another woman."