Then the memory of a new attitude would be reborn; the wall would spin in another direction: I’d be in my room chez Madame de Saint-Loup, in the country; My God! It’s at least ten o’clock, dinner must be over by now! I’ll have overextended the nap I took each evening upon returning from my walk with Madame de Saint-Loup, before donning my night clothes. For many years have passed since Combray, where, when we got home late, it was red reflections of sunset I’d see on the glass of my window. It’s another kind of life one leads at Tansonville, chez Madame de Saint-Loup, another kind of pleasure I find in going out only at night, to follow in moonlight these paths where once I’d have played in the sun; and the room where I’ll be dozing instead of dressing for dinner, from afar I can see it, when we return, lit by lamplight, sole beacon in the night.
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Puis renaissait le souvenir d’une nouvelle attitude; le mur filait dans une autre direction: j’étais dans ma chambre chez Mme de Saint-Loup, à la campagne; mon Dieu! Il est au moins dix heures, on doit avoir fini de dîner! J’aurai trop prolongé la sieste que je fais tous les soirs en rentrant de ma promenade avec Mme de Saint-Loup, avant d’endosser mon habit. Car bien des années ont passé depuis Combray, où, dans nos retours les plus tardifs, c’était les reflets rouges du couchant que je voyais sur le vitrage de ma fenêtre. C’est un autre genre de vie qu’on mène à Tansonville, chez Mme de Saint-Loup, un autre genre de plaisir que je trouve à ne sortir qu’à la nuit, à suivre au clair de lune ces chemins où je jouais jadis au soleil; et la chambre où je me serai endormi au lieu de m’habiller pour le dîner, de loin je l’aperçois, quand nous rentrons, traversée par les feux de la lampe, seul phare dans la nuit.
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N o t e s
Attitude. My options were “attitude” or “position.” Proust goes on to tell how his outlook has changed in Tansonville, so I decided to favor that meaning. But he seems to have been taking advantage of the ambiguity here, physical and/or mental.
The wall would spin. The French verb is filer, “to spin,” and it’s related to the word fil (“thread”) from paragraph 5. This verb has many meanings in French, far more than in English. Most of them do not actually refer to turning, so other ways to translate this could be “the wall would [speed off, pass, develop, take off, flow, unroll, fly off].” Proust has been describing things swirling and turning in his perceptions, so I think “spin” works.
Chez Madame de Saint-Loup. Chez (here = “at the home of”) is in my English dictionaries and much less clunky than any English equivalent.