Grasse, summer 1764
[english]
“His name was Jean-Baptiste Grenouille and if his name has been forgotten today, it is because his gifts and his sole ambition were restricted to a domain that leaves no traces
in history: to the fleeting
realm of scent (…)
In his cabin, inside a quilted box with cotton, he had twenty-four tiny bottles with a perfume made of the auras of twenty-four
maidens (…)
They perceived only his counterfeit aura, his fragant disguise, his stole perfume…”
(Patrick Süskind, Perfume.)
[castellano]
“Se
llamaba Jean-Baptiste Grenouille y si su nombre ha caído
en el olvido se
debe a que su genio y su única ambición se limitaban a un terreno
que no deja huellas en la historia: al efímero mundo de los
olores (…)
En
su cabaña, dentro de una cajita acolchada con algodón, tenía veinticuatro
frascos diminutos con el aura reducida a gotas de veinticuatro doncellas. (…)
Lo
único que percibieron de él fue su aura usurpada, su máscara fragante, su
perfume robado…”
(Patrick Süskind, El Perfume.)
