II. In the Land of Héloïse
Chapter 10: Worker in the Promised Land
I had left my country in the spring of 1948. The heartrending pain of a loving mother silently enduring the permanent departure of her prodigal son! ... The tears of a 12-year-old girl holding her little brother in her arms!
The old tree drifting down the river can never return to its native land — this image flitted around in my head as the Messageries Maritimes freighter raised anchor in the Saigon harbor in that sad late afternoon.
It took more than four weeks to lug us from Saigon to Marseilles.
I traveled fourth class, in the hold with a dozen young men hoping to study in France. We slept in bunks. At one end of the hold were coffins bearing t... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)
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