Proteus: line by line

Plain English translation

I can only know the world through my senses, especially sight. Everything around me—the sea, debris, colours—contains meanings to be interpreted. Philosophers like Aquinas have tried to explain how perception works, but perhaps the simplest way to know that objects exist is just to bump into them. What would happen if I stopped relying on sight altogether?

Sentence-by-sentence commentary

1. “Ineluctable modality of the visible: at least that if no more, thought through my eyes.”

   Plain EnglishThe unavoidable fact about existence is that I experience the world through sight—through my eyes, at least.

   Stephen is reflecting on the philosophical idea that all his knowledge of the world comes through his senses.

2. “Signatures of all things I am here to read, seaspawn and seawrack, the nearing tide, that rusty boot.”

   Plain EnglishEverything around me contains signs or meanings that I can interpret: seaweed, debris washed ashore, the incoming tide, even that old rusty boot.

   The phrase 'signatures of all things' comes from a medieval/Renaissance idea that nature bears marks revealing its hidden meaning.

3. “Snotgreen, bluesilver, rust: coloured signs.”

   Plain EnglishThe green of seaweed, the blue-silver sea, the rust-coloured boot: all these colours are signs to be interpreted.

   Stephen is treating the world as a kind of text to be read.

4. “Limits of the diaphane.”

   Plain EnglishThese visible things mark the boundaries of what can be seen through or perceived.

   'Diaphane' means 'transparent' or 'that through which light passes.' Stephen is recalling a difficult philosophical concept from Thomas Aquinas.

5. “But he adds: in bodies.”

   Plain EnglishBut Aquinas says that transparency exists only in physical bodies.

   Stephen is remembering Aquinas's exact wording.

6. “Then he was aware of them bodies before of them coloured. How?”

   Plain EnglishIf that's true, how did people become aware of objects before noticing their colours?

   Stephen is puzzling over the philosophy.

7. “By knocking his sconce against them, sure.”

   Plain EnglishBy bumping his head against them, obviously!

   'Sconce' means head. Stephen humorously reduces lofty philosophy to physical experience.

8. “Go easy.”

   Plain EnglishCareful where you're walking.

   Stephen reminds himself not to walk into anything while lost in thought.

9. “Bald he was and a millionaire, maestro di color che sanno.”

   Plain EnglishAquinas was bald and wealthy—the master of those who know.

   The Italian phrase means 'master of those who know' and comes from The Divine Comedy, where Dante uses it to describe Aristotle. Stephen jokingly transfers it to Aquinas.

10. “Limit of the diaphane in. Why in?”

    Plain EnglishAquinas says the limit is 'in' the transparent thing. Why did he say 'in'?

    Stephen becomes obsessed with a single preposition.

11. “Diaphane, adiaphane.”

    Plain EnglishTransparent, opaque.

    He is mentally playing with philosophical terminology.

12. “If you can put your five fingers through it it is a gate, if not a door.”

    Plain EnglishIf you can put your hand through an opening, it's a gate; if you can't, it's a door.

    Stephen is trying to understand the difference between transparency and opacity by means of a practical example.

13. “Shut your eyes and see.”

    Plain EnglishClose your eyes and try to perceive the world without sight.

    This is Stephen's experiment: if vision is only one way of knowing reality, what happens when it is removed?

Plain English translation

Stephen closes his eyes and tries to understand reality through hearing instead of sight. He reflects that sounds occur one after another in time, unlike visual impressions, which appear simultaneously. As he walks blindly across Sandymount Strand, he worries about falling, observes the sounds beneath his feet, and drifts into philosophical speculation about space, time, creation, and eternity. Even a simple walk on the beach becomes a meditation on how human beings perceive and understand existence.

Sentence-by-sentence commentary

1. “Stephen closed his eyes to hear his boots crush crackling wrack and shells.”

   Plain EnglishStephen shuts his eyes so that he can concentrate on the sound of his boots crunching seaweed and shells beneath his feet.

   He wants to experience the world through hearing rather than sight—continuing the perception experiment begun in the first paragraph.

2. “You are walking through it howsomever.”

   Plain EnglishWhatever else may be true, you are still walking through this landscape.

   Stephen reassures himself that even with his eyes closed, he is still moving through real space.

3. “I am, a stride at a time.”

   Plain EnglishYes, I am—one step after another.

   He confirms his existence through physical movement.

4. “A very short space of time through very short times of space.”

   Plain EnglishEach step carries me through tiny distances over tiny moments in time.

   Stephen begins analysing walking philosophically, reducing it to measurable units of space and time.

5. “Five, six: the nacheinander.”

   Plain EnglishFive, six steps: one thing following another.

   The German word 'nacheinander' means 'one after another' or 'in sequence.' Stephen counts his steps as a succession of moments.

6. “Exactly: and that is the ineluctable modality of the audible.”

   Plain EnglishYes, that's the unavoidable nature of sound: it unfolds one moment after another in sequence.

   Unlike sight, which takes in many things simultaneously, sound occurs over time.

7. “Open your eyes. No.”

   Plain EnglishA voice in Stephen's mind tells him to open his eyes, but he refuses.

   He wants to continue the experiment.

8. “Jesus! If I fell over a cliff that beetles o'er his base, fell through the nebeneinander ineluctably!”

   Plain EnglishGood God! What if I walked off a cliff jutting out over the shore and fell helplessly through space?

   'Beetles o'er his base' comes from Shakespeare's Hamlet and means projecting or hanging over an edge. The German 'nebeneinander' means 'side by side' or 'simultaneously.' Stephen jokes that he would experience the physical world very directly if he suddenly fell off a cliff.

9. “I am getting on nicely in the dark.”

   Plain EnglishI'm actually managing quite well with my eyes shut.

   Stephen is pleased with himself.

10. “My ash sword hangs at my side.”

    Plain EnglishMy walking stick is hanging beside me.

    Stephen imagines his ash walking stick as a sword, casting himself as a romantic wanderer or hero.

11. “Tap with it: they do.”

    Plain EnglishI should use it to tap the ground ahead—yes, blind people do that.

    He briefly considers using it like a blind person's cane.

12. “My two feet in his boots are at the ends of his legs, nebeneinander.”

    Plain EnglishMy feet, inside these boots, stand side by side at the ends of my legs.

    Stephen humorously objectifies himself, as if observing his own body from outside.

13. “Sounds solid: made by the mallet of Los Demiurgos.”

    Plain EnglishThe sounds seem solid, as though they were created by the hammer of divine craftsmen.

    'Los Demiurgos' ('The Demiurges') refers to creator gods or cosmic artisans who shape the material world. Stephen imagines reality itself being forged by supernatural builders.

14. “Am I walking into eternity along Sandymount strand?”

    Plain EnglishAs I walk along this beach, am I somehow walking into eternity itself?

    The physical walk prompts a metaphysical question.

15. “Crush, crack, crick, crick.”

    Plain EnglishThe sounds of Stephen's boots crunching over shells and seaweed.

    Joyce reproduces the actual sounds Stephen hears.

16. “Wild sea money.”

    Plain EnglishStephen notices shells, often called 'sea money' because they resemble coins.

    The image subtly connects nature, value, and exchange.

17. “Dominie Deasy kens them a'.”

    Plain EnglishMr Deasy knows all about these things.

    'Kens them a'' is Scots dialect meaning 'knows them all.' Stephen recalls Mr Deasy, his employer in Nestor, who prided himself on his practical knowledge.

Plain English translation

Stephen becomes absorbed in the rhythm of a snatch of song and analyses it as poetry. Still reluctant to open his eyes, he wonders whether the world might have ceased to exist while he wasn't looking at it, or whether he himself might have become blind. Finally, he opens his eyes and discovers that reality has continued unchanged. The world exists independently of his perception and will continue to exist long after him.

Sentence-by-sentence commentary

1. “Won't you come to Sandymount, Madeline the mare?”

   Plain EnglishA fragment of a song or jingle about a horse called Madeline coming to Sandymount.

   Stephen recalls or invents this line. Its exact origin is uncertain, but he is primarily interested in its sound and rhythm rather than its meaning.

2. “Rhythm begins, you see. I hear.”

   Plain EnglishNow rhythm starts to emerge. I can hear it.

   Stephen's attention shifts from philosophy to the musical qualities of language.

3. “A catalectic tetrameter of iambs marching.”

   Plain EnglishIt's a poetic line made up of four iambic beats, with the final syllable omitted.

   Stephen, ever the literary scholar, immediately analyses the phrase as poetry. An iamb is an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one (da-DUM); a tetrameter has four metrical feet; catalectic means the final unstressed syllable is missing. He instinctively scans everyday speech as verse.

4. “No, agallop: deline the mare.”

   Plain EnglishNo, the rhythm isn't a march—it's more like a horse galloping: 'deline the mare.'

   Stephen revises his analysis. The rhythm evokes the sound of a horse's hooves rather than soldiers marching, and Joyce mimics the galloping rhythm in the phrase itself.

5. “Open your eyes now. I will. One moment.”

   Plain EnglishI will—but just give me another moment.

   A voice in Stephen's mind urges him to open his eyes; he hesitates before ending his experiment.

6. “Has all vanished since?”

   Plain EnglishWhat if the world has disappeared while my eyes have been shut?

   Stephen entertains a philosophical possibility: does the world continue to exist when he is not perceiving it? This echoes the idealist philosophy of George Berkeley, who argued that existence depends upon perception.

7. “If I open and am for ever in the black adiaphane.”

   Plain EnglishWhat if I open my eyes and find myself trapped forever in darkness?

   'Adiaphane' means opaque or non-transparent. Stephen fears blindness—or, more broadly, the terrifying possibility that reality itself might vanish.

8. “Basta! I will see if I can see.”

   Plain EnglishEnough! I'll open my eyes and find out.

   'Basta!' is Italian for 'Enough!' or 'Stop!' Stephen abruptly ends his speculation.

9. “See now. There all the time without you: and ever shall be, world without end.”

   Plain EnglishLook—the world was there all along without needing you, and it will continue to exist forever.

   Stephen discovers that the external world exists independently of his consciousness. The phrase 'world without end' echoes Christian liturgy, particularly the Gloria Patri ('world without end, Amen'), giving Stephen's realization a quasi-religious resonance.