On a Book Meme

I received this on an e-mail list this morning–

Here are the rules:

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next 3 sentences on your blog (or to this mailing list) along with these instructions.
5. Don’t you dare dig for that “cool” or “intellectual” book in your closet! I know you were thinking about it! Just pick up whatever is closest.

Here goes. Book closest at hand, Le Seigneur dex Anneaux: Le Retour du Roi. Yes, for some inexplicable reason the book sitting on my desk is a French translation of Tolkien’s The Return of the King.

No, I’m not going to bother with the accents grave and ague.

Il voyait devant lui un homme doue d’un air de haute noblesse, telle qu’en montrait parfois Aragorn, mais haute peut-etre, mais aussi moins imprevue et vauge: un des Rois des Hommes ne a une epoque ulterieure, mais touche par la sagesse et la tristesse de la Race Ancienne. Il savait a present pourquoi Beregond prononcait son nom avec amour. C’etait un capitaine que les hommes suivaient volontiers, qu’il suivrait lui-meme, fut-ce sous l’ombre des ailes noires.

Which in Tolkien’s original reads as:

Here was one with an air of high nobility such as Aragorn at times revealed, less high perhaps, yet also less incalcuable and remote: one of the Kings of Men born into a later time, but touched with the wisdom and sadness of the Elder Race. He knew now why Beregond spoke his name with love. He was a captain that men would follow, that he would follow, even under the shadow of the black wings.