french poems again
Comme en la claire cour de l’exquis monastère…
by Marcel Proust
translated as: As In The Clear Courtyard of The Exquisite Monastery…
translated by シビルちゃん
Your charm is a courtyard of a lovely monastery
The sky is ocean blue through the white arches
It makes a nice place to pass the hot days sleeping
Under a thin pillar, quietly, with a cold drink.
Tomorrow, I know it well, became lonely
Hopelessly I will go toward some palace of troubles
But today your charm is my lover; the slow
Glances of your mauve eye are all there is on earth for me
Your brow does not confine in its slender whiteness
The infinite shadow out of which spills light
Yet I love you strangely, o dear one.
When to your clear laughter my heart beats no longer
I will still perhaps blush at the sweetness
That it would have been to rest nestled in your heart
As in the clear courtyard of the exquisite monastery.
french poems again
i don’t know that this one grabbed me quite as the last one did, but the subjonctif passe composée on “would have been” in the second to last stanza ties it together really nicely for me.
brings together every little unsettling piece up to this point and causes the rest of the poem to fall well into place.
french poems again
i think in some strange irony considering the author this poem is deeply strengthened by its reliance on leaving things unsaid
french poems again
le temps efface tout has to be one of my favorite refrains of all time though. the way tempo was played with throughout, the little variation with the fog… incredible stuff