Blogger Template by Blogcrowds.


L'Amour et le Crâne
de Charles Baudelaire


Vieux cul-de-lampe


L'Amour est assis sur le crâne
De l'Humanité,
Et sur ce trône le profane,
Au rire effronté,

Souffle gaiement des bulles rondes
Qui montent dans l'air,
Comme pour rejoindre les mondes
Au fond de l'éther.


Le globe lumineux et frêle
Prend un grand essor,
Crève et crache son âme grêle
Comme un songe d'or.


J'entends le crâne à chaque bulle
Prier et gémir:—
«Ce jeu féroce et ridicule,
Quand doit-il finir?

Car ce que ta bouche cruelle

Eparpille en l'air,

Monstre assassin, c'est ma cervelle,

Mon sang et ma chair!»


Et maintenant dans l'anglais pour mes amis qui ne lisent pas Français!






Cupid and the Skull
by Charles Baudelaire and translated by William Aggeler




An Old Lamp Base

Cupid is seated on the skull
Of Humanity;
On this throne the impious one
With the shameless laugh

Is gaily blowing round bubbles
That rise in the air
As if they would rejoin the globes
At the ether's end.

The sphere, fragile and luminous,
Takes flight rapidly,
Bursts and spits out its flimsy soul
Like a golden dream.

I hear the skull groan and entreat
At every bubble:
"When is this fierce, ludicrous game
To come to an end?

Because what your pitiless mouth
Scatters in the air,
Monstrous murderer — is my brain,
My flesh and my blood!"




"A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool."- William Shakespeare

3 comments:

Now that creates quite a mental picture doesn't it?

A little cheribum sitting on a skull blowing bubbles...

Maybe that's how love really works.

June 17, 2009 at 6:46 AM  

There are worse obsessions than poetry!!!

And I love that quote...

I eventually figured it out. I'm technologically delinquent, and use words like, "The eagle helped me."

it's all good...

- Mila

June 19, 2009 at 7:48 PM  

I believe it's a lovely obsession...

June 24, 2009 at 3:42 PM  

Newer Post Older Post Home