the romantics
the dreamers
Ma Bohème, Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891)
Je m’en allais, les poings dans mes poches crevées;
Mon paletot aussi devenait idéal;
J’allais sous le ciel, Muse! et j'étais ton féal;
Oh! la! la! que d’amours splendides j’ai rêvées!
Mon unique culotte avait un large trou.
- Petit-Poucet rêveur, j'égrenais dans ma course.
Des rimes. Mon auberge était à la Grande-Ourse.
-Mes étoiles au ciel avaient un doux frou-frou....
My Bohemia (translated by David Paley)
I went off, fists thrust into my pockets, all tattered;
My jacket suddenly transformed for the better;
Beneath the sky, I went, O Muse, becoming your debtor;
Oh! What joy! What splendid loves I dreamed as your steward.
My only trouser had a big hole;
I dreamt of Tom Thumb and picked my rhymes
from the road:
The Great Bear became my abode
And my stars in the sky whispered into my soul....
the lovers
Sonnets from the Portuguese, by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1850)
When our two souls stand up erect and strong,
Face to face, silent, drawing nigh and nigher,
Until the lengthening wings break into fire
At either curved point—what bitter wrong
Can the earth do to us, that we should not long
Be here contented” Think. In mounting higher,
The angels would press us and aspire
To drop some golden orb of perfect song…
Juliette Gréco; black & white photo by George Dudognon. colour photo by Milton Greene (1960).
Juliette Gréco << a true free spirit, muse & icon to bohemian girls and women.>>
