You and Max get along, Mark. These are great - tho insufferably sad.
Thanks,
Stephen V
Blog: http://stephenvincent.durationpress.com
> Three from Max Jacob, via my translations. The last was written the month
> he was taken off to Drancy.
>
> If Guillaume Had Died a Christian Death
>
> And I was so certain of his impending death that in tears I sketched the
> bed of his final agony. Which is not to deny that I was somewhat
> preoccupied by questions of craft. The next day he walked through Paris
> strong and sublime. One morning in Montmartre at Sacré-Coeur two black cats
> pressed me between them. A voice proclaimed: “Fear not!” Sacré-Coeur seemed
> like one of those pink fortresses that decorate the summits of hills in
> Italy and he, Guillaume, was like a man-headed bird soaring above it. Was
> he dead, the dear singer? My sketch was unfinished. I came upon him leading
> a group of disciples: was it he or Dante? Full of life, surely! He was not
> dead, Guillaume. A tall intelligent abbot tells me: “One can’t be more
> alive than Guillaume Apollinaire. Finish, therefore, your sketch of his
> death and place my silhouette to the left beneath it.”
>
> Derniers
> poèmes
>
>
> Prophetic Dreams
>
> I dreamt of a handsome lake and the reflections of cliffs
> The cliffs were covered with dark foliage.
> The next day I found my emerald again.
> I dreamt of a beautiful road thundering with iron-shod hooves.
> I had stopped beside a wall of pink rocks
> that stretched to the sea and the sky.
> I dreamt of an exquisite table where I was offered roast pork
> But all I could see was the hostess, a Christian Olympus glowing.
> I dreamt of the mass and the altar
> and I dreamt of a balustrade
> and I dreamt of Benares
> and the Hindu Paradise.
> Room after room I dreamt of you,
> my immaculate youth!
> I dreamt of an old man dismembered
> by the white phantom of the passing years.
>
> Derniers
> poèmes
>
>
> There are stars that are bees, dark amber and onyx; others are pale sapphire.
> God’s eyes are closed.
>
> Derniers
> poèmes
|