Alcools: Poems

The Song of the Poorly Loved

The Song of the Poorly Loved to Paul Leautaud And I sang this ballad In 1903 in ignorance Of love's resemblance To the Phoenix dead at evening Resurrected by morning One evening in the London haze A hustler in the shape Of my beloved came to me The expression of his eyes Shamed my eyes 1followed the boy he Whistled so carelessly And in a space between the houses The Red Sea broke in two I was Pharaoh he was the Jews May the walls of brickwork waterfall If you were loved untruly I am sun-king of the Upper Nile His sister-bride and his entire army If I loved you less than only Out of a blazing intersection Rose fiery facades Windows bled in all directions And the body of the fog lamented A woman shaped like her She had the same inhuman look And scar across her neck I saw her stagger drunkenly 15 Au moment oilje reconnus Lafaussete de I'amour meme Lorsqu'il/ut de retour enfin Dans sa patrie le sage Ulysse Son vieux chien de lui se souvint Pres d'un fapis de haute lisse Sa/emme attendait qu'il revint L'epoux royal de Sacontale Las de vaincre se rejouit Quand il la retrouva plus pdle D'attente et d'amour yeux pdlis Caressant sa gazelle male J'ai pense a ces rois heureux Lorsque lefaux amour et celle Dontje suis encore amoureux Heurtant leurs ombres infideles Me rendirent si malheureux Regrets sur quoi 1'en/er sefonde Qu'un del d'oubli s'ouvre a mes vceux Pour son baiser ies rois du monde Seraient morts Ies pauvres/ameux Pour elle eussent vendu leur ombre J'ai hiverne dans man passe Revienne le soleil de Pdques Pour chauffer un coeur plus glace Que Ies quarante de Sebaste Motns que ma vie martyrises Mon beau navire o ma memoire Avons-nous assez navigue' Dans une onde mauvaise a boire Avons-nous assez divague De la belle aube au triste soir 16 And in her stagger I could see Love's falsity When the wily Odysseus finally Regained his native land His yellow dog remembered him His wife had been faithful to him In the plush corner her loom at hand The royal bridegroom of Sacontale Exhausted by his victories rejoiced To find his bride grown whiter still Tears in her eyes a tremble in her voice Unbuttoning her imperial gazelle 1 thought of these happy kings When all love'sfalsity and she Who must be loved Combined their shadows faithlessly And made afool of me Regret is the cornerstone of hell Forgetfulness is heaven Because of a kiss a king dies well Impoverished but immortal Shadowless with nothing left to sell I have frozen in my past O Paschal sun return to me To warm a heart more wintery Than the forty of Sebaste Martyrdoms inferior to mine My pretty ship my memory Have we drifted far enough Undrinkable water bitter seas Have we digressed enough From beautiful morning to baleful evening 17 Adieu faux amour confondu Avec la/emme qui s'eloigne Avec cdle quej'ai perdue L'annee derniere en Allemagne Et queje ne reverrai plus Voie lactee o sceur lumineuse Des blancs ruisseaux de Chanaan Et des corps blancs des amoureuses Nageurs morts suivrons-nous d'ahan Ton cours vers d'autres nebukuses Je me souviens d'une autre annee C'etait I'aube d'unjour d'avril J'ai chante majoie bien-aimee Chante I'amour a voix virile Au moment d'amour de I'annee AUBADE CHANTEE A LfcTARE UN AN PA5SE C'est le printemps viens-t'en Paquette Te promener au bois joli Les poules dans la cour caquetent L'aube au ciel fait de roses plis L'amour chemine a ta conquete Mars et Venus sont revenus Us s'embrassent a bouches folles Devant des sites ingenus Ou sous les roses qui feuillolent De beaux dieux roses dansent nus Viens ma tendresse est la regente De la floraison qui parait La nature est belle et touchante Pan sifflote dans la foret Les grenouilles humides chantent 18 Farewell infatuation I mistook For the woman leaving me For the woman lost to me Last year in Germany The woman I will never see again 0 Milky Wayfluorescentsister Of Canaan's milky streams And of the nakedness of lovers Shall we the shipwrecked drown...