J'ai tant rêvé de toi
J'ai tant rêvé de toi que tu perds ta réalité.
Est-il encore temps d'atteindre ce corps vivant
Et de baiser sur cette bouche la naissance
De la voix qui m'est chère?
J'ai tant rêvé de toi que mes bras habitués
En étreignant ton ombre
A se croiser sur ma poitrine ne se plieraient pas
Au contour de ton corps, peut-être.
Et que, devant l'apparence réelle de ce qui me hante
Et me gouverne depuis des jours et des années,
Je deviendrais une ombre sans doute.
O balances sentimentales.
J'ai tant rêvé de toi qu'il n'est plus temps
Sans doute que je m'éveille.
Je dors debout, le corps exposé
A toutes les apparences de la vie
Et de l'amour et toi, la seule
qui compte aujourd'hui pour moi,
Je pourrais moins toucher ton front
Et tes lèvres que les premières lèvres
et le premier front venu.
J'ai tant rêvé de toi, tant marché, parlé,
Couché avec ton fantôme
Qu'il ne me reste plus peut-être,
Et pourtant, qu'a être fantôme
Parmi les fantômes et plus ombre
Cent fois que l'ombre qui se promène
Et se promènera allègrement
Sur le cadran solaire de ta vie.
-Robert Desnos
My Translation
I have dreamed so much of you
I have dreamed so much of you that you have lost your reality.
Is there still time to wait for this living body
And to kiss this mouth with the birth
Of the voice I hold dear?
I have dreamed so much of you that my arms, used
To holding your shadow
Across my chest would not bend
Around your body, maybe.
And that, in front of the real appearance of that which haunts me
And has governed me for days and years
I would become a shadow without doubt.
O scales of feeling.
I have dreamed so much of you that there’s no time
Without doubt that I’ll wake up.
I sleep standing up, the body exposed
To all the appearances of life
And of love and you, the only
Who counts for me today,
I could touch your face and lips
less than I could the first lips
and the first face that arrives.
I have dreamed so much of you, walked so much, talked so much,
Slept so much with your ghost
That I am left with nothing but maybe,
and yet, to be a ghost
Among ghosts and a hundred times
more shadow than the shadow that wanders
And will wander happily
On the sundial of your life.
“The Enchantress” —
Photographer: Jennifer Flapjack Photography
Stylist/Makeup/Model: Marjelle V
Headpiece: Plussoyance Créations
“ | I have no bones (morally speaking); there are days when I could leap up to the clouds—days when I haven’t the strength to turn the pages of a book. -- Gustave Flaubert, from Intimate Notebook: 1840-1841 |
“ | What groaning, what lament, what song of death, what dance of Hades shall I do? -- Euripides, from Herakles, Grief Lessons: Four Plays tr. Anne Carson (via lifeinpoetry) |
“ | …day after day: bright, wretched, endlessly fragile. -- Rainer Maria Rilke, from The Poetry of Rilke; “Sonnets to Orpheus” (via luthienne) |
Hogan McLaughlin [ @hoganmclaughlin ] perfectly captured the essence of Vanessa Ives in “These Terrible Games”. He is currently hosting a print sale in his shop, visit his profile for details + links. 🦂
“ | I am god, I am hero, I am philosopher, I am demon and I am world, which is a tedious way of saying that I do not exist. -- Jorge Luis Borges, from ‘The Immortal’ (Labyrinths) |