Often, to amuse themselves, sailors
take albatrosses, vast birds of the seas
who follow, indolent companions of the voyage
the ship sailing over the bitter gulfs
No sooner than they have laid them on the planks
than these kings of the sky, clumsy and ashamed
let piteously their great white wings
like oars, trail by their sides
The winged voyager, how he is gauche and weak!
He, so recently so beautiful, how he is comic and ugly!
A sailor burns his beak with a clay-pipe,
Another mimes, limping, the cripple who once flew!
The poet is like this prince of the clouds
who haunts the tempest and laughs at the archer
Exiled on the ground, in the realm of jeers,
The wings of a giant ruin his walk.
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Trying to understand Baudelaire by translating him in public.
No comments:
Post a Comment