
Henri Rousseau, “Snake Charmer”
“I’d like to have a hut in the wild forest density,
Made of firewood and a spatial scarcity,
Hanged high among old branch pinions,
Over jaguar caves and snake canyons.
There, on moss, swung with a mad storm,
I’d like to play with a maid, strange and warm.
Eat her breast, torn apart with my teeth,
And kiss her face, given as a feast.
Hear the storm, around my sinful indulge;
A thunderbolt dying noiselessly at large,
Roaring beasts our bodies-smell-attracted,
Ruptured bodies, elevated, in the spasm contracted.
And there, through an accidental among branches hole,
I’d like to look into the night and stars that glow.
And take for god – any brightness in the sky.
And on the girl’s bosom wait-over the night.
But welcome sun, with a howl, screams and cries.
Live blindfold, not knowing the life.
And laughing boldly at the sky one night,
Not knowing redemption or prayer nor fright,
Like a fruit which devouring jaw awaits,
Fall into death darkness with rumbles and yells!”translated by Marek Urban, via http://www.poemhunter.com/best-poems/marek-urban/desire-by-boleslaw-lesmian-translated-by-marek-urban
Although Leśmian, born in 1877, is my most cherished Polish poet, I have not included any of his poetry on my blog so far, simply because I do not own his poems in English. His poetry was visionary and richly symbolic, containing folk and grotesque elements, and at the same time sensual, fleshy and very erotic. His poems were full of words that he himself invented, and which later entered the Polish language. When read aloud, his verses have a direct, trance like effect on me, as if I was listening to a chanting of some primordial sounds.
Great Rousseau canvas.
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I love that painter.
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the picture is a good accompaniment to the poem.
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Thank you.
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Reblogged this on lampmagician.
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I advise that the actual crazy Polish government reads loudly this poem to fall in trance for the next 4 years, this would be very poetical.
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My thoughts exactly. What embarrassment.
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I´m in trance, too. Thank you!
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Hello! So it works in English, too. I’m glad. Thank you.
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he channels the ‘the green man’. i imagine his path crossing BML and wonder at how they might get on. (ok, i am in a weird mood this morning, i suppose 🙂 )
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Spot on. He WAS the Green Man also in his life. He shunned modernity and always focused on myth and nature, which was not popular at all among the poets of his generation.
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