Читать книгу Instigations - Ezra Pound - Страница 13

I know that I have seen somewhere a beautiful and effective ballad of Merril's. His "Chambre D'Amour" would be more interesting if Samain had not written "L'Infante," but Merril's painting is perhaps interesting as comparison. It begins:

Dans la chambre qui fleure un peu la bergamote,

Ce soir, lasse, la voix de l'ancien clavecin

Chevrote des refrains enfantins de gavotte.

There is a great mass of this poetry full of highly cultured house furnishing; I think Catulle Mendès also wrote it. Merril's "Nocturne" illustrates a mode of symbolistic writing which has been since played out and parodied:

La blême lune allume en la mare qui luit,

Miroir des gloires d'or, un émoi d'incendie.

Tout dort. Seul, à mi-mort, un rossignol de nuit

Module en mal d'amour sa molle mélodie.

Plus ne vibrent les vents en le mystère vert

Des ramures. La lune a tu leurs voix nocturnes:

Mais à travers le deuil du feuillage entr'ouvert

Pleuvent les bleus baisers des astres taciturnes.

* * * * * * * *

There is no need to take this sort of tongue-twisting too seriously, though it undoubtedly was so taken in Paris during the late eighties and early nineties. He is better illustrated in "La Wallonie," vide infra.