Sunday, September 25, 2011

TC: The Last Poem (after Robert Desnos)


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Night Shadows
: Edward Hopper, 1921





I’ve dreamed so much of you
Walked so much
Talked so much made love to your shadow
So much that there’s nothing left of you
What is left
Of me is a shadow
Among shadows but 100
Times more shadowy than the rest
A shadow that will come
To rest
In your life in which the sun
Is so much.




7 comments:

Nin Andrews said...

I am in love with this poem. And the image, Robert Desnos . . . all of it. Thank you for this!

TC said...

And a quiet voice from the city shadows said... Thank you very much, Nin!

ACravan said...

I think this is splendid in every way, including its visual appearance on the Vanitas website. I've spent a lot of time with the poem and the Hopper (which seem like a merged experience), but finally found the Desnos in French and read other translations. At first I thought that perhaps this was a Trans/Version poem I had forgotten, but then I found that it wasn't. Of all the English translations I've read, this is really the best -- the "softest" in sound, the most natural and the most precise, all of which make it the most powerful. Curtis

TC said...

Curtis,

"A merged experience" is nice. Perhaps a joint venture.

I believe soft -- and slow -- was the sound I had wanted with this "free version" of the Desnos.

To confess, it was made so long ago as to veritably be of the era, if not also under the shadow, of Hopper.

Though you'll have seen there is also the sailor-on-leave aspect of the version, a certain cavalier taking of "liberties".

In these mergers one must always show up with some sort of portfolio of one's own.

ACravan said...

You have a good feeling for mergers, which always include sub-portfolios.

In my professional experience, I prefer mergers, partnerships and simple third-party contracts and licenses to joint ventures, which tend to be cumbersome and messy.

So it's either a successful merger or an unusually well-operated joint venture.

SarahA said...

'tis very beautiful and echoes of smiles are felt within.

TC said...

And where better?