| LE LÉTHÉ | LETHE |
| Charles Baudelaire | trans. David Constantine |
|
Viens sur mon coeur, âme cruelle et sourde, Tigre adoré, monstre aux airs indolents; Je veux longtemps plonger mes doigts tremblants Dans l'épaisseur de ta crinière lourde; Dans tes jupons remplis de ton parfum Ensevelir ma tête endolorie, Et respirer, comme une fleur flétrie, Le doux relent de mon amour défunt. Je veux dormir! dormir plutôt que vivre! Dans un sommeil aussi doux que la mort, J'étalerai mes baisers sans remords Sur ton beau corps poli comme le cuivre. Pour engloutir mes sanglots apaisés Rien ne me vaut l'abîme de ta couche; L'oubli puissant habite sur ta bouche, Et le Léthé coule dans tes baisers. À mon destin, désormais mon délice, J'obéirai comme un prédestiné Martyr docile, innocent condamné, Dont la ferveur attise le supplice, Je sucerai, pour noyer ma rancoeur, Le népenthès et la bonne ciguë Aux bouts charmants de cette gorge aiguë, Qui n'a jamais emprisonné de coeur. |
Your soul is deaf to mine and cruel but lie Tigerish, indolent monster I adore, Here on my heart, I wish to steep and steady My hands in the heavy thicket of your hair Or in your skirts, that smell of you, entomb My head full of the dolorous hurts you gave And breathe in what's still left of love, its grave And after-smell, its over-opened bloom. I want to sleep, more than I want to live, In a sleep as soft on me as death would be And lay my kisses like one glad to give The length of you who are smooth and coppery. To swallow up my sobbing when it stops There's nowhere better than your bed's deep pit; At the waters of your mouth I can forget; You slip me Lethe through your parting lips. I will obey my fate, henceforth my bliss, The way the elect, the predestined, do, As docile martyr, condemned innocent, who Self-stokes the hot pyre hotter with holiness; And drown my bitterness by sucking good Hemlock and nepenthes at the tart Points of your tight breasts that never did Under their charms contain a captive heart. |
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Trans. Copyright © David Constantine 2006; publ. in Modern Poetry in Translation III.5