Le fleuve

-   Mohammed Dib



Le clair de lustre était pour lui.
Rien pour la mère assise là-bas.
Elle, comme au bord d'un fleuve.

Ne parlant pas. Attendant. Assise.
Que le fleuve eût fini de passer.
Et lui, ses paupières battirent.

Le fleuve qui sans jamais passer.
Le sommeil qui sans jamais passer.
Lui non plus sans jamais passer.

Il ferma les yeux. Le fleuve déborda.
N'en finit pas de déborder. Et quoi?
La mère était toujours assise là-bas.

Branches basses

-   Yves Bonnefoy


Instant qui veut durer mais sans savoir
Tirer éternité des branches basses
Qui protègent la table où clairs et ombres
Jouent, sur ma page blanche de ce matin.

Autour de ces deux arbres d'abord l'herbe,
Puis la maison, puis le temps, puis le demain
Pour ouvrir à l'oubli, qui déjà dissipe
Ces fruits d'hier tombés près de la table.

Là-vas est loin. Toutefois, c'est surtout
Ici et maintenant qui sont inaccessibles,
Plus simples est de rentre dans l'avenir

Avec, pour tout à l'heure, quelque peu
De ce fruit mûr, par la grâce duquel
Du bleu se prend au vert dans la nuit de l'herbe.

L'Invitation au voyage

-   Charles Baudelaire



Les soleils mouillés
De ces ciels brouillés
Pour mon esprit ont les charmes
Si mystérieux
De tes traîtres yeux,
Brillant à travers leurs larmes.

Là, tout n'est qu'ordre et beauté,
Luxe, calme et volupté.

Des meubles luisants,
Polis par les ans,
Décoreraient notre chambre;
Le plus rares fleurs
Mêlant leurs odeurs
Aux vagues senteurs de l'ambre,
Les riches plafonds,
La splendeur orientale,
Tout y parlerait
À l'âme en secret
Sa douce langue natale.

Là, tout n'est qu'ordre et beauté,
Luxe, calme et volupté.

Vois sur ces canaux
Dormir ces vaisseaux
Dont l'humeur est vagabonde;
C'est pour assouvir
Ton moindre désir
Qu'ils viennent du bout du monde.
- Les soleils couchants
Revêtent les champs,
Les canaux, la ville entière,
D'hyacinthe et d'or;
Le monde s'endort
Dans une chaude lumière.

Là, tout n'est qu'ordre et beauté,
Luxe, calme et volupté.

To Joanna

-   William Wordsworth


        
Amid the smoke of cities did you pass
The time of early youth; and there you learned,
From years of quiet industry, to love
The living Beings by your own fireside,
With such a strong devotion, that your heart
Is slow to meet the sympathies of them
Who look upon the hills with tenderness,
And make dear friendships with the streams and groves.
Yet we, who are transgressors in this kind,
Dwelling retired in our simplicity
Among the woods and fields, we love you well,
Joanna! and I guess, since you have been
So distant from us now for two long years,
That you will gladly listen to discourse,
However trivial, if you thence be taught
That they, with whom you once were happy, talk
Familiarly of you and of old times.
While I was seated, now some ten days past,
Beneath those lofty firs, that overtop
Their ancient neighbour, the old steeple-tower,
The Vicar from his gloomy house hard by
Came forth to greet me; and when he had asked,
"How fares Joanna, that wild-hearted Maid!
And when will she return to us?" he paused;
And, after short exchange of village news,
He with grave looks demanded, for what cause,
Reviving obsolete idolatry,
I, like a Runic Priest, in characters
Of formidable size had chiselled out
Some uncouth name upon the native rock,
Above the Rotha, by the forest-side.
--Now, by those dear immunities of heart
Engendered between malice and true love,
I was not loth to be so catechised,
And this was my reply:--"As it befell,
One summer morning we had walked abroad
At break of day, Joanna and myself.
--'Twas that delightful season when the broom,
Full-flowered, and visible on every steep,
Along the copses runs in veins of gold.
Our pathway led us on to Rotha's banks;
And when we came in front of that tall rock
That eastward looks, I there stopped short--and stood
Tracing the lofty barrier with my eye
From base to summit; such delight I found
To note in shrub and tree, in stone and flower
That intermixture of delicious hues,
Along so vast a surface, all at once,
In one impression, by connecting force
Of their own beauty, imaged in the heart.
--When I had gazed perhaps two minutes' space,
Joanna, looking in my eyes, beheld
That ravishment of mine, and laughed aloud.
The Rock, like something starting from a sleep,
Took up the Lady's voice, and laughed again;
That ancient Woman seated on Helm-crag
Was ready with her cavern; Hammar-scar,
And the tall Steep of Silver-how, sent forth
A noise of laughter; southern Loughrigg heard,
And Fairfield answered with a mountain tone;
Helvellyn far into the clear blue sky
Carried the Lady's voice,--old Skiddaw blew
His speaking-trumpet;--back out of the clouds
Of Glaramara southward came the voice;
And Kirkstone tossed it from his misty head.
--Now whether (said I to our cordial Friend,
Who in the hey-day of astonishment
Smiled in my face) this were in simple truth
A work accomplished by the brotherhood
Of ancient mountains, or my ear was touched
With dreams and visionary impulses
To me alone imparted, sure I am
That there was a loud uproar in the hills.
And, while we both were listening, to my side
The fair Joanna drew, as if she wished
To shelter from some object of her fear.
--And hence, long afterwards, when eighteen moons
Were wasted, as I chanced to walk alone
Beneath this rock, at sunrise, on a calm
And silent morning, I sat down, and there,
In memory of affections old and true,
I chiselled out in those rude characters
Joanna's name deep in the living stone:--
And I, and all who dwell by my fireside,
Have called the lovely rock, Joanna's rock"

 

Estudo de uma Xícara

-   Judith Grossman


Na quietação sedada de tua asa
um bando inteiro de pássaros novicia.
Tranquila, trazes de volta
o que não foi ainda.
É tal possível? Talvez,
por este amor tão quieto
como estes azuis
sobre a face branca e nua da porcelana fria,
côncavo à espera de tília.

Quando entre nós só havia

-  Ana Cristina Cesar



Quando entre nós só havia
uma carta certa
a correspondência
completa
o trem os trilhos
a janela aberta
uma certa paisagem
sem pedras ou
sobressaltos
meu salto alto
em equilíbrio
o copo d’água 
a espera do café

Amor e seu tempo

-   Carlos Drummond de Andrade



Amor é privilégio de maduros
estendidos na mais estreita cama,
que se torna a mais larga e mais relvosa,
roçando, em cada poro, o céu do corpo.

É isto, amor: o ganho não previsto,
o prêmio subterrâneo e coruscante,
leitura de relâmpago cifrado,
que, decifrado, nada mais existe

valendo a pena e o preço do terrestre,
salvo o minuto de ouro no relógio
minúsculo, vibrando no crepúsculo.

Amor é o que se aprende no limite,
depois de se arquivar toda a ciência
herdada, ouvida. Amor começa tarde.