O quam te memorem virgo...
Stand on the highest pavement of the stair--
Lean on a garden urn--
Weave, weave the sunlight in your hair--
Clasp your flowers to you with a pained surprise--
Fling them to the ground and turn
With a fugitive resentment in your eyes:
But weave, weave the sunlight in your hair.
So I would have had him leave,
So I would have had her stand and grieve,
So he would have left
As the soul leaves the body torn and bruised
As the mind deserts the body it has used.
I should find
Some way incomparably light and deft,
Some way we both should understand,
Simple and faithless as a smile and shake of the hand.
She turned away, but with the autumn weather
Compelled my imagination many days,
Many days and many hours:
Her hair over her arms and her arms full of flowers.
And I wonder how they should have been together!
I should have lost a gesture and a pose.
Sometimes these cogitations still amaze
The troubled midnight and the noon's repose.
La Figlia Che Piange (The Weeping Girl)
by T.S. Eliot
hello
ReplyDeletei have never read that tseliot poem before... he seems so self aware of his craft.
how are you.
hope you are well.
making beauty of Beauty as always... thanks for it.
oh, dear dear Mansuetude, you are back!!! I have already checked your page, but no post yet. how have you been? busy with spring? yes, I hope you are well too. I have missed you so...
ReplyDeleteyes, he does seem so, doesn't he? if I understand the poem right, he implies that it was worth leaving the girl because otherwise he would have lost the beauty of that 'pose' and 'gesture' of the separation, and his poem would have never existed. sacrificing life for aesthetic fulfilment.
:)Trist... 2 imi place cel mai mult, imi place cromatica si "background-ul" patat! Reusite toate!
ReplyDelete:)
ti-ai pus alta imagine :-)
ReplyDeleteda, trist, acum experimentam cum se poate reda tristetea prin culori aprinse, si daca se poate...
Sadness on top of pure beauty.. reminds me of the movie..La Strada. I liked Anthony for Bad Zampano and Zelsomina for her big sad eyes with so-melancholic soundf of trumpets.. I love your photos Roxana..
ReplyDeletenow i would hate to even point any deficiencies here but pic no 5 when you scroll down does not belong here! no 3 and no 4 reflect the 'weaving' ' but i am not sure about the 'fugitive' resentment. still, great pics.
ReplyDeletei am not entirely sure if the writer implies it was worth leaving the girl. stanza 2 suggests otherwise. however 3 suggests you maybe right. he does want to aesthetize a pose.he commands her for eg stand, weave etc.but the resentment is hers, if fugitive. however, that too is his choice. i feel sorry for her.
my interest in this poem lies primarily in the music of its opening, in the memories it evokes for me too.
I'm loving the third picture best, it's stunning in its colours, simplicity and beauty. Also love the Eliot poem, reminds me of everything I admire about poetry and I think it's time to dig out his books again.
ReplyDeleteLa Strada? :-) thank you Peter for saying so even if no such comparison can be made. but, at least, you made me feel better about posting such over-sentimental pictures ha :-)
ReplyDeletekubla, thank you for telling me your opinion.
ReplyDeletere: reflecting weaving, I don't intend any mathematical 'correspondance' between a text and a picture, I wonder if there could be such a thing. otherwise I should have had a garden urn in the pics too :-)
I'm more interested in a certain feeling or mood or even a similar music words and images awake in me. and of course I know this is only my subjective association, and that somebody else can very well not relate to it.
I understand what you say, I love this poem for its music too...
so it's the third one for you, Sorlil, thank you for letting me know, I can't decide myself hmmm.
ReplyDeletebut Eliot, yes... I have learned to love English poetry through him.
Jolie tu es dans tes rêve de femme dans les mots qui de l'espérance.Tu as la pupille d'adie Ce n'est rien et ça apparait chez les femmes jeunes plutot stresses. J'aime bien ce mélange des couleurs qui bataille ton visage ovale ; Roumaine de charme tu entre ouvre ton corps sur des proses.
ReplyDeletejust wondering what kind of flowers she's holding?
ReplyDeleteSiam, je suis heureuse que tu aimes ca. ce n'est pas moi dans les photos, pourtant, mais une jeune femme que j'aime beaucoup photographier car elle a une beaute tres expressive et mysterieuse. (j'ai ete accusee de "romantisme" plus d'une fois :-)
ReplyDeleteoui, j'aime aussi le contraste entre les couleurs vives et son visage pale et ovale, tu as bien saisi cet aspect.
oh, they are asters, Sorlil, my favourite autumn flowers. they have such great colours and there is a wildness to them, which I cannot find in the chrysanthemum, they are much too imperial for that. and they smell sad and bitter, like the dying garten. I love them.
ReplyDelete(but they have a totally unpoetical name in romanian, ochiul-boului, "the bull eye" :-)
ps. I will post more of them tonight :-)
ReplyDeleteoui je me suis complètement tromper tu sais pourquoi; cela n'enlève pas mes mots; charme Roumanie
ReplyDeleteI came to comment and I find myself baffled again by your participation, thus I resign my words and admire the work
ReplyDeleteher eyes stare through you, her lips are scorched...and then your eyes close only to bring her forward...you know I do not read your words, don't you?
ReplyDeletegabi, what do you mean, baffled by my participation? no, I love to hear about your reaction to the pictures, so I am not happy with this 'baffled' :-)
ReplyDeleteand what do you mean, you don't read my words? you only look at the pictures? this is a wise approach, meeting my longing for a pure picture blog :-)
many people who are into photography confess about their disturbed relationship to language, mine is an ambiguous one, love/hate.
Gorgeous photos...and gorgeous poem. Love Eliot! I had not read this one before...
ReplyDeleteI love Eliot too! thank you for visiting, Tara, and for your kind words.
ReplyDeletevery very artistic.....
ReplyDelete