Symbolism

This is a poem that all students grow to hate: strong modernist influence.

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Carbonizate flori, noian de negru...

Sicrie negre, arse, de metal,

Veștminte funerare de mangal,

Negru profund, noian de negru...

Vibrau scântei de vis... noian de negru,

Carbonizat, amorul fumega —

Parfum de pene arse, și ploua...

Negru, numai noian de negru...

— — — — — — — — — — — —

Carbonised flowers, flood of blackness...

Black coffins, burned, metallic

Funeral garments of charcoal,

Deep black, flood of blackness...

Sparks of dreams vibrated... Flood of blackness,

Carbonised, the love was smoldering —

Perfume of burned feathers, and rain...

Black, only a flood of blackness...

La tribu prophétique aux prunelles ardentes

Hier s’est mise en route, emportant ses petits

Sur son dos, ou livrant à leurs fiers appétits

Le trésor toujours prêt des mamelles pendantes.

Les hommes vont à pied sous leurs armes luisantes

Le long des chariots où les leurs sont blottis,

Promenant sur le ciel des yeux appesantis

Par le morne regret des chimères absentes.

Du fond de son réduit sablonneux, le grillon,

Les regardant passer, redouble sa chanson;

Cybèle, qui les aime, augmente ses verdures,

Fait couler le rocher et fleurir le désert

Devant ces voyageurs, pour lesquels est ouvert

L’empire familier des ténèbres futures.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — The prophetical tribe, that ardent eyed people,

Set out last night, carrying their children

On their backs, or yielding to those fierce appetites

The ever ready treasure of pendulous breasts.

The men travel on foot with their gleaming weapons

Alongside the wagons where their kin are huddled,

Surveying the heavens with eyes rendered heavy

By a mournful regret for vanished illusions.

The cricket from the depths of his sandy retreat

Watches them as they pass, and louder grows his song;

Cybele, who loves them, increases her verdure,

Makes the desert blossom, water spurt from the rock

Before these travelers for whom is opened wide

The familiar domain of the future's darkness.

— Translated by William Aggeler