As I was being dragged down sluggish rivers
\nsuddenly I felt slip the ropes of my haulers.
\nWhooping redskins had emptied their quivers,
\nnailing them naked to stakes of many colours.<\/p>\n
I didn’t care a fig what happened to the crew
\nnor the cargo of Flemish wheat, English cotton.
\nOnce the drudges had ceased their ballyhoo
\nI let currents bear me where I\u2019d never gotten.<\/p>\n
That winter, dumber than the brain of a baby, S<\/i>torms then consecrated my transfiguration. Green water soaked the timbers of my deck, At long last I bathed in the Poem of the Sea, Delirium and pulsing rhythms more intense I knew dark skies ablaze with lightning shocks, I saw plunging suns, blotched with mystic terror, And I dreamed a green night with dazzling snow, For whole months I followed like hysterical I crashed into fabulous Floridas where I saw gigantic swamps in ferment, trawls Glaciers, silver suns, nacreous floods, I would have loved to show a child the bream Sometimes feeling martyred, of zones and poles spent, Almost an island, my tossing deck aswarm But, veiled by the cove\u2019s hairy head Free, smoldering, from purple mist wrought, On I cruised, electric phases of the moon And I who, trembling, heard maelstroms roar and moan, I saw archipelagos, atolls whose sidereal True, I wept too much. Dawns are full of horror. The chill murk of a puddle is all I wish O Seas, I can no longer abide the aims *<\/p>\n Comme je descendais des Fleuves impassibles, J\u2019\u00e9tais insoucieux de tous les \u00e9quipages, Dans les clapotements furieux des mar\u00e9es, La temp\u00eate a b\u00e9ni mes \u00e9veils maritimes. Plus douce qu\u2019aux enfants la chair des pommes sures, Et d\u00e8s lors, je me suis baign\u00e9 dans le Po\u00e8me O\u00f9, teignant tout \u00e0 coup les bleuit\u00e9s, d\u00e9lires Je sais les cieux crevant en \u00e9clairs, et les trombes J\u2019ai vu le soleil bas, tach\u00e9 d\u2019horreurs mystiques, J\u2019ai r\u00eav\u00e9 la nuit verte aux neiges \u00e9blouies, J\u2019ai suivi, des mois pleins, pareille aux vacheries J\u2019ai heurt\u00e9, savez-vous, d\u2019incroyables Florides J\u2019ai vu fermenter les marais \u00e9normes, nasses Glaciers, soleils d\u2019argent, flots nacreux, cieux de braises\u00a0! J\u2019aurais voulu montrer aux enfants ces dorades Parfois, martyr lass\u00e9 des p\u00f4les et des zones, Presque \u00eele, ballottant sur mes bords les querelles Or moi, bateau perdu sous les cheveux des anses, Libre, fumant, mont\u00e9 de brumes violettes Qui courais, tach\u00e9 de lunules \u00e9lectriques, Moi qui tremblais, sentant geindre \u00e0 cinquante lieues J\u2019ai vu des archipels sid\u00e9raux\u00a0! et des \u00eeles Mais, vrai, j\u2019ai trop pleur\u00e9\u00a0! Les Aubes sont navrantes. Si je d\u00e9sire une eau d\u2019Europe, c\u2019est la flache Je ne puis plus, baign\u00e9 de vos langueurs, \u00f4 lames, As I was being dragged down sluggish rivers suddenly I felt slip the ropes of my haulers. Whooping redskins had emptied their quivers, nailing them naked to stakes of many colours. I didn’t care a fig what happened to the crew nor the cargo of Flemish wheat, English cotton. Once the drudges had ceased their … <\/p>\n
\nI crossed the furious chopline of tidal spew.
\nPeninsulas shorn from their shores maybe
\n<\/span>never know such triumphant tohubohu.<\/p>\n
\nFor days I bobbed, a lithe cork on the chaos
\nof swells which send many to their damnation.
\nNever did I miss the guiding eye of a lighthouse!<\/p>\n
\nsweet as to a child the pulp of a sour apple.
\nSwills of blue wine and gushes of vomit broke
\nover me, ripping away rudder and grapple.<\/p>\n
\n<\/span>infused with lustrous stars like the Milky Way
\nglowing through aquamarine depths whence float free
\npallid, pensive corpses who have seen their day.<\/p>\n
\nthan alcohol, more boundless than our lyres,
\nbeget love\u2019s sullen, bitter rubescence
\nand tinge the indigo with sunset\u2019s ruddy fires!<\/p>\n
\nwaterspouts, backwash, undertow. I knew twilight
\nand dawn exultant as doves rising in flocks.
\nI have seen what others thought they had in sight!<\/p>\n
\nshining on strands of purple clotted clutter
\nand, like masked actors faced with tragic error,
\n<\/span>distant waves closing a shivering shutter!<\/p>\n
\nkisses rising slowly to the eyelids of the main,
\nthe inner coursing of unknown saps aglow,
\nthe blue-yellow tones of a fluorescent strain!<\/p>\n
\nherds the assault of swells on coral reefs
\nnever dreaming that Mary\u2019s chimerical
\nfeet could muzzle the Ocean\u2019s wheezy puffs!<\/p>\n
\nflowers bore panthers\u2019 eyes in the skins of men.
\n<\/span>Rainbows like taut luminous bridles were
\n<\/span>tethered to squalid flocks beneath the sea\u2019s rim!<\/p>\n
\nwhere a whole snagged whale rotted in mushy reeds!
\nThe precipitous collapse of waves in lulls
\nbetween storms which unleash chasms of cascades!<\/p>\n
\n<\/span>skies on fire, foul harbors on brown shores of doom
\nwhere giant snakes smitten with bloodsucking slugs
\nflop like twisted trees, venting dark perfume!<\/p>\n
\nswimming in this blue, these golden fish which sing
\nthe foam of flowers where I sought winter\u2019s dream,
\nthe ineffable winds on which I took wing.<\/p>\n
\nmy lurching was calmed by the sobbing of the seas
\ntendered like a purfled blossom posy meant
\nfor me to take as would a woman on her knees \u2026.<\/p>\n
\n<\/span>with pale-eyed gulls oozing slime and gossip,
\nI sailed on, watching the drowned in a storm
\nslip away and sink ass-first into deep sleep!<\/p>\n
\nthen cast by tempest into birdless azure,
\nI would never fish out those waterlogged dead.
\nNeither would a square-rigger or man-of-war.<\/p>\n
\nI burst through the heavens\u2019 reddening wall
\nlugging sun-bathed lichens and cerulean snot,
\nexquisite conserves which hold poets in thrall.<\/p>\n
\nlighting my mad bark, ushered by a black seahorse,
\nas July with its hammer blows of heat at noon
\nturned cyan skies into funnels of angry force.<\/p>\n
\nfifty leagues away, behemoth mating calls,
\nminer of yore of the deepest cobalt known,
\n<\/span>I grieve now for Europe and its crumbling walls.<\/p>\n
\nempyrean can be glimpsed only from an isle.
\n\u201cO countless golden birds, O vigorous Real,
\nis it in these bottomless nights you sleep in exile?\u201d<\/p>\n
\nEvery moon is atrocious; bitter, all suns.
\nAcrid love has brought but thrilling torpor.
\nO let my keel split! Take me where the sea runs!<\/p>\n
\nin Europe! Under a fragrant twilight sky
\na wistful child would crouch there with a flourish
\nto launch a boat frail as a May butterfly.<\/p>\n
\nof merchant ships, their wakes and waves,
\nnor suffer the pride of flags and oriflames,
\nnor brook the horrid gaze of galley slaves.<\/p>\n
\n<\/i>Je ne me sentis plus guid\u00e9 par les haleurs\u00a0:
\n<\/i>Des Peaux-Rouges criards les avaient pris pour cibles,
\n<\/i>Les ayant clou\u00e9s nus aux poteaux de couleurs.<\/i><\/p>\n
\n<\/i>Porteur de bl\u00e9s flamands ou de cotons anglais.
\n<\/i>Quand avec mes haleurs ont fini ces tapages,
\n<\/i>Les Fleuves m\u2019ont laiss\u00e9 descendre o\u00f9 je voulais.<\/i><\/p>\n
\n<\/i>Moi, l\u2019autre hiver, plus sourd que les cerveaux d\u2019enfants,
\n<\/i>Je courus\u00a0! Et les P\u00e9ninsules d\u00e9marr\u00e9es
\n<\/i>N\u2019ont pas subi tohu-bohus plus triomphants.<\/i><\/p>\n
\n<\/i>Plus l\u00e9ger qu\u2019un bouchon j\u2019ai dans\u00e9 sur les flots
\n<\/i>Qu\u2019on appelle rouleurs \u00e9ternels de victimes,
\n<\/i>Dix nuits, sans regretter l\u2019\u0153il niais des falots\u00a0!<\/i><\/p>\n
\n<\/i>L\u2019eau verte p\u00e9n\u00e9tra ma coque de sapin
\n<\/i>Et des taches de vins bleus et des vomissures
\n<\/i>Me lava, dispersant gouvernail et grappin.<\/i><\/p>\n
\n<\/i>De la Mer, infus\u00e9 d\u2019astres, et lactescent,
\n<\/i>D\u00e9vorant les azurs verts\u00a0; o\u00f9, flottaison bl\u00eame
\n<\/i>Et ravie, un noy\u00e9 pensif parfois descend\u00a0;<\/i><\/p>\n
\n<\/i>Et rythmes lents sous les rutilements du jour,
\n<\/i>Plus fortes que l\u2019alcool, plus vastes que nos lyres,
\n<\/i>Fermentent les rousseurs am\u00e8res de l\u2019amour\u00a0!<\/i><\/p>\n
\n<\/i>Et les ressacs, et les courants\u00a0: je sais le soir,
\n<\/i>L\u2019Aube exalt\u00e9e ainsi qu\u2019un peuple de colombes,
\n<\/i>Et j\u2019ai vu quelquefois ce que l\u2019homme a cru voir\u00a0!<\/i><\/p>\n
\n<\/i>Illuminant de longs figements violets,
\n<\/i>Pareils \u00e0 des acteurs de drames tr\u00e8s antiques
\n<\/i>Les flots roulant au loin leurs frissons de volets\u00a0!<\/i><\/p>\n
\n<\/i>Baisers montant aux yeux des mers avec lenteurs,
\n<\/i>La circulation des s\u00e8ves inou\u00efes,
\n<\/i>Et l\u2019\u00e9veil jaune et bleu des phosphores chanteurs\u00a0!<\/i><\/p>\n
\n<\/i>Hyst\u00e9riques, la houle \u00e0 l\u2019assaut des r\u00e9cifs,
\n<\/i>Sans songer que les pieds lumineux des Maries
\n<\/i>Pussent forcer le mufle aux Oc\u00e9ans poussifs\u00a0!<\/i><\/p>\n
\n<\/i>M\u00ealant aux fleurs des yeux de panth\u00e8res \u00e0 peaux
\n<\/i>D\u2019hommes\u00a0! Des arcs-en-ciel tendus comme des brides
\n<\/i>Sous l\u2019horizon des mers, \u00e0 de glauques troupeaux\u00a0!<\/i><\/p>\n
\n<\/i>O\u00f9 pourrit dans les joncs tout un L\u00e9viathan\u00a0!
\n<\/i>Des \u00e9croulements d\u2019eaux au milieu des bonaces,
\n<\/i>Et les lointains vers les gouffres cataractant\u00a0!<\/i><\/p>\n
\n<\/i>\u00c9chouages hideux au fond des golfes bruns
\n<\/i>O\u00f9 les serpents g\u00e9ants d\u00e9vor\u00e9s des punaises
\n<\/i>Choient, des arbres tordus, avec de noirs parfums\u00a0!<\/i><\/p>\n
\n<\/i>Du flot bleu, ces poissons d\u2019or, ces poissons chantants.
\n<\/i>\u2014 Des \u00e9cumes de fleurs ont berc\u00e9 mes d\u00e9rades
\n<\/i>Et d\u2019ineffables vents m\u2019ont ail\u00e9 par instants.<\/i><\/p>\n
\n<\/i>La mer dont le sanglot faisait mon roulis doux
\n<\/i>Montait vers moi ses fleurs d\u2019ombre aux ventouses jaunes
\n<\/i>Et je restais, ainsi qu\u2019une femme \u00e0 genoux\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n
\n<\/i>Et les fientes d\u2019oiseaux clabaudeurs aux yeux blonds.
\n<\/i>Et je voguais, lorsqu\u2019\u00e0 travers mes liens fr\u00eales
\n<\/i>Des noy\u00e9s descendaient dormir, \u00e0 reculons\u00a0!<\/i><\/p>\n
\n<\/i>Jet\u00e9 par l\u2019ouragan dans l\u2019\u00e9ther sans oiseau,
\n<\/i>Moi dont les Monitors et les voiliers des Hanses
\n<\/i>N\u2019auraient pas rep\u00each\u00e9 la carcasse ivre d\u2019eau\u00a0;
\n<\/i><\/i><\/p>\n
\n<\/i>Moi qui trouais le ciel rougeoyant comme un mur
\n<\/i>Qui porte, confiture exquise aux bons po\u00e8tes,
\n<\/i>Des lichens de soleil et des morves d\u2019azur\u00a0;
\n<\/i><\/i><\/p>\n
\n<\/i>Planche folle, escort\u00e9 des hippocampes noirs,
\n<\/i>Quand les juillets faisaient crouler \u00e0 coups de triques
\n<\/i>Les cieux ultramarins aux ardents entonnoirs\u00a0;
\n<\/i><\/i><\/p>\n
\n<\/i>Le rut des B\u00e9h\u00e9mots et les Maelstroms \u00e9pais,
\n<\/i>Fileur \u00e9ternel des immobilit\u00e9s bleues,
\n<\/i><\/i>Je regrette l\u2019Europe aux anciens parapets\u00a0!
\n<\/i><\/i><\/p>\n
\n<\/i>Dont les cieux d\u00e9lirants sont ouverts au vogueur\u00a0:
\n<\/i>\u2014 Est-ce en ces nuits sans fonds que tu dors et t\u2019exiles,
\n<\/i>Million d\u2019oiseaux d\u2019or, \u00f4 future Vigueur\u00a0?
\n<\/i><\/i><\/p>\n
\n<\/i>Toute lune est atroce et tout soleil amer\u00a0:
\n<\/i>L\u2019\u00e2cre amour m\u2019a gonfl\u00e9 de torpeurs enivrantes.
\n<\/i>\u00d4 que ma quille \u00e9clate\u00a0! \u00d4 que j\u2019aille \u00e0 la mer\u00a0!<\/i><\/p>\n
\n<\/i>Noire et froide o\u00f9 vers le cr\u00e9puscule embaum\u00e9
\n<\/i>Un enfant accroupi, plein de tristesse, l\u00e2che
\n<\/i>Un bateau fr\u00eale comme un papillon de mai.<\/i><\/p>\n
\n<\/i>Enlever leur sillage aux porteurs de cotons,
\n<\/i>Ni traverser l\u2019orgueil des drapeaux et des flammes,
\n<\/i>Ni nager sous les yeux horribles des pontons.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"