One of twelve sonnets, picturing Hercules' labours with allusive reference to a zodiac sign, where in accordance with the "Egyptian and Greek Fables Unveiled" by J.A. Pernety (1716-1801), the last triplet quotes an operation pertaining to alchemy


Hercules in the Garden

Onto night's fertile stubs to graft our barren vines!
Creature of the wind, forgetful of the flames,
I thought that those roses were some birds on the shrubs
For I had overlooked, Hesperides, your stems.

You're the mouth breathing air to panting Orestes
And you coat with blossoms the oozing saps you draw,
Weave the invisible as if it were willow.
Garden's double, protect my putrid other self!

I know with what danger Phaeton threatened: The blaze
Turned the meads which he left into a dusty maze
Desert spreads where he was by his folly engrossed.

Only he who saw his nocturnal TWIN, who crossed
The river whose wave from the clepsydra unties
May become a garden that sprouts and multiplies.

**********************

Aux racines de nuit enter nos ceps arides!
Créatures du vent, oublieux du brasier,
Je croyais que la rose est l'oiseau du rosier
Car je ne voyais pas vos tiges, Hespérides!

Bouche trouvant le souffle ou halète l'Atride,
Vous qui vêtez de fleurs les sucs que vous puisez,
L'invisible tressant comme on tresse l'osier,
Jardin double, abritez mon compagnon putride!

Je connais le danger de l'Héliade. Sa
Flamme en poudre change le pré qu'il délaissa
Et le désert s'étale où régna sa folie.

Seul qui vit son JUMEAU nocturne, qui passa
Le fleuve dont le flot du clepsydre délie
Deviendra le jardin qui germe, multiplie.




Poetry by Michel Galiana
Read 1401 times
Written on 2007-11-23 at 09:21

Tags Galiana  Thoughts  Wisdom 

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