Enamels and Cameos and other Poems   By: Théophile Gautier (1811-1872)

BY

THÉOPHILE GAUTIER

TRANSLATED BY AGNES LEE

CONTENTS

The God and the Opal Preface Affinity A Pantheistic Madrigal The Poem of Woman Marble of Paros A Study of Hands I Imperia II Lacenaire Variations on the Carnival of Venice: I On the Street II On the Lagoons III Carnival IV Moonlight Symphony in White Major Coquetry in Death Heart's Diamond Spring's First Smile Contralto Eyes of Blue The Toreador's Serenade Nostalgia of the Obelisks: I The Obelisk in Paris II The Obelisk in Luxor Veterans of the Old Guard, December 15 Sea Gloom To a Rose Coloured Gown The World's Malicious Ines de las Sierras To Petra Camara Odelet, After Anacreon Smoke Apollonia The Blind Man Song Winter Fantasies The Brook Tombs and Funeral Pyres Bjorn's Banquet The Watch The Mermaids Two Love Locks The Tea Rose Carmen What the Swallows Say An Autumn Song Christmas The Dead Child's Playthings After Writing My Dramatic Review The Castle of Rembrance Camellia and Meadow Daisy The Fellah A Water Colour by Princess Mathilde The Garret The Cloud The Blackbird The Flower that Makes the Springtime A Last Wish The Dove A Pleasant Evening Art

THE GOD AND THE OPAL TO THÉOPHILE GAUTIER

Gray caught he from the cloud, and green from earth, And from a human breast the fire he drew, And life and death were blended in one dew. A sunbeam golden with the morning's mirth, A wan, salt phantom from the sea, a girth Of silver from the moon, shot colour through The soul invisible, until it grew To fulness, and the Opal Song had birth.

And then the god became the artisan. With rarest skill he made his gem to glow, Carving and shaping it to beauty such That down the cycles it shall gleam to man, And evermore man's wonderment shall know The perfect finish, the immortal touch.

Agnes Lee.

PREFACE

When empires lay riven apart, Fared Goethe at battle time's thunder To fragrant oases of art, To weave his Divan into wonder.

Leaving Shakespeare, he pondered the note Of Nisami, and heard in his leisure The hoopoe's weird monody float, And set it to soft Orient measure.

As Goethe at Weimar delayed And dreamed in the fair garden closes, And, questing in sun or in shade, With Hafiz plucked redolent roses,

I, closed from the tempest that shook My window with fury impassioned, Sat dreaming, and, safe in my nook, Enamels and Cameos fashioned.

AFFINITY A PANTHEISTIC MADRIGAL

On an ancient temple gleaming, Two great blocks of marble high Thrice a thousand years lay dreaming Dreams against an Attic sky.

Set within one silver whiteness, Two wave tears for Venus shed, Two fair pearls of orient brightness, Through the waste of water sped.

In the Generalife's fresh closes, By a Moorish light illumed, Two delicious, tender roses By a fountain met and bloomed.

In the balm of May's bright weather, Where the domes of Venice rise, Lighted on Love's nest together Two pale doves from azure skies.

All things vanish into wonder, Marble, pearl, dove, rose on tree, Pearl shall melt and marble sunder, Flower shall fade and bird shall flee!

Not a smallest part but lowly Through the crucible must pass, Where all shapes are molten slowly In the universal mass.

Then as gradual Time discloses Marbles melt to whitest skin, Roses red to lips of roses, And anew the lives begin.

And again the doves are plighted In the hearts of lovers, while Ocean pearls are reunited, Set within a coral smile.

Thus affinity comes welling; By its beauty everywhere Soul a sister soul foretelling, All awakened and aware.

Quickened by a zephyr sunny, Or a perfume, subtlewise, As the bee unto the honey, Atom unto atom flies.

And remembered are the hours In the temple, down the blue, And the talks amid the flowers, Near the fount of crystal dew,

Kisses warm, and on the royal Golden domes the wings that beat; For the atoms all are loyal, And again must love and greet.