Saturday, June 12, 2010

Songs of Roses

Les Chansons Des Roses

It is we, perhaps, who proposed

that you replenish your bloom
Enchanted by this charade,

your abundance dared.


You were rich enough to fulfill

Yourself a hundred times over in a single flower
,
Such is the state of one who loves...
But you never did think otherwise
.

Against whom, rose, have you assumed these thorns
?
Is it your too fragile joy that force you to become this armed thing?

But from whom does it protect you,
this exaggerated defense?

How many enemies have I lifted from you
Who did not hear it at all.
On the contrary, from summer to autumn
You wound the affection that is given to you.
Overflowing with your dream, flower filled with flowers,


Wet as one who weeps, you bow to the morning.

Your sweet powers which still are sleeping in misty desire,

Unfold these tender forms joining cheeks and breasts.


I have such awareness of your being, perfect rose,
That my will unites y
ou with my heart in celebration.
I b
reathe you in, rose, as if you were all of life,
And I feel the perfec
t friend of a perfect friend.

Aband
on surrounding abandon, tenderness touching tenderness..
Your oneness endlessly caresses itself, so they say;
Self-caressing through its own clear ref
lection
Thus you invent the theme of Narcissus fulfilled.
~ Rainier Maria Rilk
e


(Barbara Streisand tea roses from my garden)

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