Obsession

Congratulations to our new President-Elect. I know you will try to heal this country. I just wish I had a more optimistic poem to post. Ah well. Such is the nature of M. Baudelaire.

Obsession
Great woods, you frighten me like cathedrals;
You howl like the organ; and in our cursed hearts,
Chambers of eternal grief where old groans quiver,
Answering the echoes of your De profundis.

I hate you, Ocean! Your leaps and your turmoil,
My spirit finds them within itself; this bitter laugh
Of the vanquished man, full of sobs and insults,
I hear it in the enormous laughter of the sea

As you would please me, oh night! Without these stars
Whose light speaks a known language!
Because I search the empty, and the dark, and the bare!

But the darkness herself is a canvas,
Where live, springing from my eye by the thousands,
Vanishing beings with familiar looks.

Obsession
Grands bois, vous m'effrayez comme des cathédrales;
Vous hurlez comme l'orgue; et dans nos coeurs maudits,
Chambres d'éternel deuil où vibrent de vieux râles,
Répondent les échos de vos De profundis.

Je te hais, Océan! tes bonds et tes tumultes,
Mon esprit les retrouve en lui; ce rire amer
De l'homme vaincu, plein de sanglots et d'insultes,
Je l'entends dans le rire énorme de la mer

Comme tu me plairais, ô nuit! sans ces étoiles
Dont la lumière parle un langage connu!
Car je cherche le vide, et le noir, et le nu!

Mais les ténèbres sont elles-mêmes des toiles
Où vivent, jaillissant de mon oeil par milliers,
Des êtres disparus aux regards familiers.
----

Oh stupid boy, I never think on you voluntarily. Get off your high horse and see the beauty on this earth.