Chevaux-de-frise

In the blank and nocturnal November

While the trees blown to bits by artillery

Got old beneath the snow

And seemed just a little bit chevaux-de-frise

Surrounded by waves of barbed wire

My heart was reborn like a tree in the Spring

A fruit-tree on whose branches bloom

Flowers of love

In the blank and nocturnal November

When shells were singing appallingly

And dead flowers on the ground breathed out

Their mortal aromas

Every day I described my love to Madeleine

Snow puts sallow flowers on the branches

And coats with ermine the chevaux-de-frise

That you see everywhere

Abandoned and sinister

Mute horses

Horses not barbs but barbed

And I set them going all at once

A herd of pretty piebald horses

Heading for you like white waves

On the Mediterranean

Bringing you my love

Lilyrose o panther o doves blue star

O Madeleine

I love you with delights

If I think of your eyes I think of cold springs

If I muse on your mouth I see roses

If I think of your breasts the Paraclete descends

O twinned dove of your bosom

And comes to loosen my poet’s tongue

To tell you again

I love you

Your face is a flower bouquet

Today I see you not Panther

But Everyflower

Every lily rises in you like canticles of love and joy

And these lays flying to you

Carry me to your side

In your fair Orient where lilies

Become palm-trees and with their fair hands

Give me a sign to draw near

Nocturnal flower the rocket blooms

When it’s dark

And falls once more like a rain of amorous tears

Happy tears brought by elation

And I love you as you love me

Madeleine

Guillaume Apollinaire