Canticle of Columns
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Gentle columns, with Daylight-garnished caps, Actual birds amidst Gentle columns, ah Spindle orchestras! They immolate each one Silence at unison. —What bear you up so high, Radiant co-equals? —Unto faultless desire Our studious graces! We sing all at once That we bear up the skies! O single and sage voice That sings unto the eyes! See what candid hymns! And what sonority Our limpid elements Draw from clarity! So chilly and so gilded From our beds we come Drawn out by the chisel These lilies to become! From our beds of crystal All of us were roused, Marked and rigged us out. To face out the moon, The moon indeed and sun, They polished us each one Like toenails till we shone! Kneeless servingmaids, Smiles sans visages, The fair one whom we face Feels pure those legs of hers, Piously compeers, Nosing under the band Around our costly ears Deaf to the burden bland, A temple on the eyes Black for eternity, With no gods we hie Unto divinity! Our antique youthfulnesses, Mat skin, lovely shadows, Are proud of the finesses Given birth by numbers! Daughters of golden numbers, Strong with heaven’s laws, Upon us falls and slumbers A honey-colored god. He sleeps contented, Day, That each day we offer There upon love’s table Becalmed on our foreheads. Incorruptible sisters, Half burning and half cold, We took to us for dancers Breezes and leaves old, And centuries by tens, And the peoples that were, It’s a profound once, Once enough never! Under our loves the same Heavier than the earth We traverse the days Like a stone the surf! We walk into time And our bodies shining Have steps ineffable That mark out in
fables... |
Paul Valéry