Or,
Six short poems, five women & the Alps
Below are several poems about different women, real or imagined, and about the Alps. The poems were drafted very early one morning after taking a train over the Alps from Geneva and dining at a restaurant in the Città Studi neighborhood of Milan, and, interspersed with this, reading some of Paul Éluard’s youthful poems. I will begin by reproducing a favorite of these latter, “Lesquels” (Which), with my translation in parentheses—
Pendant qu’il est facile
(So long as he is easy)
Et pendant qu’elle est gaie
(And so long as she is gay)
Allons nous habiller et nous déshabiller
(Let’s get dressed up and get undressed)
We’re now down to one poet, five short poems, four women and the Alps.
[1]
Vevey
Behind the long panes of glass
She watched the mountains
Which threatened to be more than mountains
Which threatened to devour the lake
She waiting, naked at her lakeside window
[2]
On the 13.39 to Milan
Beyond any train that may climb the Rhône
Des cimes solides et arbitraires
(Peaks solid and arbitrary)
Magnify the weather and magnify children
Minimize our books and electronic devices
And may not these not waiting, ragged peaks
Their white, the blue, above the gray
Between the cold thighs of the universe
Les dieux ont préparé notre disparition il y a longtemps
(The gods long ago prepared our disappearance)
[3]
On the 13.39 to Milan, II
Your book is thicker than the milk
Which is building up in your breasts
O for one more half-curious half-glance more!
As the train climbs beside the river
Which keeps running next to her elbow
[4]
Città Studi
Blue-jeaned and lean
Midriff bare, soft in the air
In that restaurant back room
The wedge of her nose
Though absent-minded
Quite rightfully assumed
[5]
Crouching, she could feel
Crouching, she could feel that her lips divided the world in two
Her urine descended warmly from the sky
These were not things she was planning to talk about
Though on the whole she was pleased
— Poems, crayon drawing and watercolor by William Eaton
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Categories: Listening for the Unconscious, Poems (including Limericks), sex (more or less), Zed
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