by Renée Vivien
translated by Everly Lovefield
Sword gleaming, dawn at first light,
Like a pale Electra, exacts vengeance
For the feverish woman with a spectral appearance,
Duped and victimized by the night…
Funereal chords ascend
Towards the horror of a sky darkly starred…
Sacrificial lilies safeguard
The rigidity of those who’ve met their end.
Shadow and its metallic shimmer
Numb the brown waters of the swamp,
And now within the will-o-wisps’ romp
The moon grows dimmer and dimmer.
Your hair is a rainfall
Of gold and perfumes upon my hands.
You lead me into lands
Where perversity is not held in thrall.
I selected opal and moonstone,
Aconite and digitalis,
And from a deep lake black iris
To encircle your brow bone.
What a pleasure to hear droplets
Of your blood beading upon flowers…!
The lilies have lost their pallor,
And all the roses flush scarlet…
###
L’Aurore vengeresse
L’aube, dont le glaive reluit,
Venge, comme une blanche Électre,
La fiévreuse aux regards de spectre,
Dupe et victime de la nuit…
Vers l’horreur des étoiles noires
Montent les funèbres accords…
Sur la rigidité des morts
Veillent les lys expiatoires.
L’ombre aux métalliques reflets
Engourdit les marais d’eau brune,
Et voici que s’éteint la lune
Dans le rire des feux follets.
Ta chevelure est une pluie
D’or et de parfums sur mes mains.
Tu m’entraînes par les chemins
Où la perversité s’ennuie.
J’ai choisi, pour ceindre ton front,
La pierre de lune et l’opale,
L’aconit et la digitale,
Et l’iris noir d’un lac profond.
Volupté d’entendre les gouttes
De ton sang perler sur les fleurs !…
Les lys ont perdu leurs pâleurs
Et les roses s’empourprent toutes…
Everly Lovefield is a writer and translator who lives in a town between Houston and Galveston, TX. She holds a BA in French and Japanese from the University of Texas at Austin and an MA in Translation from Kent State University. Her work has been featured or is forthcoming in The Four Faced Liar, Denver Quarterly, and Reunion: The Dallas Review. You can find her on X @everlylovefield.
Renée Vivien (1877–1909) was a British poet, writer, and translator who lived in Paris for most of her life. Her works are largely autobiographical and reflect the values of both the Symbolist and Parnassian literary movements. She is best known for being Sappho’s first lesbian translator and one of the first openly lesbian writers. The Prix Renée Vivien, an annual French literary prize, and the Place Renée Vivien, a public square in Paris, are named after her.
Comments