Hello hello

What's up? This is me talking to myself. So, no original work of my own today, but I've been really captivated by this (famous) piece by Arthur Rimbaud. That, and I think I have a crush on Ophelia, go figure. I just think it's so melancholic and beautiful. Ethereal, if you will. I hope you like it. It's also so amazing that he wrote his best works at such an incredibly young age (late teens! OMFG) The beauty and genius of some souls must be eternal, despite what lies beyond this world. I think if you like poetry at all, this is someone to greatly admire and you should look at his other works. They are unfortunately (for me anyway) all written in French, a language that I really should learn. I'm just terribad at language acquisition. Of course, they are all just my meager opinions. Have an awesome day. Oh and PS, Dear Asami lurker, I think you will like this one a lot!

-jsn

Ophelia

I

On the calm black water where the stars are sleeping
White Ophelia floats like a great lily;
Floats very slowly, lying in her long veils...
- In the far-off woods you can hear them sound the mort.

For more than a thousand years sad Ophelia
Has passed, a white phantom, down the long black river.
For more than a thousand years her sweet madness
Has murmured its ballad to the evening breeze.

The wind kisses her breasts and unfolds in a wreath
Her great veils rising and falling with the waters;
The shivering willows weep on her shoulder,
The rushes lean over her wide, dreaming brow.

The ruffled water-lilies are sighing around her;
At times she rouses, in a slumbering alder,
Some nest from which escapes a small rustle of wings;
- A mysterious anthem falls from the golden stars.

II

O pale Ophelia! beautiful as snow!
Yes child, you died, carried off by a river!
- It was the winds descending from the great mountains of Norway
That spoke to you in low voices of better freedom.

It was a breath of wind, that, twisting your great hair,
Brought strange rumors to your dreaming mind;
It was your heart listening to the song of Nature
In the groans of the tree and the sighs of the nights;

It was the voice of mad seas, the great roar,
That shattered your child's heart, too human and too soft;
It was a handsome pale knight, a poor madman
Who one April morning sate mute at your knees!

Heaven! Love! Freedom! What a dream, oh poor crazed Girl!
You melted to him as snow does to a fire;
Your great visions strangled your words
- And fearful Infinity terrified your blue eye!

III

- And the poet says that by starlight
You come seeking, in the night, the flowers that you picked
And that he has seen on the water, lying in her long veils
White Ophelia floating, like a great lily.