@megairea

Wherefore,
False night, is this a dream and nothing more?
Théophile Gautier, from Dream; Premières Poésies, 1830–1845 (tr. by Norman Shapiro)

dame-de-pique :

Ernst Gäbler - Oybin, Burgberg. Ruine der Klosterkirche, Fenster von Süden, 1925

The dawning daybreak strews its roses.
Théophile Gautier, from The Cloud; Enamels and Cameos: Poems (tr. by Norman Shapiro), 1852

Théophile Gautier, from Night Stroll; Premières Poésies, 1830–1845 (tr. by Norman Shapiro)

With every quiver of her head,
A petal from her rosebud crown
Falls on her black hair; flower whose red
Has faded now, turned yellow, brown…
Théophile Gautier, from Ines de Las Sierras; Enamels and Cameos: Poems (tr. by Norman Shapiro), 1852

And in a mist of memory clad,
Like dream well-nigh effaced, I view
The sweet Beloved, fair and sad,
Of dear, long-vanished days I knew.
Théophile Gautier, from Moonlight; Enamels and Cameos: Poems (tr. by Agnes Lee), 1852

Love forgotten wakes imperious,
For the past is never dead,
And the rose with joy delirious
Breathes again from lips of red.
Théophile Gautier, from Affinity; Enamels and Cameos: Poems (tr. by Agnes Lee), 1852

With rue my heart is laden
For golden friends I had,
For many a rose-lipt maiden
And many a lightfoot lad.
By brooks too broad for leaping
The lightfoot boys are laid;
The rose-lipt girls are sleeping
In fields where roses fade.
A.E. Housman, from A Shropshire Lad: LIV

dresslefcom :

Jenolan Caves, photographed by Edward J. Cooke

April 1903

He would not stay for me; and who can wonder?
He would not stay for me to stand and gaze.
I shook his hand and tore my heart in sunder
And went with half my life about my ways.
A.E. Housman, from Additional Poems: VII

I did not lose my heart in summer’s even,
When roses to the moonrise burst apart:
When plumes were under heel and lead was flying,
In blood and smoke and flame I lost my heart.

I lost it to a soldier and a foeman,
A chap that did not kill me, but he tried;
That took the sabre straight and took it striking
And laughed and kissed his hand to me and died.

A.E. Housman, from More Poems: XXXVII

I will […] forget her, and forget everything that is not here.
Mahmoud Darwish, from She Has Not Come; Almond Blossoms and Beyond (tr. by Mohammad Shaheen)

littlestpersimmon :

Thinking about digital ghosts. The queue of a dead person’s blog still running. Apps and games posting on someone’s Twitter and Facebook. People’s old reddit posts. Long gone folk captured on Google maps. Accounts like houses, waiting for someone to come home.

deletadoo0-deactivated20210304 :

I’ll doze a little, and two small birds will carry me
higher and higher to a star that deported me.
Mahmoud Darwish, from With the Fog So Dense on the Bridge; Almond Blossoms and Beyond (tr. by Mohammad Shaheen)

When you are with me, I do not say:
here and now we are together.
Rather, I say: You and I and eternity,
we swim in nowhere.
Mahmoud Darwish, from When You Are With Me; Almond Blossoms and Beyond (tr. by Mohammad Shaheen)

come, let us go
to any star.
Mahmoud Darwish, from Like a Hand Tattoo in an Ode by an Ancient Arab Poet; Almond Blossoms and Beyond (tr. by Mohammad Shaheen)

No night is like another night.
Mahmoud Darwish, from Counterpoint; Almond Blossoms and Beyond (tr. by Mohammad Shaheen)

Mahmoud Darwish, from Happy (I Know Not Why); Almond Blossoms and Beyond (tr. by Mohammad Shaheen)

It is winter.
Perhaps I have become the past
Mahmoud Darwish, from She/He; Almond Blossoms and Beyond (tr. by Mohammad Shaheen)

dame-de-pique :

Richard Herold - Frauenkirche, 1937-1945

I forget my longing for a star that’s fallen from my hand;
Mahmoud Darwish, from Tuesday, a Bright Day; Almond Blossoms and Beyond (tr. by Mohammad Shaheen)

When winter comes,
I will be touched
by a passion for
something absent.
Mahmoud Darwish, from She/He; Almond Blossoms and Beyond (tr. by Mohammad Shaheen)

Mahmoud Darwish, from Think of Others; Almond Blossoms and Beyond (tr. by Mohammad Shaheen)

I sit at home, not sad, not happy,
not myself, or anyone else.
Mahmoud Darwish, from I Sit at Home; Almond Blossoms and Beyond (tr. by Mohammad Shaheen)

roserosette :

Mademoiselle, 1966, Tony Richardson

I dwell in the shade of my heart and weave
a new sky with the silk of poetry.
Adonis, from Elegy for the Present Day: IV; Songs of Mihyar the Damascene (tr. by Kareem James Abu-Zeid & Ivan Eubanks)

Green thunderbolt,
My bride in sun and madness,
Adonis, from The Thunderbolt; Songs of Mihyar the Damascene (tr. by Kareem James Abu-Zeid & Ivan Eubanks)

I sing to the clouds—
My face is stone, and I’ll never worship anything but stone.
Adonis, from The The Mirror of Stone; Songs of Mihyar the Damascene (tr. by Kareem James Abu-Zeid & Ivan Eubanks)

Yet nothing unites us, everything divides us — so let me burn alone, let me pass through you  like a spear of light.
Adonis, from Psalm; Songs of Mihyar the Damascene (tr. by Kareem James Abu-Zeid & Ivan Eubanks)