Those who have nothing — News from Ibonoco

CEUX QUI N’ONT RIEN Ce sont des personnes qui se plaignent le moins et qui apprennent à avancer avec peu de choses dans les mains. Ils sont partis de rien et ont bâti leur destin. Les obstacles les ont fait avancer. Ils ont compris qu’on vivait dans un monde mauvais, sans égalité où […]

via Those who have nothing — News from Ibonoco

TBR: A poem of book titles waiting to be read

“A home without books is a body without a soul.”  –   Marcus Tullius Cicero

” If you can only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.”        –  Haruki Murakami

“Books are the plane, the train, and the road. They are the destination and the journey. They are home.”                                   –   Anna Quindlen

 

Over the years of blogging, I have seen a few poems built from book titles. Perhaps it is time to try one of my own. To be honest, these represent a tiny tip off the old iceberg and are one of several much larger TBR piles. Please understand, these are only emergency piles that have places of honour about the house and have nothing to do with my library… but one should always have something to read nearby!

 

TBR

TBR

–

THE ESSENTIAL KAFKA

A trial by fire leads us to

RUMINATIONS

ON CATS

LE PETIT NICOLAS écrit

LETTRES DE MON MOULIN

ANGELA’S ASHES lie

UNDER MY SKIN

CONFESSIONS OF AN ENGLISH OPIUM EATER

 A prelude to THE DARWIN AWARDS

SAILING ALONE AROUND THE ROOM

Before READING IN THE DARK

THE PARASITES, I won’t mention names

But SOMEBODY LIKE YOU

*

Bisous,

Léa

Profond dans ses poèmes

As introduction to the following poem, I will tell you of a gift from my dear friend Yvonne in London. For the holidays she presented me with a copy of Les Fleurs Du Mal (Flowers of Evil) by Charles Baudelaire. With it she gave me a challenge to begin writing poems in French. Within the first poem or two, I was hooked. If you have not read any of his work, I encourage you to try. Translations of his work are available. Some may find it strange but as I began writing this piece, it came out bilingually. I present you with the original and again in English.

“Any healthy man can go without food for two days-but not without poetry.”  –  Charles Baudelaire

“The poet enjoys the incomparable privilege of being able to be himself and others as he wishes.”  

                                                                        –  Charles Baudelaire

“Genius is childhood recalled at will.”  –  Charles Baudelaire

*** 

Profond dans ses poèmes  (Original)

Amélioration de mon français

With a little help from a

Friend

Un cadeau pour noël

I am falling in love

Avec l’homme

Baudelaire

Snuggled up

Near the fire

Losing myself

Profond dans ses poèmes

Planting his perennial seeds

Les fleurs du mal

Dans

les pétales de vers

Blossom

Scenting tongue and

Pen

Avec l’odeur de ses mots

My persistent muse

***

(In English)

Deep in his poems

 

Improving my French

With a little help from a

Friend

A Christmas gift

I am falling in

Love

With the man

Baudelaire

Snuggled up

Near the fire

Losing myself

Deep in his poems

Planting his perennial seeds

Flowers of Evil

In

Petals of verse

Blossom

Scenting tongue and

Pen

With the fragrance of his words

My persistent

Muse

***

Bisous,

Léa