By Nirina Mignon
Derelinquit unguento numinisque in nimium gementibus,
Effudit murmuratum exuviae orgollium in angeli appellatus.
Sur mon front se brise la taisante brûme,
Qui frustre tout soupirs hormis celui de l’amertume.
Quand l’attrition de tes gestes deviendra à ton génie l’aiguise
Sur la paroi de ta gorge muette gravera-t’elle la devise:
“Mes sanglots sont la cantique de Marsyas en défiance d’Apollon,
Un retour d’Elba, l’allumette en recherche de la torride dilection.”
In the annealment of meditation, attend that confluence to thy fame:
Those of brine-welt spiracles, those arrested by the Bacchic Flame;
The venal as the just; and annul by these Muses the train’s perdition.
With eyes affixed in labor, consider thy subject of veneration:
Neither the cupbearer of dismal Letum, nor the frenzied maenad;
Regent styling and penury to this splendor rescind;
Without the aporia of diffraction, therewith was diriment to strife,
Above the Theban tragedy, the sublime protasia of condensed life;
The Daphnis whose provençal was the matinal embassage,
For a banished muse of ours pronounced unvitiated courage.