Cats.

Poetry by Charles Baudelaire

The Argentine friend of the blog https://lamoloko.wordpress.com sent me a poem by Charles Baudelaire about cats, so I propose it to you, because I really like it.

Charles Baudelaire was born in Paris on April 9, 1821. In 1857 he published the poetic collection Les fleurs du mal, a work that shocked his contemporaries, so much so that it led the poet to court, as happened later also to Gustave Flaubert with Madame Bovary and to David Herbert Lawrence with Lady Chatterley’s Lover.

Baudelaire, a poet who still fascinates and conquers, dedicated some poems to cats.

In this poem, he asserts that not even Erebus, son of Chaos, ruler of the realm of the dead in ancient Greece, could subjucate their pride, that they are mighty, sweet, chilly and sedentary, similar sphinxes; and have mystical pupils. Sages and lovers love them.

I can only agree with him! How alike we are! Without Byron and Belle my house would be empty and lifeless!

Cats – I°

Both ardent lovers and austere sages 
Love in their mature years 
The strong and gentle cats, pride of the house, 
Who like them are sedentary and chilly.

Friends of learning and sensual pleasure, 
They seek the silence and the horror of darkness; 
Erebus would have used them as his gloomy steeds: 
If their pride could let them stoop to bondage.

When they dream, they assume the noble attitudes 
Of the mighty sphinxes stretched out in solitude, 
Who seem to fall into a sleep of endless dreams;

Their fertile loins are full of magic sparks, 
And particles of gold, like fine grains of sand, 
Spangle dimly their mystic eyes.

L'illustrazione di Acquaviva proviene dal sito: Dagospia -https://www.dagospia.com/

La traduzione in inglese della poesia di C. Baudelaire proviene dal sito interamente dedicato alla sua opera Les fleurs du mal - https://fleursdumal.org