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| Matthew G. Beall Proud Papa 2011 |
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| Matthew G. Beall The Happy Family 2011 |
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| Matthew G. Beall In the Spotlight 2011 |
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| Matthew G. Beall Ain't Life Grand 2011 |
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Duck, Duck, Goose --- no, no, I Mean Swan
The day absolutely beautiful: sunny, hot, and a day to our for a walk in the park along the Danube. You know it's spring when you see a family of swans paddling and ducks and duckings soaking up the warm rays in a spotlight of sun.
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So many different people in the rivers !... ;-)
ReplyDeleteI was 10. The first words I learnt in English were : « Number one is a duck ; number two is a goose , number three is a bee , number four is a fork , number five is a knife… number six … I forgot ! : »
About swans…
La Beauté
Je suis belle, ô mortels! comme un rêve de pierre,
Et mon sein, où chacun s'est meurtri tour à tour,
Est fait pour inspirer au poète un amour
Eternel et muet ainsi que la matière.
Je trône dans l'azur comme un sphinx incompris;
J'unis un coeur de neige à la blancheur des cygnes;
Je hais le mouvement qui déplace les lignes,
Et jamais je ne pleure et jamais je ne ris.
Les poètes, devant mes grandes attitudes,
Que j'ai l'air d'emprunter aux plus fiers monuments,
Consumeront leurs jours en d'austères études;
Car j'ai, pour fasciner ces dociles amants,
De purs miroirs qui font toutes choses plus belles:
Mes yeux, mes larges yeux aux clartés éternelles!
— Charles Baudelaire
Beauty
I am fair, O mortals! like a dream carved in stone,
And my breast where each one in turn has bruised himself
Is made to inspire in the poet a love
As eternal and silent as matter.
On a throne in the sky, a mysterious sphinx,
I join a heart of snow to the whiteness of swans;
I hate movement for it displaces lines,
And never do I weep and never do I laugh.
Poets, before my grandiose poses,
Which I seem to assume from the proudest statues,
Will consume their lives in austere study;
For I have, to enchant those submissive lovers,
Pure mirrors that make all things more beautiful:
My eyes, my large, wide eyes of eternal brightness!
— William Aggeler, The Flowers of Evil (Fresno, CA: Academy Library Guild, 1954)