Poetic-Verses from ATHANASE
Young Woman With A Water Pitcher (English)
(La jeune femme à la fenêtr
For Carel Fabritius
“Dico ergo quod Deus instituit corpus humanum in optima dispositione secundum convenientiam ad talem formam et ad tales operations”
'I affirm that God has attributed the best possible arrangement to the human body, conforming to its necessary form and functions.'
Aquinas, Summa Theologica
Ah, so much light radiating from her soul,
from a face so gentle, so humble, so modest!
And such peace in the clear quiet music of her gestures
giving a celestial sense to this epithalamium
where every object is wedded to the intense intimacy
of air filled with ecstasy watching over her as she daydreams:
the pitcher, the short cloak, the red carpet,
the mauve of the window, such endless brilliant light!
What is the meaning, my heart, of this wondrous world,
of these lowered eyes watching life flow by outside,
the transparent headscarf, the delicate golden-yellow bodice
the blue of the cloth on the studded seat?
Is it the chaste simplicity, the peace, the sobriety,
the immense, the irresistible nobility of innocence?
Translated from the French of Athanase Vantchev de Thracy by Norton Hodges
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Young Woman With A Water Pitcher (English)
Young Woman With A Water Pitcher (English)
