Poetic-Verses from ATHANASE
The Lace Maker - painting of Vermeer (English)
To Cesar van Everdingen
'...pictoribus atque poetis
Quodlibet audendi semper fuit equa potestas.'
(...painters and poets
have always had an equal right to dare to do whatever they wanted.')
Horace, Ars Poetica
No, my soul! I don't want to be like the vates and sing of
the vast cosmology which was Aristotle's passion,
nor, like Pindar, do I want to praise the all too abundant merits
of the doughty magistrates who paid for the choruses in the festivals of Ares.
Tonight, my soul, I want to cry like a child
who wakes suddenly deep in the night,
when I see this humble woman bent over her embroidery,
like ears of wheat bending to the wind's kiss!
I feel such love for this gentle lace maker,
the light which falls on her golden bodice,
I want to kiss her fingers which give beauty a soul,
her hands as melodious as an ancient prayer!
We should cherish her intimate art and the heart where she has perfected
the divine modesty beloved by a higher power!
translated from the French of Athanase Vantchev de Thracy by Norton Hodges
08/9.01.08.
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The Lace Maker - painting of Vermeer (English)
The Lace Maker - painting of Vermeer (English)