What if a look into a mirror could reveal the depths of one’s worldview?
I share with you this morning a poem by French surrealist poet, Paul Eluard (1895-1952), in an English translation from the original French; and a performance of a song (Tu vois le feu du soir), a
setting by Francis Poulenc (1899-1963) from his two song set entitled Miroirs brûlants.
pencil sketch of Francis Poulenc by Jean Cocteau
I performed this song only once in recital with Lee Thompson sometime in the early 1990s and it remains one of my most favorite songs.
My understanding of the poem is deeper than when I performed it as a young man and I will attempt to share with you what it means to me today.
Tu vois le feu du soir
You see the fire of the evening emerging from its shell And you see the forest buried in its coolness
You see the bare plain at the edges of the straggling sky The snow high like the sea And the sea high in the azure
Perfect stones and sweet woods veiled succors
You see with a golden melancholy Pavements filled with excuses A town square where solitude has its statue Smiling and love a solitary house
You see the animals Malignant look-a-likes sacrificed one to the other Immaculate brothers with confused shadows In a desert of blood
You see a handsome child when he plays when he laughs He is indeed smaller Than the little bird on the edge of the branches
You see a landscape with savors of oil and of water Where the rock is excluded where the earth abandons Its greenness to summer who has covered it with fruits
Women descending from their ancient mirror Bring you their youth and their faith in yours And one, her light the veil that draws you in Makes you secretly see the world without you.
For me, Eluard’s poem is about his infatuation with his lover. He describes the depths of her perspectives, both extrinsic and intrinsic-her worldview; and in the final stanza he captures through the mirror the loss he would feel if she were no longer with him.
Poulenc's musical setting is kaleidoscopic and mirrors the odd similes of the poem.
To hear the song, I offer:
Enjoy.
CPW
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