Drive Shards Of Glass

Just to get you into the mood, I have inserted an aria, ‘Source délicieuse’ from ‘Polyeucte’ an opera by Charles Gounod. It certainly gets me into the mood, and I have difficulty listening to this amazingly beautiful version of it, by the renowned Tenor, Roberto Alagna.

The opera, ‘Polyeucte’ is based on a tragedy by Pierre Corneille. It deals with an Armenian lord, a Roman who converts to Christianity and becomes a martyr. In this aria the hero, Polyeucte is filled with thoughts if divine love. The world no longer means anything to the condemned man, especially as he knows his wife, Pauline, loves another.

No. this is not a hub about lost love, neither does it describe betrayed love. It is something deeper, and more visceral.

I will not insult your intelligence by telling you what it as all about. As I have already stated:

“A summary is not needed for this poem (or any poem, for that matter), as it should be obvious, to even the meanest mind, what is the burden of its message. The whole point of poetry, whether good or bad, rests on that premise.

I leave it to you to make up your mind.

Source délicieuse en miseres feconde

Que voulez-vous de moi, flatteuses voluptés ?

Honteux attachements de la chair en du monde’

Que ne me quittez-vous

Quand je vous ai quittés

Monde, pour moi, tu n’es plus rien !

Le ciel a remplacé Pauline !

Je porte en un cœur tout chrétien

Une flamme toute divine !

Saintes douceurs du ciel, adorables idées,

Vous remplissez un cœur

qui vous peut recevoir !

De nos divins attraits les âmes possèdees

Ne conçoivent plus rien

qui les puisse émouvoir !......

Monde, pour moi, tu n’es plus rien ! etc.

You delicious spring teaming with miseries

What do you want with me, seductive pleasures of the senses?

Shameful addiction to the flesh and the world

Why w I yea not leave me alone,

when I have renounced you?

World, you are no longer anything to me!

For me, Heaven has replaced Pauline!

In a totally Christian heart I carry

a flame all-divine!

Holy delights of heaven, adorable thoughts,

you flood into a heart

which is prepared to receive you!

Souls possessed by your divine charms

can no longer conceive of anything else

which might excite them...

World, you are no edger anything to me! etc.

Drive shards of glass in these, my ears, that I may hear no more;

The last words that they heard were his; I’ll not hear them again.

Pierce these drums that no sound may fall where honey fell before;

No sweeter sounds there were to me than when he spoke my name.

Tear my tongue from this, my mouth, that I may speak no more;

The last name that I called was his; I’ll not require it now.

Remove my throat, my windpipe, lungs. The person I adore

Hears not at all my breath, my voice, my whispered heartfelt vow.

Wrench my heart from out my chest; rend viscera and bone;

Remove the beating organ there; protesting useless part.

O futile vessel, I had charged you with this task alone,

Of capturing his errant soul to bind to you, my heart.

And if you will, pluck out my eyes, that they may see no more.

He sparkled once before those orbs, in shadow, light and shade,

Yet you, perfidious agents, could not those visions store;

As in a magic lantern show those images are replayed.

And cut at these, my hands, I hold, towards you, empty, bare;

My fingers and my palms; no friends of mine, so sever

Them; traitorous hands that never felt, or held a single hair

Unfulfilled appendages that never touched him. Never

But keep, please keep, this mind of mine, in which I’d dare preserve

My memories, my artefacts, my pictures, scents and sounds.

I’ll wrap myself in thoughts of him; and in that way conserve

My aspirations and desires with which this mind abounds.

I have no need of eyes; of hands; of tongue; of soul; of heart.

O surly ones. O traitors all. How you betrayed my trust.

But just take heed, as you depart, you who sold me short,

If memory of him should fade and die… then die also, I must.