Observations placeholder
Baudelaire, Charles - L’ennui
Identifier
000314
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
L’ennui – Charles Baudelaire, translated by Robert Lowell
Paul Gauguin – Abandonned Garden
My childhood was only a menacing shower
Cut now and then by hours of brilliant heat
All the top soil was killed by rain and sleet
My garden hardly bore a standing flower
From now on, my mind’s autumn! I must take
The field and dress my beds with spade and rake
And restore order to my flooded grounds.
There the rain raised mountains like burial mounds
I throw fresh seeds out. Who knows what survives?
What elements will give us life and food?
This soil is irrigated by the tides.
Time and nature sluice away our lives
A virus eats the heart out of our sides
Digs in and multiplies on our lost blood.