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Poems

December 2000

Les Chimeres by Gerard de Nerval

by Daniel Mark Epstein

The disinherited

I move in darkness—widowed—beyond solace,
The Prince of Aquitaine in a ruined tower.
My one star is dead; the black sun of sadness
Eclipses the constellation of my guitar.

O you who brought me light in the night of the tomb,
Bring back Posillipo and the Italian sea;
Bring back the flower that made my sad heart glad,
The grove where the rose and vine twined joyously.

Am I Eros or Apollo, Lusignan or Biron?
My brow still burns red from my Queen’s kisses.
I dreamed such dreams in the cave of a swimming siren,

And I’ve crossed Acheron in glory, twice
To play on the lyre of Orpheus and intone
The sighs of the saint and the fairy’s clear cries.

Myrtho

Myrtho, I think of you, divine sorceress,
At proud Posillipo a thousand fires made bright;
I think of your brow bathed with morni ...

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Daniel Mark Epstein wrote the libretto for the opera Jefferson and Poe, with music by Damon Ferrante
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This article originally appeared in The New Criterion, Volume 19 December 2000, on page 31
Copyright © 2012 The New Criterion | www.newcriterion.com


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