The Soul of Wine - Baudelaire transversion

                                                                         The Soul of Wine ^[1]

           After Baudelaire

 

 

One night, the soul of a wine sang in its bottle :

“ Towards you, Man, my dear disinherited,

From inside this glass prison, I reach out to you,

With a song full of warmth and brotherhood.

 

For I know how much pain, under the burning sun

Out on the hills aflame, it takes to engender me,

And give me a soul. So, I will not be ungrateful,

Or troublesome.

 

As, I get an immense satisfaction plunging down

Into the throat’s of men who are tired from work;

Their soft bellies, after all, are a much gentler abode

Then the cold wine cellars, where I am typically stored.

 

Do you hear the sound of the Sunday hymns

And the hope which babbles in my palpitating breast?

Sleeves rolled up, both elbows on the table,

You glorify me while satiating your thirst.

 

As I help to light up the eyes of your woman;

And to your son give back to him his force and colour,

And to the frail athletes in life,

I will be the oil that strengthens the muscles of the fighters.

 

In you I will fall, vegetative ambrosia,

Precious seed of the eternal planter,

 So that our Love will bring real poetry

Gushing towards God like a rare flower.

---

[1] This translation was made to celebrate the bicentenary of the birth of Charles Baudelaire and which was celebrated by me with the following poets and translators on the 8^th April, 2021: R J Dent, Yan Kouton, Daniel Wade, Marc Di Saverio, Edith De Belleville, Hélène Cardona, Linda Morales Caballero, Nina Kossman, Fred Johnston and Kevin Kiley in association with the Alliance Francaise, Dublin.