© 2022 Don Yorty. All rights reserved.
During the pandemic, the poet Daisy Fried was living in Philadelphia with her husband who was dying of a debilitating disease. Without much help from the outside, during breaks from the caring, Daisy began to read and translate Charles Baudelaire, … Continue reading
© 2022 Don Yorty. All rights reserved.
During the pandemic, while taking care of her dying husband, quarantined from friends, and without much help from Medicaid, one day in the spring of 2020, Daisy Fried read a translation of Baudelaire’s “Paysage” by John Ashbery, thought to herself, … Continue reading
© 2017 Don Yorty. All rights reserved.
.. Viens sur mon coeur, âme cruelle et sourde, Tigre adoré, monstre aux airs indolents; Je veux longtemps plonger mes doigts tremblants Dans l’épaisseur de ta crinière lourde; Dans tes jupons remplis de ton parfum Ensevelir ma tête endolorie, Et … Continue reading
© 2017 Don Yorty. All rights reserved.
… ……Charles Baudelaire wrote Une Charogne to his lover, Jeanne Duval, an actress and dancer, who met him when she left Haiti for France in 1842. Whether she died sooner or lived longer than the poet is in dispute, though … Continue reading
© 2015 Don Yorty. All rights reserved.
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© 2015 Don Yorty. All rights reserved.
… La Nature est un temple où de vivants piliers Laissent parfois sortir de confuses paroles; L’homme y passe à travers des forêts de symboles Qui l’observent avec des regards familiers. Comme de longs échos qui de loin se confondent … Continue reading
© 2015 Don Yorty. All rights reserved.
… … … Elevation Above the marshes, above the valleys the mountains, the woods, the clouds, the sea beyond the sun, beyond the ether beyond the limits of our starry sphere my Spirit you move me agilely like a swimmer … Continue reading
© 2015 Don Yorty. All rights reserved.
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© 2015 Don Yorty. All rights reserved.
… Although considered by many to be the first book of modern poetry, a lot of the poems in Les Fleurs du Mal seem over the top today, and not very modern at all. Take Benediction, the first poem in … Continue reading
© 2015 Don Yorty. All rights reserved.
… La sottise, l’erreur, le péché, la lésine, Occupent nos esprits et travaillent nos corps, Et nous alimentons nos aimables remords, Comme les mendiants nourrissent leur vermine. Nos péchés sont têtus, nos repentirs sont lâches; Nous nous faisons payer grassement … Continue reading
© 2015 Don Yorty. All rights reserved.
… Ma jeunesse ne fut qu’un ténébreux orage, Traversé çà et là par de brillants soleils; Le tonnerre et la pluie ont fait un tel ravage, Qu’il reste en mon jardin bien peu de fruits vermeils. Voilà que j’ai touché … Continue reading
© 2015 Don Yorty. All rights reserved.
… Hair, we humans love it, its smell, its texture, its sometimes electric thrill, its personality in the lovers we are drawn to, and Charles Baudelaire was no exception. His love poems are superb in this regard. Jeanne Duval was … Continue reading