Lyrics
R J Dent’s lyrics have appeared in a new song-cycle by Finnish composer/pianist Outi Tarkiainen.
The songs were recorded and performed in Helsinki in September 2009.
The music was composed by Outi Tarkiainen; the song lyrics are from R J Dent’s 2009 translation of Charles Baudelaire’s The Flowers of Evil.
The songs are: The Albatross, The Abyss, Obsession and Man and the Sea.
The Albatross
Often, for amusement, the sailing crew
catch that bird of the seas, the albatross;
companion on our voyage, it follows
the ship as it slides through the sea’s abyss.
When it has been dumped, this once-great sky king,
awkward and ashamed, onto the ship’s boards,
it pitifully drags its great white wings
along its feathered sides like useless oars.
This graceful voyager through shades of blue,
once beautiful, is now clumsy and weak;
one sailor mocks the cripple who once flew,
another stubs a pipe out on his beak.
The poet is just like this prince of clouds;
beyond range, above storms – these are his haunts;
exiled on Earth amidst a jeering crowd,
his giant wings won’t permit him to walk.
© R J Dent 2009
The Abyss
Pascal had his abyss that followed him.
Everything is abyss: action, desire, dream – word.
I feel the wind of fear pass frequently
through my thick hair, which often stands on end,
up and down, everywhere, into the depths,
through silence, space, captivating, ugly...
During my nights, a god with clever hands
draws never-ending multi-shaped nightmares
and I’m afraid of sleep – it’s a big hole
full of horrors that lead to the unknown.
Windows show me infinity. Seeing
it, my hurt mind suffers from vertigo.
How I envy the sense of nothingness;
I’m never free of numbers or of beings.
© R J Dent 2009
Obsession
The great woods frighten as cathedrals do;
they shriek their organ shrieks from their cursed hearts,
death-rattles sound in their grief chambers too –
an echo’s de profundis counterpart.
The ocean’s depths and waves and tides remind
me of the bitterness of victory
over all men; their humiliation
can be heard in the laughter of the sea.
I love the starless night – it pleases me;
no stars to speak the only language known
in a sky that is bare, dark and empty;
a black canvas on which are now painted
a thousand images straight from my mind;
all vanished ones, with looks I recognise.
© R J Dent 2009
Man and the Sea
Free man, you will always cherish the sea.
It’s your mirror - you contemplate your soul
constantly in its swell as it unrolls;
your spirit’s gulf deepens as bitterly.
You love to plunge into your own image,
to kiss your eyes and heart, and then something
will distract you from the song it should sing –
those loud lamentations that sound savage.
Both of you have your secrets in the dark:
man, none yet know the depths of your abyss;
sea, none have known your intimate riches
or the secrets you so jealously guard.
And yet throughout innumerable years,
you’ve battled on without remorse or rage,
because you both admire death and carnage,
eternal enemies, fighting brothers.
© R J Dent 2009
A film of the songs being performed in Helsinki will be available to view here soon.
Details of R J Dent's translation of Charles Baudelaire's classic decadent text, The Flowers of Evil, are available here: www.rjdent.com/theflowersofevil.htm
