Breasts
What fortune to carry two small breasts
toward someone, toward the unknown.
Two small breasts that say: tomorrow perhaps...
and, with that alone,
are happy. Between them rests
the locket with the mother’s picture,
as if her protection
separates them, so the girl won’t dare
touch both at once,
these two youthful breasts
a bit more alive than she‘s aware,
that she will bear to someone yet unknown,
Will they make her happy,
two innocent little breasts that resist
life’s winds?… These stubborn little breasts,
seeming veiled in mourning cloth—-
against which each poses,
under imperceptible alerts,
the tender demands
of covered roses.
Rainer Maria Rilke
(my translation)
Seins
ReplyDeleteQuelle chance de porter deux petits seins
vers quelqu'un, vers l'inconnu...
Deux petits seins qui disent: peut-être demain...
et qui, sans rien de plus,
sont heureux. Entre eux le médaillon
avec la douce image de la mère repose;
on dirait que sa protection
les sépare, ces deux seins, pour que la jeune fille n'ose
les sentir tous les deux à la fois,
ces petits seins juvénils que l'on doit
porter à quelqu'un, à l'inconnu,
et qui vivent un peu à l'insu
de la porteuse.
Vont-ils la rendre heureuse,
ces deux petits seins innocents qui résistent aux vents
de la vie?... Ces petits sein têtus,
d'un semblant de deuil revêtus
contre lequel ils posent,
sous d'imperceptibles alertes,
leurs tendres demandes de roses
couvertes.
.
i hold my breath and hope that the responses are as complicated as this post is. i hold my breath and come back to comment later.
ReplyDeletehowever, firstly and easily, the photograph itself is stunning.
xo
erin
How typically masculine, I thought at first. It takes time for a girl to become a woman; time for her to incorporate the breasts and what they might mean to her, to her future, to her new role.
ReplyDelete"...a bit more alive than she's aware..." captures this moment perfectly.
No, she is not aware of this power, not aware of how the changes both catapult her into a future, and are the promise of the future.
"There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun." ~Thomas Merton
ReplyDeletewow! would never have guessed this was a Rilke poem, must read him more :)
ReplyDelete