Without Lifting A Finger

SILK OF A SOUL  Never did I speak—with her  either about love  or about death  only blind taste and mute touch  used to run between us  when absorbed in ourselves  we lay close  I must peek inside her  to see what she wears  at her centre  when she slept  with her lips open  I peeked  and what and what  would you think  I caught sight of  I was expecting branches  I was expecting a bird  I was expecting a house by a lake  great and silent  but there on a glass counter  I caught sight of  a pair of silk stockings  my God I’ll buy her  those stockings  I’ll buy them but— what will appear then  on the glass counter  of the little soul  will it be something  which cannot be touched  even with one finger of a dream Note: Line breaks are mine Translators of Herbert's "Collected Poems": Milosz, Dale, Valles

 

The greatest patriotism is to tell your country when it is behaving dishonourably, foolishly, viciously. The writer must be universal in sympathy and an outcast by nature: only then can he see clearly. Flaubert always sides with minorities, with ‘the Bedouin, the Heretic, the philosopher, the hermit, the Poet’. In 1867 forty-three gypsies pitched camp in the Cours La Reine and aroused much hatred among the Rouennais. Flaubert delighted in their presence and gave them money. No doubt you wish to pat him on the head for this. If he’d known he was gaining the approval of the future, he’d probably have kept the money to himself.

A very eclectic museum. Housed in part of the old Hotel-Dieu (Flaubert's father was a doctor, Flaubert was born there), the museum is full of medical oddities from the 19th century, objects re Flaubert's life and work, this and that. Today I'm just posting the possible Loulous (side-by-side in the museum) that hovered over Flaubert and his story, "A Simple Soul."

Connections: Hockney's original artwork was used to illustrate Flaubert's story "A Simple Heart/Soul." Later (1984) it was used for the dust jacket of the first edition of Julian Barnes' novel, Flaubert's Parrot. A copy of the dust jacket used for Barnes' novel:

That day a great joy came to her: at dinner-time, Madame de Larsonniere's servant called with the parrot, the cage, and the perch and chain and lock. A note from the baroness told Madame Aubain that as her husband had been promoted to a prefecture, they were leaving that night, and she begged her to accept the bird as a remembrance and a token of her esteem. Since a long time the parrot had been on Felicite's mind, because he came from America, which reminded her of Victor, and she had approached the negro on the subject. Once even, she had said: "How glad Madame would be to have him!" The man had repeated this remark to his mistress who, not being able to keep the bird, took this means of getting rid of it.  CHAPTER IV  He was called Loulou. His body was green, his head blue, the tips of his wings were pink and his breast was golden.