Sunday, June 21, 2009

Long summer days

There is a garden in every childhood, an enchanted place where colors are brighter, the air softer, and the morning more fragrant than ever again. ~Elizabeth Lawrence

School children will soon breaking up for their summer holidays, those weeks that seem to last forever and yet vanish in a blink of an eye. My French class will break up too, so I will have to try and study through my folder of notes. The last few months I have developed an interest in French poetry, this is a shock to me.

Here is a poem, that sums up for me some of those teenage feelings. by Louise Labe

I live, I die, I burn, I drown
I am extemly hot and endure cold
Life is too easy and too hard
I have big troubles entangled with joy

All of a sudden I laugh and I cry
And in my pleasure I endure many a tormenting grief
My happiness goes and yet it never lasts
All at once I dry up and grow green

Thus I suffer love's inconstancies
And when I think the pain is most intense
Without thinking, it is gone again.

Then when I feel my joys certain
And my hour of greatest delight arrived
I find my pain beginning all over once again.
~~~

Click on the link to read more about Louise Labé

Clink on the link to read the poem in English, modern and old French; About.com helps me with a great deal of my French homework. There are of course a few different translations of this poem but the feeling is the same in all of them.

Today is the longest day of the year, so here are a few pictures with a pagan feel to them.

The Green Man
Flowers at the Cordon des Druides

Sunshine on The Ancient Stones


The Sleeping Stone
The French word for blink is cligner
The French word for vanish is disparu

10 comments:

ArtPropelled said...

Oh the green man is rather charming!

French Fancy... said...

how great they leave flowers on the druid stones. I suppose they leave holly and mistletoe in winter

Blu said...

I can see why Robyn might like the Green Man,

It was lovely when I found the flowers French Fancy.

Clive said...

Lovely photos - the sunlight shining through the forest is wonderful.

LadyFi said...

I love that poem... and the dappled sunlight on the stones... gorgeous!

Carol said...

Beautiful poem and beautiful pictures!! I love the Green Man...he really appeals to me :-)

C x

Jude said...

As usual gorgeous photos.
yes, I think the green man is great too.

Blu said...

Seems like the lovely old fence post is a hit!

claire p said...

One of my best friends is a Pagan white witch. We're going to her wedding in August, should be very intresting!!

bindu said...

The green man is charming. So are the other pictures - but I think I've seen them on your flickr already. When life goes by in a rush, there's no time to enjoy poetry. I need to slow down and do that. Glad you are making the time!