Carousel

We met up with some friends today in the Jardin du Luxembourg. I've known D since we were kids and it is always fun to see her, her husband and very cute children.

Every time I see this carousel I think of the poem that Rilke wrote, inspired by it. It is a poem that comes up in a European culture course I teach and I've come to love it. Meeting up with old friends and seeing our own kids growing up makes the poem even more poignant.

Viewed in large (by clicking on the magnifying glass in the icons that come up below the photo), you can see E's expression... a little worried and holding her favourite red dog for reassurance, but mostly fascinated by the ride.

Here is the poem in a translation by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy:

Jardin du Luxembourg - The Carousel

Under its canopy, in the shade it casts,
turns a world with painted horses,
all from a land that lingers a while
before it disappears.
Some, it's true, are harnessed to a wagon,
but all have valor in their eyes.
A fierce red lion leaps among them,
and here comes 'round a snow-white elephant.

Even a stag appears, straight from the forest,
except for the saddle he wears, and,
buckled on it, a small boy in blue.

And a boy in white rides the lion,
gripping it with small clenched hands,
while the lion flashes teeth and tongue.

And here comes 'round a snow-white elephant.

And riding past on charging horses come girls,
bright-eyed, almost too old now for this children's play.
With the horses rising under them,
they are looking up and off to what awaits.

And here comes 'round a snow-white elephant.

Rilke, New Poems