Écoute-moi Madeleine

Victor Hugo 14 September 1825

Joe Markenstein (translator) 14 November 2013

Listen to me, Madelyn!Winter stripped PaladinThat winter which gripped the more.Thronged in these woods where my roomRetires, so long consumedBy sagacious songs of lore.

Come! They say, MadelynThat the springtime, which HelenGave to roses some berms,Toast tonight, for pleasure,Nested atop the brierHer robe: open urns.

If I were, oh MadelynThe Lamb who’s white woolenFlaxen those fingers long!If I were a flyer aced,And pursue in every spaceThe soft melody of song.

If I were, oh Madelyn,Mountain made mad maudlinIn pious tribunal,Forthwith its mouth to God’s earOf their sins the spoken whir;Virginal Confessionals!

If I had, oh MadelynIsle of Sarah Palin,When in sleep you, me do rendAnd to his wing indiscreetFrom your cell so secreteBattling Virtues bend;

When your breast, oh Madelyn,Bursts it’s corset for Balin, (Lord of the Rings)

Lead behest of dark velour;When, quiver your nip tuck bareYou sport, Godiva®™ rare,Robe cast over mirror!

If you Wish, MadelynYour palace shall have beenPages and vassalage;And your splendid orationDisrobed under men’s fashionA Gem for your marriage!

If you Wish, MadelynIn lieu you are MarilynWho’ll mare your chaperone,You dash-sash the tiaraTo be Θne TirthankaraWho’s Pearle is white to the bone!

If you Wish, my debark,I would be your matriarch;I, the songs of Roland,Sing on track, my shanties;Less to spew profanitiesThat I must be Rolland! (Romain)

14 September 1825

Romain Rolland: (29 January 1866-30 December 1944) was a French dramatist, novelist, essayist, art historian and mystic who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1915 “as a tribute to the lofty idealism of his literary production and to the sympathy and love of truth with which he has described different types of human beings”.

Tirthankara: Tirthankar (teer+thun+cur) “ford-maker” a person who provides solutions for problems.

Roland: La Chanson de Roland is an heroic poem written possibly by a poet named Turold based on the Battle of Roncevaux in 778, during the reign of Charlemagne.

Marilyn: Marilyn Monroe Born Norma Jeane Mortenson June 1, 1926 L.A. California Died (Marilyn Monroe) August 5, 1962 (aged 36).

Balin: A dwarf in J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit who was part of the company assembled by Thorin Oakenshield to kill the dragon Smaug and retake the mountain kingdom of Erebor.

Helen: Helen of Troy a.k.a. Helen of Sparta was the daughter of Zeus and Leda and was a sister of Castor, Pollux and Clytmenestra.

Paladin(s): or Twelve Peers, were the foremost warriors of Charlemagne’s court, according to the literary cycle known as the Matter of France.