If you know what I mean

There she is again stepping out of her limousine,
Looking like the cover of a twenty dollar magazine.
She's got it where you find it,
If you know what I mean.

She's a…
Natural born woman,
Natural born woman,
Natural born woman.

There she is again, watch her stop the Main Street in its tracks,
Looking like a Creole Queen hair hanging down her back.
I said don't look too long, boy,
She'll make your glasses crack.

(Steve Marriott, Natural Born Bugie, 1968)

The Open Door

«Probably it had been a servants' entrance, a backdoor, or opening into what are called "the offices" in Scotland. No offices remained to be entered, —pantry and kitchen had all been swept out of being; but there stood the door-way open and vacant, free to all the winds, to the rabbits, and every wild creature. It struck my eye, the first time I went to Brentwood, like a melancholy comment upon a life that was over. A door that led to nothing, —closed once, perhaps, with anxious care, bolted and guarded, now void of any meaning. It impressed me, I remember, from the first; so perhaps it may be said that my mind was prepared to attach to it an importance which nothing justified.»
(Margaret Oliphant, The Open Door, 1881)

Le chat et le temps

Good sense, innocence, cripplin' mankind
Dead kings, many things I can't define
Occasions, persuasions clutter your mind
Incense and peppermints, the color of time

Who cares what games we choose?
Little to win, but nothing to lose

Incense and peppermints, meaningless nouns
Turn on, tune in, turn your eyes around
Look at yourself, look at yourself…

(Strawberry Alarm Clock, Incense and Peppermints, 1967)

Audas viator

Et se précipitant sur la feuille de papier, l’œil trouble, la voix émue, il lut le document tout entier, en remontant de la dernière lettre à la première.

Il était conçu en ces termes :

In Sneffels Yoculis craterem kem delibat
umbra Scartaris Julii intra calendas descende,
audas viator, et terrestre centrum attinges.
Kod feci. Arne Saknussem.

Ce qui, de ce mauvais latin, peut être traduit ainsi :

Descends dans le cratère du Yocul
de Sneffels que l’ombre du Scartaris vient
caresser avant les calendes de Juillet,
voyageur audacieux, et tu parviendras
au centre de la Terre. Ce que j’ai fait.
Arne Saknussemm.

(Jules Verne, Voyage au centre de la Terre, 1864)

A.MON.SEUL.DESIR.I

I see a picture
By the lamp's flicker.
Isn't it strange how
Dreams fade and shimmer?

Never going to get to France.
Mary, Queen of Chance, will they find you?
Never going to get to France.
Could a new romance ever bind you?

(Mike Oldfield, To France, 1984)

& & &

O dieses ist das Tier, das es nicht gibt.
Sie wusstens nicht und habens jeden Falls
—sein Wandeln, seine Haltung, seinen Hals,
bis in des stillen Blickes Licht—geliebt.

Zwar war es nicht. Doch weil sie's liebten, ward
ein reines Tier. Sie liessen immer Raum.
Und in dem Raume, klar und ausgespart,
erhob es leicht sein Haupt und brauchte kaum

zu sein. Sie nährten es mit keinem Korn,
nur immer mit der Möglichkeit, es sei.
Und sie gab solche Stärke an das Tier,

dass es aus sich ein Stirnhorn trieb. Ein Horn.
Zu einer Jungfrau kam es weiss herbei—
und war im Silber-Spiegel und in ihr.

(Rainer Maria Rilke, Sonette an Orpheus, II, 4, 1922)

[Oh, éste es el animal inexistente.
No lo conocían y sin embargo lo amaron
en su andar, su porte, su cuello,
y hasta en la luz de su mirada amorosa.

En verdad no existía. Pero porque lo amaron,
llegó a ser un animal puro. Siempre le dieron un lugar.
Y en ese lugar, claro y abierto,
alzaba levemente la cabeza y apenas necesitaba

existir. No lo alimentaron con grano,
sino sólo con la posibilidad de que existiera.
Y ésta dio al animal una tal fuerza,

que un cuerno emergió de su frente. Un solo cuerno.
Se acercó a una doncella de blanco
y habitó en el espejo de plata y en ella.]

Moon Shadow

I'm being followed by a moon shadow
moon shadow — moon shadow
leaping and hopping on a moon shadow
moon shadow — moon shadow
…
and if I ever lose my eyes
if my colours all run dry
yes, if I ever lose my eyes
oh if…
I won't have to cry no more
…
and if I ever lose my mouth
all my teeth, north and south
yes, if I ever lose my mouth
oh if…
I won't have to talk…

(Cat Stevens, Moonshadow, 1971)

High the memory carry on

In the days of summer so long
We danced as evening sang their song
We wander out the day so long
And I do feel very well
That the evenings take you silently
They move round
Sunlight
Seeing ground
Whispers of clay
Alternate ways

(Yes, The Remembering, 1974)