Midsummer

Transformation 3

from Rimbaud's Les Illuminations

Under a greeny dawn, two naked women Embrace a donkey, three quiet heads together, Abstract, intent on play. Behind, a fourth Figure but half embodied, grows from the others, Whose face might be man’s, faerie, or wingless angel. Is that an ass, or angel in disguise, And is this, perfect, dream or paradise? Absurd, neck stretched, with one ear cocked, Quite still, the hooved ass sings, as if he knew, By chorusing this dawn that peals and floods Its pale illuminated lake through greeny space And sniffing grassy air, he might be loved all summer. An ass, asleep, how can I tell I dream But think I see I understand I seem? He stands with forelegs hidden, lost in women, Entwining with them, naked, in peaceful glory, So his head on a woman’s frame I see With centaur, tamed for human company, In sexed or sexless union, summer, magical. What rules, when male or female centaur is Alive and well, across the centuries?

Frances Richards, Bottom', from Les Illuminations, lithographs, Curwen Press, London, 1975 © estate of Frances Richards