Théophile Gautier - On the Lagoons - The Carnival of Venice

Théophile Gautier

Variations on the Carnival of Venice

“Tra la, tra la, la, la, la laire!
Who doesn't know this tune?
It charmed our mothers,
Tender and cheerful, mocking and plaintive:

The air of the Venice Carnival,
Once sung on the canals
And carried away by a wild breeze
Carried away in the ballet!

When it is played, it seems to me
To see a gondola gliding in its blue wake
With its bow
Made of a violin bow.

On a chromatic scale,
Her breasts dripping with pearls,
The Venus of the Adriatic
Emerges from the water, her body pink and white.

The domes, on the azure waves
Following the pure contours of the phrase,
Swell like round throats
Raised by a sigh of love.

The skiff approaches and sets me down,
Throwing its mooring line to the pillar,
In front of a pink façade,
On the marble of a staircase.

With its palaces, its gondolas,
Its masquerades on the sea,
Its sweet sorrows, its mad merriment,
All Venice lives in this air.

A frail string vibrates
Re-creates on a pizzicato,
As once joyful and free,
The city of Canaletto!”
Théophile Gautier - Émaux et Camées