Du bois de Ker-Melo jusqu'au Moulin de Teir,
J'ai passe tout le jour sur le bord de la mer,
Respirant sous les pins leur odeur de resine,
Poussant devant mes pieds leur feuille lisse et fine,
Et d'instants en instants, par-dessus Saint Michel,
Lorsqu'eclatait le bruit de la barre d'Enn-Tell,
M'arretant pour entendre: au milieu des bruyeres,
Carnac m'apparaissait avec toutes ses pierres,
Et parmi les men-hir erraient comme autrefois
Les vieux guerriers des clans, leurs pretres et leurs rois.
Auguste Brizeux (1803-1858)
From the woods of Ker-Melo up to the mill of Teir,
I spent all day along the seashore,
Breathing under the pines their resinous smell,
Pushing in front of my feet their fine soft needles,
And from time to time, beyond Saint Michel,
When was bursting the noise of the dam of Enn-Tell,
Stopping to listen: amidst the heather,
Carnac with all its stones appeared to me,
and among the menhirs were roaming like long ago
the old clan warriors, their priests and their kings.
The Heritage Trust
Preserving the Past for the Future
About Me
- Littlestone
- Studied art and design at Swindon School of Art, Wiltshire, England and afterwards Japanese painting and calligraphy at Kyoto University of Fine Arts, Kyoto, Japan. In 1966 I was a lay monk at the Zen Buddhist temple of Ryozen-an in Kyoto and practiced under the guidance of its Director, Ruth Fuller-Sasaki and senior monk Dana R Fraser (co-translator of Layman P'ang: A Ninth Century Zen Classic). Also present at Ryozen-an was the author and poet Gary Snyder. Gary Snyder was one of the first Westerners in Japan to study Zen Buddhism and was the inspiration for Jack Kerouac's book, The Dharma Bums. I was assistant conservator (paintings) at Kyoto National Museum from 1969-1980 and Chief Conservator (Eastern Pictorial Art) at the British Museum from 1980-1986. Japan Foundation Fellow 1973-1974 and Fellow of the International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works since 1985.
3 comments:
Sent in by Michelle (translation hers). Michelle writes - Extracted from "Marie" (1832) by Auguste Brizeux: a Breton poem acclaimed apparently by Hugo and Sainte Beuve.
Saint Michel refers to the tumulus of Saint Michel (Mound of earth built over a grave) which was constructed between 5000BC and 3400BC. At its base it is 125m by 60m and is 12m high.
Thank you for that - most interesting. I must see what else I can find out about the Saint Michel tumulus.
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