No More Learning

Is it that death forgets to free

You fishes of melancholy?

Orpheus

The Death of Orpheus

'The Death of Orpheus'
Nicolaes de Bruyn, 1594, The Rijksmuseun

The female of the Halcyon,

Love, the seductive Sirens,

All know the fatal songs

Dangerous and inhuman.

Don't listen to those cursed birds

But Paradisial Angels' words.

The Sirens

Odysseus and the Sirens

'Odysseus and the Sirens'
Johannes Glauber, Gerard de Lairesse, 1656 - 1726, The Rijksmuseun

Do I know where your ennui's from, Sirens,

When you grieve so widely under the stars?

Sea, I am like you, filled with broken voices,

And my ships, singing, give a name to the years.

The Dove

Angels and Holy Spirit (Annunciation)

'Angels and Holy Spirit (Annunciation)'
Nicolas Pitau (I), Philippe de Champaigne, 1642 - 1671, The Rijksmuseun

Dove, both love and spirit

Who engendered Jesus Christ,

Like you I love a Mary.

And so with her I marry.

The Peacock

Juno and the Peacock

'Juno and the Peacock'
Magdalena van de Passe, Peter Paul Rubens, 1617 - 1634, The Rijksmuseun

In spreading out his fan, this bird,

Whose plumage drags on earth, I fear,

Appears more lovely than before,

But makes his derriere appear.

The Owl

Owls in a Cave

'Owls in a Cave'
Magdalena van de Passe, Peter Paul Rubens, 1617 - 1634, The Rijksmuseun

My poor heart's an owl

One woos, un-woos, re-woos.

Of blood, of ardour, he's the fowl.

I praise those who love me, too.

The Ibis

Storks in a Nest

'Storks in a Nest'
Magdalena van de Passe, Peter Paul Rubens, 1617 - 1634, The Rijksmuseun

Yes, I'll pass fearful shadows

O certain death, let it be so!

Latin mortal dreadful word,

Ibis, Nile's native bird.

The Ox

Lucas and the Ox

'Lucas and the Ox'
Hieronymus Wierix, 1563 - before 1590, The Rijksmuseun

This cherubim sings the praises

Of Paradise where, with Angels,

We'll live once more, dear friends,

When the good God intends.

Apollinaire's Notes to the Bestiary

Admire the vital power

And nobility of line:

It praises the line that forms the images, marvellous ornaments to this poetic entertainment.
It's the voice that the light made us understand here

That Hermes Trismegistus writes of in Pimander.

'Soon' we read in the Pimander, 'they descend into the shadows. . . . and an inarticulate cry rises from there that seems the voice of light. '

Is not this 'voice of light' the design, that is to say the line?

And where the light fully expresses all its colour. Painting is truly a luminous language.

From magic Thrace

Orpheus was a native of Thrace. That sublime poet played on a lyre that Mercury gave him. It was made from the shell of a tortoise, stuck round with leather, with two horns and a sounding board and strings made from sheep's gut. Mercury gave these lyres to both Apollo and Amphion. When Orpheus played and sang, the wild animals themselves came to hear his singing. Orpheus invented all the sciences, all the arts. Grounded in magic he knew the future and predicted the Christian coming of the Saviour.