I’m far from confident in the French language, in ordinary reality. Yet in my dreams and in half-dream states, I often compose or receive poems in the French. Here’s one I rediscovered today that carries a thrill for me:
Par ce qu’il visitait la lune au fond de la mer
Par ce qu’il se consolait avec le char de l’ abîme
Par ce qu’il se montrait dans les couleurs de ses rêves
Parce ce qu’il fit sauter les coeurs des filles dormantes
Laissez-passer
entre le monde mondaine
et le monde-montagne
The first four lines appeared, one by one, as captions under four small images set like postage stamps on a piece of paper under the silhouette of the pyramids at Giza. As I studied the document, I realized it was a laissez-passer (safe-conduct, travel permit) of a special kind, a license to travel between worlds.
I came upon this most interesting document when two young men appeared in a dream to escort me to a private showing of an exhibition. They spoke of this exhibition as a revolutionary event, one that was going to shake up people’s understanding of reality.
The exhibition included surrealist machines – for example, an old-fashioned gramophone with the stiletto heel of a woman’s shoe as the stylus – serial pictures developing certain themes, little sepia pictures and black-and-white photographs with poetic captions.
My excitement was only fully roused when I realized what the laissez-passer contained. Then I observed a lovely little faerie flying about the space on butterfly wings, and knew her name was Marquisite.
A rough translation of the poetic text of my dream laissez-passer:
Because he visited the moon at the bottom of the sea
Because he consoled himself with the chariot of the abyss
Because he showed himself in the colors of his dreams
Because he made the hearts of sleeping girls leap
ALLOWED TO PASS
between the worldly world
and the world-mountain
Salvador Dali, Aphrodisiac Telephone (1936)
14 comments:
Lover-ly! Is it not the description of one who loves????
In a dream I was shown a future book of mine published and I was surprised to see the title in french, I really don't know french but in my dream I could translate it to english.
BEAUTIFUL!
I love your poetry - and am especially in love with poetry that flows into the dream state in languages that are not those used in one's daily life. You travel in France, speak the language, certainly with more confidence and knowledge than many of us; and you can read the language. I am astonished when I dream in French - I wake saying the words I can recall over and over again so that I can quickly share them with someone who understands at least a little of the language. I am then even more astonished to find that the words I recall are actual translatable sentences - and, consequently, pay attention to them because they are coming from a place where I do not dwell in ordinary reality. Once a long time I composed an entire piece of music in the French language. I wrote the notes and wrote the words and then heard it played. I neither speak the language nor am I a musician.
Your Passport is a special one. I hope you share it with your friends and perhaps fashion a journey at the base of the pyramids where we can all open our dream passports and find what language invites us on such a journey.
I love transdimensional art shows. The galleries of the astral plane are chock full of inspirational goodness.
Is Marquisite pronounced like marcasite the stone? Or like marquesita, the delicious yucatecan treat?
On the streets of Merida, Mexico, vendor make thin crispy waffles on cast iron irons over real wood embers, then sprinkle them with finely grated Dutch Edam cheese and wrap them up and serve them in paper. You can add delicious touches of cajeta or chocolate syrup yourself.
fillingcalix - Marquesita sounds like delicious faerie food. However, "Marquisite" is spelled like that and pronounced the French way. I suspect that the would want us to know that in human terms, she is an "exquisite marquise."
Wanda - Merci! As you know, a characteristic of my personal style of dreaming, since boyhood, is that I dream words of foreign languages, often (initially) languages I do not know - and may not even be able to identify for a time - or languages that I know only very imperfectly. My dream self is usually no more fluent in conversation in these languages than my waking self. However, he is very good indeed at reading or retaining key phrases and sometimes whole passages or stanzas.
Obscurereality - Now THAT is a book I would want to write, at least in the English "translation". It is entirely possible that all the books we will ever write (or can be written) exist in an astral library, waiting to be brought through. Sometimes I take people, on group journeys in my workshops, to a library of that kind, and sometimes they manage to bring back at least a few pages. There is an exercise for getting to such a place in my book "Dreamgates".
Nina - Your yummy dream (yummy for chocolate lovers, which alas I am NOT) evokes memories of all the episodes in myth and scripture - and also the many dreams - in which knowledge is ingested by being consumed like food or communion wafers. "Read, mark and inwardly digest," my favorite professor used intone when I was an undergraduate. It seems that in the act of eating and digesting, you are able to "read" and "mark" - although not always to bring back all the details. As for imps and pranksters on the Secret Committee of Dreams, I hope so! Anything that is really serious must be approached with a sense of humor.
Robert, I don't usually blog and although I've been part of the online dream course, I sometimes find it overwhelming. But the same night you dreamed this - I dreamed about one of my most beloved poetry books, "The Astonishment of Origins". It's a collection of the poems Rilke wrote in French. The dream directed me to a specific poem......... I think I'll be re-joining the online group..........
All the best......
Vidya Foley
Vidya - I love Rilke's poems in French and have used a few as epigraphs in various of my writings. You are most welcome back in our online dreaming community any time. The current forum is the richest, most profound and most fun so far and friends old and new are signing on every day. Here's the link for the registration page: http://old.spiritualityhealth.com/spirit/e-course/conscious-dreaming-conscious-living-june-august-2011
Thank you for your support, Robert....... I've just re-joined the e-course....... I get a bit intimidated, but I'll go forth....
Rilke is absolutely necessary to me, his French poems among my favorites. I meant to mention...... your dream poem ........... exquisite! One I know I'll hold close......
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