Belle de nuit
- Author
- Ignace Nau
- Date
- c. 1836
- Language
- French
- Country
- Form
- Lyric poem (sonnet)
- First published
- Poésies, 1836
The source
Ô ma belle-de-nuit, ferme, ferme ta robe,
Car la lune est bien pâle à l’horizon du soir ;
Retiens les doux parfums de ton pur encensoir ;
Le matin est éclos sous les regards de l’aube.
Le rayon du soleil est pour toi trop brûlant ;
Humble fleur, cache-toi sous l’épaisse ramée,
Jusqu’à ce que la nuit et sa brise embaumée
Ramènent dans le ciel le timide croissant.
Alors tu reprendras ta pourpre nuancée ;
Tu verras briller entre tous tes amants
La mouche voyageuse aux yeux de diamants.
Quels baisers, quels soupirs, heureuse fiancée !
Lorsqu’en ton lit d’amour, tes charmes disputés
Rassembleront, ce soir, l’essaim des voluptés.
“Oh my flower of the night, close your petals — the moon is pale on the evening horizon. Hold your sweet perfume; morning is opening under the gaze of dawn. The sun's ray is too bright for you; humble flower, hide beneath the thick branches, until night and its scented breeze bring the timid crescent moon back to the sky. Then you'll take back your tinted purple; you'll see the diamond-eyed traveling fly shine among all your suitors. What kisses, what sighs, happy bride — when tonight, in your bed of love, your contested charms gather the swarm of pleasures.”
Commentary
Dr. Ruxandra RouxHead of Literary Research & Development
Ignace Nau, around 1836. The title is a flower that opens only at night, and Nau turns it into a portrait of a woman: darkness, perfume, the intimacy of the hour.
Flower and desire are the same thing here. The belle de nuit shows its beauty only when the world goes quiet, which makes it private, fragile, brief. That is the point: it is most intense because it cannot last. Nau writes in the Romantic language of his century, from Haiti, in French, in the decades after independence. There is no politics in this poem. The night is a private matter.
Songs
The song made from Belle de nuit.
