Nocturnes

[Verse 1]

A ghost hiding in a broken shell
Dwelling in dreams it never tells
Trapped in a husk of indifference
Caught by a glance into existence

[Pré-refrain]

For a second? A moment? A season maybe

[Verse 2]

Her silhouette burst in my eyes
Like white silver was set ablaze
It was too raw to dissect
How long for us to connect

[Pré-refrain]

A second? A moment? A season maybe

[Chorus]

The breath and the touch
The gaze and the warmth
There's nothing to talk about
There's too much to dream about

[Verse 3]

Night after night kiss after kiss
Your touch revived what I used to miss
And my heart your voice unfroze
Tell me how long it echoes

[Pré-refrain]

A second? A moment? A season maybe

[Chorus]

[Bridge]

Quand les premières neiges tombent sur Minsk,
(Всё случилось так внезапно)
Que la verdure des feuillages disparaît
pour ne laisser transparaître
Que la grisaille de l'asphalte
Et des écorces blessées,
(Я испугалась твоего тепла)
Je prends conscience qu'ici,
Entre le béton et l'acier,
(Я тебе не подхожу)
Il ne reste pour moi de cette ville
Que son air glacé.
(Когда растает снег, нас не будет)

[Chorus]

[Outro]

And I, a moment, a brief moment,
(Et moi, un instant, un bref instant,)
a season, maybe…
(une saison peut-être…)
(Наш сезон прошёл.)
I dreamt of a girl from Minsk.
(J'ai rêvé d'une fille de Minsk.)
(Когда растает снег, нас нет.)

Seeing the eagle brush the sun each day,
Haunted by the heavy shadow of purgatory,
Like Icarus leaping from his promontory,
To escape the darkness, I wanted to fly away.

Out of vanity, I approached the ocellated star.
I wanted to match His goodness, not knowing
That too close to the Light, this power
Would disintegrate my frail winged body.

But I understood during this endless whirlwind:
He offered me darkness — a precious gift.
I need neither light nor prayer;

And when this fall finally ends,
I shall rise again, looking up to the heavens,
For dead, my soul will become pure light.

Here echoes
Echoes within me
Incessantly
Her blessed name

And the hare says that by the starlight's gleam
The light fabric slips from her naked body.
Then she approaches, her gaze ingenuous
— A graceful silhouette, freed from its veils.

Kneeling by the man in the vermilion wound
She accomplishes the feat with her hands and her mouth,
To turn the lying figure on the ground
Into an ithyphallic prince, noble in his sleep.

She stands up, gazing at him with desire.
Then, like the owl on its impaled trunk,
She mounts this newly created stake,
Opposing to the dead man this sublime act of life.

And as the frenzied amazon in her trance
Offers the sleeping prince, with her eager lips,
A passionate kiss, his wide empty eyes glimpse
Her naked, warm, vibrant, and sweating body.

On the surface of two frozen lakes,
Where languished white moonlight's reflections
So troubled that Neptune's wrath
Seemed beneath the ice concealed.

And under the hæmorrhage of twilight,
The lakes, those two mirrors of green marble
Darkened, revealing in the open eye
A capital black pupil.

Encircling this sooty swirl,
The flowing water of the iris appeared dark;
It lost its pure emerald brilliance
To assume the tarnished hue of a lagoon.

Beneath the empyrean, obsidian reflections
Gleamed in the greyness of the gaze.
Faced with her I remained bewildered.
Yet rupture was inevitable:

From me, a fine word, a witticism;
And a laugh took her.
lineamented by the moon,
Her silvered lips
Unveiled my thoughts;
Those emerald-green marble eyes
Shining in the warm night,

It wasn't them I wished to kiss.

The chamber,
Haven of solitude where torment swims,
Haven of perfect sobs, without pearl or blade
Where hopes drown, where the mind, gently
Dismembers.

Néant!
Cannibalistic echo and yet the banner
Of absolute anguish, of infinite terror,
Devourer of glittering stars in the soul
Seated.

Ô chamber,
Tumultuous haven, realm of the devourer.
Through the night, sidereal darkness,
The poet, the mind still scattered, horror
Remembers.

Néant!
Oh! Still néant! The vesperal fall
Crowns you, ô néant. You reign, sly,
Over the night and its spirit — agonising with a flowing
Rattle.

The chamber,
Chalice of voluptuousness, sepals as harness.
Vertiginous chasms, from the disclosed muse,
Gleam great eyes mingled with sienna green
And amber.

Néant!
Without her, witherings, death of verse, of prose
Your reign is announced, ô infinite darkness…
But beauty triumphs; and your empire explodes
Gaping!

The chamber,
Gloomy cenotaph, reminder of horror,
The heady scent of the venal muse
Whose hair flies, and who, ardently,
Arches.

Néant!
You, who devoured her, virginal muse,
What a dizzying price to believe you gone:
Agony, suffering, libidinal languor.
Yet…

With a certain nonchalance,
On his tree, the hanged man swings.
How proud he is of his new necklace!
And though his two fists had to be tied,

It was to better display to the horde
His sumptuous adornment of rope.
He struts, chin held high,
He who whinnied just a few days ago.

The putrefaction gnaws at his brown skin;
Worms emerge from it like from a plum.
Yet in the evening, when the aquilon blows,
As if a violin was played,

He dances like a faun, capers,
Claps his intestine against his shin;
He flies with the wind, like a flag
— Sometimes even a piece of skin falls off.

In the morning, his rested carcass
That dripping with a fine dew
Likes to welcome some starlings
Using his bony ribs as stepladders

There they peck at his flesh,
extracting worms they devour.
A flock of crows earlier feasted
On his eyes and his pouty-lipped face.

Thus, except for a few hanging shreds,
This face has kept only its teeth.
But the hanged man does not remain unfazed:

Without lips, he appears smiling.
What joy! He can finally, carefree,
Swing from the branch of a tree.

Wreathed in long threads of gold, hetæra's adornment,
Her face radiates with a pure, feline gaze.
Subtle nitescence and imperial light
Offering the universe a crystalline brilliance
Born of her divine gifts: her grace and her smile.

[Intro]

The city gave birth to a turgid sun
Lighting up the night for a brief moment
A pillar of fire flashed
Before the darkness finally falls

[Couplet 1]

A cloud of ash devours the stars
That float above the city
Even the moon can't shine
In this burning cloud
I fought I was working for the Lord
But faced with this desolation
I finally understood
With tears in my eyes
Having flouted my allegiances

[Refrain]

Sitting on the golden throne of faith
I observe the sad shameless city
Blown away by this sporophore of dust
The throne is collapsing I am on the ground
And I feel the black heraldic vulture
With its pointed beak devouring my liver

[Couplet 2]

Interrupting the whispers of the wind
A black rain falls on the city
The silhouettes sprayed on the walls
Observe the motionless corpses
Lying on the charred ground
Lying among the ruins
They seem to be digging through the ashes
In search of their past life

[Interlude]

At the top of the mountain, I imagine myself
Seized by divine grace
Arm outstretched, closing my eyes
And as I fell feeling my hair
In the wind twirling
To finally unfold

[Pont]

I was looking for purity
I didn't care if I lived or died
I believed in my actions
But my deeds are in vain
So nothingness reigns

[Couplet 3]

The Lord caused the ancient city to fall
A rain of sulphur and fire
Bearer of light gnawed by hubris
Like Prometheus I stole my God
And my flames blew out the cursed city

[Refrain]

[BIS]

[Outro]

The only good I still have
In this dark landscape
Is to have cried a few times
And fallen from my golden throne
The vulture is still digging my liver