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Auguste ANGELLIER ! (1848-1911)
The golden pheasant
When the golden pheasant courtes his female,
And makes, to dazzle him, the wheel, he sparks
With fires more shimmering than a stained glass bird.
Raising his golden hoopoe, bristling his camel
Dawn colour and zebra with ebony stripes,
Swelling suri bib red ardent, he walks,
Each wing raised, in haughty gaits;
Its plumage fills with glimmer, the marbling
of its bronzed green collar, the golden hem of its penne,
the embodiment of its back, the uncertain
splendours of its tail where tight grains of vermilion
are alternated with black lines on a background
of rich, sumptuous and lucid amethyst,
Everything lights up, everything follows...
... And, on these silent eyes of clear stones
Uniting, breaking into jewels
That set bronze and steel, and silver,
runs yet another shiver of mobile and changing gold,
Which is born, spreads, flees, shrinks, shudders,
Burst, slide, die, flow, wavy, flake,
spread out in golden lacing, in gold plates unfolds,
Palpitates, alanguishes, scatters, powdery,
And an elusive and enchanting network
Wraps the bird's flaming body.
When the Golden Pheasant courts his female,
And makes, to dazzle her, the wheel, he sparks
With fires more shimmering than a stained glass bird.
Raising his golden hoopoe, bristling his camel
Dawn colour and zebra with ebony stripes,
Swelling suri bib red ardent, he walks,
Each wing raised, in haughty gaits;
Its plumage fills with glimmer, the marbling
of its bronzed green collar, the golden hem of its penne,
the embodiment of its back, the uncertain
splendours of its tail where tight grains of vermilion
are alternated with black lines on a background
of rich, sumptuous and lucid amethyst,
Everything lights up, everything follows...
... And, on these silent eyes of clear stones
Uniting, breaking into jewels
That set bronze and steel, and silver,
runs yet another shiver of mobile and changing gold,
Which is born, spreads, flees, shrinks, shudders,
Burst, slide, die, flow, wavy, flake,
spread out in golden lacing, in gold plates unfolds,
Palpitates, alanguishes, scatters, powdery,
And an elusive and enchanting network
Wraps the bird's flaming body.
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