Myrto | A poem by Gérard de Nerval, 1808-55

Salvatore Fergola, A View of Naples from Posillipo, c 1840

It is of you, divine enchantress, I am thinking, Myrto,
Burning with a thousand fires at haughty Posilipo,
Of your forehead flowing with an Oriental glare,
Of the black grapes mixed with the gold of your hair.

From your cup also I drank to intoxication,
And from the furtive lightning of your smiling eyes,
While I was seen praying at the feet of Iacchus,
For the Muse has made me one of Greece’s sons.

Over there the volcano has re-opened, and I know
It is because yesterday you touched it with your nimble toe,
And suddenly the horizon was covered with ashes.

Since a Norman Duke shattered your gods of clay,
Evermore beneath the branches of Virgil’s laurel,
The pale hydrangea mingles with the green myrtle!

 Gérard de Nerval, 1808-55

Also:
An Old Tune | A poem by Gérard de Nerval, 1808-55
Club des Hashischins | Paris (1844 – 1849) | Théophile Gautier / Charles Baudelaire / Gérard de Nerval / Eugène Delacroix / Victor Hugo / Honoré de Balzac / Alexandre Dumas