Les plus anciens lecteurs de ce blog se souviennent peut-être de Martha Redbone, et de ses versions blues de poèmes de William Blake. Quelle meilleure occasion que la saint Valentin pour écouter son interprétation de The garden of love ?
The garden of love
I went to the Garden of Love,
And saw what I never had seen:
A Chapel was built in the midst,
Where I used to play on the green.
And the gates of this Chapel were shut,
And ‘Thou shalt not’ writ over the door;
So I turn’d to the Garden of Love,
That so many sweet flowers bore.
And I saw it was filled with graves,
And tomb-stones where flowers should be:
And Priests in black gowns, were walking their rounds,
And binding with briars, my joys & desires.
Can I see another’s woe, And not be in sorrow too? Can I see another’s grief, And not seek for kind relief?
Can I see a falling tear, And not feel my sorrow’s share? Can a father see his child Weep, nor be with sorrow filled?
Can a mother sit and hear An infant groan, an infant fear? No, no! never can it be! Never, never can it be!
And can He who smiles on all Hear the wren with sorrows small, Hear the small bird’s grief and care, Hear the woes that infants bear –
And not sit beside the nest, Pouring pity in their breast, And not sit the cradle near, Weeping tear on infant’s tear?
And not sit both night and day, Wiping all our tears away? O no! never can it be! Never, never can it be!
He doth give His joy to all: He becomes an infant small, He becomes a man of woe, He doth feel the sorrow too.
Think not thou canst sigh a sigh, And thy Maker is not by: Think not thou canst weep a tear, And thy Maker is not near.
O He gives to us His joy, That our grief He may destroy: Till our grief is fled and gone He doth sit by us and moan.
William Blake, Songs of innocence
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Parmi les diverses mises en musique de ce poème, j’en signalerai deux.
Une version blues par Martha Redbone qui a semble-t-il consacré un album – The Garden of Love – à William Blake.
Un extrait de la B.O. du film A little princess, composée par Patrick Doyle. Je n’ai pas vu ce film, mais il semble que ce soit l’adaptation cinématographique du roman dont mes plus si jeunes lecteurs connaissent l’adaptation en série d’animation sous le nom de Princesse Sarah.
Pater Taciturnus 