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- 08/27/2018
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Translation Trashbin - 17. La Jouissance
This kingly poem was ignored by scholars until very recently because it was regarded as far too Gay. Fredrick and Algarotti were certainly lovers, and perhaps partners for a time before the young prince was called back to Prussia and duty. Probably expressing both homesickness for sunny Italy and love-sickness for a missing companion, these sentiments came together in the composition of this remarkably erotic piece. In it, the freshly coronated young man -- who was only 28 years old -- imagines his distant lover in the throws of ecstasy. It's only thinly veiled that he's not the one there with Algarotti, witnessing it firsthand (again).
Keith Sterns writes of Algarotti (Queers in History, p.11) that he was adored by Voltaire, who gave him the swan appellation. Before he met Fredrick, the Italian was in London. There at age 22 he became the central figure of a love triangle between Lord John Hervery and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. "Hervery and Montagu competed for Algarotti's love and attention for many years."
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«La Jouissance»
[de Frédéric II, roi de Prusse, 1740]
De Königsberg à Monsieur Algarotti, cygne de Padoue
Cette nuit, contentant ses vigoureux desires,
Algarotti nageait dans la mer des plaisirs.
Un corps plus accompli qu’en tailla Praxitèle,
Redoublait de ses sens la passion nouvelle.
Tout ce qui parle aux yeux et qui touche le cœur,
Se trouvait dans l’objet qui l’enflammait d’ardeur.
Transporté par l’amour, tremblant d’impatience,
Dans les bras de Cloris à l’instant il s’élance.
L’amour qui les unit, échauffait leurs baisers
Et resserrait plus fort leurs bras entrelacés.
Divine volupté! Souveraine du monde!
Mère de leurs plaisirs, source à jamais féconde,
Exprimez dans mes vers, par vos propres accents
Leur feu, leur action, l’extase de leurs sens!
Nos amants fortunés, dans leurs transports extrêmes,
Dans les fureurs d’amour ne connaissaient qu’eux-mêmes:
Baiser, jouir, sentir, soupirer et mourir,
Ressusciter, baiser, revoler au plaisir.
Et dans les champs de Gnide essoufflés sans haleine,
Etait de ces amants le fortuné destin.
Mais le bonheur finit; tout cesse le matin.
Heureux, de qui l’esprit ne fut jamais la proie
Du faste des grandeurs et qui connut la joie!
Un instant de plaisir pour celui qui jouit,
Vaut un siècle d’honneur dont l’éclat éblouit.
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"The Climax"
[by Fredrick the Great, 1740]
From Königsberg to Monsieur Algarotti, swan of Padua
Tonight, slaking these, his most forceful designs,
Algarotti floats on a sea of pleasures.
A body more chiseled than a Greek sculpture
Redoubles his senses with a fresh, new passion.
All that speaks to the eyes and touches the heart,
Becomes fuel to further inflame his ardor.
Carried then by love, trembling with impatience,
Like in the arms of Spring the moment it starts.
The love that unifies, heats up their kisses
And more tightly knits their inter-writhing limbs.
Divine sensuality! The world’s sovereign!
Origin of pleasure, fount which won’t run dry,
Breathe life into my verse, as if by your voice,
Your flame, your action, the ecstasy of wits!
Our lovers most blessed, in their raptures supreme,
In the flurry of love, they know of themselves:
Of kisses, joys, scents, gasping for air and death,
Only to revive, kiss once more and resume.
And in the fields of Venus, breathlessly spent,
Lay the fortuned destiny of our lovers.
But the good times shared; normal morning returns.
Happy, from whom the spirit was never prey,
From formal grandeurs, it is for those who know
A moment of climax for two to enjoy,
Is worth an age of honors that dazzle and cloy.
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