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Dans la nuit toutes les femmes sont brunettes et belles

The bustle of the Quarter is white noise

and barely heard beyond our cotton drapes;

the lazy putes, the lolling Cajun boys,

the knives, the horns, the skin-of-teeth escapes,

the razzmatazz – it’s on another sphere,

a sweet dimension carved from elements

beyond our ken. But we are lying here –

what alien spell makes us both malcontents?

Some months ago we matched our female flow,

all rhythms are now ours, once yours and mine;

and now, at last we breathe as one, and slow

our heartbeats, each the other to define.

   A bitterness, like coffee, in your hair…

   Enfin, tais-toi, et fais do-do ma chčre.

 

Author notes

The title is a proverb of my own making (although someone is bound to have said it before). It's my version of "dans la nuit tous les chats sont gris", and means "at night all women are dark-haired and beautiful".

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Comments

1 - 19 of 19

  • Tirrell
    January 26

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    Chere this is beautiful. I love the imagery, and the flow is beyond supurb. This has enchanted me,
    there is mystery to this sonnet, and I find it rather beautiful, for no other word shall do.


    • Mairi bheag gold member
      January 26
      Edit | Reply
      It's one of my many New Orleans poems, dedicated to someone fairly wonderful.


  • Melodies
    October 3, 2008

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    Adventures in sonnet writing abounding and dancing through Cyberspace! What fun! You have helped me to see that a Shakespearean sonnet can be a real trip!


  • Barry Hodges silver member
    August 10, 2008

    Edit | Reply
    Also, you may wish to consider a similar Scottish proverb I have heard:
    "Whae's gonnae look at yon mantelpiece when ye're guid and dirty gittin' yer hole, ye ken".


  • The Bear
    June 14, 2008

    Edit | Reply
    This sonnet arrests me, because I admire the crafting, but more I admire the atmosphere, the sounds the smells and the way it feel like a contrast of softness and the crispness of white linen. When I am young I live with a lot of people together, male and female, and we do not have much privacy but no embarrassments either because that is not how we lived and thought.
    The women they say this that they synchronise their cycles, but I think not only is this phenomenon but we all seem like after a while to live like the flow and ebb of a river, in some strange harmony. I notice that my neighbours where there are 8 young people who live in the same space that me and Stefan live, they also have this harmony. So two people close, no matter gender, I feel that they have body rhythms of fluid that match the tides and the moon also.
    This pulse of your poem resonate to me.
    I especially like this penultimate line
    'A bitterness , like coffee, in your hair.'
    Is so intimate, yet in a way, business like.


  • Peripatetic gold member
    June 11, 2008
    Edit | Reply

    Oh, excuse me, Ma'am!

    I like the sound of the words, the rhythm and flow, and the French Quarter images. With trepidation, however, I wonder about lines 9 & 10. 

    (Pardonnez-moi pour demander, chère dame, mais que fait ce moyen? Soyez doux, si vous plait!)

    I feel I have blundered into a lady's private quarters at an inopportune moment. I enjoy the view, but I am not sure what it is that I see and I am a little embarrassed to be caught looking.


    • Mairi bheag gold member
      June 11, 2008

      Edit | Reply
      When women live together (and this even pertains in, say, the dormitory of a girls' boarding school), our menstrual cycles tend to coincide after a while. In this poem, that fact (the reason I say "moons" for "months") is a metaphor for the synchronising of all the rhythms in two companions' lives.

      [Il n' y a pas de quoi, mon brave... et je suis toujours DOUCE ]


      • Peripatetic gold member
        June 11, 2008

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        We have exceeded the limits of my guidebook French!

        "et je suis toujours DOUCE" I am sure you are, to the delight of all who know you well!
        As much as I love, admire and observe women, there is always something new to learn. Merci beaucoup!


        • Mairi bheag gold member
          June 11, 2008
          Edit | Reply
          I just wasn't going to let you get away with asking me to be "doux".


  • Amera gold member
    March 27, 2008

    Edit | Reply
    This is a perfect English sonnet penned in decasyllable to perfection with effortless rhyme and meter. I love how tou rhymend the English and the French. The "do-do" part went over my head.

    Love,
    Amera


    • Mairi bheag gold member
      March 27, 2008
      Edit | Reply
      "fais do-do" is baby talk, equivalent of "Go bye-byes", and it means "go to sleep". It comes from a shortening of the verb "dormir".

      (Actually, in Lousiana, a "Fais Do-do" is an all-night, adult, dance-party. It gets its name from the fact that they send all the kids to bed first! )


  • maa gold member
    March 27, 2008

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    woman-power !

    yay !
    keep the sonnet-river flowing, ma chère et belle sonnet-fairy ... I love, love, love your playful
    manner of composing and nourishing those precious
    gems ... the last line is just wonderful ... je ne veux pas faire dodo toute suite, par contre ... un peu plus tard ...


    marionette


    • Mairi bheag gold member
      March 27, 2008
      Edit | Reply
      I seem to be in a New Orleans frame of mind just at the moment. OK, well, no dodo for me either - it's bulot time, and I am away...

      Thanks for the visit and the lovely comment.

      M


  • cricketjeff gold member
    March 27, 2008

    Edit | Reply
    You are beautiful at anytime of day or night, as is your poetry.
    This is no exception, even with a slant rhyme

    • Mairi bheag gold member
      March 27, 2008
      Edit | Reply
      The slant rhyme was what I wanted to say, c'est tout! Thank you.

1 - 19 of 19