Jean Cocteau
Two Poems from Clair-Obscur
Translated from the French by
María Espinosa
The Young Woman
What do you want me to do
How is this done
The young woman is facing me
While she's in profile
How is this done
She has only one eye facing
me
She has two in profile
What do you want me to do
What do you want me to do
How is this done
Her face is a mirror
Which reflects her profile.
The Wash
She goes behind the linen
When her shadow goes before.
If her shadow changes sides
She shortens she lengthens
She puts her skirt in the
wind.
English
language translation copyright ©2006 by Green Integer and María Espinosa.
___
Jean
Cocteau was born in Maisons-Lafitte into a wealthy Parisian family. He left
home at age 15, and in his early 20s became associated with Proust, Gide,
Maurice Barrès and others. But it was Picasso’s influence that most changed his
writing. Cocteau wrote numerous fictions, poems, plays and essays, and made
important films of the 1930s, including The
Blood of a Poet and Beauty and the
Beast.