The Vampire ou la Succube
J'ai toujours été admirative devant la superbe peinture intitulée "The Vampire", réalisée par Sir Philip Burnes-Jones en 1897.
Il faut signaler afin de ne pas le confondre avec son talentueux géniteur, que celui-ci n'est autre que le fils du peintre préraphaélite Sir Edward Burne-Jones.
Cette peinture inspira Kipling pour son poème éponyme "The Vampire", il représente une femme enfourchant un homme inconscient, son modèle était l'actrice victorienne Mrs Patrick Campbell, femme avec laquelle Burne Jones a vécu une relation intime.
Mrs Patrick Campbell
The Vampire by Rudyard Kipling
A fool there was and he made his prayer
(Even as you or I!)
To a rag and a bone and a hank of hair,
(We called her the woman who did not care),
But the fool he called her his lady fair--
(Even as you or I!)
Oh, the years we waste and the tears we waste,
And the work of our head and hand
Belong to the woman who did not know
(And now we know that she never could know)
And did not understand!
A fool there was and his goods he spent,
(Even as you or I!)
Honour and faith and a sure intent
(And it wasn't the least what the lady meant),
But a fool must follow his natural bent
(Even as you or I!)
Oh, the toil we lost and the spoil we lost
And the excellent things we planned
Belong to the woman who didn't know why
(And now we know that she never knew why)
And did not understand!
The fool was stripped to his foolish hide,
(Even as you or I!)
Which she might have seen when she threw him aside--
(But it isn't on record the lady tried)
So some of him lived but the most of him died--
(Even as you or I!)
``And it isn't the shame and it isn't the blame
That stings like a white-hot brand--
It's coming to know that she never knew why
(Seeing, at last, she could never know why)
And never could understand!''
Ezekiel
"Pourquoi Dieu a-t-il fait l'homme jardinier ? C'est parce qu'il savait qu'au jardin la moitié du travail se fait à genoux." (Rudyard Kipling)
"Aussi longtemps que tu vivras et que tu auras un souffle en toi, ne te livre à personne." (Rudyard Kipling)