The Embarkation for Cythera, 1717

Jean-Antoine Watteau (France, 1684-1721)

Oil on canvas 129 cm x 194 cm

Musée du Louvre, Paris

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The Embarkation for Cythera
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The picnic-goers beautified themselves,
And then set sail for Cythera, with jugs
To keep their coffee hot, martinis cold,
And hampers full of music. The water shone
For them that day, and like a street of jewels
Lay between their land and the island.
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Their cockle hull was pretty, white and gold
As the Mozarteum, and their laughter picked
Its way, nicely as tunes of proper jump,
From port to starboard, gentlemen to ladies,
And return. They played their cards right, whiling
The day away by smiling and by thinking
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Of the times to come, the banquets in the grove
On the antless island of that ancient idol
Love, the girl who rose to be the pearl
To deck them out. Thinking of her, each lady
Fingered her necklace, and sweet music tattled
From the spinet of her desire; each lord
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Touched at his sleeve for the ace he'd hidden there.
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David Ferry (American, 1924)
On the Way to the Island
Wesleyan Univeristy Press, Middletown, Conn., 1960
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http://livinginthepostcard.blog.terra.com.br
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