Robert Schumann: Carnaval

Poems by William Aide

 

The dancers masked in Carnaval are clowns

composers lovers dual selves who sport

and dream and whirl and chase each other down

and laugh and never need to know defeat,

Masked vivacities are sweet —

Préambule

Opening pages crying Schumann!

Trip the pompous, dot the chords,

beam my everlasting numen,

zoom like greeny hummingbirds,

leaping maskers, all too human,

vitus-dance beyond all words!

Pierrot

Pierrot turns on his own misterium

(the tiny town points in the baritone);

he punctuates a sweet delirium,

a sad obsessive loon,

a tic beneath a lantern moon.

Arlequin

Nimble be quick and boisterous wit.

triple somersaults, quintuple twirls

never a doubt comes tumbling out of it

now and forever, you get the girls!

Valse Noble

Nobility is most itself when likened:

striding danseur leads the masquerade

moved by Obligation, slackened

by Tenderness, his promised bride.

Eusebius

Unsteady dreams for hire.

I teach brutal men the lyre.

I am love’s pale fire.

Florestan

Imprisoned in my wrath,

remembered butterflies impale me,

I am the passionate man.

Action-bound, I will burst forth

fears cannot assail me —

Meet your Florestan!

Coquette

No man will contain you,

saucy frolic,

men will not disdain you;

melancholic

money will maintain you.

Replique

More of the same and yet

a saner, trimmed Coquette.

Sphinxes

(not to be played)

Triple anchor —

no one knows

blight or chancre

from the rose.

Papillons

Compositions’ butterflies

populate my mind;

zig-zag

lepidopterae

settle on the wind.

Lettres Dansantes

ASCH, the little town from which she came,

SCHA, the music-letters of my name,

motive curving

amorous glancing

sudden swervings

swift romancing

LETTERS DANCING blaze my fame.

Chiarina

(Clara, aged 15)

O my prophetic soul!

All in strength you will do,

bear my children, heal

my mind, rue

the day I conquered you!

Chopin

Neurasthenic nocturne —

I shall do a mock-turn.

Estrella

My first love, vexed,

abandoned, perplexed.

I, smugly oversexed,

Ernestine, this driven waltz,

frantic pitch that never halts,

amber-catch of all my faults.

Reconnaissance

These amiable line dances,

these strutting nonchalances

conceal us for awhile;

withdrawing let us tell

just how we loved so well,

then sashay back in style.

Pantalon et Columbine

Nothing so obscene,

codger with a hard-on

chasing Columbine!

Or may just a friendly spat —

she wins

that’s that.

Valse Allemande

Tentative at first

then laughter burst-

ing out

from Franco-German pout.

Paganini

Pizzicati’s black violin —

listening is a sin

Schumann understands.

Devil-may-care-to

sawing the air to

pieces in my hands.

Aveu

I would never wish you haunted,

do not feel accused;

longings that I never vaunted

leave your heart bemused.

Promenade

Tell me you still love me,

Why so fierce?

Talk with me.

All the stars above me

believe my remorse —

drop your disguise,

look into my eyes,

walk with me,

waltz with me.

Pause

Hearts eased,

prestissimo reprised.

Marche des Davidsbündler contre les Philistines

Quick march blusters in three-quarter time,

brash experiment,

all in merriment,

hoary-heads and David League elated —

final scene

all thirteen

foes decapitated!

Carnaval, his blithest paradigm.

Envoi

And philistines and all their dreary wrangles

dissolve in vivid play immerse in jest

exuberant enough to rout the angels.

Suffering seems unreal once it has passed.

Dancers hold each other fast.