japonisme: le bain

17 June 2007

le bain

Gloire de Dijon
David Herbert Law- rence

When she rises in the morning
I linger to watch her;
She spreads the bath- cloth underneath
the window
And the sunbeams catch her
Glistening white on the shoulders,
While down her sides the mellow
Golden shadow glows as
She stoops to the sponge, and her swung breasts

Sway
like
full- blown yellow
Gloire de Dijon roses.

She drips herself with water, and her shoulders
Glisten as silver, they crumple up
Like wet and falling roses, and I listen

For the slui- cing of their

rain-dishevelled petals.
In the window full of sunlight
Concentrates her golden shadow
Fold on fold, until it glows as
Mellow as the glory roses.

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2 Comments:

Blogger harlequinpan said...

Adduce D. H. Lawrence' encomium poem about 'Gloire de Dijon' to describe Bathing woman is very surprising and amazing! it's very suitable for Degas ,Gertrude and Bonnard's works, but for Japan's different bathing cultural , i think that has some details are difficult to describe ,in upper left drawing, men and women was described in same bathing space, i am afraid that is not a poem can explained clearly.

i love these wonderful works,Thank you for sharing!!

18 June, 2007 09:20  
Blogger lotusgreen said...

thank you hp--

yes, that was my original thought, to compare the two culture's' attitude towards bathing.

apparently the west had something similar to what japan has maybe 500 years ago? why did we stop?

did its being closed for over 200 years allow japan to keep some customs that also might have been lost had it "kept up" with world culture?

but in the end, as you can imagine, i really could not find any equivilent images from the west, so i decided to make it more about body posture. as lovely as the western images are to us, they are not "airbrushed" or otherwise made "perfect" as earlier painings in those cultures were.

i had also planned a long discussion questioning these things, but then i found that poem....

i'm so grateful you comment, hp. i get to feeling lonely sometimes when there's no response. i wish more people would let me know what's on their minds, if they like something, hate something, question something....

thanks

18 June, 2007 11:22  

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hi, and thanks so much for stopping by. i spend all too much time thinking my own thoughts about this stuff, so please tell me yours. i thrive on the exchange!

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