Art and poetry - Caillebotte and Brassens
Gustave Caillebotte, “Man and Woman Under an Umbrella”, 1877 (Study for Rue de Paris, Rainy Weather)
It was raining hard on the highway,
She walked without an umbrella,
I had one, stolen, no doubt,
That same morning to a friend
Running then to his rescue,
By drying the water from his face,
With a very gentle air she said “yes” to me.
.
A little corner of an umbrella,
Against a corner of paradise.
She had something of an angel,
A little corner of paradise,
Against a corner of an umbrella.
I didn't lose at the exchange, of course!
.
The way it was tender
To hear the pretty song together
That the water from the sky made it sound
On the roof of my umbrella!
I would have liked, as in the flood,
See the rain constantly falling,
To keep her under my refuge,
Forty days, forty nights.
.
A little corner of an umbrella,
Against a corner of paradise.
She had something of an angel,
A little corner of paradise,
Against a corner of an umbrella.
I didn't lose at the exchange, of course!
.
But stupidly, even in a storm,
Roads go to countries;
Soon his made a barrier
On the horizon of my madness!
She had to leave me
After saying thank you very much.
And I saw it, very little,
Leaving happily towards my oblivion…
George Brassens
Gustave Caillebotte, "Man and Woman Under an Umbrella", 1877 (Study for Rue de Paris, Rainy Weather).