Quotations about:
    walk


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Dear indolent, I love to see,
in your body bright,
How like shimmering silk the skin
Reflects the light!
[…]
When you walk in rhythm, lovely
With abandonment,
You seem to be swayed by a wand,
A dancing serpent.

Que j’aime voir, chère indolente,
De ton corps si beau,
Comme une étoffe vacillante,
Miroiter la peau!
[…]
À te voir marcher en cadence,
Belle d’abandon,
On dirait un serpent qui danse
Au bout d’un bâton.

Charles Baudelaire
Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) French poet, essayist, art critic
Les Fleurs du Mal [The Flowers of Evil], Part 1, #29 “Le Serpent qui danse [The Dancing Serpent],” st. 1, 5 (1857) [tr. Gibbs (1947)]
    (Source)

These phrases use very similar imagery to the previous poem in the collection. (Source (French)). Alternate translations:

I love to watch, while you are lazing,
Your skin. It iridesces
Like silk or satin, smoothly-glazing
The light that it caresses.
[...]
To see you rhythmically advancing
Seems to my fancy fond
As if it were a serpent dancing
Waved by the charmer’s wand.
[tr. Campbell (1952), #28 "The Snake That Dances"]

Indolent darling, how I love
To see the skin
Of your body so beautiful
Shimmer like silk!
[...]
To see you walking in cadence
With fine abandon,
One would say a snake which dances
On the end of a staff.
[tr. Aggeler (1954) "The Dancing Serpent"]

Indolent love, with what delight
I watch the tawny flesh
Of your sweet body shimmer bright
As a bright silken mesh.
[...]
Your sinuous cadenced walk enhancing
Your slim proud gait, a frond
Swaying, you are, or a snake dancing
Atop a fakir's wand.
[tr. LeClercq (1958) "Dancing Serpent"]

How I love to watch, dear indolent creature,
The skin of your so
Beautiful body glisten, like some
Quivering material!
[...]
Seeing your harmonious walk,
Abandoned beauty,
One would say a snake was dancing
At the end of a stick.
[tr. Wagner (1974) "The Dancing Serpent"]

Dear indolent! I love to see
with every move you make
the iridescence of your skin
gleam like watered silk.
[...]
And when you walk to cadences
of sinuous nonchalance,
it looks as if a serpent danced
in rhythm to a wand.
[tr. Howard (1982) "As If A Serpent Danced"]

How I adore, dear indolent,
Your lovely body, when
Like silken cloth it shimmers --
Your sleek and glimmering skin!
[...]
Viewing the rhythm of your walk,
Beautifully dissolute,
One seems to see a serpent dance
Before a wand and flute.
[tr. McGowan (1993), "The Dancing Serpent"]

How love to look, dear indolent one, at your beautiful body and see, like a shot silk, the changing gleam of your skin! [...]
Seeing your rhythmic walk, beautiful in its abandon, one thinks of a serpent dancing at the head of a stick.
[tr. Clark (1995), #18 "The Dancing Serpent"]

How I love, dear lazybones, to see how the skin of your beautiful body sparkles like cloth billowing [...]
To see you walk in cadence, fair unconstrained, brings to mind a serpent dancing at the prodding of a stick.
[tr. Waldrop (2006), "Dancing Serpent"]

 
Added on 10-Feb-22 | Last updated 10-Feb-22
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Let us go singing as far as we go: the road will be less tedious.

[Cantantes licet usque (minus via laedit) eamus.]

Virgil the Poet
Virgil (70-19 BC) Roman poet [b. Publius Vergilius Maro; also Vergil]
Eclogues [Eclogae, Bucolics, Pastorals], No. 9 “Lycidas and Moeris,” l. 64ff (9.64) [Lycidas] (42-38 BC)
    (Source)

(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:

Singing lets goe, the way shall better please.
[tr. Ogilby (1649)]

A Song will help the beating Storm to bear.
[tr. Dryden (1709), l. 89]

Light song will ease the road of half its care.
[tr. Wrangham (1830), l. 76]

Yet we may still go on singing; the way will be less tedious.
[tr. Davidson (1854)]

Singing let us journey on --
(The way will seem less tedious).
[tr. Calverley (c. 1871)]

We may as well sing -- it makes the journey less irksome.
[tr. Wilkins (1873)]

Move on, and should the way seem long,
Shorten the distance with a song.
[tr. King (1882), ll. 915-916]

Walk on, and make
The road less tedious with our verse.
[tr. Palmer (1883)]

Then singing let us go,
our way to lighten.
[tr. Greenough (1895)]

Let us go on still singing; the way is less tedious.
[tr. Bryce (1897)]

We may go singing all the way, and the road weary us the less.
[tr. Mackail (1899)]

Let us go singing to beguile our way.
[tr. Mackail/Cardew (1908)]

Let us go forward singing, for the path
Tires us less so.
[tr. Williams (1915)]

We may yet go singing on our way -- it makes the road less irksome.
[tr. Fairclough (Loeb) (1916)]

Let us sing carols all the way: 'twill be
Less tedious.
[tr. Royds (1922)]

Why not go forward singing all the way? It makes the going easier.
[tr. Rieu (1949)]

We still may sing as we go and lighten the journey.
[tr. Johnson (1960)]

We can press on,
Singing as we go: a song lightens a long road.
[tr. Day Lewis (1963), ll. 63-64]

Let's keep on going, but singing as we go.
Sing makes the journey easier.
[tr. Ferry (1999)]

We might go along singing (the road will be less tedious).
[tr. Kline (2001)]

 
Added on 26-Nov-12 | Last updated 27-Dec-23
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