Colloquy with a Polish Aunt

Elle savait toutes les legendes du Paradis et
tous les contes de la Pologne. Revue des Deux
Mondes

She

How is it that my saints from Voragaine,
In their embroidered slippers, touch your spleen?

He

Old pantaloons, duenna of the spring!

She

Imagination is the will of things....
Thus, on the basis of the common drudge,
You dream of women, swathed in indigo,
Holding their books toward the nearer stars,
To read, in secret, their burning secrecies....