Hello, Boyd
Thank you for the very instigating answer. After
your clue about Rimbaud, I found a
French site ( with a section named "De couleur en
couleur") which opened up not only Rimbaud´s "Mémoire", but a
reference to his synesthaesia... It was a cleverly arranged program which
carried all the various entries into the same poetic theme or even for a
single word by Rimbaud ( a little too thorough, almost a spoil-sport
).
We have a common word in Portuguese for
the crescent-shape that forms at the edge of any jar filled with
liquid and which is connected to the surface tension that creates a drop and
establishes a holding limit for the exploration of Transparent Things.
I don´t remember having found it in VN´s various immersions around
the "water" theme. I refer to "meniscus". It suddenly occurred to me
that specially useful words ( meniscus has "moon" in its
origin, here as a crescent moon, and not on the "vane" ) left
relatively unexplored by VN could yield information about his style,
too.
Just as his insistent probings to describe the colour of
grey-green eyes, such as Lolita´s and, perhaps, Ada´s (
miniver/vair/vert/never/hiver ) which he didn´t appear to find
satisfactorily rendered whenever he referred to them...
Jansy
Jouet de cet oeil d'eau morne, je n'y puis
prendre,
ô canot immobile ! oh! bras trop courts ! ni l'une
ni l'autre
fleur : ni la jaune qui m'importune,
là ; ni la bleue, amie à l'eau couleur
de cendre.
Arthur Rimbaud, Mémoire
un I
rouge
A noir, E blanc, I rouge, U vert, O bleu : voyelles,...
(Voyelles)
des Poèmes
rouges
Blancs, verts, et rouges dioptriques,... (Ce qu'on dit au
poète à propos de fleurs)