(First Arabesque 1937)
Margot Fonteyn1919-1991
White cotton and silk in flow and muse,
A raven swan beauty gliding on the screen;
Her black eyes indwelling and demure,
A smile that graces and lithely dances;
She was one who had a need to be
Needed. A saint, then, and an artist?
Willing the one thing: a marriage of
Music and movement, her smile concealing
The longed for pain of all her knowing:
The coda in a pauper's grave is nothing
To our applause and fulfilment of dance.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem