The houses are haunted
By white night-gowns.
None are green,
Or purple with green rings,
Or green with yellow rings,
Or yellow with blue rings.
None of them are strange,
With socks of lace
And beaded ceintures.
People are not going
To dream of baboons and periwinkles.
Only, here and there, an old sailor,
Drunk and asleep in his boots,
Catches Tigers
In red weather.
People do not have much imagination except for occasional drunken sailors. I think poets in general are very like drunken sailors. Stevens' love affair with imagination is succinctly expressed here and I love catching tigers in red weather as an image and a metaphor for a man of imagination.
I'm afraid the title is not 'A' Disillusionment. It is simply 'Disillusionment of Ten O'Clock.' -G
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
A poem which is like a painting using bright colors-purple, green' blue. The people about to fall asleep to have exotic dreams, There is just 'an old sailor, / Drunk and asleep in his boots'. There are many connotations packed into these fifteen lines, I find.