Lointaine Ophelia

S'il m'arrive d'oublier, cela ne dure pas.
Son image aussitôt me revient, limpide et magnifique,
Et se bousculent en mon âme étriquée, ces éclats de bonheur et de détresse
Qui m'enivrent autant qu'ils me déchirent.

À l'en chasser je ne peux me résoudre,
Comblant ce vide haï de chimères et de souvenirs.
Je ne peux qu'encaisser, misérable être ballotté par un manque incisif,
Fait de pensées éparses et étranges.

Je me languis, parfaitement incapable
D'abandonner cette flammèche d'un plaisir doucereux
Parmi le brasier tout-puissant qui m'habite et, sans répit, me pousse avant;
La rupture n'est pas, elle paraît.

Mon seul remède est sa compagnie;
Sa main dans la mienne, ses lèvres sur mon front
Me revigorent alors qu'enfin, le temps disloqué recouvre son cours véritable.

-Dimitri Prica

Dude, it gets better

I think I always knew it, but I simply didn't want to admit it. Now, I am perfectly aware of this fact and I am glad all my friends are as well. I am bisexual.

I've sometimes heard people making comments like “at least you're half normal” or “you're not fully lesbian” or even “don't worry, you'll be able to decide someday whether you like guys or girls”.

It's more complicated than that. Bisexuals are perfectly able to make choices. We are not sometimes heterosexual sometimes homosexual, we are both, and it's really different. Though we're not aroused all the time, it's just that in terms of love, the gender of the person doesn't really matter.

I think it would be illegitimate of me to complain about my situation. My “coming out” was really well accepted by my family, even by my little brother, by my friends, even by my boyfriend who kind of forced me to admit it in front of him in the first place. I am not seeking attention here, I'm just trying to point out several difficulties that bisexuals or homosexuals can face in their lives, and I encourage those who feel unsure about the idea of a coming out.

I'm from a little city in the South of France, the kind of place where everybody knows everybody, from every generation. I had my best friend, we knew each other for a very long time and I felt it was sort of natural to be so close to her, and to feel the need to be with her all the time. But when I started to compare our relationship to others, I soon found out that there was something more than just friendship. Where I come from, that kind of subject is really taboo, I did not want to feel alienated by others because I was not "normal".

Soon after this discovery, my father got a job near Geneva, Switzerland, and we had to move to a new city. It was incredibly painful for me, as I was truly in love with my best friend. So before we moved, I spent the night at her place, I thought probably for the last time. As her house was tiny, we usually stayed in the same bed, and after dinner we watched a movie. At the end of the movie, I got my face closer to hers and kissed her. She was surprised, but not disgusted. It was like she didn't even think about it. At that point I understood the whole meaning of that kiss. I moved away to Geneva, and we never talked about it again.But soon, my entire village knew the story. The usual stuff: she told a friend who told another friend and the rumor went completely out of control. At the end, some people were saying that I tried to rape her... I was away from that mess, thankfully, I was not exposed to the judgment of all these awful people who grew up with me. Most of them no longer talk to me, not because of distance but because I have a different sexual orientation. I went out with a girl during vacations when I came back to my village, but didn't quite like it as she only wanted to have an “unusual experience”.

I went out with several guys in Geneva, and as my experience in the South couldn't really be called a success, I never told anyone about my sexual orientation. Until, on December the 4th 2012, I went out not with “a” guy, but with “the” guy. He taught me how not to be ashamed of myself, and I can't express how thankful I am for this. He encouraged me to face this difference with pride and not shame, and that is my message of the day, a universal message: we are 7 billion people on Earth, and whether you like it or not, there can be, and there has to be differences between all these human beings. Being attracted to men, women, infertile, it doesn't matter. It's not something disgusting, nor shameful, it just is - it always has been, and always will be. I'm not gonna spend my life being a sexual orientation, I'm gonna be myself.

Lucrèce : La sérénité du sage épicurien

Suave, mari magno, turbantibus aequora ventis
e terra magnum alterius spectare laborem
Non quia vexari quemquamst jucunda voluptas,
sed quibus ipse malis careas quia cernere suave est.
Suave etiam belli certamina magna tueri
Per campos instructa, tua sine parte pericli.
Sed nihil dulcius est, bene quam munita tenere
edita doctrina sapientum templa serena,
despicere unde queas alios passimque videre
errare atque viam palantis quaerere vitae,
certare ingenio, contendere nobilitate,
Noctes atque dies niti praestante labore
ad summas emergere opes rerumque potiri.
O miseras hominum mentes! O pectora caeca!
Qualibus in tenebris vitae quantisque periclis
degitur hoc aevi quodcumquest!
Nonne videre nil aliud sibi naturam latrare, nisi ut qui
corpore sejunctus dolor absit, mensque fruatur,
jucundo sensu aura semota metuque?

Il est doux, sur la vaste mer, alors que les vents agitent les flots
depuis la terre de regarder le grand labeur d'un autre
Non pas que les tourments d'autrui soient un plaisir délectable,
Mais il est doux de voir à quels malheurs on échappe soi-même.
Il est également doux, d'observer les grands combats d'une guerre
Ordonnés en un champ de bataille, sans avoir sa part du danger.
Mais rien n'est plus doux, d'occuper  le sanctuaire paisible bien protégé bâti
par la doctrine des sages, et d'observer d'en haut les autres qui errent
çà et là à la recherche de la voie d'une vie morcelée,
de faire preuve d'intelligence, de noblesse,
nuit et jour pour s'élever au sommet de la richesse et se rendre maître des objets.
O malheureux esprits humains, O cœurs aveugles!
Dans quelles ténèbres la vie, et dans quels dangers, se déroule-t'elle!
Comment ne pas voir que la Nature ne réclame rien d'autre pour elle
Que l'absence de douleur dans le corps, et que l'esprit jouisse d'un
agréable sentiment, éloigné de tous soucis et de toute crainte?

Traduction par les Latinistes de Terminale

Songe

Je la vis un soir de brume, De ses bras bercer l'écume Du lac, tranquille et sans un bruit, Progresser dans la triste nuit. Lorsque la lune l'éclaira, La lourde brume s'affaissa, Laissant place à cette beauté, De moire et de brocart parée. De par sa voix elle envoûte, De par ses yeux elle déroute. Ses cheveux d'un blanc de neige, Et ses yeux d'un brun de liège, Incitent aux pauvres mortels, De venir s'approcher d'elle. Mais gracile elle progresse Au milieu de la détresse, De ses larmes désormais eaux Du lac, érigés par ses maux. Lorsque je me penchai au bord, Tout ce que j'y vis fut la Mort.

Aurea-Sidera