To Jean Boissonnas 1
[First half of 1892?]
In your hair autumn comes back to life:
Its sad and sumptuous charm
Shines in the monotonous sheen
Melancholic and sumptuous
Of your hair.But mysterious spring
Green and luminous that gives us
The most precious of reflections
On which our eye plays and wonders
Ravished too in your person
That is the pale green gold of your eyes.Marcel Proust.
To nourish the long-standing mockery of our friend Robert.2
1. Jean-Baptiste Boissonnas (1870-1953), who was on the same course at L'École des sciences politiques as Proust.
2. Robert de Billy.
From Bulletin de la société des amis de Marcel Proust et des amis de Combray, no 27, 1977, p375, A Jean Boissonas, poème inédit de M.P. annoté par Philp Kolb.