Jean-Léon Gérôme, French
Exhibitionist Water Fowl Strutting Around Stork Naked, ca. 1889
Oil on canvas
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MASTERPIECE #3561
In researching the name of this Gérôme painting I may have discovered something too complicated (and interesting) to be conveyed in verse. The title in English seems to be: “Le Marabout: In the Harem Bath.” I believe that the first two words were not translated because Gérôme was making a pun in French. One of the meanings of Marabou, (without a “t”), is a large African stork exactly as pictured here. It is sometimes known as the “undertaker bird” because of how it looks from behind. But the painting’s title begins with Le Marabout, (which adds the final “t”), and this word means a North or West African seer, hermit, or holy man. A witch doctor often credited with supernatural powers. Was this simply a misspelling? I choose to believe that the painter intended to hint that the intruder wading into the harėm pool was a shapeshifter. And once again I lament the passing of mabrndt, whose scholarship would most likely have provided some definitive information about all this.
/// In the Harem Bath, laughter and mirth
greet a stork who has come down to earth.
Wives joke, soon he’ll take wing
fetching babies to bring
to girls unskilled at forestalling birth.
/// The Great Sultan, their husband, is proud.
In this place, men are never allowed.
So, to fool the old coot,
summon le marabout.*
(No one cares if a stork’s well endowed.)
/// He’s a doctor with knowledge and skill,
should a concubine here become ill.
Storks can wade in this pool
Where most medics ain’t cool.
But it hurts when he gives them his bill.
*a shapeshifting witch doctor