One Hundred and One Poems by Paul Verlaine: A Bilingual Edition
French poet Paul Verlaine, a major representative of the Symbolist Movement during the latter half of the nineteenth century, was one of the most gifted and prolific poets of his time. Norman Shapiro's superb translations display Verlaine's ability to transform into timeless verse the essence of everyday life and make evident the reasons for his renown in France and throughout the Western world.
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French poet Paul Verlaine, a major representative of the Symbolist Movement during the latter half of the nineteenth century, was one of the most gifted and prolific poets of his time. Norman Shapiro's superb translations display Verlaine's ability to transform into timeless verse the essence of everyday life and make evident the reasons for his renown in France and throughout the Western world.Harvard Review - Genevieve AbravanelThe strength of this selection lies not only in its sweep, but in its delicate attention to each poem. Shapiro's unique translations of this whimsical, agonized music are more than adequate to bring the multifarious Verlaine to new generation of English speakers.
\ One Hundred and One Poems\ \ \ \ A Bilingual Edition\ \ \ \ By Paul Verlaine\ \ \ University of Chicago Press\ \ \ \ Copyright © 2003\ \ \ University of Chicago\ All right reserved.\ \ ISBN: 0-226-85345-4\ \ \ \ \ \ Chapter One\ \ \ Nevermore\ \ Allons, mon pauvre coeur, allons, mon\ vieux complice,\ Redresse et peins a neuf tous tes arcs\ triomphaux;\ Brule un encens ranci sur tes autels d'or\ faux;\ Seme de fleurs les bords beants du\ precipice;\ Allons, mon pauvre coeur, allons, mon\ vieux complice!\ \ Pousse a Dieu ton cantique, o chantre\ rajeuni;\ Entonne, orgue enroue, des Te Deum\ splendides;\ Vieillard premature, mets du fard sur tes\ rides;\ Couvre-toi de tapis mordores, mur jauni;\ Pousse a Dieu ton cantique, o chantre\ rajeuni.\ \ Sonnez, grelots; sonnez, clochettes; sonnez,\ cloches!\ Car mon reve impossible a pris corps, et je\ l'ai\ Entre mes bras presse: le Bonheur, cet aile\ Voyageur qui de l'Homme evite les\ approches,\ -Sonnez, grelots; sonnez, clochettes;\ sonnez, cloches!\ \ Le Bonheur a marche cote a cote avec moi;\ Mais la FATALITE ne connait point de\ treve:\ Le ver est dans le fruit, le reveil dans le\ reve,\ Et le remords est dansl'amour: telle est la\ loi.\ -Le Bonheur a marche cote a cote avec\ moi.\ \ From Poemes saturniens (1866)\ \ \ Nevermore\ \ Come, my poor heart, come, old friend true\ and tried,\ Repaint your triumph's arches, raised anew;\ Smoke tinsel altars with stale incense; strew\ Flowers before the chasm, gaping wide;\ Come, my poor heart, come, old friend true\ and tried.\ \ Cantor revivified, sing God your hymn;\ Hoarse organ-pipes, intone Te Deums\ proud;\ Make up your aging face, youth wrinkle-browed;\ Bedeck yourself in gold, wall yellow-dim;\ Cantor revivified, sing God your hymn.\ \ Ring, bells; peal, chimes; peal, ring, bells\ large and small!\ My hopeless dream takes shape: for\ Happiness-\ Here, now-lies clutched, embraced in my\ caress;\ Winged Voyager, who shuns Man's every\ call;\ -Ring, bells; peal, chimes; peal, ring, bells\ large and small!\ \ Happiness once walked side by side with\ me;\ But DOOM knows no reprieve, there's no\ mistaking:\ The worm is in the fruit; in dreaming,\ waking;\ In loving, mourning. And so must it be.\ -Happiness once walked side by side with\ me.\ \ * * *\ \ \ Clair de lune\ \ Votre ame est un paysage choisi\ Que vont charmant masques et\ bergamasques\ Jouant du luth et dansant et quasi\ Tristes sous leurs deguisements fantasques.\ \ Tout en chantant sur le mode mineur\ L'amour vainqueur et la vie opportune,\ Ils n'ont pas l'air de croire a leur bonheur\ Et leur chanson se mele au clair de lune,\ \ Au calme clair de lune triste et beau,\ Qui fait rever les oiseaux dans les arbres\ Et sangloter d'extase les jets d'eau,\ Les grands jets d'eau sveltes parmi les\ marbres.\ \ From Fetes galantes (1869)\ \ \ Moonlight\ \ Your soul is like a landscape fantasy,\ Where masks and Bergamasks, in charming\ wise,\ Strum lutes and dance, just a bit sad to be\ Hidden beneath their fanciful disguise.\ \ Singing in minor mode of life's largesse\ And all-victorious love, they yet seem quite\ Reluctant to believe their happiness,\ And their song mingles with the pale\ moonlight,\ \ The calm, pale moonlight, whose sad\ beauty, beaming,\ Sets the birds softly dreaming in the trees,\ And makes the marbled fountains, gushing,\ streaming-\ Slender jet-fountains-sob their ecstasies.\ \ * * *\ \ "Il pleure dans mon coeur ..."\ \ II pleut doucement sur la ville.\ Arthur Rimbaud\ \ Il pleure dans mon coeur\ Comme il pleut sur la ville;\ Quelle est cette langueur\ Qui penetre mon coeur?\ \ O bruit doux de la pluie\ Par terre et sur les toits!\ Pour un coeur qui s'ennuie\ O le chant de la pluie!\ \ Il pleure sans raison\ Dans ce coeur qui s'ecoeure.\ Quoi! nulle trahison? ...\ Ce deuil est sans raison.\ \ C'est bien la pire peine\ De ne savoir pourquoi\ Sans amour et sans haine\ Mon coeur a tant de peine!\ \ From Romances sans paroles (1874)\ \ \ "Like city's rain, my heart ..."\ \ The rain falls gently on the town.\ Arthur Rimbaud\ \ Like city's rain, my heart\ Rains teardrops too. What now,\ This languorous ache, this smart\ That pierces, wounds my heart?\ \ Gentle, the sound of rain\ Pattering roof and ground!\ Ah, for the heart in pain,\ Sweet is the sound of rain!\ \ Tears rain-but who knows why?-\ And fill my heartsick heart.\ No faithless lover's lie? ...\ It mourns, and who knows why?\ \ And nothing pains me so-\ With neither love nor hate-\ A simply not to know\ Why my heart suffers so.\ \ * * *\ \ A Charles Baudelaire\ \ Je ne t'ai pas connu, je ne t'ai pas aime,\ Je ne te connais point et je t'aime encor\ moins:\ Je me chargerais mal de ton nom diffame,\ Et si j'ai quelque droit d'etre entre tes\ temoins,\ \ C'est que, d'abord, et c'est qu'ailleurs, vers\ les Pieds joints\ D'abord par les clous froids, puis par l'elan\ pame\ Des femmes de peche-desquelles o tant\ oints,\ Tant baises, chreme fol et baiser affame!-\ \ Tu tombas, tu prias, comme moi, comme\ toutes\ Les ames que la faim et la soif sur les routes\ Poussaient belles d'espoir au Calvaire\ touche!\ \ -Calvaire juste et vrai, Calvaire ou, donc,\ ces doutes,\ Ci, ca, grimaces, art, pleurent de leurs\ deroutes.\ Hein? mourir simplement, nous, hommes\ de peche.\ \ From Liturgies intimes (1892)\ \ \ For Charles Baudelaire\ \ I do not know you now, or like you, nor\ Did I first know or like you, I admit.\ It's not for me to furbish and restore\ Your name: if I take up the cause for it,\ \ It's that we both have known the exquisite\ Joys of two feet together pressed: His, or\ Our whores'! He, nailed; they, swooning in\ love's fit,\ Madly anointed, kissed, bowed down\ before!\ \ You fell, you prayed. And so did I, like all\ Those souls whom thirst and hunger,\ yearningly,\ Shining with hope, urged on to Calvary!\ \ -Calvary, righteous, where-here, there-our fall,\ In art-contorted doubts, weeps its chagrin.\ A simple death, eh? we, brothers in sin.\ (Continues...)\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Excerpted from One Hundred and One Poems\ by Paul Verlaine\ Copyright © 2003\ by University of Chicago.\ Excerpted by permission.\ All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.\ Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.\ \
List of IllustrationsPrefaceMy Familiar Dream4Seascape6Night Scene8Sunsets10Mystical Evening Twilight12Sentimental Stroll14Autumn Song16The Shepherd's Hour18Woman and Cat20A Dahlia22Nevermore24Moonlight28Pantomime30On the Grass32The Lane34Strolling36Innocents We38Cortege40Seashells42Puppets44Sailing46The Faun48Mandolin50For Clymene52Colombine54Love Cast Down58In Muted Tone60Lovers' Chat62"Morning star, before you pale..."66"Among the trees..."68"A Saint set in her stained-glass glow..."70"I used to wander aimlessly..."72"It's the languorous ecstasy..."76"Like city's rain, my heart..."78"Bright in the evening's gray and pinkish blur..."80"So sad my heart, so sad it was..."82"Covering the land..."84"Reflections in the fogbound rivulet..."88Walcourt90Charleroi92Green96Spleen98Streets I100Streets II102"Beauty of women, weakness, pale soft skin..."106"A vast, black lethargy..."108"Above the roof the sky is fair..."110"The horn's sound in the wood sobs dolefully..."112"The wind whips through the bushes, green..."114"The hedges billow like the sea's..."116"'The city!' Gaudy cluster of white stones..."118Pierrot122The Skeleton124Ars Poetica126Allegory130Circumspection132Languor134Prologue136"Your voice was deep and low..."140For Georges Verlaine144Allegory148Spring150Summer152For Mademoiselle154False Impression158Other162Tantalized166The Last Stanza168In the Style of Paul Verlaine170Limbo172Loins176The Last "Fete Galante"178Recollection of Manchester182For Edmond Lepelletier184For Arthur Rimbaud186For Bibi-Puree188"In Mary's humble ear..."192"Yes, despite your cruel excess..."198"I'm poorer than I've ever been..."202"True, we don't know when to quit..."204"Blonde? Brown? Which is your hair?..."206"You believe in superstitions..."208"Lover, when you look for lice..."210"I dreamed of you last night; and you..."212For Charles Baudelaire216"You've often been unkind..."220"That firm-fleshed belly that has never borne..."224Last Hope230"When we go - if I see her yet again..."234"It's thanks to you I see how I..."236Accompanying a Sketch (The Siege of Paris)238On a Copy of Les Fleurs du mal240Song for the Ladies244Fog!246Sonnet to Weep Over250A Drink Song252Another Drink Song254Dream256Awakening258Death262Quatrain266Notes269Acknowledgments285Index of Titles and First Lines287
\ Genevieve AbravanelThe strength of this selection lies not only in its sweep, but in its delicate attention to each poem. Shapiro's unique translations of this whimsical, agonized music are more than adequate to bring the multifarious Verlaine to new generation of English speakers. \ —Harvard Review\ \
