Monday, March 31, 2014
...
April
Already warm days, the dust in flight,
An azure sky deepening with light,
The evenings long, the walls sunlit,
And nothing green: a poor whim
Of colour drapes a reddish scrim
On tall trees, dark branches backlit.
This fine weather becomes a strain.
It is only after days of rain
That the rose and verdant spring
Will bloom --- like the first glimpse
Of a freshwater nymph, a smile at her lips,
Who rises from a woodland spring.
--- Gerard de Nerval
(my translation)
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Avril
ReplyDeleteDéjà les beaux jours, la poussière,
Un ciel d'azur et de lumière,
Les murs enflammés, les longs soirs ;
Et rien de vert : à peine encore
Un reflet rougeâtre décore
Les grands arbres aux rameaux noirs !
Ce beau temps me pèse et m'ennuie.
Ce n'est qu'après des jours de pluie
Que doit surgir, en un tableau,
Le printemps verdissant et rose,
Comme une nymphe fraîche éclose
Qui, souriante, sort de l'eau.
Great translation. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteClarissa: thank you:-)) i found this very hard to translate, though there is nothing unusual in the language, and i'm not sure why it was so reluctant ... but i've attempted this poem every year on april 1 for the past four or five years, and haven't been able to get anything remotely acceptable until this year ... as much as anything else, i'm just relieved to let go of it!! :-)
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