dADa dUffy __Open _ ______bC_aD_

ad__________________Mit

___________________________

My interest in French poetry has waned as time goes one its steady beat and I simply think more and more than it is not the language for poetry

in spite of,

____________Maybe so and so was right and

to be continued,

1
Next episode

?

WHo decided which language was preferable? and how and under what circumstances had the Latin getaway gotten into the English gotten?

______________________

O there is blessing in this gentle breeze

OH, there is blessing in this gentle breeze, That blows from the green fields and from the clouds And from the sky; it beats against my cheek, And seems half conscious of the joy it gives. O welcomeif such bold word acco

Illuminations _ 'After the Flood'

____int his translation the writer tries to keep ______closer to Rimbaud's form ____of the prose poem.___________

After the Flood

Just as the idea of the Flood went subsiding,
A hare stopped in the swaying clover and flower bells, and said its prayer to the rainbow, through the spider’s web.
Oh! The precious stones that hid themselves, —the flowers that already were watching.
In the dirty main street, the stalls rose, and some hauled the boats to the sea piled up as on engravings,
Blood flowed, at Blue Beard’s, —in the slaughterhouses, in circuses, and where the seal of God white-washed the windows. Blood and milk flowed.
The beavers built. “Mazagrans” smoked in the coffee bars.
In the big house of glass still dripping, the mourning children looked on the wondrous pictures.
A door slammed; and, on the square of the hamlet, the child waved his arms, understood by the wind vanes and the cocks on steeples everywhere, in the bursting shower.
Madame *** set up a piano in the Alps. Mass and first communions were celebrated at the hundred thousand altars of the cathedral.
The caravans took off. And Hotel Splendor was built in the chaos of ices and polar night.
And from then on, the moon heard jackals howling through the deserts of thyme, —and the sabot-clad eclogues growling in the orchard. And, in the violet woods, Eucharis told me it was Spring.
Gush, pond; —Foam, roll on the bridge and over the woods; —black palls and organs, lightning and thunder, rise and roll; —waters and sorrows, rise and unleash the Floods.
For since they’ve gone, —oh, the burrowing stones, and the blooming flowers!—the boredom! And the Queen, the Witch who lights her blaze in the earthen pot, won’t ever want to tell us what she knows, that which we do not.

Arthur Rimbaud,
Illuminations
tr. Alex Rodallec

____________________

Another translation.

Après le Déluge ___

Après le Déluge

Aussitôt que l’idée du Déluge se fut rassise,
Un lièvre s’arrêta dans les sainfoins et les clochettes mouvantes et dit sa prière à l’arc-en-ciel à travers la toile de l’araignée.
Oh ! les pierres précieuses qui se cachaient, − les fleurs qui regardaient déjà.
Dans la grande rue sale les étals se dressèrent, et l’on tira les barques vers la mer étagée là-haut comme sur les gravures.
L

e sang coula, chez Barbe-Bleue, − aux abattoirs, − dans les cirques, où le sceau de Dieu blêmit les fenêtres. Le sang et le lait coulèrent.
Les castors bâtirent. Les “mazagrans” fumèrent dans les estaminets.
Dans la grande maison de vitres encore ruisselante les enfants en deuil regardèrent les merveilleuses images.
Une porte claqua, et sur la place du hameau, l’enfant tourna ses bras, compris des girouettes et des coqs des clochers de partout, sous l’éclatante giboulée.
Madame*** établit un piano dans les Alpes. La messe et les premières communions se célébrèrent aux cent mille autels de la cathédrale.
Les caravanes partirent. Et le Splendide-Hôtel fut bâti dans le chaos de glaces et de nuit du pôle.
Depuis lors, la Lune entendit les chacals piaulant par les déserts de thym, − et les églogues en sabots grognant dans le verger.
Puis, dans la futaie violette, bourgeonnante, Eucharis me dit que c’était le printemps.
Sourds, étang, − Écume, roule sur le pont, et par dessus les bois; − draps noirs et orgues, − éclairs et tonnerres − montez et roulez; − Eaux et tristesses, montez et relevez les Déluges.
Car depuis qu’ils se sont dissipés, − oh les pierres précieuses s’enfouissant, et les fleurs ouvertes ! − c’est un ennui ! et la Reine, la Sorcière qui allume sa braise dans le pot de terre, ne voudra jamais nous raconter ce qu’elle sait, et que nous ignorons.

-___________________

Arthur Rimbaud wrote this when he was somewhere between 17 and 18 .. It was the first prose poem of Les Illuminations which is either the last or second last book of poems that he wrote. Rimbaud won no prizes, nor received no grants for his life or work. He gave up writing poetry at 18 for good. He died at the age of 37.

First poem of Illuminations Arthur Rimbaud

__________________________