Gerard de Nerval was another one of those incredibly talented 19th century French poets who have been such a resource for so many writers since. This morning I had a very nice surprise, the French poet and editor Yan Kouton published in Les cosaques sans frontiers a poem of mine written in French. I don't write too many in that language now, so this was a very nice surprise for me. Firstly that I should have been still able to write a poem worthy of publication in the language, and secondly that the poem's publication should provoke the following transversion on El Desdichado by Nerval. This is a famous poem, taken from Les Chimeres or Chimeras - which explains everything. I want to thank Yan for publishing my poem, see link below, and would like to dedicate this transversion, based very loosely on the original by Nerval to him.
Destiny
Transversion
of a poem by Nerval
For
Yan Kouton
I
am in darkness, a widower, the inconsolable;
The
Prince of Aquitaine in his ruined Tower
Whose
sole star is dead, and whose luth now
Plays
only melancholic dirges from a dark sun.
In
the tomb of the night, you who would console me
Render
to me rather the islands and the Sardinian Sea,
For
they are the only consolation for this broken heart,
This
trellis on which the bounteous rose still grows.
Am
I Love or Phoebus? Lusignan… or Biron?
My
memory is still corrupted with her virus,
Even
while swimming in the grotto of the sirens.
Twice
fjording the Archeron,
Jamming
alongside Orpheus with his lyre,
All
the sighs of the saints contained, and the cries of the damned.https://lescosaquesdesfrontieres.com/2019/12/27/la-sorciere/?fbclid=IwAR1zRy3nbVUBdkIhbr6fetAD5q-doXFpEPUxKyaoB3YHFVh30K9AEwQVH3M
No comments:
Post a Comment