Poems Found in Translation- French Poem=- A Z Foreman
Poems Found In Translation: “Guillaume Apollinaire: The Mirabeau Bridge (From French)” |
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I have run this poem before but not in this translation
Posted: 11 Jun 2014 07:01 PM PDT
This
poem functions as a touching record of the end of Apollinaire's long
love affair with Marie Laurencin, as Apollinaire himself wrote in a
letter to Madeleine Pagès: "Le Pont Mirabeau est...la chanson triste de
cette longue liaison brisée..."
The familiar lyrical themes of time's passage and the end of love are linked symbolically with the river's flow in a confessional poem whose self-revelation is masked under the merest hint of irony and philosophical generalization. The unstoppable movement of events passing by the man fixed in his unhappiness is brilliantly conveyed by the refrain, as well as the structure of the poem whose first line is also its last, whose beginning is also its end.
The development of the poem's typographical presentation between its appearance in Les Soirées de Paris and in the Les Alcools sheds light on Apollinaire's concern with the visual display of poetry. Lines 2 and 3 of each stanza originally in the printed version formed one line, giving a stanza of three monorhyme lines. The breaking up of the single line into two lines of unequal length gives a more interesting visual pattern. The removal of all punctuation also gives a more fluid and ambiguous flavor to the poem.
The Mirabeau Bridge
By Guillaume Apollinaire
Translated by A.Z. Foreman
Click here to hear me recite the original
Below the Mirabeau bridge there flows the Seine
So too our love
Must I recall how then
After each sorrow joy would come again
Let night come toll hours away
Days go by me here I stay
Let us stay hand in hand face to face
While down below
The bridge of our embrace
Roll the waves weary of our endless gaze
Let night come toll hours away
Days go by me here I stay
Love goes away the way the waters flow
Love goes away
How life is long and slow
How hope of life can deal so strong a blow
Let night come toll hours away
Days go by me here I stay
The days the weeks are passing from our ken
Neither time passed
Nor love can come again
Below the Mirabeau bridge there flows the Seine
Let night come toll hours away
Days go by me here I stay
The Original:
Le Pont Mirabeau
Sous le pont Mirabeau coule la Seine
Et nos amours
Faut-il qu'il m'en souvienne
La joie venait toujours après la peine
Vienne la nuit sonne l'heure
Les jours s'en vont je demeure
Les mains dans les mains restons face à face
Tandis que sous
Le pont de nos bras passe
Des éternels regards l'onde si lasse
Vienne la nuit sonne l'heure
Les jours s'en vont je demeure
L'amour s'en va comme cette eau courante
L'amour s'en va
Comme la vie est lente
Et comme l'Espérance est violente
Vienne la nuit sonne l'heure
Les jours s'en vont je demeure
Passent les jours et passent les semaines
Ni temps passé
Ni les amours reviennent
Sous le pont Mirabeau coule la Seine
Vienne la nuit sonne l'heure
Les jours s'en vont je demeure
The familiar lyrical themes of time's passage and the end of love are linked symbolically with the river's flow in a confessional poem whose self-revelation is masked under the merest hint of irony and philosophical generalization. The unstoppable movement of events passing by the man fixed in his unhappiness is brilliantly conveyed by the refrain, as well as the structure of the poem whose first line is also its last, whose beginning is also its end.
The development of the poem's typographical presentation between its appearance in Les Soirées de Paris and in the Les Alcools sheds light on Apollinaire's concern with the visual display of poetry. Lines 2 and 3 of each stanza originally in the printed version formed one line, giving a stanza of three monorhyme lines. The breaking up of the single line into two lines of unequal length gives a more interesting visual pattern. The removal of all punctuation also gives a more fluid and ambiguous flavor to the poem.
The Mirabeau Bridge
By Guillaume Apollinaire
Translated by A.Z. Foreman
Click here to hear me recite the original
Below the Mirabeau bridge there flows the Seine
So too our love
Must I recall how then
After each sorrow joy would come again
Let night come toll hours away
Days go by me here I stay
Let us stay hand in hand face to face
While down below
The bridge of our embrace
Roll the waves weary of our endless gaze
Let night come toll hours away
Days go by me here I stay
Love goes away the way the waters flow
Love goes away
How life is long and slow
How hope of life can deal so strong a blow
Let night come toll hours away
Days go by me here I stay
The days the weeks are passing from our ken
Neither time passed
Nor love can come again
Below the Mirabeau bridge there flows the Seine
Let night come toll hours away
Days go by me here I stay
The Original:
Le Pont Mirabeau
Sous le pont Mirabeau coule la Seine
Et nos amours
Faut-il qu'il m'en souvienne
La joie venait toujours après la peine
Vienne la nuit sonne l'heure
Les jours s'en vont je demeure
Les mains dans les mains restons face à face
Tandis que sous
Le pont de nos bras passe
Des éternels regards l'onde si lasse
Vienne la nuit sonne l'heure
Les jours s'en vont je demeure
L'amour s'en va comme cette eau courante
L'amour s'en va
Comme la vie est lente
Et comme l'Espérance est violente
Vienne la nuit sonne l'heure
Les jours s'en vont je demeure
Passent les jours et passent les semaines
Ni temps passé
Ni les amours reviennent
Sous le pont Mirabeau coule la Seine
Vienne la nuit sonne l'heure
Les jours s'en vont je demeure
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