PENGUIN CLASSICS
THE PENGUIN BOOK
OF FRENCH POETRY
1820–1950
After secondary education at the Bishop Gore Grammar School in Swansea and a first degree at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, William Rees continued his studies in French literature and theatre at the University of Exeter and at St. Catherine’s College, Oxford. He has spent most of his working life since then as a teacher and housemaster at Eton College, Windsor. His translations of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s Wind, Sand and Stars and Flight to Arras are published by Penguin.
The Penguin Book of
French Poetry
1820–1950
With prose translations
Selected, translated
and introduced by
WILLIAM REES
PENGUIN BOOKS
PENGUIN BOOKS
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
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This selection first published as French Poetry 1820–1950 1990
Reprinted under the present title 1992
13
This selection copyright © William Rees, 1990
The acknowledgements on pp. xxxvii-xli constitute an extension of this copyright page
Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser
978-0-14-193740-3
For Jane, Eleanor and Christopher
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Technicalities
Sources and Acknowledgements
Romanticism in France
ALPHONSE DE LAMARTINE (1790–1869)
Le Lac
Le Vallon
MARCELINE DESBORDES-VALMORE (1786–1859)
Souvenir
Les Roses de Saadi
La Couronne effeuillée
ALFRED DE VIGNY (1797–1863)
La Colère de Samson
Le Mont des Oliviers
VICTOR HUGO (1802–85)
Extase
Puisque mai tout en fleur…
Souvenir de la nuit du 4
Stella
Mes deux filles
Demain, dès l’aube…
A Villequier
Booz endormi
Je suis fait d’ombre…
Fenêtres ouvertes
Bêtise de la guerre
CHARLES-AUGUSTIN SAINTE-BEUVE (1804–69)
Mon âme est ce lac même…
GERARD DE NERVAL (1808–55)
Fantaisie
Vers dorés
El Desdichado
Myrtho
Antéros
Delfica
Artémis
ALFRED DE MUSSET (1810–57)
Une Soirée perdue
A Julie
La Nuit de mai
Rappelle-toi
THEOPHILE GAUTIER (1811–72)
Chinoiserie
A une robe rose
Symphonie en blanc majeur
L’Art
THEODORE DE BANVILLE (1823–91)
Nous n’irons plus au bois…
Sculpteur, cherche avec soin…
Le Saut du tremplin
CHARLES BAUDELAIRE (1821–67)
Correspondances
L’Albatros
La Beauté
La Chevelure
Avec ses vêtements…
Une Charogne
Harmonie du soir
L’Invitation au voyage
La Musique
Spleen (I)
Spleen (III)
Les Aveugles
A une Passante
La Destruction
Le Voyage
Recueillement
The Parnassian Movement
LECONTE DE LISLE (1818–94)
Les Montreurs
Le Coeur de Hialmar
Le Rêve du jaguar
JOSE-MARIA DE HEREDIA (1842–1905)
Soir de bataille
Ariane
Sur le Pont-Vieux
Les Conquérants
La Sieste
Soleil couchant
STEPHANE MALLARME (1842–98)
Les Fenêtres
Brise marine
L’Après-midi d’un faune
Sainte
Petit Air I
Quand l’ombre menaça…
Le vierge, le vivace et le bel aujourd’hui…
Autre Eventail
Le Tombeau d’Edgar Poe
Ses purs ongles…
Le Démon de l’analogie
CHARLES CROS (1842–88)
Lendemain
Hiéroglyphe
Sonnet (A travers la forêt…)
Phantasma
Sonnet (J’ai bâti dans ma fantaisie…)
PAUL VERLAINE (1844–96)
Mon Rêve familier
Effet de nuit
Soleils couchants
Clair de lune
En sourdine
Colloque sentimental
Il pleure dans mon cœur…
Dans l’interminable…
Les chères mains qui furent miennes…
Le ciel est, par-dessus le toit…
Je ne sais pourquoi…
Art poétique
TRISTAN CORBIERE (1845–75)
Le Crapaud
A une Camarade
Sonnet de nuit
Paysage mauvais
Litanie du Sommeil
Petite Mort pour rire
Epitaphe
COMTE DE LAUTREAMONT (1846–70)
Chants de Maldoror:
Chant II, strophe 13 (extract)
Chant IV, strophe 6 (extract)
GERMAIN NOUVEAU (1851–1920)
Poison perdu
Mendiants
Pourrières
ARTHUR RIMBAUD (1854–91)
A la Musique
Ma Bohème
Oraison du soir
Le Coeur volé
Les Chercheuses de poux
Voyelles
Le Bateau ivre
Mémoire
O saisons, ô châteaux
Après le Déluge
Matinée d’ivresse
Ville
Aube
Marine
Nuit de l’Enfer
Adieu
JULES LAFORGUE (1860–87)
Complainte des Pianos qu’on entend dans les quartiers aisés
Complainte des Nostalgies préhistoriques
Complainte du Roi de Thulé
Complainte sur certains Temps déplacés
Pierrots
Locutions des Pierrots
L’Hiver qui vient
Dimanches
Solo de
lune
The Symbolist Movement
EMILE VERHAEREN (1855–1916)
Le Moulin
Chanson de fou
Les Usines
Les Horloges
Les Heures claires
Un Soir
MAURICE MAETERLINCK (1862–1949)
Tentations
Hôpital
Trois princesses m’ont embrassé…
JEAN MOREAS (1856–1910)
Stances
HENRI DE REGNIER (1864–1936)
Le Socle
La Prisonnière
Julie aux yeux d’enfant
SAINT-POL ROUX (1861–1940)
Golgotha
La Carafe d’eau pure
A Renewal of Lyricism
PAUL-JEAN TOULET (1867–1920)
Contrerimes
Chanson: Le Temps d’Adonis
Cople CVII
FRANCIS JAMMES (1868–1938)
J’aime dans les temps…
Prière pour aller au Paradis avec les ânes
Les cinq Mystères douloureux
Il va neiger
PAUL FORT (1872–1960)
Complainte du Roi et de la Reine
La grande Ivresse
La Grenouille bleue
L’Ecureuil
ANNA, COMTESSE DE NOAILLES (1876–1933)
L’Empreinte
C’est après les moments…
PAUL CLAUDEL (1868–1955)
Deuxième Ode: L’Esprit et l’Eau (extract)
Quatrième Ode: La Muse qui est la Grâce (first part)
Ballade
CHARLES PEGUY (1873–1914)
La Nuit (extract)
OSCAR VLADISLAS DE LUBICZ MILOCZ (1877–1939)
Quand elle viendra…
Aux sons d’une musique…
Cantique de la connaissance (opening and closing sections)
PAUL VALERY (1871–1945)
La Fileuse
Le Bois amical
Au platane
L’Abeille
Les Pas
L’Insinuant
Les Grenades
Le Cimetière marin
VICTOR SEGALEN (1878–1919)
Les trois Hymnes primitifs
Pierre musicale
Ordre au soleil
Eloge du jade
Nom caché
Cubism, cosmopolitanism and modernism
LEON-PAUL FARGUE (1876–1947)
Sur le trottoir tout gras…
La rampe s’allume…
La Gare
Postface
MAX JACOB (1876–1944)
La Guerre
Dans la forêt silencieuse
Ruses du Démon pour ravoir sa proie
Etablissement d’une communauté au Brésil
AoÛt 39
Présence de Dieu
GUILLAUME APOLLINAIRE (1880–1918)
Zone
Le pont Mirabeau
L’Emigrant de Landor Road
Le brasier
Nuit rhénane
Liens
Fête
Visée
La jolie rousse
BLAISE CENDRARS (1887–1961)
Prose du Transsibérien et de la petite Jeanne de France (3 extracts)
Contrastes
Construction
Orion
Mississippi
Aube
PIERRE REVERDY (1889–1960)
Après le Bal
Toujours là
Auberge
Nomade
Couloir
Chauffage central
Drame
Les Mots qu’on échange
X
Chair vive
CATHERINE POZZI (1882–1934)
Ave
Nyx
Scopolamine
JULES SUPERVIELLE (1884–1960)
Montévidéo
Haute mer
Dans la forêt sans heures
Les Poissons
Tristesse de Dieu
Nuit en moi…
Plein Ciel
1940
SAINT-JOHN PERSE (1887–1975)
Eloges II & XIV
Anabase VII
Exil II
Neiges IV
Vents: Chant II, i
PIERRE-JEAN JOUVE (1887–1976)
Vallée de larmes
Vrai Corps
L’Oeil et la chevelure
Lamentations au cerf
La Femme et la terre
Je suis succession furieuse…
Angles
A soi-même
Surrealism
ANDRE BRETON (1896–1966)
Tournesol
Vigilance
L’Union libre
Sur la route de San Romano
TRISTAN TZARA (1896–1963)
La grande complainte de mon obscurité trois
La Mort de Guillaume Apollinaire
Sur une ride du soleil
Volt
PHILIPPE SOUPAULT (1897– )
Dimanche
La grande Mélancolie d’une avenue
Say it with Music
Stumbling
PAUL ELUARD (1895–1952)
L’Amoureuse
La courbe de tes yeux…
La terre est bleue…
Le front aux vitres…
A perte de vue dans le sens de mon corps
Tu te lèves…
La victoire de Guernica
Faire vivre
La Mort l’Amour la Vie
LOUIS ARAGON (1897–1982)
Poème à crier dans les ruines
Elsa au miroir
Les lilas et les roses
Ballade de celui qui chanta dans les supplices
ROBERT DESNOS (1900–1945)
J’ai tant rêvé de toi
La Voix de Robert Desnos
Destinée arbitraire
Désespoir du soleil
Mi-Route
Le Zèbre
Le Paysage
JACQUES PREVERT (1900–1977)
Le Cancre
Familiale
Dèjeuner du matin
Sanguine
L’Ordre nouveau
Barbara
HENRI MICHAUX (1899–1984)
Mes Occupations
Crier
Emportez-moi
Le grand Violon
Clown
Dragon
Après ma Mort
Portraits des Meidosems (extracts)
FRANCIS PONGE (1899–1988)
Les MÛres
L’Orange
Végétation
‘Négritude’
LEOPOLD SEDAR SENGHOR (1906– )
Femme noire
Camp 1940
AIME CESAIRE (1913– )
N’ayez point pitié
Soleil serpent
Perdition
Prophétie
Tam-tam I
Ode à la Guinée
ANDRE FRENAUD (1907– )
Naissance
Maison à vendre
Les Rois Mages
Présence réelle
Assèchement de la plaie
RENE CHAR (1907–1988)
Artine
Migration
Commune Présence II
Chant du refus
Les premiers instants
A ∗∗∗
L’inoffensif
Front de la rose
INDEX OF FIRST LINES
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank, for their help and encouragement during this project: my colleague Jean-Paul Dubois, an invaluable linguistic sounding-board; the Librarians and their staff at the Taylor Institution, Oxford, and at the University of Victoria, British Columbia; Stuart John of UCW Aberystwyth, who kindled the spark long ago; Dr John Greene of the University of Victoria, BC; Martin Hammond; Donald McFarlan; Paul Keegan; Nicholas Wetton, who cleared the permissions; Warren Brown of t
he Cirrus company, Victoria, BC; Dr Bernard McGuirk; the many friends and colleagues who have helped with references and obscurities of all kinds, including Dr Michael Atkinson, Philippe Delaveau, Dr Keith Gore, Christopher Robinson, Paul Quarrie, Dr Angela Slater, Dick Haddon, Anthony Ray, Dr Malcolm Smith-Walker, Dr Peter Cogman, John King, Dr Stephen Spurr, Fr Peter Knott SJ, Francis Dalvin and the late Revd Terence Davies; finally my wife Jane for her tireless proof-reading and support, and my children for their tolerance and their enthusiastic research assistance.
INTRODUCTION
France in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries offers an unusually rich and rewarding field for students and lovers of poetry. It is an intense battleground of diverse aesthetic ideas, and yet also presents fascinating lines of continuity and patterns of influence. Through Eliot and Pound above all, those influences have extended beyond the borders of France into the work of many modern poets writing in English. The immense reading assignment preceding the compilation of this book has been partly a labour of love, reopening all kinds of familiar and half-forgotten doors, but it has also revealed many new and unsuspected delights, and kindled many fresh enthusiasms.
This anthology of fifty-six poets writing in French between 1820 and 1950 departs a little from the Penguin tradition. Each set of poems is preceded by an introduction to their author, his life and his affinities, his aesthetics and his place in the evolution of poetry. Certain significant literary movements are also signalled and briefly characterized. The tendency of ‘-isms’ to suck in individuals who deserve to be treated as individuals is well known, and I hope that patterns of adherence and independence are clear. If the book is read in chronological order, a pattern of development should emerge without the need for a lengthy historical preamble, and those who enter the world of French poetry at an arbitrary point should find enough signposts.
Before the challenge of translation can be met, the process of selection presents some stimulating – and sometimes agonizing – problems. Which poets, and why? Which poems, and why? Is it possible to determine universal and consistent criteria for choice, or must they be pragmatic? Should selection be on a ‘greatest hits’ basis, or should an editor consciously, even iconoclastically, seek less polished and less well-known works, juvenile and senile productions, and throw out the most prestigious items on the grounds that they can take care of themselves? Or is it important to represent all periods in a poet’s career? Given both limited space and the awareness that such an anthology may have some influence in shaping literary perceptions, how is it possible to reconcile the claims of interesting ‘minor’ poets with the need to ensure an adequate and undistorted representation of the work of established giants? Should all literary movements be represented, however undistinguished or ephemeral? Should the maximum possible number of poets perhaps be included in a ‘smorgasbord’ approach that would provide no real landmarks, and no implicit evaluation? Where is the line to be drawn, if at all, in the incorporation of prose-poems?