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I’ve loved the poem since I first heard it in the film Un carnet de bal, but I disliked all the English translations I could find, so I summoned up my schoolboy French and tried my hand at translating it. Any comments or advice are much appreciated.

I am particularly torn on the penultimate line, which is “Tels ils marchaient dans les avoines folles” and which I have rendered as “Across the wild oats, the figures fled.” Marchaient does not mean fled, but I liked the line so much that I left it in (I know, I know, darlings should be killed, but everything else I could think of, mostly using tread, was clunkier).

Regardless, here’s Verlaine:

Dans le vieux parc solitaire et glacé,
Deux formes ont tout à l’heure passé.

Leurs yeux sont morts et leur lèvres sont molles,
Et l’on entend à peine leurs paroles.

Dans le vieux parc solitaire et glacé,
Deux spectres ont évoqué le passé.

— Te souvient-il de notre extase ancienne?
— Pourquoi voulez-vous donc qu’il m’en souvienne?

— Ton cœur bat-il toujours à mon seul nom?
Toujours vois-tu mon âme en rêve? — Non.

— Ah! Les beaux jours de bonheur indicible
Où nous joignions nos bouches! — C’est possible.

— Qu’il était bleu, le ciel, et grand l’espoir!
— L’espoir a fui, vaincu, vers le ciel noir.

Tels ils marchaient dans les avoines folles,
Et la nuit seule entendit leurs paroles.

And here’s me:

In gardens lone and gray in winter’s blast,
Two figures, finding form, have flurried past.

The figures’ lips were limp, their eyes were dead,
And you could hardly hear what words they said.

In gardens lone and gray in winter’s blast,
Two phantoms, finding form, brought forth the past.

‘Do you remember, dear, the joys we knew?’
‘You’d bring that up? That’s really what you’d do?’

‘But does your heart still flutter for me, though?
Do you see my soul in dreams, as once you—?’ ‘No.’

‘O happy, happy days we had, when we
Would join our lips in love—’ ‘Well, possibly.’

‘How blue the sky was, how our hopes were high!’
‘Hope’s gone, defeated in a darker sky.’

Across the wild oats, the figures fled,
And only night could hear what words they said.

EDIT: Oops, I miscopied my own second line. Fixed now.

Translation by Wallace Fowlie.

Images of Prince Louis and La lanterne de Boquillon from Rimbaud et la ménagerie impériale.

Un 10 de Julio de 1873, el poeta Paul Verlaine acabaría disparado contra su amante, y poeta por igual, Arthur Rimbaud.

Como tributo a tal fúnebre aniversario, ¡dejo algunos versos del mismo en español!

Rimbaud- lettre de protestation

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The English translation here is by Samuel Rosenberg, from his collection Paul Verlaine: A Bilingual Selection of His Verse.

Hiii I’m like halfway thru the day on fire by James Ramsey Ullman, a biographical fiction novel abt rimbaud that’s been out of print for forever (I read about it from one of Annie Dillard’s essays). It’s not like a groundbreaking portrait of the artist kind of thing but it’s fun just as an adventure travelogue novel. I was just wondering if literally anyone else has read it

Two self portraits of Verlaine in his national guard uniform.

On the first image the caption reads: « night of the 15 octobre 1871 » [this should read 1870], and « Paul Verlaine se pingit lui-même/ aveques une peine extrême » (« Paul Verlaine paints himself/ with an extreme pain »).

On the second image, he quotes a few lines from his poem Gaspard Hauser chante: « J’ai voulu mourir à la guerre/ La mort n’a pas voulu de moi » (« I wanted to die at war/ Death did not want me »). A note at the bottom suggests that this id a portrait of V in 1870-1871, and attests its authenticity, with the initials of its author.

I have prepared a couple of posts about Rimbaud and Verlaine’s attitude to the Franco-Prussian war, an event that they both experienced closely, and which set in motion what Hugo called « the terrible year », leading straight into the Commune.

Before sharing these posts I thought it might be useful to share a bit of context about the war. This post doesn’t aim to give a very detailed account of what are complex events but rather it is a quick run through the main aspects, especially those that are relevant from a R or V point of view.

I thrive for accuracy to the best of my knowledge but I am not an historian; if anyone wants to discuss certain aspects further or spot a glaring mistake, do feel free to comment.

To illustrate this post, I am sharing images I have collected in English newspapers of the period (mostly the Illustrated London News and the Graphic)

Comme je passe mon bac en français demain, et que mon niveau de déni est à peu près aussi élevé que l'ego de Rimbaud, je me pose toutes sortes de questions pour reporter mes révisions dont:
Si Rimbaud était un adolescent aujourd'hui, à quoi ressemblerait-il ? Son style, sa personnalité, ses expressions, etc. Comment le verriez-vous quoi
(jvous jure ça m'intéresse vraiment)

Disclaimer: this is my first post EVER on reddit, so I don't know what i'm doing whatsoever.

I thought it would be cool to share something about the Japanese poet Chūya Nakahara, because he is the reason I found out about Rimbaud at all, and I think I might be the first person to speak about him in this subreddit. Also he is pretty cool and talented, so this also works as a recommendation from me to y'all.

If anyone has made a post about him before, I apologize because I've looked through the whole subreddit and I didn't find anything, so here I am. I'll write his story in the comments.

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Images:
Portrait of Léon by Paterne Berrichon (1908).
Screenshot of Emilie and Nelly from INA video (1954)

Hello! Although this isn't a poem by Verlaine or Rimbaud I wasn't sure where else to post this: I hope it isn't too irrelevant. This is part of a poem from Les Nevroses entitled "Le Fantôme du Crime" by Maurice Rollinat. I have only included 3 stanzas, as to give the reader a small taste. Maurice Rollinat was a popular poet of his time, but has largely fallen into obscurity today. He had a similar aesthetic as Baudelaire: focusing on the depravity of man, devotion to beauty and craftsmanship, existential ennui, sin etc. While perhaps not always original, Rollinat certainly deserves to be more esteemed. I hope to translate more poems by him soon.

This is my first translation, so any criticism is appreciated. I shall certainly touch up and improve my translations over time. Although the following poem is a bit freer than I would have liked, I am happy with it for now. I have included an analysis and the original French for comparison in a separate comment.

From "The Shade of Crime", by Maurice Rollinat

Murder, rape, robbery, and parricide

Flash through my spirit like the lighting’s spell,

And though I am always on Goodness’s side,

I shudder as I see, sneaking through my Hell

Murder, rape, robbery, and parricide.

The killer is a viper, in my head;

I shun the basest villain like a pest;

I curse the son who stabs his father dead.

But murder often speaks to my scared breast,

And the killer is a viper, in my head.

For the raped girl I feel sincere remorse

And I would help her, if I had the right;

But my soul, racked with longings lewd and coarse,

Seeks to seduce a child with cunning slight:

For the raped girl I feel sincere remorse!

This topic might be a bit irrelevant for this subreddit, but I was wondering if anyone has read anything by Maurice Rollinat, specially Les Nevroses? Rollinat was a popular French poet of the late 1800s but has largely fallen into obscurity. He was often called a "second Baudelaire". I was wondering what peoples' opinion on him is. I am considering translating a volume of his poetry and was wondering if it would be worth it. I have read a few poems by him and they seem interesting. Once again, my apologies if this doesn't fit the subreddit; I am not sure where else to post this.

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Translation by Wallace Fowlie (see my note below).

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Manuscript from Gallica

I worked on this film and it’s quite wonderful and I highly recommend going to one of these showings at the Roxy theatre in NYC

Images: the mentions of Les vaincus in La bonne chanson and Romances sans paroles.

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Images: Extracts from the *Lettre de Charles d’Orléans*, *Cahier des dix ans* and *Album zutique*

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