"verlaine" poems
As the voice of a dead man might sing
From the depths of his tomb,
For you, Mistress, my tuneless voice rings
False in my heart’s catacomb.
Open your soul and hear the knell
Of my mandolin strings:
This song I wrote, for you, which tells
Of cruel and childish things.
I will sing of your eyes, onyx and gold,
Purged of every shadow,
Then the Lethe of your breast, the cold
Styx of your hair’s dark flow.
As the voice of a dead man might sing
From the depths of his tomb,
For you, Mistress, my tuneless voice rings
False in my heart’s catacomb.
Then I will praise, above all
Flesh that heaven did bless
Whose opulent perfumes recall
Nights long and sleepless.
Finally, I will speak of the kiss
Of your sweet red lip,
Oh, how my martyrdom is bliss,
– My angel! – My Whip!
Open your soul and hear the knell
Of my mandolin strings:
This song I wrote, for you, which tells
Of cruel and childish things.
Apr 17, 2015
Apr 17, 2015 at 10:01 AM UTC
The short-order cook and the dishwasher
argue the relative merits
of Rilke’s Elegies
against Eliot’s Four Quartets,
but the delivery man who brings eggs
suggests they have forgotten Les fleurs
du mal and Baudelaire. The waitress
carrying three plates and a coffee ***
can’t decide whom she loves more—
Rimbaud or Verlaine,
William Blake or William Wordsworth.
She refills the rabbi’s cup
(he’s reading Rumi),
asks what he thinks of Arthur Whaley.
In the booth behind them, a fat woman
feeds a small white poodle in her lap,
with whom she shares her spoon.
"It’s Rexroth’s translations of the Japanese,"
she says, "that one can’t live without:
May those who are born after me
Never travel such roads of love."
The revolving door proffers
a stranger in a long black coat, lost in the madhouse poems of John Clare.
As he waits to be seated,
the woman who owns the place
hands him a menu
in which he finds several handwritten poems
By Hafiz, Gibran, and Rabindranath Tagore.
The lunch hour’s crowded—
the owner wonders
if the stranger might share
my table. As he sits,
I put a finger to my lips,
and with my eyes ask him
to listen with me
to the young boy and the young girl
two tables away
taking turns reading aloud
the love poems of Pablo Neruda.
4.9k
Your soul is a choice, bucolic scene
With charming travellers in a masquerade
Playing the lute and dancing, yet seem
Sad beneath their fanciful charade.
All carouse in a minor key
Of victorious love and opportunity,
They seem not to believe in their delight
And their song mingles with the moonlight,
In the still moonlight, beautiful and blue,
Birds in the trees dream and sigh by
Elegant fountains among marble statues,
And the cascades in their ecstasy cry.
Apr 28, 2015
Apr 28, 2015 at 9:36 AM UTC
Il pleure dans mon coeur (“It rains in my heart”)
by Paul Verlaine
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
It rains in my heart
As it rains on the town;
Heavy languor and dark
Drenches my heart.
Oh, the sweet-sounding rain
Cleansing pavements and roofs!
For my listless heart's pain
The pure song of the rain!
Still it rains without reason
In my overcast heart.
Can it be there's no treason?
That this grief's without reason?
As my heart floods with pain,
Lacking hatred, or love,
I've no way to explain
Such bewildering pain!
Published by Better Than Starbucks
Paul-Marie Verlaine (1844-1896) was a French poet and a prominent figure in the Symbolist and Decadent poetry movements. Verlaine has been called "one of the most purely lyrical of French poets." Keywords/Tags: Verlaine, French, translation, rain, languor, heart, treason, reason, pain, hatred, love, Arthur Rimbaud
Ophélie (“Ophelia”), an Excerpt
by Arthur Rimbaud
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
On pitiless black waves unsinking stars abide
... while pale Ophelia, a lethargic lily, drifts by ...
Here, tangled in her veils, she floats on the tide ...
Far-off, in the woods, we hear the strident bugle’s cry.
For a thousand years, or more, sad Ophelia,
This albescent phantom, has rocked here, to and fro.
For a thousand years, or more, in her gentle folly,
Ophelia has rocked here when the night breezes blow.
For a thousand years, or more, sad Ophelia,
Has passed, an albescent phantom, down this long black river.
For a thousand years, or more, in her sweet madness
Ophelia has made this river shiver.
Mar 28, 2020
Mar 28, 2020 at 2:13 AM UTC
The rosy-green flight
Of hills and ramps
Blurred in twilight
By a soft lamp
Golden valleys darken
Red in the breeze
Small birds harken
In headless trees
The sadness fades
In my mind’s medium
These autumn shades
Shatter the sky’s tedium
Apr 6, 2015
Apr 6, 2015 at 8:48 AM UTC
Here,
I’ve done it,
A new kind of verse,
All by counting syllables.
The lines all have odd numbers of them.
One, three, five, seven and nine,
Then back down to one.
Just like this,
See?
Once
Paul Verlaine,
Famous French poet,
Claimed there was more music in
Lines with odd numbers of syllables.
I can’t say if he was right.
Is there music in
This simple
Verse?
Look,
Number three
In my collection
Of syllable-counted verse.
They are not really too difficult.
So now what shall I call them?
That is the question,
As Hamlet
Said.
Ha,
Eureka!
Make it a Greek word.
Now what’s Greek for forty-one?
E n a k a i s a r a n d a s y l l a b i c s.
That is what I can call them.
Such an easy name,
Don’t you think?
No?
Well,
I’ll tell you.
Why don’t you try it?
Not so easy now, is it?
Can’t you think of anything at all?
Are you ready to give up?
Can’t say I blame you.
That’s all now.
Bye.
Oct 22, 2018
Oct 22, 2018 at 3:54 PM UTC
Spleen
by Paul Verlaine
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
The roses were so very red;
The ivy, impossibly black.
Dear, with a mere a turn of your head,
My despair’s flooded back!
The sky was too gentle, too blue;
The sea, far too windswept and green.
Yet I always imagined―or knew―
I’d again feel your spleen.
Now I'm tired of the glossy waxed holly,
Of the shimmering boxwood too,
Of the meadowland’s endless folly,
When all things, alas, lead to you!
Paul-Marie Verlaine (1844-1896) was a French poet and a prominent figure in the Symbolist and Decadent poetry movements. Verlaine has been called "one of the most purely lyrical of French poets." Keywords/Tags: Verlaine, French, translation, spleen, roses, ivy, despair, sky, sea, blue, green, red, black, holly, boxwood, Arthur Rimbaud
Ophélie (“Ophelia”), an Excerpt
by Arthur Rimbaud
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
On pitiless black waves unsinking stars abide
... while pale Ophelia, a lethargic lily, drifts by ...
Here, tangled in her veils, she floats on the tide ...
Far-off, in the woods, we hear the strident bugle’s cry.
For a thousand years, or more, sad Ophelia,
This albescent phantom, has rocked here, to and fro.
For a thousand years, or more, in her gentle folly,
Ophelia has rocked here when the night breezes blow.
For a thousand years, or more, sad Ophelia,
Has passed, an albescent phantom, down this long black river.
For a thousand years, or more, in her sweet madness
Ophelia has made this river shiver.
Mar 28, 2020
Mar 28, 2020 at 2:17 AM UTC
Je fais souvent ce rêve étrange et pénétrant
D’une femme inconnue, et que j’aime, et qui m’aime,
Et qui n’est, chaque fois, ni tout à fait la même,
Ni tout à fait une autre, et m’aime et me comprend.
Car elle me comprend, et mon coeur transparent,
Pour elle seule, hélas! cesse d’être un problème.
Pour elle seule, et les moiteurs de mon front blême,
Elle seule les sait rafraîchir, en pleurant.
Est-elle brune, blonde ou rousse? Je l’ignore.
Son nom? Je me souviens qu’il est doux et sonore,
Comme ceux des aimés que la vie exila.
Son regard est pareil au regard des statues,
Et, pour sa voix, lointaine, et calme, et grave, elle a,
L’inflexion des voix chères qui se sont tues.
In English:
I often have this dream both strange and shrewd,
Of an unknown girl, who I love, and who loves me
And who each time is neither quite the same,
Nor quite someone else, and who loves and understands me
Because she understands me, and my open heart
For her only, sadly, still ceasing to be a problem,
For her only, and the dampness of my pale forehead
Only she knows how to collect herself, by crying
Is she brunette, blonde or red? I am unsure
Her name? I remember that it is sweet and memorable
Like those of lives loved in exile
Her look is just like that of the statues;
And for her voice, distant and calm, solemn, she has
The affliction of voices dear which fall silent
Oct 8, 2015
Oct 8, 2015 at 5:10 PM UTC
Porque me ven la barba y el pelo y la alta pipa
dicen que soy poeta..., cuando no porque iluso
suelo rimar -en verso de contorno difuso-
mi viaje byroniano por las vegas del Zipa...,
tal un ventripotente agrómena de jipa
a quien por un capricho de su caletre obtuso
se le antoja, fingirse paraísos...! ¡al uso
de alucinado Poe que el alcohol destripa!, 1
de Baudelaire diabólico, de angelical Verlaine,
de Arthur Rimbaud malévolo, de sensorial Rubén,
y en fin... ¡hasta del Padre Víctor Hugo omniforme...!
¡Y tánta tierra inútil por escasez de músculos!
¡tánta industria novísima! ¡tánto almacén enorme...!
Pero es tan bello ver fugarse los crepúsculos... 2
1.5k
Here are berries, leaves, twigs and blossoms fair,
And here, my heart that for you alone beats.
Clasp it in your pale hands and please do not tear,
But see it as a gift, to your pretty eyes sweet.
I come to you covered with dew and sap,
Which the morning’s wind freezes on my forehead.
Bear me, in my fatigue, to lie in your lap,
Dreaming of pleasures to restore me from the dead
On your young ***** let my head rest,
My body still sated with your last kiss;
Let my mind dwindle after such a tempest
And I’ll sleep a little beside you in bliss.
Apr 28, 2015
Apr 28, 2015 at 9:53 AM UTC
If my memory serves, Satan dear
I once went to Hell for a year
Attempted in vain
To find love with Verlaine
And now that’s all done, I’m a seer!
Feb 4, 2016
Feb 4, 2016 at 3:15 PM UTC
For Rembrandt, love of my life.
Rimbaud,
were you next door
with Verlaine
or in a bar
or in a church
when the tables
were turned by
an invisible hand
against us
my heart was snatched
from our star
& stuffed down
a chimney stack
full of eyes &
knock knocking
on a door & a cry
as a pistol shot
rang out in sepia
do you believe
in women made of paper
folded into dancers
for suit-clad spiders
by doses of poison
if so hold this song
between your fingers
say a prayer
or just curse science
or the shadows
of a trashed childhood
any in memoriam
will do right now
when I still love you.
Jul 30, 2015
Jul 30, 2015 at 4:09 PM UTC
The Day Lady Died
It is 12:20 in New York a Friday
three days after Bastille day, yes
it is 1959 and I go get a shoeshine
because I will get off the 4:19 in Easthampton
at 7:15 and then go straight to dinner
and I don’t know the people who will feed me
I walk up the muggy street beginning to sun
and have a hamburger and a malted and buy
an ugly NEW WORLD WRITING to see what the poets
in Ghana are doing these days
I go on to the bank
and Miss Stillwagon (first name Linda I once heard)
doesn’t even look up my balance for once in her life
and in the GOLDEN GRIFFIN I get a little Verlaine
for Patsy with drawings by Bonnard although I do
think of Hesiod, trans. Richmond Lattimore or
Brendan Behan’s new play or Le Balcon or Les Nègres
of Genet, but I don’t, I stick with Verlaine
after practically going to sleep with quandariness
and for Mike I just stroll into the PARK LANE
Liquor Store and ask for a bottle of Strega and
then I go back where I came from to 6th Avenue
and the tobacconist in the Ziegfeld Theatre and
casually ask for a carton of Gauloises and a carton
of Picayunes, and a NEW YORK POST with her face on it
and I am sweating a lot by now and thinking of
leaning on the john door in the 5 SPOT
while she whispered a song along the keyboard
to Mal Waldron and everyone and I stopped breathing
Apr 25, 2015
Apr 25, 2015 at 10:58 AM UTC
Haber visto crecer a Buenos Aires, crecer y declinar.
Recordar el patio de tierra y la parra, el zaguán y el aljibe.
Haber heredado el inglés, haber interrogado el sajón.
Profesar el amor del alemán y la nostalgia del latín.
Haber conversado en Palermo con un viejo asesino.
Agradecer el ajedrez y el jazmín, los tigres y el hexámetro.
Leer a Macedonio Fernández con la voz que fue suya.
Conocer las ilustres incertidumbres que son la metafísica.
Haber honrado espadas y razonablemente querer la paz.
No ser codicioso de islas.
No haber salido de mi biblioteca.
Ser Alonso Quijano y no atreverme a ser don Quijote.
Haber enseñado lo que no sé a quienes sabrán más que yo.
Agradecer los dones de la luna y de Paul Verlaine.
Haber urdido algún endecasílabo.
Haber vuelto a contar antiguas historias.
Haber ordenado en el dialecto de nuestro tiempo las cinco o seis metáforas.
Haber eludido sobornos.
Ser ciudadano de Ginebra, de Montevideo, de Austin y (como todos los hombres) de Roma.
Ser devoto de Conrad.
Ser esa cosa que nadie puede definir: argentino.
Ser ciego.
Ninguna de esas cosas es rara y su conjunto me depara una fama que no acabo de comprender.
952
Padre viejo y triste, rey de las divinas canciones:
son en mi camino focos de una luz enigmática
tus pupilas mustias, vagas de pensar y abstracciones,
y el límpido y noble marfil de tu testa socrática.
Flota, como el tuyo, mi afán entre dos aguijones:
alma y carne; y brega con doble corriente simpática
para hallar la ubicua beldad con nefandas uniones,
y después expía y gime con lira hierática.
Padre, tú que hallaste por fin el sendero, que, arcano,
a Jesús nos lleva, dame que mi numen doliente
virgen sea, y sabio, a la vez que radioso y humano.
Tu virtud lo libre del mal de la antigua serpiente,
para que, ya salvos al fin de la dura pelea,
laudemos a Cristo en vida perenne. Así sea.
485
Se desgrana un cristal fino
sobre el sueño de una flor;
trina el poeta divino...
¡Bien trinado, Ruiseñor!Bottom oye ese cristal
caer, y bajo la brisa
se siente sentimental.
Titania toda es sonrisa.Shakespeare va por la floresta,
Heine hace un lied de la tarde...
Hugo acompaña la Fiesta
Chez Thérèse. Verlaine ardeen las llamas de las rosas,
alocado y sensitivo,
y dice a las ninfas cosas
entre un querubín y un chivo.Aubrey Beardsley se desliza
como un silfo zahareño;
con carbón, nieve y ceniza
da carne y alma al ensueño.Nerval suspira a la Luna,
Laforgue suspira de
males de genio y fortuna.
Va en silencio Mallarmé.
482
Padre y maestro mágico, liróforo celeste
que al instrumento olímpico y a la siringa agreste
diste tu acento encantador;
¡Panida! Pan tú mismo, con coros condujiste
hacia el propíleo sacro que amaba tu alma triste,
¡al son del sistro y del tambor!Que tu sepulcro cubra de flores Primavera,
que se humedezca el áspero hocico de la fiera
de amor si pasa por allí;
que el fúnebre recinto visite Pan bicorne;
que de sangrientas rosas el fresco abril te adorne
y de claveles de rubí.Que si posarse quiere sobre la tumba el cuervo,
ahuyenten la negrura del pájaro protervo
el dulce canto de cristal
que Filomela vierta sobre tus tristes huesos,
o la armonía dulce de risas y de besos
de culto oculto y florestal.Que púberes canéforas te ofrenden el acanto,
que sobre tu sepulcro no se derrame el llanto,
sino rocío, vino, miel:
que el pámpano allí brote, las flores de Citeres,
¡y que se escuchen vagos suspiros de mujeres
bajo un simbólico laurel!Que si un pastor su pífano bajo el frescor del haya,
en amorosos días, como en Virgilio, ensaya,
tu nombre ponga en la canción;
y que la virgen náyade, cuando ese nombre escuche
con ansias y temores entre las linfas luche,
llena de miedo y de pasión.De noche, en la montaña, en la negra montaña
de las Visiones, pase gigante sombra extraña,
sombra de un Sátiro espectral;
que ella al centauro adusto con su grandeza asuste;
de una extrahumana flauta la melodía ajuste
a la armonía sideral.Y huya el tropel equino por la montaña vasta;
tu rostro de ultratumba bañe la Luna casta
de compasiva y blanca luz;
y el Sátiro contemple sobre un lejano monte
una cruz que se eleve cubriendo el horizonte
¡y un resplandor sobre la cruz!
504
Je connais un charmant ivrogne,
Autant vous le nommer, ma foi !
Dire que vous avez la trogne,
Ce serait mentir sans vergogne.
Pourtant, un soir, écoutez-moi !
Vous aviez bu trop de champagne,
Ça se lisait dans vos yeux pers.
Vous battiez un peu la campagne,
Sans feuille de figuier ni pagne
À votre esprit, vraiment, sans pairs.
Et vous me dérouliez le thème
De tous les jolis mouvements
Que votre corps sait bien que j'aime.
J'étais, d'ailleurs, ivre moi-même,
Au Bon-Bock, tu vois si je mens.
La brasserie était houleuse,
On aurait dit, sur l'Hellespont,
D'une cabine nuageuse,
Quand l'eau, changée en Maufrigneuse,
Choque les gens dans l'entrepont.
Vous aviez l'air *** d'une chatte
Qui joue et sent son ongle armé,
Forte, ambigüe, et délicate,
Comme une rime sous la patte
Magistrale de Mallarmé !
Je flottais comme la moustache
De Paul Verlaine au plectre d'or,
Je voyais couleur de pistache ;
Camille agitait sa cravache,
Sur je ne sais plus quel butor ;
Si bien qu'au milieu des querelles
Je vous retrouvai sur un banc,
Dans l'attitude de ces Belles
Que Forain, dans ses aquarelles,
Habille d'un bout de ruban.
Tu t'endormais sur mon épaule.
Alors, je fis signe au cocher.
Ces choses-là, c'est toujours drôle !
J'entrais d'autant mieux dans ce rôle
Que j'aurais eu peine à marcher ;
Quand on nous déposa sur terre,
Vous fîtes un léger faux pas,
Le seul qu'on vous vit jamais faire ;
Encor, même à l'œil trop sévère,
Peut-être ne l'était-il pas ?
Car, dans l'ombre où s'éteint le rêve
De mes désirs réalisés,
Ton ivresse que l'Art relève
Ouvrait, ô noble Fille d'Ève,
La volière à tous les baisers !
496
Ya caen las hojas. Se alejan volando,
Temblores de oro.
En las calles desiertas del parque
Hojas, más hojas, y lodo. Gris el estanque. El crepúsculo
Amarillo y brumoso.
Damas con trajes oscuros que pasan
Casi oculto entre pieles el rostro....
Organillo que suenas
Debajo del olmo,
Toca, toca la triste
Canción del Otoño!
Verlaine! Tus violones
Ya oigo,
Y en los áureos
Y rojos
Boscajes
Los largos sollozos
Que arrullaron tu ensueño
Con lánguido canto monótono...
¡Que me arrulle también en la tarde
La triste canción del Otoño!
Remolinos y danza de hojas....
¿En dónde las novias y novios?
Retretas en tardes de estío,
Desierto está el quiosco.
Estudiantes ¿a dónde partisteis?
Midinetas de labios muy rojos
Y grandes ojeras,
¿Recordáis que en el hombro
De vuestros galanes
En plácidos sueños absortos,
Amorosas, la frente inclinabais
Y brillaban de amor vuestros ojos?
Las manos unidas entonces
Y unidos los labios al pie de los troncos...
Bancos, tristes senderos del parque,
¿Qué fue del antiguo alborozo?....
La tarde se apaga. Detrás de los vidrios
Se encienden las luces. El cielo, de plomo.
Sombras pasan, y pasan ligeras.
Todo
Se borra, se borra
Brumoso...
Violones
De son melancólico,
Violones
Monótonos,
Violones
De otoño...
¡El parque, en la sombra,
Ya solo!
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august verlaine
slowly creeping that small way that things do
in the way of blood and gardens
the slow and yearning stretch to the grave
where the cry is tears and on top of the heat drains and
pours carefully like
tomorrow
a wash in the carefully crowded streets
the wet innocence
caustic bidding in teeth
never rotting teeth
bouncing in the aisle and down such
bravo, the day that slipped out beneath you and
august verlaine
the wind rattling like raspy leaves
me, the us here,
like blood
singing you to sleep in the cradle strapped
just sing
Aug 4, 2016
Aug 4, 2016 at 12:12 AM UTC
_I am the Empire in the last of its decline,
That sees the tall, fair-haired Barbarians pass,--the while
Composing indolent acrostics, in a style
Of gold, with languid sunshine dancing in each line._ -Paul Verlaine, "Melancholy"
I am the Empire, in decline.
The elm tree is yellowing;
the rain-arm is broadcasting
from the cloud station.
I am the once-loved voice,
now a tired smear of memory;
the ghost of a market thrill,
a bed of smoke, a red register.
I am the Barbarian, grown fat
after the stuttering blonde pyres
are stilled: finger-flickers of ash.
I am the white noise nocturne
after the rerun is over.
I am the cathode ray,
the scent in the glass.
I am the Empire, in decline.
Sep 30, 2022
Sep 30, 2022 at 1:53 PM UTC
Este noble poeta, que ha escuchado
los ecos de la tarde y los violines
del otoño en Verlaine, y que ha cortado
las rosas de Ronsard en los jardines
de Francia, hoy, peregrino
de un Ultramar de Sol, nos trae el oro
de su verbo divino.
¡Salterios del loor vibran en coro!
La nave bien guarnida,
con fuerte casco y acerada prora,
de viento y luz la blanca vela henchida
surca, pronta a arribar, la mar sonora.
Y yo le grito: ¡Salve! a la bandera
flamígera que tiene
esta hermosa galera,
que de una nueva España a España viene.
422
Ce livre ira vers toi comme celui d'Ovide
S'en alla vers la Ville.
Il fut chassé de Rome ; un coup bien plus perfide
**** de mon fils m'exile.
Te reverrai-je ? Et quel ? Mais quoi ! moi mort ou non,
Voici mon testament :
Crains Dieu, ne hais personne, et porte bien ton nom
Qui fut porté dûment.
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