Hölderlin à la tour
Les oiseaux intermittents
Les champs toujours là en face
Les mots voltigent, reviennent
Le touchent, il tend la main
Et les pose doucement
Les uns à côté des autres
Ils disent des choses très simples
Comme la musique
L’eau est calme
L’ombre de l’oiseau surprend
Les jours sont longs
Comme au début de la vie
Les champs toujours là en face
Les mots voltigent, reviennent
Le touchent, il tend la main
Et les pose doucement
Les uns à côté des autres
Ils disent des choses très simples
Comme la musique
L’eau est calme
L’ombre de l’oiseau surprend
Les jours sont longs
Comme au début de la vie
À partir d’un moment d’une extrême simpilicité
il ne faut plus espérer
il ne faut plus espérer
Hölderlin in the tower
Birds sometimes
the fields still over there
words go away come back
touch he holds out his hand
and puts them down softly
side by side
they say simple things
like music
the water is calm
a bird’s shadow surprises
the days are long
as once they were
the fields still over there
words go away come back
touch he holds out his hand
and puts them down softly
side by side
they say simple things
like music
the water is calm
a bird’s shadow surprises
the days are long
as once they were
After a moment of extreme simplicity
hope is no longer needed
hope is no longer needed
I love the two last lines in the poem, After a moment of extreme simplicity hope is no longer needed, if we could live in that one thought, what an accomplishment. Nice poem to choose, so simple that it is sweet. Did you know what it said before you chose it i wonder? Good job.
ReplyDeleteHahaha nope! I actually just searched "French poem" in Google and went with one that caught my eye...
ReplyDeleteThis exercise is deceptively simple. On the surface, it seems that one could simply run a french poem through a translating service. The real work comes when you begin to figure out how to smooth it out. What sorts of tweaks would you need to make in order for the English version to make sense grammatically and in terms of content. That is the work of the translator. For instance, would you smooth out the syntax?
ReplyDelete