Sobering AC. Mental instability - i've been there many times, scary knowing i could have been locked away for it.  It is very lonely this poem and sad. Thank you for your excellent work, AC. It's beautiful though very painful.

28 minutes ago, Mikiesboy said:

Sobering AC. Mental instability - i've been there many times, scary knowing i could have been locked away for it.  It is very lonely this poem and sad. Thank you for your excellent work, AC. It's beautiful though very painful.

Yes, as I understand it, Nerval was known as quite an artistic type. He's still remembered today as the one who used to walk his pet lobster around Paris on a leash.  

Where else but Paris would you walk a lobster??  It's a great poem..

You never cease to amaze me. This is a fantastic poem. Given the unhappy history of Aquitaine, the line about the prince in his desolate tower surely resonates. But the third stanza opens up  some very interesting ideas and possibilities. Bravo, my friend. 

8 hours ago, Parker Owens said:

You never cease to amaze me. This is a fantastic poem. Given the unhappy history of Aquitaine, the line about the prince in his desolate tower surely resonates. But the third stanza opens up  some very interesting ideas and possibilities. Bravo, my friend. 

Thank you, Parker. You mention Aquitaine. That is one of several medieval/chivalrous allusions in the poem; and about the only one I kept by name. 

It's always hard in a translation to know when an allusion will resonate or not. I had to look up several that Nerval cites, and was impressed at how closely they all enforced a story with local connections to Aquitaine, the part of France he was from. However, that fascination is not enough to render the poem in another language, and we English-speakers are a little less well versed on French history than our Gallic cousins. So, Aquitaine made it in my translation, but others did not. They got reduced to the image a contemporary reader with the poem might think, thus 'king or coward' instead of family names used to evoke these sentiments. 

It's always tricky to shape a poem in a language not its own. I hope I have conveyed the beauty and mystery surrounded Je suis le Ténébreux. 

AC, i am amazed at the things you offer up. it's beautiful. i love that fact you share, i get exposed to so many new and different things i never would have if not for you. i know i don't comment on everything, mainly because i'd be repeating myself a lot. cool, beautiful... you get the drift

6 hours ago, mogwhy said:

AC, i am amazed at the things you offer up. it's beautiful. i love that fact you share, i get exposed to so many new and different things i never would have if not for you. i know i don't comment on everything, mainly because i'd be repeating myself a lot. cool, beautiful... you get the drift

Thank you, Moggy. Your comments mean a lot to me. Your encouraging me to be me means a lot to me too. Thanks for any and all thoughts you wish to share

Here's a comment I received from Lyssa via email

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Dear AC,
your translation is magnificent. The mourning of the author is palpable in each line, the loss and the luring madness. The pictures and allusions are translated masterly.
I understand the choosing of Venus and sun, and I like it. Even I still think it is Amor and Apollo. Looks like I am an old-fashioned Victorian. ;-)

Every time I read the line about the grotto, I see the blue grotto at Capri in my mind. Thanks for this picture.

Especial the last stanza you should be really proud of. Your translation of these very complex lines brings the meaning forward and makes it more reachable for the reader than in the original and other translations.

So you gave this poem new life and energy. Bravo!

13 minutes ago, AC Benus said:

So you gave this poem new life and energy. Bravo!

Oh that's super AC.. what a great comment!!  Thanks for sharing it