Translation Trashbin - 6. Je suis le Ténébreux

I posted this originally in my blog, but thought I'd add it here to the rest

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Translation of:

El Desdichado*

by Gérard Labrunie, aka Gérard de Nerval

Je suis le Ténébreux – le Veuf – l’Inconsolé,

Le Prince d’Aquitaine à la Tour abolie:

Ma seule Etoile est morte – et mon luth constellé

Porte le Soleil noir de la Mélancolie.

Dans la nuit du Tombeau, Toi qui m’as consolé,

Rends-moi le Pausilippe et la mer d’Italie,

La fleur qui plaisait tant à mon coeur désolé,

Et la treille où le Pampre à la Rose s’allie.

Suis-je Amour ou Phébus ?… Lusignan ou Biron?

Mon front est rouge encor du baiser de la Reine;

J’ai rêvé dans la Grotte où nage la sirène….

Et j’ai deux fois vainqueur traversé l’Achéron:

Modulant tour à tour sur la lyre d’Orphée

Les soupirs de la Sainte et les cris de la Fée.

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I am the tombs – the widower – the unconsoled,

The prince of Aquitaine in his tower abandoned:

My one and only star is dead – my strings unfold

Melancholy's black light whose sun is most weakened.

In the night of the graves, your tears held me controlled,

So now return Posillipo, Naples' fair wind,

The flower my afflicted heart liked so much of old,

And the trellis where grape and rose were jointly pinned.

Am I Venus or the Sun...? Brave king or coward?

My brow is still flushed from the kiss of the sovereign;

I dream yet of the grotto where swims the siren….

Twice crossing the river of the dead, I scoured

For my turn on Orpheus' lyre to play

For saintly sighs, and the cursed screams of the fey.

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* The poem was published in 1853 as part of a series of twelve Sonnets written while the man was incarcerated for mental instability. The title is Spanish means “the desolate”; “the wretched”; “the unfortunate” etc. For some interesting and detailed analysis of the poem and its images, see here

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