This week I put side by side in French and English the poem “Clair de Lune” by Paul Verlaine. And since an article doesn’t seem complete to me without picture, I added the painting “Moonlit night in Crimea” which is an oil on canvas of 56,4×76 cm painted by Ivan Aivazovsky in 1859, and is situated in the State Russian Museum.
| Clair de lune de Paul Verlaine | Clair de lune by Paul Verlaine |
| Translated by Gertrude Hall |
| Votre âme est un paysage choisi | Your soul is as a moonlit landscape fair, |
| Que vont charmant masques et bergamasques | Peopled with maskers delicate and dim, |
| Jouant du luth et dansant et quasi | That play on lutes and dance and have an air |
| Tristes sous leurs déguisements fantasques. | Of being sad in their fantastic trim. |
| Tout en chantant sur le mode mineur | The while they celebrate in minor strain |
| L’amour vainqueur et la vie opportune, | Triumphant love, effective enterprise, |
| Ils n’ont pas l’air de croire à leur bonheur | They have an air of knowing all is vain,— |
| Et leur chanson se mêle au clair de lune, | And through the quiet moonlight their songs rise, |
| Au calme clair de lune triste et beau, | The melancholy moonlight, sweet and lone, |
| Qui fait rêver les oiseaux dans les arbres | That makes to dream the birds upon the tree, |
| Et sangloter d’extase les jets d’eau, | And in their polished basins of white stone |
| Les grands jets d’eau sveltes parmi les marbres. | The fountains tall to sob with ecstasy. |
I hope you enjoyed this poem and painting as much as I did
You can find other French, American or Russian poem on their pages, as well as more bilingual poems if you like them
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