Poem: Prologue (Poèmes Saturniens) by Paul Verlaine

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French Literature – French Poetry – Paul Verlaine – Poems by Paul Verlaine
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Poèmes Saturniens

Prologue

The Sages of old time, well worth our own,
Believed—and it has been disproved by none—
That destinies in Heaven written are,
And every soul depends upon a star.
(Many have mocked, without remembering
That laughter oft is a misguiding thing,
This explanation of night’s mystery.)
Now all that born beneath Saturnus be,—
Red planet, to the necromancer dear,—
Inherit, ancient magic-books make clear,
Good share of spleen, good share of wretchedness.
Imagination, wakeful, vigorless,
In them makes the resolves of reason vain.
The blood within them, subtle as a bane,
Burning as lava, scarce, flows ever fraught
With sad ideals that ever come to naught.
Such must Saturnians suffer, such must die,—
If so that death destruction doth imply,—
Their lives being ordered in this dismal sense
By logic of a malign Influence.

Translated by Gertrude Hall

Dessin de Verlaine. Une soirée chez Verlaine à l'hôtel meublé de l'impasse Royer-Collard en 1889, paru dans La Plume en 1896. — Une soirée chez Verlaine par Verlaine – 1889, .

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French Literature – French Poetry – Paul Verlaine – Poems by Paul Verlaine

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Poèmes Saturniens

Prologue

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