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Pastimes : Calling all SI Poets
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To: Volsi Mimir who wrote (1864)12/9/1999 10:01:00 PM
From: Volsi Mimir  Read Replies (2) of 2095
 
Little Air
Stephane Mallarme
The poem and 2 translations
(Which is best?)

Little Air----------------------- Little Air------------------------------ Petit Air
Petit Air----------------------- Petit Air-----------------------

I-------------------------------- I-------------------------------------- I

Somehow a solitude--------------- Some sort of solitude------------------- Quelconque une solitude
With neither swan nor quay------ With neither swan nor dock-------------- Sans le cygne ni le quai
Surveys its desuetude------------ Mirrors its desuetude-------------------- Mire sa desuetude
With the glance I turned away----- In my abdicated look--------------------- Au regard que j'abdiquai

Here from the vainglory---------- Here from a realm too high-------------- Ici de la gloriole
Too remote for touch------------- And glorious to hold-------------------- Haute a ne la pas toucher
Bejeweling many a heaven---------- In which so many a radiant sky---------- Dont maint ciel se bariole
With the opulence of dusk-------- Bedecks itself in sunset's gold--------- Avec les ors de coucher

But traces languorously---------- But languorously glides------------------ Mais langoureusement longe
As snowy linen doffed------------ Like linen floating down----------------- Comme de blanc linge ote
Such fugitive bird alongside----- Some passing bird if there beside------- Tel fugace oiseau si plonge
You exultant one in the surf----- Plunge in exultation--------------------- Exultatrice a cote

To plunge were to become---------- Into the wave yourself your own---------- Dans l'onde toi devenue
Your naked jubilation.------------ Naked jubilation grown.------------------ Ta jubilation nue.

II-------------------------------- II---------------------------------------- II

Inexorably bound------------------ Indomitably must-------------------------- Indomptablement a du
As my hope launching high---------- Like my hopes flung after it-------------- Comme mon espoir s'y lance
To shatter there lost-------------- Have burst in ether and been lost--------- Eclater la-haut perdu
In fury and silence,--------------- With the fury and silence of its flight:--- Avec furie et silence,

Voice strange to the grove---------- Voice foreign to the wood------------------ Voix etrangere au bosquet
Or by no echo trailed,-------------- Or else unechoed, bird--------------------- Ou par nul echo suivie,
The bird in life never-------------- That in a single lifetime could----------- L'oiseau qu'on n'ouit jamais
Another time heard.----------------- Never more than once be heard.------------- Une autre fois en la vie.

The eerie musician------------------ The haggard musician,---------------------- Le haggard musicien,
Leaving in doubt-------------------- It still expires in doubt------------------ Cela dans le doute exire
If from my breast not his----------- If not from his breast but my own---------- Si de mon sein pas du sien
The wilder sob broke out,------------ More grievous sobs came gushing out:------- A jailli le sanglot pire

Goes torn asunder away-------------- Tattered but entire, may------------------- Dechire va-t-il entier
On some path to stay!---------------- He still pursue some chosen way!------------ Rester sur quelque sentier!

Translated by------------------------ Translated by------------------------------- Stephane Mallarme
Kate Flores 1958--------------------- Henry Weinfeild 1994----------------------- 1842-1898
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