This poem functions as a record of the end of Apollinaire's long love affair with Marie Laurencin, as Apollinaire himself wrote in a letter to Madeleine Pagès: "Le Pont Mirabeau est...la chanson triste de cette longue liaison brisée..."
The Mirabeau Bridge
By Guillaume Apollinaire
Translated by A.Z. Foreman
Click here to hear me recite the original French
Below the Mirabeau bridge there flows the Seine
As for our love
Must I recall how then
After each sorrow joy would come again
Let night come toll hours away
Days go by me here I stay
Let us stay hand in hand and face to face
While down below
The bridge of our embrace
Roll the waves weary of our endless gaze
Let night come toll hours away
Days go by me here I stay
Love goes away the way the waters flow
Love goes away
How life is long and slow
How hope of life can deal so strong a blow
Let night come toll hours away
Days go by me here I stay
The days the weeks are passing from our ken
Neither time passed
Nor love can come again
Below the Mirabeau bridge there flows the Seine
Let night come toll hours away
Days go by me here I stay
The Original:
Le Pont Mirabeau
Sous le pont Mirabeau coule la Seine
Et nos amours
Faut-il qu'il m'en souvienne
La joie venait toujours après la peine
Vienne la nuit sonne l'heure
Les jours s'en vont je demeure
Les mains dans les mains restons face à face
Tandis que sous
Le pont de nos bras passe
Des éternels regards l'onde si lasse
Vienne la nuit sonne l'heure
Les jours s'en vont je demeure
L'amour s'en va comme cette eau courante
L'amour s'en va
Comme la vie est lente
Et comme l'Espérance est violente
Vienne la nuit sonne l'heure
Les jours s'en vont je demeure
Passent les jours et passent les semaines
Ni temps passé
Ni les amours reviennent
Sous le pont Mirabeau coule la Seine
Vienne la nuit sonne l'heure
Les jours s'en vont je demeure
The Mirabeau Bridge
By Guillaume Apollinaire
Translated by A.Z. Foreman
Click here to hear me recite the original French
Below the Mirabeau bridge there flows the Seine
As for our love
Must I recall how then
After each sorrow joy would come again
Let night come toll hours away
Days go by me here I stay
Let us stay hand in hand and face to face
While down below
The bridge of our embrace
Roll the waves weary of our endless gaze
Let night come toll hours away
Days go by me here I stay
Love goes away the way the waters flow
Love goes away
How life is long and slow
How hope of life can deal so strong a blow
Let night come toll hours away
Days go by me here I stay
The days the weeks are passing from our ken
Neither time passed
Nor love can come again
Below the Mirabeau bridge there flows the Seine
Let night come toll hours away
Days go by me here I stay
The Original:
Le Pont Mirabeau
Sous le pont Mirabeau coule la Seine
Et nos amours
Faut-il qu'il m'en souvienne
La joie venait toujours après la peine
Vienne la nuit sonne l'heure
Les jours s'en vont je demeure
Les mains dans les mains restons face à face
Tandis que sous
Le pont de nos bras passe
Des éternels regards l'onde si lasse
Vienne la nuit sonne l'heure
Les jours s'en vont je demeure
L'amour s'en va comme cette eau courante
L'amour s'en va
Comme la vie est lente
Et comme l'Espérance est violente
Vienne la nuit sonne l'heure
Les jours s'en vont je demeure
Passent les jours et passent les semaines
Ni temps passé
Ni les amours reviennent
Sous le pont Mirabeau coule la Seine
Vienne la nuit sonne l'heure
Les jours s'en vont je demeure
Posts
I am very impressed by your ability to give your translations from the Spanish and the French a sound and a movement at least something like that of the originals. This translation, your translation of Verlaine's "Claire de lune," and the translation of Juan de la Cruz's "Noche oscura" are all among the very best that I have seen and they deserve a wide audience.
ReplyDeleteHave you considered translating Garcilaso or the anonymous lyrics of the cancionero tradicional? It would be very interesting to see what you would do with beautiful poems like "Al alba venid, buen amigo" or "De los álamos vengo, madre.”
First off: thank you mightily for the compliments. It's wonderful to know that at least some of what I'm attempting is working.
ReplyDeleteRe: Garcilaso. I actually have a draft of "En tanto que de rosa y azucena" in the works. In the earlier days of this site, I'd have just posted the draft and then kept working on it over time. But now, seeing as how (according to google anyway) most of my readers access it through Google Reader, rather than directly through their browser, (and since Google Reader stops updating its cache for content more than a couple days old and has recently disabled the "track changes" function) I feel I should make sure my work is at least presentable before posting.
Ditto with the cancionero. I have some drafts deep in the bowels of my hard drive, but I'm not quite happy with them yet- a large reason for that is that I'm unsure about what register of English is most appropriate to them.
I have read quite a number of translations of this beautiful poem and yours is certainly the best one I have found. Well done. Your knowledge of languages is amazing.
ReplyDeletewow! You recite without any american accent! You're very gifted!
ReplyDeleteumutsuzlugun acimasizligi ve ask nehre akip gitti(mi)
ReplyDeletethat's good i was looking for something like this - you read it really differently to how i imagined it however, i imagined short pauses between the lines i.e. vienne la unit (pause) sonne l'heur
ReplyDelete"Sous le pont mirabeau" is a poem that moves me every time I read it. That's probably why I hesitated before trying to look for a translation. You, sir, have done this poem justice. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteThis is excellent, thank you.
ReplyDelete