Translator’s note: the originals of both poems were first published in the Apollinaire collection Le Guetteur mélancolique (The Melancholic Watchman). To the best of my knowledge, my translations represent their first appearance in English.
Tristesse de l’Automne
Vous êtes le soldat de toutes les bontés
A vous voir la douleur tremble fuit et s’étonne
Voyez votre départ attriste cet automne
Et l’hiver viendra quand vous nous aurez quittés
La guerre continue au rythme monotone
Des grands canons jetant leurs tragiques clartés
Mais quand vous serez loin quelquefois écoutez
Un chant plus doux que n’est la berceuse bretonne
Et plus doux que ne sont les chœurs napolitains
Les chants des barcarols glissant sur la lagune
Qu’un ronron d’avion volant au clair de lune
Que la voix de Memnon dans les tendres matins
The Sadness of Autumn
You are the soldier of all that is righteous
To see you makes pain tremble shake and run
See your departure bring sadness this autumn
And winter will come when you leave us
The howitzers hurl their tragic light
The war continues in a monotone rhythm
But when you’re far away take a moment—listen
A song softer than the Breton lullaby
Softer than the Neapolitan chorus
The songs of barcaroles gliding the lagoon
Than the roar of a plane in the light of the moon
Than the voice of Memnon on tender auroras
69 6666 …6 9…
Les inverses 6 et 9
Se sont dessinés comme un chiffre étrange
69
Deux serpents fatidiques
Deux vermisseaux
Nombre impudique et cabalistique
6 3 et 3
9 3 3 et 3
La trinité
Qui se retrouve
La trinité partout
Avec la dualité
Car 6 deux fois 3
Et trinité 9 trois fois 3
69 dualité trinité
Et ces arcanes seraient plus sombres
Mais j’ai peur de les sonder
Qui sait si là n’est pas l’éternité
Par-delà la mort camuse
Qui s’amuse à faire peur
Et l’ennui m’emmantelle
Comme un vague linceul de lugubre dentelle
Ce soir
69 6666 …6 9…
The inverses 6 and 9
Are drawn like an odd figure
69
Two serpents fatalistic
Two curled worms
Number shameless and cabalistic
6 3 and 3
9 3 3 and 3
The trinity
Which is found
Trinity everywhere
With duality
For 6 two times 3
And trinity 9 three times 3
69 duality trinity
This arcana may be bleaker
But I fear to probe deeper
Who knows if there is eternity
Beyond snub-nosed death
Who gets a kick out of scaring
And I feel sadness rising
Like a vague shroud of dismal lace
Tonight
Jefferey Samoray is a Michigan-based writer, essayist, and translator of French and Russian literature. He holds degrees in English Literature from State University of New York-Binghamton and Oakland University. His translations of poems by Jules Laforgue have appeared in Sunspot Literary Journal.
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