Paul Verlaine Spleen Translation Poem by Michael Burch

Spleen
by Paul Verlaine
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

The roses were so very red;
The ivy, impossibly black.

Dear, with a mere a turn of your head,
My despair's flooded back!

The sky was too gentle, too blue;
The sea, far too windswept and green.

Yet I always imagined―or knew―
I'd again feel your spleen.

Now I'm tired of the glossy waxed holly,
Of the shimmering boxwood too,

Of the meadowland's endless folly,
When all things, alas, lead to you!

Paul-Marie Verlaine (1844-1896) was a French poet and a prominent figure in the Symbolist and Decadent poetry movements. Verlaine has been called 'one of the most purely lyrical of French poets.'Keywords/Tags: Verlaine, French, translation, Paris, spleen, rose, roses, ivy, despair, sky, sea, blue, green, red, black, holly, boxwood

Il pleure dans mon coeur
Paul Verlaine
loose translation Michael R. Burch

It rains in my heart
As it rains on the town;
Heavy languor and dark
Drenches my heart.

Oh, the sweet-sounding rain
Cleansing pavements and roofs!
For my listless heart's pain
The pure song of the rain!

Still it rains without reason
In my overcast heart.
Can it be there's no treason?
That this grief's without reason?

As my heart floods with pain,
Lacking hatred, or love,
I've no way to explain
Such bewildering pain!

Published by Better Than Starbucks