Poetry Meme

[sigune]

When you see this, post a poem on your journal.


66. Les Chats

Les amoureux fervents et les savants austères
Aiment également, dans leur mûre saison,
Les chats puissants et doux, orgueil de la maison,
Qui comme eux sont frileux et comme eux sédentaires.

Amis de la science et de la volupté,
Il cherchent le silence et l'horreur des ténèbres;
L'Érèbe les eût pris pour ses coursiers funèbres,
S'ils pouvaient au servage incliner leur fierté.

Ils prennent en songeant les nobles attitudes
Des grands sphinx allongés au fond des solitudes,
Qui semblent s'endormir dans un rêve sans fin;

Leurs reins féconds sont pleins d'étincelles magiques,
Et des parcelles d'or, ainsi qu'un sable fin,
Étoilent vaguement leurs prunelles mystiques.

Charles Baudelaire



66. Cats

Stiff scholars and the hotly amorous
Will in their ripeness equally admire
Powerful, gentle cats, pride of the house,
Who, like them, love to sit around the fire.

Friends both of sciences and of l'amour,
They seek the silent horror of the night;
Erebus wants them for his funeral corps,
But in their pride they'd never choose that fate.

They take in sleeping noble attitudes--
Great sphinxes in the desert solitudes,
Who seem to be entranced by endless dreams;

Within their potent loins are magic sparks,
And flakes of gold, fine sand, are vaguely seen
Behind their mystic eyes, gleaming like stars.

(Translation by James McGowan)

Comments

[therealsnape.livejournal.com]

Qui comme eux sont frileux et comme eux sédentaires.
One of my all time favourite lines. Great choice!

[sigune.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

That line is a striking example of an instance where the translation simply won't do. "Who, like them, love to sit around the fire"? Nah! That said, I do think the task is pretty impossible...

[therealsnape.livejournal.com]

the translation simply won't do That's a fine understatement! That translation had me gasping with shock. Sit around the fire, indeed!
It is almost impossible, though, I agree with that.