As a translator, it is one of my great joys to translate music-related texts. Every once in a while, I also get to translate poetry – perhaps the ultimate test of a translator’s skill.
Once in a blue moon, I get to translate poetry as part of a classical CD liner note text, in essence combining my three great loves: music, poetry, and translation.
And so I present my translation of ”Beau Soir” by 19th-century French poet Paul Bourget, which was set to music by a very young Claude Debussy.
Beau Soir
Lorsque au soleil couchant les rivières sont roses
Et qu'un tiède frisson court sur les champs de blé,
Un conseil d'être heureux semble sortir des choses
Et monter vers le coeur troublé.
Un conseil de goûter le charme d'être au monde
Ce pendant qu'on est jeune et que le soir est beau,
Car nous nous en allons, comme s'en va cette onde:
Elle à la mer, nous au tombeau.
Paul Bourget
Beau Soir
When rivers run pink as the sun sets down
And a ripple runs warm over fields of wheat,
An ode to joy rises from all around
And soars to the heart bittersweet.
An ode to taste the charms of life this day
While we are young and the evening abloom,
Because, like that wave, we all make our way:
Rivers to sea, and we to tomb.
Paul Bourget
English translation © Peter Garner
Here’s Debussy’s song performed by the great Renée Fleming. It’s hard to fathom that Debussy was only about 15 when he composed this.
1 comment:
Long sought an English answer for this poem. This sure gets very close, with last two lines absolutely perfect! "ode to joy" is a really interesting way to deal with "conseil" (though the inevitable evocation of Beethoven still is a tiny whisper of a snag for me). "rises from all around" is a lovely unfussy way--very best I've seen--to render the sense of the french. I wondered if getting the "semble" in there by saying "seems to rise" might be yet closer to Bourget's sense.
What a thoughtful, beautiful job!
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