Grief French Poems

These are my modern English translations of sonnets by the French poet Stephane Mallarme.

The Tomb of Edgar Poe
by Stéphane Mallarmé
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Transformed...

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When I was young,                                           ...

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elle pleure de plus en plus
et ça ne change rien
elle le sait
de jour en jour
elle voit sa santé détériorer
elle pense 
aux belles années
partagées
une douceur au...

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À la mesure
 


petites phrases ici et là
écrites au milieu de la nuit
évincées froissées rejetées
insignifiantes

fades reflets
disqualifiés
jamais à la mesure des émotions
de mon ardeur
de mon amour...

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peu à peu comme une rose 
quand vient l’automne
je t’ai vu faner
devant moi tout lentement

je n’aurais pas cru
voir éclore entre nous un amour si serein
garni...

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Looking back, one thing comes clean-glass clear
you were always there for me subduing every fear.

I tried to do my duty, be a husband strong and...

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The battles ower ,smoke settles ower the moor,
Clans are broken flying aff tae the hills.
Redcoated sodjers mingle with red Heilan blude,
Killing the wounded in Drumossie...

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Oft in My Thought
by Charles D'Orleans
translation by Michael R. Burch

So often in my busy mind I sought,
Around the advent of the fledgling year,
For something pretty...

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EVIL, MEAN AND
OTHERS
TO AGREE WITH HER
THEN SHE COULD 
MOVE ON
WITH HER AGENDA'S
CAMPAINGS TO
 CAUSE GRIEF TO THOSE
SHE FOUND LEES LIKE HER
AND THOSE CRUEL WAYS SHE
FOUND...

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While ambling down the boulevard,
I spied a swanky canopy.
As member of the avant-garde,
The classy bistro suited me.

When greeted by the maitre'd,
I nonchalantly said, "Just one."
He...

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MONSIEUR L'VAMPYRE - Parisienne Dream
and suddenly you've fallen through the seams
from very life, to stroll here by the Seine,
dropped from reality into my dreams
where you've...

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Humanity grieves with Paris, comforting her with sympathetic eyes;
the brutal attacks of November have reunited the City of Lights:
pictures, flowers and candles can attest!
Let the...

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~ With thoughts of those who died by the hands of evil ~



            ...

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