Long Chanson Poems

Charles d'Orleans: a Medieval Marvel


Spring
by Charles d’Orleans (c. 1394-1465)
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Young lovers,
greeting the spring
fling themselves downhill,
making cobblestones ring
with their wild leaps and arcs,
like ecstatic sparks
struck from coal.

What is their brazen goal?

They grab...

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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 that I really ought
To give my lady dear;
But that sweet...

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Translation with commentary of an archetypal Wild West Classic : " Summer Wine "

(I'd wage my bottom diamond dime future generations will re-discover and treasure this true American classic like only a few others of...

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Translation of Eric Mottram’s TIME SIGHT UNSEEN, Part Two by T. Wignesan

"Instead of an item in a school of rhetoric, the poem could have variety of articulations, continuity and discontinuity, sentence and parataxis, and an...

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"The In-Between"

I ripped the pages of 
that tired old story 
from the heart, a body of work

buried the misdiagnosed slanders
then wiped their mouths
with the back of my spoon

the feed they found,
passed the disingenuous time;
some found...

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Autumn Leaves/Les feuilles mortes de Jacques PREVERT (1900-77) 
Translated by T. Wignesan 

(Note: As far as I can make out, this poem is at the heart of all versions of « The Autumn Leaves "...

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Translation of Roberta Flack's Killing Me Softly with his Song by T Wignesan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgl-VRdXr7I


Refrain :

Strumming my pain with his fingers
Singing my life with his words
Killing me softly with his song
Killing me softly with his song
Telling my...

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Can intimacy be labeled as de trop?
I don't think. My sister offers me critique
Of such silly actions! But I still crave more!
Our nights together were just majestique.

Before heading out we take aperitif
By the pool, in...

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Tiresome errands (Chanso or Chanson)

For many of us, errands are so boring;
Many crucial things to do to show status
rather than wasting time doing routine jobs;
Like, taking Selfie in a new dress, so glaring;

Pushing the photo...

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Tu le fera, n’est-ce pas, Papa ? – Translation of Kevin Gilbert’s « Won’t you, Dad ? » by T. Wignesan

Si toutes les jolies mélodies
de ce monde eussent été chantées
et toutes les chefs d’œuvres des...

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Ceux qui célèbrent ‘88 – Translation of Kevin Gilbert’s « Celebrators  ‘88 »» by T. Wignesan

(This poem mocks the bicentenary celebrations of the founding or « settling » of the Australian continent by the...

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you spurn ... I burn
    your touch is aphotic nirvana
       a lurid and misty Elysium, pure
        you feign a...

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Poème poète égyptien : Abdel Latif Moubarak

Traduction: Nuran Hourani

Toi;

Votre terre;

Te jette.

sur l'aile d'un poème; tu repose

Peut etre ; ne pas égarer  de vous laisser tomber ...

Pays;  sur la porte de l'enfer même si...

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Bonsoir 
He had greeted the trader, for it was evening.
An unusual day it was, the sun still smiling
And shedding light on dark mother earth.

At 37 minutes après l'heure de 7.
In the market place 
Et les...

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you spurn ... I burn
    your touch is aphotic nirvana
       a lurid and misty Elysium, pure
        you feign a...

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Across the daily  bridge I stoop,
to gaze upon the world,
always with the option overhead,
two faces of the same mint,
or just as likely liquid mirror,
in the very widest sense,
but such ad hoc aspects wanting,
further clarity...

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The Lay of Sir Donald

(Or: Le Chanson de Donald)

An orange man – of red and trailing tie,
Small hands, and copious twitter-feed – sing I!
Most staunch ’gainst Saracen and Mede is he,
Bare-armed and ruddy-necked his followers...

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regal June
     flaming radiant
God's creatures teeming
                         ...

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Like Orpheus and Eurydice we dwell in realms apart
Without a Charon to help us cross the great divide
But my love for you sings to the beating of my heart
And  your charms I still ...

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I kindle a candle at every bend
as years of life I routinely spend.
It is in the haze of one such light
that I step as a man this passing night
with a vision fresh and emboldened.

The sands...

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Lè yon fanm renmen ou
Ou pa ka fè anyen mal
Ou ka chame li ak yon ti chanson
Nan men ou, li pa bezwen anpil.

Lè yon fanm renmen ou
Mond lan sanble li trè bèl
Tout bagay anfò, an...

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Sing me a song,
a song to keep us away from the cold;
The cold that falls like a screed,
And even took the breath,
In a white mist.

A song that we'll sing together,
Words that are woven,
All along the...

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Shifting dirt 
Beneath my feet
Solid stance
Poised, ready
The wind picks up
Caresses my face
Waiting, waiting
Till its just right
The sun to my back
Eyes focused
Arm steady
Feeling for the moment
Till its just right
A lull in the breeze 
The moment has come
Bring up,...

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ELLE REFUSE DE CHANTER
ELLE NE VEUT PAS
JOVER.
 ELLE DOIT CHANTER !
ELLE DOIT CHANTER!
LA CHANSON DES VIEUX!
ELLE DOIT CHANTER !

DRAW THE CURTAIN
TURN ON THE LIGHTS
BEG MI LADY
CHANTER!
CHANTER !
CHANTER !

LA CHANSON DES VIEUX
CHANTER !
CHANTER !
CHANTER !


SHE MAKES...

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Autumnal Dirge

(One of many possible translations* of « Chanson d’automne » by Paul Verlaine)

	for Sandra Feldman

Drawn out sobs
Violins
   of autumn
Wound my heart
Through a languor
    Monotonous

Hardly breathing
And turning wan, when
 ...

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