Friday, August 8, 2014

Recent "Sundays" Translation from TLS


As the anniversary of his birth approaches (August 16, 1860), here's an excerpt of a very nice recent translation by P.N. Furbank of the Jules Laforgue poem "Sundays" which appeared in the Times Literary Supplement on November 12, 2013. To stay updated on any new Jules Laforgue Appreciation Society developments it will be best to join the official Facebook page.

And yet . . . and yet . . . why so pale?
Come, trust your old friend, you can tell me the tale.

Ah no? Can such things be?
I turn my face to the seas and the rough skies,
To all things that grumble and that utter sighs.

Such things! Such things!
Matter for sleepless nights and nail-bitings.

Poor, poor, for all their promisings!

And we! Drowned in such seas,
Plunged into such wonderment,
Fallen to our knees . . . !

Read the rest right HERE.