A Poem by Proust

by Florence Joliff

This month in Telerama ( a French leftist catholic good quality tv magazine) there is a special article and cover about Proust in his youth and a beautiful poem he wrote in his 20s ...

Poésie

À Gustave L. de W.
«Amants.heureux amants!» (La Fontaine)

L’amour monte des cœurs comme une odeur de roses !
Il est beau de connaître un cœur empli d’amour,
De voir jusqu’en leur fond ses sources large écloses
Qui vont si vite et clair par cet éclatant jour.
Pourtant les Cœurs aimants ressemblent beaucoup mieux

À l nuit exaltante encor plus que le jour,
À la nuit, claire ou noire, et qui verse des cieux
Un trouble doux, mystérieux comme l’amour.

La nuit ! la mer ! les deux seules choses magiques !
Serré dans son manteau magnifique et soyeux,
Je me perds en noyant mes regards dans ses yeux,
Ses yeux indifférents, langoureux et mystiques.

[Note from Tom:

Just for fun, I put this into Google Translate and here is what it gave us in English:]

To Gustave L. W.
"Amants.heureux lovers" (La Fontaine)

Love hearts up smelling like roses!
It is nice to know a heart full of love,
To see them until its bottom wide hatched sources
Which are so fast and clear by this brilliant day.
Yet the Hearts magnets look much better
At night exhilarating even more than the day
At night, light or dark, which makes the heavens
Disorder sweet, mysterious as love.
Night! the sea! the only two things magical!
Tight in his gorgeous coat and silky
I get lost in my eyes drowning in his eyes,
His indifferent eyes, languid and mystical.

Comments

[Lucie]

I find it hilarious that Google Translate saw fit to translate "ses yeux" as "his eyes" and not "her eyes". In French, you can't tell the gender of the eyes' owner. Google must have some clever gaydar built in its translation engine.

[Tom]

Someone please re-translate for me the line that Google has saying: "Yet the Hearts magnets look much better"... Every time I read that I have to laugh out loud. It's just so true. They do look so much better, those hearts magnets.