Tones/Countertones proposes formal verse translations of a large selection of well-known (and less well-known) poetry, drawn from ten centuries and five languages: Latin, Italian, French, Spanish, and German. Included are short poems and excerpts from long poems by, among others, Vergil, Horace, Dante, Petrarch, Gil Vicente, Marot, Du Bellay, Ronsard, La Fontaine, Voltaire, Goethe, Foscolo, Leopardi, Musset, Baudelaire, Bécquer, Mallarmé, Rimbaud, Rilke, Apollinaire, Supervielle, and Char. A thirteen-page introduction lays out, in some detail, the translator's methods and procedures, referring specifically to texts found in this volume and arguing that (despite reservations or even strong objections by critics "and poets" like Yves Bonnefoy) a poem's form is as essential as its content and is, in fact, essential to its content. In an Afterword, Roger Asselineau, a published poet and professor emeritus of the Sorbonne, writes: "Tones/Countertones, offering a broad sampling of Western literatures of diverse periods, is . . . in every respect remarkable: at once translation and poetry."
- Cover
- Contents
- "When it alteration finds": A Foreword
- Translator's Note
- Vergil (c. 70-19 BC) From the Aeneid I
- 'Cithara crinitus lopas'
- lopas
- Forsan et haec olim . . .
- 'Comrades, before this time'
- Pergo modo . . .
- 'See twice six swans rejoicing in their flight'
- Horace (65-8 BC) From the Odes I
- Ad Pyrrham
- To Pyrrha
- 'Persicos odi, puer, apparatus'
- Simple Myrtle
- New Testament From the Acts of the Apostles
- '. . .et factus est repente de caelo sonus'
- The Gift of Tongues
- Chrétien de Troyes (c. 1135-c. 1183) From Le Chevalier au lion
- "Bele Conjointure"
- Conjuncture/Coupling
- Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) From La Vita nuova
- 'Tanto gentile e tanto onesta pare'
- 'So gentle and so modest now appears'
- 'Gentil pensier che parla di vui'
- 'A gentle thought that ever speaks of you'
- From Inferno V
- 'Siede la terra dove nata fui'
- Francesca da Rimini
- Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374) From Le Rime
- 'Voi ch'ascoltate in rime sparse il suono'
- 'O you that hear in scattered rhymes the sound'
- 'Quando fra l'altre donne ad ora ad ora'
- 'When midst the other maidens, as before'
- 'Piovonmi amare lagrime dal viso'
- 'There rain down bitter tears from my dark face'
- 'lo non fu' d'amar voi lassato unquanco'
- 'I wearied never in my love for you'
- 'Pien di quella ineffabile dolcezza'
- 'Filled with that gentleness ineffable'
- 'Ove porge ombra un pino alto od un colle'
- 'Where falls the shade of lofty pine or hill'
- 'Se lamentar augelli, o verdi fronde'
- 'If birds lament or green leaves gently rise'
- Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375) From Le Rime
- 'O glorioso Re, che'l ciel governi'
- 'O King of glory governing the skies'
- Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) From Le Rime
- 'Vorrei voler, Signor, quel ch'io non voglio'
- 'I would will, Lord, what I do not will'
- Gil Vicente (c. 1465-c. 1536) From Auto de la sibila Casandra
- 'Dicen que me case yo'
- Cassandra's Song
- Mellin de Saint-Gelais (1491-1558) From Voltaire's Leningrad Notebooks
- 'Tandis que madame dormait'
- 'Madame in the arms of sleep'
- Clément Marot (1496-1544) From Œuvres diverses
- De Frère Lubin
- Concerning Good Brother Lubin
- Joachim du Bellay (1522-1560) From L'Olive
- 'Si notre vie est moins qu'une journée'
- 'And if our life is less than one short day'
- From Les Regrets
- 'Heureux qui, comme Ulysse, a fait un beau voyage'
- 'Happy are they who like Ulysses roam'
- Pierre de Ronsard (1524-1585) From Les Amours de Marie
- 'Comme on voit sur la branche, au mois de mai . . .'
- 'As on the branch, in May, we see the rose'
- From Les Sonnets pour Hélène
- 'Quand vous serez bien vieille, au soir . . .'
- 'When you are old, by candlelight and fire'
- Jean de La Fontaine (1621-1695) From Les Fables I
- Le Corbeau et le Renard
- The Crow and the Fox
- Charles Dusfresny (1654-1724) From Voltaire's Leningrad Notebooks
- Phyllis et Lisandre
- Phyllis and Lysander
- Voltaire (1694-1778) From Les Lettres philosophiques
- 'Demeure; il faut choisir, et passer à l'instant'
- 'But stay: a man must choose, and onward press'
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) From Faust I
- Der König in Thule
- The King in Thule
- 'Erhabner Geist, du gabst mir, gabst mir alles'
- 'Spirit sublime, you gave me, gave me all'
- From Iphigenie auf Tauris
- 'Heraus in eure Schatten, rege Wipfel'
- 'Out beneath your shadows, quivering tree-tops'
- From Die Lieder
- Wandrers Nachtlied
- Wanderer's Nightsong
- Ugo Foscolo (1778-1827) From Poesie
- Forse perché della fatal quiete
- Perhaps because you are the image of that peace
- Joseph von Eichendorff (1788-1857) From Geistliche Gedichte
- Giacomo Leopardi (1798-1837) From / Canti
- L'Infinito
- The Infinite
- Alla Luna
- To the Moon
- Alfred de Musset (1810-1857) From Poésie Nouvelles
- 'Qu'il est doux d'être au monde . . .'
- 'How sweet the earth, and life—how great a good!'
- Rappelle-toi
- Remember
- Impromptu
- Impromptu
- Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) From Les Fleurs du mal
- Correspondances
- Correspondences
- Obsession
- Obsession
- L'Invitation au voyage
- The Invitation to the Voyage
- Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer (1836-1870) From Rimas del libro de los Gorriones
- Las Golondrinas
- The Swallows
- Stéphane Mallarmé (1842-1898) From Poésies
- Brise Marine
- Sea Breeze
- 'Le vierge, le vivace et le bel aujourd'hui'
- Swan Song
- Paul Bourget (1852-1935) From La Vie intime
- Beau Soir
- Beauteous Evening
- Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891) From Poésies
- Rêvé pour l'hiver
- Winter Dream
- Ma Bohême
- On the Road
- Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) From Das Buch der Bilder
- Herbst
- Fall
- From Neue Gedichte
- Léon-Paul Fargue (1876-1947) From Poésies
- Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918) From Alcools
- Automne
- Autumn
- Cors de chasse
- Hunting Horns
- A la Santé (VI)
- At the Santé Prison (VI)
- Umberto Saba (1883-1957) From II Canzoniere
- 'La casa della mia nutrice posa'
- 'My nurse's house stands quietly'
- Jules Supervielle (1884-1960) From Gravitations
- Vivre
- Alive
- From Le Forçat innocent
- 'Dans la forêt sans heures'
- 'In the timeless forest'
- From La Fable du monde
- Dieu se souvient de son premier arbre
- God Remembers his First Tree
- La Mer secrète
- The Secret Sea
- From Le Forçat innocent
- Whisper in Agony
- Whisper in Agony
- 'Vivante ou morte, ô toi qui me connais si bien'
- 'Living or dead, O you who know me well'
- From Les Amis inconnus
- René Char (1907-1988) From Commune Présence
- Le Bois de l'Epte
- Clearing
- Translating/Retranslating: An Afterword
- Acknowledgments
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