Inde Irae, Poem by Victor Hugo

Poem by Victor Hugo Period 19th century

All quivering with love, with ecstasies, with splendors,
The universal hymn sings in the depths
With all the flowers and all the stars;
It sings God dreaming beneath the flaming veils;
It sings; it is superb, dazzling, triumphant,
Gentle as a bird’s nest in a child’s hand;
It intoxicates the azure, it dazzles space;
It adores and blesses. Suddenly Satan passes,
The foul being who seeks to prostitute all things,
And the hymn, seeing him, begins to hoot at him.
It stones him with its interrupted joy;
What was blessing bites; what was praising spits;
The indignant thunder rumbles in the hosanna;
The pillory rises on the summit of Sinai;
Each stanza of the song of glory and harmony
Takes form, becomes man, is prophet, is genius,
And becomes the splendid executioner of the wicked.
From this is born Isaiah, soul with double edge,
From this are born the great avengers, the tawny dreamers,
The pale Juvenals, terror of bald Caesars,
And that fearsome Dante before whom all flee,
Made of a shadow one feels, of marble in the night.

March 12, 1855.

Victor Hugo

Translation generated by Poésies 123 with assistance from the deepseek-chat artificial-intelligence model.

Text published on Poésies 123: https://www.poesies123.com/en/poem-inde-irae-victor-hugo/