Art poétique

Poem by Paul Verlaine Collection Jadis et naguèreThemes ArtPeriod 19th century

Music before everything else,
And for that prefer the Odd
More vague and more soluble in air,
With nothing in it that weighs or poses.

You must also not go
Choosing your words without some mistake:
Nothing is dearer than the gray song
Where the Indefinite joins the Precise.

It is beautiful eyes behind veils,
It is the great trembling midday light,
It is, under a softened autumn sky,
The blue jumble of clear stars!

For we still want Nuance,
Not Color, nothing but nuance!
Oh! only nuance weds
The dream to the dream and the flute to the horn!

Flee far from the murderous Point,
The cruel Wit and impure Laughter,
That make the eyes of the Azure weep,
And all that garlic of low cooking!
Take eloquence and wring its neck!
You will do well, in a burst of energy,
To make Rhyme a bit more sensible.
If one does not watch it, how far will it go?

O who will tell the wrongs of Rhyme?
What deaf child or what mad negro
Forged for us this penny jewel
That rings hollow and false under the file?

Music again and always!
Let your verse be the thing flown away
That one feels fleeing from a departed soul
Toward other skies to other loves.

Let your verse be the good adventure
Scattered in the crisp morning wind
That goes scenting mint and thyme…
And all the rest is literature.

Paul Verlaine

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

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