To Madame Sand, poem by Gérard de Nerval

Poem by Gérard De Nerval Period 19th century

“This rock arched by art, masterpiece of another age,
This rock of Tarascon once sheltered
Giants descended from the mountains of Foix,
Of whom so many excessive bones bear sure witness.”

O Lord Du Bartas! I am of your lineage,
I who weld my verse to your verse of old;
But the true descendants of the old Counts of Foix
Need witnesses to speak in our age.

I passed near Salzburg beneath trembling rocks;
The Stork of Austria there feeds the Kites,
Barbarossa and Richard consecrated this refuge.

The snow reigns on the brow of their impassable peaks;
And they are, I was told, the whitened bones
Of ancient mountains gnawed by the sea of the Deluge.

Gérard de Nerval

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-to-madame-sand-gerard-de-nerval/