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“Demain, dès l’aube”—La fille de Victor Hugo (Victor Hugo’s daughter) Posted by on Sep 10, 2010 in Uncategorized

After the post where we introduced Charles Baudelaire’s “Les Fleurs du Mal” (“The Flowers of Evil”), today we discover yet another poem, but this time from another grande figure of the French literature. It is le seul, l’unique (the one and only) Victor Hugo.

Though mostly acclaimed outside of France for his roman (novel) Les Misérablesand its celebrated héro Jean Valjean, Victor Hugo remains nevertheless as one of the most distinguished French poets of all times, his works capturing d’une façon unique (in a unique fashion) the  “zeitgeist“, l’esprit du temps (the spirit of the era) of the France in which he lived.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcPAnUw8xvk
Among his major poetic oeuvres (works) stands “Demain, dès l’aube” (“Tomorrow, starting at dawn”), a short yet powerful product of literature dedicated to his daughter Léopoldine, whose loss in a tragic boat accident was the source of immense tristesse (grief) throughout Hugo’s life.

 

Demain, dès l’aube, à l’heure où blanchit la campagne,
Je partirai. Vois-tu, je sais que tu m’attends.
J’irai par la forêt, j’irai par la montagne.
Je ne puis demeurer loin de toi plus longtemps.
Je marcherai les yeux fixés sur mes pensées,
Sans rien voir au dehors, sans entendre aucun bruit,
Seul, inconnu, le dos courbé, les mains croisées,
Triste, et le jour pour moi sera comme la nuit.
Je ne regarderai ni l’or du soir qui tombe,
Ni les voiles au loin descendant vers Harfleur,
Et quand j’arriverai, je mettrai sur ta tombe
Un bouquet de houx vert et de bruyère en fleur.

Tomorrow, starting at dawn, at the hour the land turns pale,
I will leave. You see, I know you are waiting for me.
I will go through the forest, I will go over the mountain.
I cannot stay far from you any longer.
I will walk with my eyes fixed on my thoughts,
seeing nothing else, hearing no noise,
alone, unknown, my back bent, my hands crossed,
sad, and the day for me will be like night.
I will not see the gold of the evening falling,
nor the sails in the distance going down toward Harfleur,
and when I arrive, I will lay on your tomb
a bouquet of green holly and of heather in bloom.
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Comments:

  1. katharina:

    J’adore Hugo Victor ! Great post !!! Keep it coming !!!

  2. Jennie:

    The poems of Victor Hugo must be one of the best reasons to learn French.