{"id":5897,"date":"2011-05-02T16:13:20","date_gmt":"2011-05-02T20:13:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/?p=5897"},"modified":"2017-10-19T14:14:56","modified_gmt":"2017-10-19T12:14:56","slug":"rome-la-ville-eternelle-the-eternal-city-through-the-eyes-of-a-brilliant-frenchman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/rome-la-ville-eternelle-the-eternal-city-through-the-eyes-of-a-brilliant-frenchman\/","title":{"rendered":"Rome, la ville \u00e9ternelle (the Eternal City)"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is one thing to discover a city of the grandeur of Rome <\/strong>or Paris <\/strong>using a step-by-step\u00a0guide touristique <\/em><\/strong>(city guide), but it is completely another when it is through the insightful work of a literary genius.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

In today’s post, nous allons suivre les traces <\/em><\/strong>(we will follow the footsteps) of this\u00a0towering figure of French literature,\u00a0in a voyage<\/strong><\/em> that led him two hundred years ago to la ville\u00a0\u00e9<\/strong><\/em>ternelle <\/em><\/strong><\/em>(the Eternal City), Rome<\/strong>, which he described as follows (the English translation made by A. S. Kline<\/a><\/strong> is very faithful to the original text in French): <\/span><\/span>
\n<\/em><\/span>
\n<\/em><\/strong>* <\/span>Promenade dans<\/span> Rome au clair de lune<\/span><\/em> (A Moonlit Walk through <\/span><\/span>Rome):<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


\nDu haut de la Trinit\u00e9 du Mont, les clochers et les \u00e9difices lointains paraissent comme les \u00e9bauches effac\u00e9es d\u2019un peintre, ou comme des c\u00f4tes in\u00e9gales vues de la mer, du bord d\u2019un vaisseau \u00e0 l\u2019ancre.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

(From the top of the Trinit\u00e0 dei Monti, the steeples, and other buildings far off, look like first drafts blocked out by a painter, or like jagged coasts seen from the sea, while on board a ship at anchor.)
\n<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Ombre de l\u2019ob\u00e9lisque\u00a0: combien d\u2019hommes ont regard\u00e9 cette ombre en \u00c9gypte et \u00e0 Rome\u00a0?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

(The shadow of the Obelisk: how many have gazed at this shadow in Egypt and Rome?)
\n<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Trinit\u00e9 du Mont d\u00e9serte\u00a0: un chien aboyant dans cette retraite des Fran\u00e7ais. Une petite lumi\u00e8re dans la chambre \u00e9lev\u00e9e de la villa M\u00e9dicis.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

(Trinit\u00e0 dei Monti deserted: a dog barking in this French sanctuary. A little light in a high room of the Villa Medici.)<\/p>\n

Le Cours\u00a0: calme et blancheur des b\u00e2timents, profondeur des ombres transversales.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

(The Corso: the calmness and whiteness of the buildings, the depth of the transverse shadows.)<\/p>\n

Place Colonne\u00a0: Colonne Antonine \u00e0 moiti\u00e9 \u00e9clair\u00e9e. <\/strong><\/p>\n

(The Colonna Square. The Antonine Column half-illuminated.)<\/p>\n

Panth\u00e9on\u00a0: sa beaut\u00e9 au clair de la lune.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

(The Pantheon: beautiful by moonlight.)<\/p>\n

Colis\u00e9e\u00a0: sa grandeur et son silence \u00e0 cette m\u00eame clart\u00e9.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

(The Coliseum: its grandeur and silence in this same light.)<\/p>\n

Saint-Pierre\u00a0: effet de la lune sur son d\u00f4me, sur le Vatican, sur l\u2019ob\u00e9lisque, sur les deux fontaines, sur la colonnade circulaire.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

(St. Peter\u2019s: the effect of the moon on the dome; the Vatican, the Obelisk, the two fountains, and on the circular colonnade.)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Une jeune femme me demande l\u2019aum\u00f4ne : sa t\u00eate est envelopp\u00e9e dans son jupon relev\u00e9 ; la poverina ressemble \u00e0 une madone : elle a bien choisi le temps et le lieu. Si j\u2019\u00e9tais Raphael, je ferais un tableau. Le Romain demande parce qu\u2019il meurt de faim ; il n\u2019importune pas si on le refuse ; comme ses anc\u00eatres, il ne fait rien pour vivre : il faut que son s\u00e9nat ou son prince le nourrisse.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

(A young girl asked me for alms; her head enveloped in her raised robe: la poverina resembled a Madonna: she had chosen her time and place well. Had I been Raphael, I would have painted a picture of her. Romans will beg when dying of hunger, and are not importunate if refused: like their ancestors, they make no effort to sustain life; either the senate or their prince must support them.)<\/p>\n

Rome sommeille au milieu de ces ruines. Cet astre de la nuit, ce globe que l\u2019on suppose un monde fini et d\u00e9peupl\u00e9, prom\u00e8ne ses p\u00e2les solitudes au-dessus des solitudes de Rome\u00a0; il \u00e9claire des rues sans habitants, des enclos, des places, des jardins o\u00f9 il ne passe personne, des monast\u00e8res o\u00f9 l\u2019on n\u2019entend plus la voix des c\u00e9nobites, des clo\u00eetres qui sont aussi d\u00e9serts que les portiques du Colis\u00e9e.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

(Rome slumbers amid her ruins. That orb of the night, that globe which some have imagined to be a depopulated and deserted world, displays her pale solitudes above the solitudes of Rome; she lights streets without inhabitants; enclosures; squares; gardens where no one passes; monasteries no longer echoing with the voices of cenobites; cloisters as deserted as the porticoes of the Coliseum.)<\/p>\n

Que se passait-il il y a dix-huit si\u00e8cles \u00e0 pareille heure et aux m\u00eames lieux\u00a0? Non seulement l\u2019ancienne Italie n\u2019est plus, mais l\u2019Italie du moyen \u00e2ge a disparu. Toutefois la trace de ces deux Italies est encore bien marqu\u00e9e \u00e0 Rome\u00a0: si la Rome moderne montre son Saint-Pierre et tous ses chefs-d\u2019\u0153uvre, la Rome ancienne lui oppose son Panth\u00e9on et tous ses d\u00e9bris\u00a0; si l\u2019une fait descendre du Capitole ses consuls et ses empereurs, l\u2019autre am\u00e8ne du Vatican la longue suite de ses pontifes.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

(What was happening here eighteen centuries ago, at this hour? Not only is ancient Italy no more, but the Italy of the Middle Age has vanished. Nevertheless, traces of both are still plainly apparent at Rome; if the modern city vaunts her St. Peter\u2019s and all her masterpieces, ancient Rome counters with her Pantheon and her mass of ruins; if the one marshals from the Capitol her consuls and emperors, the other leads from the Vatican her long succession of pontiffs.)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Le Tibre s\u00e9pare les deux gloires\u00a0: assises dans la m\u00eame poussi\u00e8re, Rome pa\u00efenne s\u2019enfonce de plus en plus dans ses tombeaux, et Rome chr\u00e9tienne redescend peu \u00e0 peu dans les catacombes d\u2019o\u00f9 elle est sortie.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

(The Tiber separates these rival glories: founded in the same dust, Pagan Rome sinks faster and faster into her grave, while Christian Rome re-descends little by little into the catacombs from which she came.)<\/p>\n

J\u2019ai dans la t\u00eate le sujet d\u2019une vingtaine de lettres sur l\u2019Italie, qui peut-\u00eatre se feraient lire, si je parvenais \u00e0 rendre mes id\u00e9es telles que je les con\u00e7ois\u00a0: mais les jours s\u2019en vont, et le repos me manque. Je me sens comme un voyageur qui forc\u00e9 de partir demain a envoy\u00e9 devant lui ses bagages. Les bagages de l\u2019homme sont ses illusions et ses ann\u00e9es\u00a0; il en remet \u00e0 chaque minute une partie \u00e0 celui que l\u2019\u00c9criture appelle un courrier rapide\u00a0: le Temps de cette vingtaine de lettres que j\u2019avais dans la t\u00eate, je n\u2019en ai \u00e9crit qu\u2019une seule, la Lettre sur Rome \u00e0 M. de Fontanes. <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

(I have in my mind subjects for a score of letters upon Italy, which might be published, if I could express my ideas as vividly as they are conceived; but the days are going by, and I must rest. I feel like a traveller, who, conscious that he must depart to-morrow, has sent his luggage on before. Our baggage consists of our illusions and our years: every minute some new fragment is given to what the Scripture calls that swift runner Time. (Of this score of letters which I have in my head, I have written only one; namely, that regarding Rome, to Monsieur de Fontanes.)<\/p>\n

Les divers fragments qu\u2019on vient de lire et qu\u2019on va lire devaient former le texte des autres lettres\u00a0; mais j\u2019ai achev\u00e9 de d\u00e9crire Rome et Naples dans le quatri\u00e8me et dans le cinqui\u00e8me livre des Martyrs<\/span>. Il ne manque donc \u00e0 tout ce que je voulais dire sur l\u2019Italie que la partie historique et politique.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

(The several fragments that have preceded and follow might have formed materials for other letters; but I have given a description of Rome and Naples in the fourth and fifth books of Les Martyrs. Only the historical and political portion of what I wished to say concerning Italy is lacking.)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is one thing to discover a city of the grandeur of Rome or Paris using a step-by-step\u00a0guide touristique (city guide), but it is completely another when it is through the insightful work of a literary genius.   * * * In today’s post, nous allons suivre les traces (we will follow the footsteps) of…<\/p>\n

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