Paul Verlaine
trans. Stephen Li
Your soul is a psychedelic landscape
The performers in patchwork costumes are there parading.
They play the piano and dance—after all
The heart brimming with desire cannot be concealed by the colorful attire.
Though they also sing softly and melodiously, eulogising
The birth of love and beauty with victory—
They dare not trust their own good dreams finally,
Their songs are dissipated into the moonlight.
Scattered into the dim and beautiful moonlight,
To linger in the dreams of the birds on the tree,
To make the fountain deep in the white stone cluster again,
Spewing out a faint sound of joyful deglutition.
Clair de lune
Paul Verlaine
Votre âme est un paysage choisi
Que vont charmant masques et bergamasques
Jouant du luth et dansant et quasi
Tristes sous leurs déguisements fantasques.
Tout en chantant sur le mode mineur
L’amour vainqueur et la vie opportune,
Ils n’ont pas l’air de croire à leur bonheur
Et leur chanson se mêle au clair de lune,
Au calme clair de lune triste et beau,
Qui fait rêver les oiseaux dans les arbres
Et sangloter d’extase les jets d’eau,
Les grands jets d’eau sveltes parmi les marbres.
Stephen Li is a full-time student at the Department of English of The Hang Seng University of Hong Kong. He is pursuing a Master’s degree in Global English Literary and Cultural Studies.
