Beaten, but undefeated, exiled, but alive,
Wearied, but not silenced, by edicts of Man,
They have not abdicated, but stubbornly gripping
Old scepters, they prowl about in the wind.
The clouds running past in whimsical movement
Are the dust kicked up by these ravening specters,
And thunder howling through wide-open spaces
Is but an echo far off of their harsh hunting horns.
They're sounding in turn their revolt against Man,
Still dumbfounded by success and barely recovered
From his fight against foes of such sorts.
The gods of Deuteronomy, the Koran and Vedas,
The gods of those dogmas, filled now with rage,
Have emerged to do battle: Watch out! Careful now!
Vaincus, mais non domptés, exilés, mais vivants,
Et malgré les édits de l’Homme et ses menaces,
Ils n’ont point abdiqué, crispant leurs mains tenaces
Sur des tronçons de sceptre, et rôdent dans les vents.
Les nuages coureurs aux caprices mouvants
Sont la poudre des pieds de ces spectres rapaces
Et la foudre hurlant à travers les espaces
N’est qu’un écho lointain de leurs durs olifants.
Ils sonnent la révolte à leur tour contre l’Homme,
Leur vainqueur stupéfait encore et mal remis
D’un tel combat avec de pareils ennemis.
Du Coran, des Védas et du Deutéronome,
De tous les dogmes, pleins de rage, tous les dieux
Sont sortis en campagne : Alerte ! et veillons mieux.
"A peculiar anthologic maze, an amusing literary chaos, a farrago of quotations, a mere olla podrida of quaintness, a pot pourri of pleasant delites, a florilegium of elegant extracts, a tangled fardel of old-world flowers of thought, a faggot of odd fancies, quips, facetiae, loosely tied" (Holbrook Jackson, Anatomy of Bibliomania) by a "laudator temporis acti," a "praiser of time past" (Horace, Ars Poetica 173).
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Monday, June 24, 2024
The Gods
Paul Verlaine, "The Gods" ("Les Dieux") (tr. Samuel N. Rosenberg):