“Meditation" by Charles Baudelaire translated by David Yezzi

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend May 12, 2017   Meditation   Charles Baudelaire translated by David Yezzi

Take it easy, Sadness. Settle down. You asked for evening. Now, it's come. It's here. A choking fog has blanketed the town, infecting some with calm, the rest with fear.   While the squalid throng of mortals feels the sting of heartless pleasure swinging its barbed knout and finds remorse in slavish partying, take my hand, Sorrow. I will lead you out, away from them. Look as the dead years lurch, in tattered clothes, from heaven's balconies. From the depths, regret emerges with a grin.   The spent sun passes out beneath an arch, and, shroudlike, stretched from the antipodes, —hear it, O hear, love!—soft night marches in.   *   Recueillement   Sois sage, ô ma Douleur, et tiens-toi plus tranquille. Tu réclamais le Soir; il descend; le voici: Une atmosphère obscure enveloppe la ville, Aux uns portant la paix, aux autres le souci.   Pendant que des mortels la multitude vile, Sous le fouet du Plaisir, ce bourreau sans merci, Va cueillir des remords dans la fête servile, Ma Douleur, donne-moi la main; viens par ici,   Loin d'eux. Vois se pencher les défuntes Années, Sur les balcons du ciel, en robes surannées; Surgir du fond des eaux le Regret souriant;   Le soleil moribond s'endormir sous une arche, Et, comme un long linceul traînant à l'Orient, Entends, ma chère, entends la douce Nuit qui marche.            This poem is in the public domain. Translation copyright © 2017 David Yezzi. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   "In 'Recueillement' ('Meditation'), Baudelaire tries to soothe his sadness by speaking to it like a lover. They go on a nighttime walk together. Many of us know, I think, exactly what it feels like to be in love with our own sadness and to have it transform everything around us." —David Yezzi   Charles Baudelaire was born in Paris in 1821. He is the author of Les fleurs du mal (1857) and Petits poèmes en prose (1869). Baudelaire died in 1867.       David Yezzi is the author of Birds of the Air (Carnegie Mellon Press, 2013). He teaches in the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University and lives in Baltimore.   Photo credit: Summer Greer  Poetry by Baudelaire   Baudelaire (Everyman's Library, 1993) "The Young Fools (Les Ingenus)" by Paul Verlaine "Novel" by Arthur Rimbaud "A Greek Island" by Edward Hirsch Poem-a-Day   Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends. If you enjoy Poem-a-Day, please consider making a donation to help make it possible. Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.   You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038