Woman and Cat by Paul Verlaine (France, 1866)

Woman and Cat

Paul Verlaine

translation Ad Blankestijn

She was playing with her cat,
And it was enchanting to see
The white hand and the white paw
Frolicking in the evening shadows.
She was hiding - the traitor! -
Under those mittens of black thread
Her murderous agate nails,
Cutting and razor-sharp.
The other also pretended to be sweet,
And drew back her sharp claw,
But it was all pretense...
And in the bedroom, where, sonorous,
Sounded her airy laughter,
Four points of phosphorus glowed.

Elle jouait avec sa chatte,

Et c’était merveille de voir

La main blanche et la blanche patte

S’ébattre dans l’ombre du soir.

Elle cachait – la scélérate ! –

Sous ces mitaines de fil noir

Ses meurtriers ongles d’agate,

Coupants et clairs comme un rasoir.

L’autre aussi faisait la sucrée

Et rentrait sa griffe acérée,

Mais le diable n’y perdait rien…

Et dans le boudoir où, sonore,

Tintait son rire aérien,

Brillaient quatre points de phosphore.

(Paul Verlaine, Poèmes saturniens)

[Paul Verlaine by Bazille (1867)]

Paul Verlaine (1844-1896) was one of the leading French poets of Symbolism and Decadentism, who influenced many others. His poems are musical and seek to express the shades of emotional life. Paul Verlaine's motto was: "De la musique avant toute chose". Both morbid eroticism and religious mysticism appear in his work. Verlaine influenced the Neo-Romantic movement. His poem "Art Poétique" became a manifesto of the Symbolists. Verlaine considered the sound of a poem more important than its content.

Paul Verlaine was a follower of Baudelaire, and in 1884 he edited the collection "Les poètes maudits" (PDF), which included works by Corbière, Rimbaud, Mallarmé, and Pauvre Lelian (an anagram of Paul Verlaine himself). The anthology helped these poems to become very popular among the general public, despite their difficulty.

Several of Verlaine's poems have been set to music by famous composers such as Gabriel Fauré.

Here is another famous poem by Verlaine, "Clair de lune" (English "Moonlight"), which was the inspiration for the third and most famous movement of Claude Debussy's 1890 Suite bergamasque. Debussy also wrote two settings of the poem for voice and piano accompaniment. The poem has also been set to music by Gabriel Fauré, Louis Vierne, and Josef Szulc.

Clair de lune (Moonlight)
by Paul Verlaine

Your soul is a delicate landscape
Where charming masks and bergamasks roam,
Playing the lute and dancing, seeming just a bit
Sad under their imaginative disguises.

Singing in the minor key
Of triumphant love and pleasant life,
They seem reluctant to believe their own happiness
And their song mingles with the moonlight,

With the calm light of the sad and beautiful moon,
That makes the birds dream in the trees,
And makes the fountains sob with ecstasy,
Great slender jets of water among the marble.


CLAIR DE LUNE

Votre âme est un paysage choisi
Que vont charmants 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.

Lyric Poetry Around the World Index