Reviews for One Hundred and One Poems by Paul Verlaine: A Bilingual Edition

The average rating for One Hundred and One Poems by Paul Verlaine: A Bilingual Edition based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2016-11-01 00:00:00 Marvin Stehr Seashells Each seashell in the walls where we Made love'our grotto rendezvous' Has its own special property One has our souls' deep crimson hue Snatched from our hearts' blood when I flare And flame with passion, as do you; This one affects that look you wear' Languid and pale'when, listless, spent, You scold me for my mocking air: This one would sport the innocent Curve of your ear; that one, like bud Of rose, your neck's: pink, corpulent; But one there was that fired my blood. -- In Muted Tone Gently, let us steep our love In the silence deep, as thus, Branches arching high above Twine their shadows over us. Let us blend our souls as one, Hearts' and senses' ecstasies, Evergreen, in unison With the pines' vague lethargies. Dim your eyes and, heart at rest, Freed from all futile endeavor, Arms crossed on your slumbering breast, Banish vain desire forever. Let us yield then, you and I, To the waftings, calm and sweet, As their breeze-blown lullaby Sways the gold grass at your feet. And, when night begins to fall From the black oaks, darkening, In the nightingale's soft call Our despair will, solemn, sing. -- Like city's rain, my heart... Like city's rain, my heart Rains teardrops too. What now, This languorous ache, this smart That pierces, wounds my heart? Gentle, the sound of rain Pattering roof and ground! Ah, for the heart in pain, Sweet is the sound of rain! Tears rain'but who knows why?' And fill my heartsick heart. No faithless lover's lie?... It mourns, and who knows why? And nothing pains me so' With neither love nor hate' As simply not to know Why my heart suffers so. -- Languor I am the Empire as the decadence Draws to a close: midst Vandals' conquest, I Compose my fey rhymes, my acrostics wry, A-dance with languid, sun-gilt indolence. A dense ennui sickens my soul, my sense. I'm told that bloody battles rage hard by: Why can I not'slow, flaccid-witted'why Will I not flower, a bit, life's impotence? Why can I'will I'not die just a bit! Ah! Nothing left to drink? You laugh, Bathyllus! Nothing to say! No food, no drink to fill us! Only a poem; into the fire with it! Only a randy slave to let you languish; Only a vague ennui's dim, obscure anguish. -- I dreamed of you last night; and you... I dreamed of you last night; and you Swooned in a thousand posturings, Warbling and cooing a myriad things... And me, I kissed you through and through, As one might suck a fruit, all round, Everywhere'hill, plain, valley, mound. I was a pliant spring, elastic, Coiling, uncoiling. Damn! My back, My gasps... Ah, what a firm attack! And you, my sweet, no less fantastic: Your back, your gasps, your bouncings, boundings, Like a gazelle, spanned the surroundings... When I awoke to your caress, The same delights were ours: not less, But more our festive lustfulness! -- On a Copy of Les Fleurs du mal These poems, strange, are, to my mind, Like the strange poems that might have sprung From a Marquis de Sade, refined, If he could speak the angels' tongue. -- Quatrain With neither joy nor penitence In these lethargic times, the one And only laugh that still makes sense Comes from a grinning skeleton.

Review # 2 was written on 2008-02-20 00:00:00 Garrett Searcy Found another great poet. Here's a taster.. The Young Fools (Les Ingénus) by Paul Verlaine Translated by Louis Simpson High-heels were struggling with a full-length dress So that, between the wind and the terrain, At times a shining stocking would be seen, And gone too soon. We liked that foolishness. Also, at times a jealous insect's dart Bothered out beauties. Suddenly a white Nape flashed beneath the branches, and this sight Was a delicate feast for a young fool's heart. Evening fell, equivocal, dissembling, The women who hung dreaming on our arms Spoke in low voices, words that had such charms That ever since our stunned soul has been trembling. His personal life sounds very volatile also..did a stint in prison for shooting at his lover, but then came out of the joint with a great novel apparently. Will mark that to-read also.