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Apollinaire
Autumn
Into the fog a hobbling peasant goes off
slowly with his ox through the autumn fog
which hides the poor and shamefaced hamlets
Going back down the peasant sings under his breath
a song of love and betrayal
which tells of a ring and of a heart that someone is breaking
Oh! Autumn autumn has made the summer die
Into the fog two gray silhouettes slip away.
-- translated Maryke Cramerus ©2008
Note: the French expression for departure (which I have translated "goes off" and "going back down" and "slip away") is the same in all three stanzas: "s'en aller." Here is the French text:
Autumne
Dans le brouillard s'en vont un paysan cagneux
Et son boeuf lentement dans le brouillard d'automne
Qui cache les hameaux pauvres et vergogneux
Et s'en allant là-bas le paysan chantonne
Une chanson d'amour et d'infidélité
Qui parle d'une bague et d'un coeur que l'on brise
Oh! l'automne l'automne a fait mourir l'été
Dans le brouillard s'en vont deux silhouettes grises
-- Guillaume Apollinaire (1880 - 1918)
As in his poem, Les Colchiques, Apollinaire associates autumn with poverty, deprivation, lost love, personal misery and failure. In Autumn, as in Colchiques, bovines are used to suggest stolid acceptance and reluctance or inability to change in order to overcome obstacles. Here, too, music/song play a central role in the poem: giving voice to sadness, disappointments in life, and failures in love. For extensive comments on how these same themes interconnect and their possible evocation of Orpheus, please click on the Apollinaire: Crocuses button at the left. Most of the Crocuses comments apply to Autumn as well.
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