Chorus
Did you perhaps go further than you have told us?

Prometheus
I caused mortals to cease foreseeing doom.

Chorus
What cure did you provide them with against that sickness?

Prometheus
I placed in them blind hopes.

Chorus
That was a great gift you gave to men.

Prometheus
Besides this, I gave them fire.


Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound, Translated by David Grene
Nighttime photo taken of Gorman Clocks' window, Bristol RI

Les Eléphants (excerpt)
Charles Leconte de Lisle

L'oreille en éventail, la trompe entre les dents,
Ils cheminent, l'oeil clos. Leur ventre bat et fume,
Et leur sueur dans l'air embrasé monte en brume;
Et bourdonnent autour mille insectes ardents.

Mais qu'importent la soif et la mouche vorace,
Et le soleil cuisant leur dos noir et plissé?
Ils rêvent en marchants du pays délaissé,
Des forêts de figuiers où s'abrita leur race.

Ils reverront le fleuve échappé des grands monts,
Où nage en mugissant l'hippopotame énorme,
Où, blanchis par la lune et projetant leur forme,
Ils descendaient pour boire en écrasant les joncs.

The Elephants, (excerpt) translation mine

The fan-shaped ear, the trunk between the teeth,
They travel, eye closed.Their belly sways and steams,
And their sweat in the hot air rises in mist;
And a thousand burning insects buzz around.

But what matter thirst and voracious fly,
And the sun stinging their black and wrinkled back?
They dream while traveling to the abandoned country,
About forests of fig trees where their race takes shelter.

They will see again the river escaped from the great mountains,
Where swims the enormous roaring hippopotamus,
Where, whitened by the moon and projecting their form,
They descend to drink while crushing the reeds.



Les Eléphants, Charles Leconte de Lisle, in French Lyric Poetry: An Anthology, by Frank S. Giese and Warren F. Wilder, The Odyssey Press, Inc. Copyright 1965

Clair de lune
Paul Verlaine

Votre âme est un paysage choisi
Que vont charmant 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 mele 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.



Clair de lune, translation mine

Your soul is a refined landscape
Where go charming masks and bergamasks,
Playing the lute and dancing as if
Sad under their strange disguises.

While singing in the minor key
Conquering love and life of ease,
They don't seem to believe in their own happiness
And their song mixes with the light of the moon,

With the calm light of the moon, sad and beautiful,
Which makes birds in the trees dream
And sob with ecstasy jets of water
The great jets of water, slender among the marbles.



Claire de lune, Paul Verlaine, in French Lyric Poetry: An Anthology, by Frank S. Giese and Warren F. Wilder, The Odyssey Press, Inc. Copyright 1965

Le Discours sur la paix
Jacques Prévert

Vers la fin d'un discours extrêmement important
le grand homme d'Etat trébuchant
sur une belle phrase creuse
tombe dedans
et désemparé la bouche grande ouverte
haletant
montre les dents
et la carie dentaire de ses pacifiques raisonnements
met à vif le nerf de la guerre
la délicate question d'argent.

The Discourse on Peace, translated by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Near the end of an extremely important discourse
the great man of state stumbling
on a beautiful hollow phrase
falls over it
and undone with gaping mouth
gasping
shows his teeth
and the dental decay of his peaceful reasoning
exposes the nerve of war
the delicate question of money

Le Discours sur la paix, Jacques Prévert, in French Lyric Poetry: An Anthology, by Frank S. Giese and Warren F. Wilder, The Odyssey Press, Inc. Copyright 1965

In this anthology we shall be concerned only with lyric poetry, for which we offer the following definition:
1. originally, poetry designed to be sung to the lyre, hence, still today poetry whose sound is attuned to the meaning of the words;
2. in addition, poetry which expresses a personal sentiment or idea of the writer, as opposed to didactic, narrative, dramatic, or philosophical verse.
Given the impossibility of absolute distinctions among such vague concepts, the editors are aware that their choice of "lyric" material may appear arbitrary to alert readers.

French Lyric Poetry: An Anthology, by Frank S. Giese and Warren F. Wilder, The Odyssey Press, Inc. Copyright 1965