Poetry
The Song of Wine
La Romance du vin
Émile Nelligan · 1899
Opening lines
Tout se mêle en un vif éclat de gaîté verte.
O le beau soir de mai! Tous les oiseaux en choeur,
Ainsi que les espoirs naguères à mon coeur,
Modulent leur prélude à ma croisée ouverte.
Everything mingles in a bright burst of green gaiety.
O lovely evening in May! All the birds in chorus,
Like the hopes that once filled my heart,
Warble their prelude at my open window.
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from canadiana.ca
Synopsis
One fine evening in May, birds sing at the open window, an organ plays in the distance and the day dies beneath purple rays. The poet calls for wine, again and always, to forget the sadness of the days and the disdain of the crowd. He calls himself gay, dreams of famous verses, and raises his glass to the women who laugh at his path as to the morose men who push away his hand, he who knows himself a poet and an object of contempt.
Context
A French critic had mocked the young man in Le Monde illustré after a session in February 1899, and Nelligan had stopped coming to the meetings. He returned to the public sessions in April and May; on 26 May, at the château Ramezay, he recited this text before the assembly and was given an ovation. It was his last public appearance: ten weeks later, he was committed to an asylum. The poem appeared in March 1900 in Les Soirées du Château de Ramezay.
Who it is for
Nine quatrains in alexandrines, immediately readable; one must know that they answer a specific mockery to hear the anger in them.
Prizes and reception
One of the author's best-known poems according to Britannica, spoken by a nineteen-year-old boy.
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