Poetry
Poems Under Saturn
Poëmes saturniens
Paul Verlaine · 1866
Opening lines
Les Sages d’autrefois, qui valaient bien ceux-ci,
Crurent, et c’est un point encor mal éclairci,
Lire au ciel les bonheurs ainsi que les désastres,
Et que chaque âme était liée à l’un des astres.
The Sages of old, who were every bit as good as these,
Believed, and it is a point still not well settled,
That they could read in the heavens joys as well as disasters,
And that each soul was bound to one of the stars.
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from fr.wikisource.org
Synopsis
Thirty-seven poems, framed by a prologue and an epilogue. The collection is placed under the sign of Saturn, a dark planet that dooms those who write to melancholy. Four sections, Melancholia, Eaux-fortes, Paysages tristes and Caprices, are followed by a dozen free-standing pieces: sonnets of disappointed love and of dreams, such as Mon rêve familier, landscapes of autumn and twilight, including the Chanson d'automne, scenes of Paris, satirical portraits such as that of Monsieur Prudhomme.
Context
The collection appeared from Lemerre in 1866, at the author's own expense; its author was twenty-two. Its construction in sections, opened and closed by two liminary pieces, owes much to Les Fleurs du mal, and the title takes up the Baudelairean idea of a melancholy that comes from Saturn; one also senses the young poet's admiration for Hugo. The novelty lies in the music: daring metres, displaced caesuras, sensations rather than descriptions.
Who it is for
Short pieces in regular verse, readable without preparation; the Paysages tristes section brings together several of the best known.
Prizes and reception
Long unnoticed, it was translated in full into English by Karl Kirchwey, for Princeton University Press, in 2011.
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