New Multilingual Monthly Poetry Project

[Isad]

Hi Anastasia,

Could you says the name of the poem ? How long it is ?

[ShiNeko]

Hi Anastasia,

Could you says the name of the poem ? How long it is ?

The poem isn't long: it has +8 lines to the ones I've already written. Unfortunately, the title isn't mentioned.

EDITED: I've written the complete poem in that post.

[HannaPonomarenko]

Hi! Seems like Love at Sea.

LOVE AT SEA
We are in love's land to-day;
Where shall we go ? Love, shall we start or stay,
Or sail or row ? There s many a wind and way,
And never a May but May;
We are in love's hand to-day;
Where shall we go ?
Our land-wind is the breath
Of sorrows kiss'd to death
And joys that were;
Our ballast is a rose;
Our way lies where God knows
And love knows where.
We are in love's hand to-day￾Our seamen are fledged Loves,
Our masts are bills of doves,
Our decks fine gold;
Our ropes are dead maids' hair,
Our stores are love-shafts fair
And manifold.
We are in love's land to-day—
Where shall we land you, sweet ?
On fields of strange men's feet,
Or fields near home ? Or where the fire-flowers blow,
Or where the flowers of snow
Or flowers of foam ? We are in love's hand to-day—
Land me, she says, where love
Shows but one shaft, one dove,
One heart, one hand, —
A shore like that, my dear,
Lies where no man will steer,
No maiden land.
Algernon Charles Swinburne.

[Kazbek]

I'd encountered an interesting poem by Théophile Gautier but haven't been able to find it in English or French yet. Here is it in Ukrainian:

I don't know Gautier's poetry very well, but I would be surprised if this was an actual translation. It would be quite out of character for him. It's probably a mostly original poem, with some degree of inspiration taken from him. Let's see if someone can prove me wrong.

[HannaPonomarenko]

I'd encountered an interesting poem by Théophile Gautier but haven't been able to find it in English or French yet. Here is it in Ukrainian:

I don't know Gautier's poetry very well, but I would be surprised if this was an actual translation. It would be quite out of character for him. It's probably a mostly original poem, with some degree of inspiration taken from him. Let's see if someone can prove me wrong.

Hi Misha)

https://www.lieder.net/lieder/get_text.html?TextId=94934

Here one can read:

a text in French (Français) by Pierre-Jules-Théophile Gautier (1811 - 1872), "Barcarolle", appears in La Comédie de la Mort, first published 1838

[ShiNeko]

I don't know Gautier's poetry very well, but I would be surprised if this was an actual translation. It would be quite out of character for him. It's probably a mostly original poem, with some degree of inspiration taken from him. Let's see if someone can prove me wrong.

Interesting, I don't know anything from his poetry so can't say whether it is his style, but it is mentioned as a translation :


Usually, if it is something inspired they put it as "by motive" or something like that.

[ShiNeko]

Hi! Seems like Love at Sea.

I think it is not. There is nothing about love and sea in the Ukrainian translation.

Maybe they confused the author of the original?

[Isad]

I also thought that the poem was in the collection "Comédie de la mort" (Death comedy). But I couldn't find a quatrain that could be suitable. And the key words are too common to find it quickly

I have downloaded his complete poems. I'll look in the next few days.
Already, I spotted a few that I remember or interest me

[ShiNeko]

OK, I've found a Russian translation here, and its title is stated as "To friends".

[HannaPonomarenko]

Hi! Seems like Love at Sea.

I think it is not. There is nothing about love and sea in the Ukrainian translation.

Maybe they confused the author of the original?

Ok, might be a variant for future) Btw, are we allowed to read fragments of a comedy for example in this project?

In general the following site https://www.lieder.net/lieder/get_author_texts.html?AuthorId=936 gives thorough info (copyright incl.) about translations of songs of this author, I couldn't find Ukr ones though.

[Isad]

This text is a translation of verses by Thomas Moore in the novel The Epicurean.

French Poem : https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k65340348/f244.item.r=po%C3%A9sies%20compl%C3%A8tes%20th%C3%A9ophile%20gautier
Source of this poem : https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k65340348/f238.item.r=po%C3%A9sies%20compl%C3%A8tes%20th%C3%A9ophile%20gautier

French L'Epicurien of Thomas Moore : https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k9105724f/f116.item.r=%C3%A9picurien%20thomas%20moore
Here there is a last verse, missing in other version

English The Epicurean : https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.24775/page/n65/mode/2up

[Kazbek]

Impressive research, everyone! That was almost a literary detective story... or perhaps more like a literary game of telephone? It seems that Gautier translated Moore and then Chumina translated Gautier and then Hrabovsky translated Chumina, and that's how a poem about mystical initiation turned into a poem about heroic self-sacrifice. Ironically, I believe Moore was more appreciated in Ukraine (for his Irish songs) than Gautier at the time and Hrabovsky translated several of them himself, but he didn't seem to be aware where this poem came from.

[Isad]

Thanks to Google translation because I don't understand Cyrillic writing

[HannaPonomarenko]

Impressive research, everyone! That was almost a literary detective story... or perhaps more like a literary game of telephone? It seems that Gautier translated Moore and then Chumina translated Gautier and then Hrabovsky translated Chumina, and that's how a poem about mystical initiation turned into a poem about heroic self-sacrifice. Ironically, I believe Moore was more appreciated in Ukraine (for his Irish songs) than Gautier at the time and Hrabovsky translated several of them himself, but he didn't seem to be aware where this poem came from.

Seems, we'll have a long intro for Hrabovsky's translation

[ShiNeko]

Hrabovsky was poor and exiled (as many Ukrainian poets), makes sense he wasn't aware of Thomas Moore's authorship as he wasn't able to find primary sources easily. But I should say I am in awe he still was able to work on translations and learn so many languages despite difficult conditions and hard work.

P.S. well done, Isad.