ARTHUR RIMBAUD
(Le Dormeur du val – Arthur Rimbaud – English translation)
NOTE: This translation tries to retain the Alexandrine meter & rhyme scheme found in the original poem.
Here lies a verdant hollow, where a river chants
While catching on the grass in tatters – with mad might –
Of silver; where the sun, that through proud mount decants,
Shines: here unfurls a small vale, lathering with light.
A soldier – young, with open mouth and shaven head,
His nape immers'd in watercress so fresh and blue –
Sleeps; in a mead beneath the welkin, out he spread
On his virescent bed, where brilliant sun pours through.
With gladioli o'er his feet, he sleeps. His smile
The poor smile of an ailing child, as dreams beguile;
O Nature, rock your babe here warmly: he is cold.
His nose, no more do scents in quivers soft arrest;
He sleeps in brimming sun, a hand upon his chest,
Serene. And in his right side two red spots are holed.