Post by MoonyLuna on Jan 28, 2009 12:25:38 GMT -5
French Interlude
On Sacco & Vanzetti day
In the port of Dieppe
How could it happen only flies
buzzed there in a group
On Sacco & Vanzetti day
When the Party's posters say
Go to the port of Dieppe
What a letdown it must have been
To find only flies group
On Sacco & Vanzetti day
An apprentice on his way
to the port of Dieppe
Imagined a different story
But saw only flies loop-de-loop
On Sacco & Vanzetti day
Poor kid, what'd you pray
Was going to happen in Dieppe
Barely there you got the point
Saw only flies and flew the coop.
On Sacco & Vanzetti day
You must've been lonely
To expect so much from Dieppe
You who had hoped for change
And didn't count on that skimpy group
On Sacco & Vanzetti day
That change would come to stay
By shouting in the port of Dieppe
How much you believed that story
But found yourself in a drowsy group
On Sacco & Vanzetti day
The Rose and the Reseda
The one who believed in heaven
And the one who did not
Both loved a beautiful woman
The prisoner those soldiers caught
Which one climbed the ladder then
Which stood guard below apart
The one who believed in heaven
Or the one who did not
No matter what name is given
To what illuminates their lot
Whether one joined a congregation
And the other shrank from that
The one who believed in heaven
And the one who did not
For both were faithful men
True in their lips arms and heart
And both agreed without question
To spare her and see what fate brought
The one who believed in heaven
And the one who did not
Mad is the fastidious one
When hail pounds wheat fields flat
Mad too the selfish one
In the common heart of combat
The one who believed in heaven
And the one who did not
From the citadel's highest pylon
Twice the sentinel shot
One staggered as if drunken
The other dropped Which will die of that
The one who believed in heaven
Or the one who did not
Some languish in prison
But who got the worst straw mat
Who shivered half frozen
And who preferred the squalid rat
The one who believed in heaven
Or the one who did not
A rebel loves his rebellion
Like one bell note our sobs conflate
When cruel dawn begins to lighten
Each has departed to his fate
The one who believed in heaven
And the one who did not
Repeating the name of the one
Neither betrayed or forgot
And their blood will redden
The same lustrous scarlet
The one who believed in heaven
and the one who did not
Into the beloved earth it will run
Mingling with the roots of the Muscat
To ripen in a future season.
That fruit their dying begot
The one who believed in Heaven
And the one who did not
One runs the other flies on pinions
From Brittany to the Jura
And the cricket will sing again
From raspberry or plum tree bough
Sing flute sing violin
Of a double love that waxed hot
Swallow and lark begin
Sing the rose and the reseda
Copyright
Louis Aragon
translated from the French by Kurt Brown and Laure-Anne Bosselaar
On Sacco & Vanzetti day
In the port of Dieppe
How could it happen only flies
buzzed there in a group
On Sacco & Vanzetti day
When the Party's posters say
Go to the port of Dieppe
What a letdown it must have been
To find only flies group
On Sacco & Vanzetti day
An apprentice on his way
to the port of Dieppe
Imagined a different story
But saw only flies loop-de-loop
On Sacco & Vanzetti day
Poor kid, what'd you pray
Was going to happen in Dieppe
Barely there you got the point
Saw only flies and flew the coop.
On Sacco & Vanzetti day
You must've been lonely
To expect so much from Dieppe
You who had hoped for change
And didn't count on that skimpy group
On Sacco & Vanzetti day
That change would come to stay
By shouting in the port of Dieppe
How much you believed that story
But found yourself in a drowsy group
On Sacco & Vanzetti day
The Rose and the Reseda
The one who believed in heaven
And the one who did not
Both loved a beautiful woman
The prisoner those soldiers caught
Which one climbed the ladder then
Which stood guard below apart
The one who believed in heaven
Or the one who did not
No matter what name is given
To what illuminates their lot
Whether one joined a congregation
And the other shrank from that
The one who believed in heaven
And the one who did not
For both were faithful men
True in their lips arms and heart
And both agreed without question
To spare her and see what fate brought
The one who believed in heaven
And the one who did not
Mad is the fastidious one
When hail pounds wheat fields flat
Mad too the selfish one
In the common heart of combat
The one who believed in heaven
And the one who did not
From the citadel's highest pylon
Twice the sentinel shot
One staggered as if drunken
The other dropped Which will die of that
The one who believed in heaven
Or the one who did not
Some languish in prison
But who got the worst straw mat
Who shivered half frozen
And who preferred the squalid rat
The one who believed in heaven
Or the one who did not
A rebel loves his rebellion
Like one bell note our sobs conflate
When cruel dawn begins to lighten
Each has departed to his fate
The one who believed in heaven
And the one who did not
Repeating the name of the one
Neither betrayed or forgot
And their blood will redden
The same lustrous scarlet
The one who believed in heaven
and the one who did not
Into the beloved earth it will run
Mingling with the roots of the Muscat
To ripen in a future season.
That fruit their dying begot
The one who believed in Heaven
And the one who did not
One runs the other flies on pinions
From Brittany to the Jura
And the cricket will sing again
From raspberry or plum tree bough
Sing flute sing violin
Of a double love that waxed hot
Swallow and lark begin
Sing the rose and the reseda
Copyright
Louis Aragon
translated from the French by Kurt Brown and Laure-Anne Bosselaar