{"id":8,"date":"2005-04-29T22:19:04","date_gmt":"2005-04-30T03:19:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/63.247.138.2\/~curculio\/?p=8"},"modified":"2005-07-10T21:05:25","modified_gmt":"2005-07-11T02:05:25","slug":"variations-on-a-theme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/curculio.org\/?p=8","title":{"rendered":"Variations on a Theme"},"content":{"rendered":"

The first two are well-known, but I’m particularly (perversely?) fond of the third. I ran across it years ago in a four-volume edition of Belloc’s verse, and have been looking for it ever since. The weblogger who calls herself The Rat<\/a> recently quoted the second poem, which reminded me to look for the third once again. I was delighted to find that it has finally turned up on the web, though I don’t much care for the I Love Poetry<\/a> site where I found it (too cutesy for my taste, even if the snuggly polar bears would make an excellent wedding card for one particular blogger):<\/p>\n

I.<\/strong> Pierre de Ronsard (1524-1585), from Sonnets pour Hélène<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\n

Quand vous serez bien vieille, au soir, à la chandelle,
\nAssise aupres du feu, devidant et filant,
\nDirez, chantant mes vers, en vous esmerveillant:
\nRonsard me celebroit du temps que j’estois belle.<\/p>\n

Lors, vous n’aurez servante oyant telle nouvelle,
\nDesja sous le labeur à demy sommeillant,
\nQui au bruit de mon nom ne s’aille resveillant,
\nBenissant vostre nom de louange immortelle.<\/p>\n

Je seray sous la terre et fantaume sans os:
\nPar les ombres myrteux je prendray mon repos:
\nVous serez au fouyer une vieille accroupie,<\/p>\n

Regrettant mon amour et vostre fier desdain.
\nVivez, si m’en croyez, n’attendez à demain:
\nCueillez d´s aujourd’huy les roses de la vie.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

If you can’t handle 16th-century French, there are English translations here<\/a> (Humbert Wolfe) and here<\/a> (Anthony Weir — scroll down past the Albanian stuff).<\/p>\n

II.<\/strong> William Butler Yeats (1865-1939), “When you are old”:<\/p>\n

\n

When you are old and gray and full of sleep,
\nAnd nodding by the fire, take down this book,
\nAnd slowly read, and dream of the soft look
\nYour eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;<\/p>\n

How many loved your moments of glad grace,
\nAnd loved your beauty with love false or true,
\nBut one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
\nAnd loved the sorrows of your changing face;<\/p>\n

And bending down beside the glowing bars,
\nMurmur, a little sadly, how love fled
\nAnd paced upon the mountains overhead
\nAnd hid his face among a crowd of stars.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

III.<\/strong> Hilaire Belloc (1870-1953), “The Fragment”:<\/p>\n

\n

Towards the evening of her splendid day
\nThose who are little children now shall say
\n(Finding this verse), ‘Who wrote it, Juliet?’
\nAnd Juliet answer gently, ‘I forget.’<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The first two are well-known, but I’m particularly (perversely?) fond of the third. I ran across it years ago in a four-volume edition of Belloc’s verse, and have been looking for it ever since. The weblogger who calls herself The … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[79],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/curculio.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/curculio.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/curculio.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/curculio.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/curculio.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/curculio.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/curculio.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/curculio.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/curculio.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}