It's a suitable rainy day here in New York, the steady cold rain crashing down upon the rooftops and the moods...as millions navigate the street-rivers, this Poem of the Day was aptly requested by our good friend and loyal follower @Addymac on Twitter (she's a member of the growing intellectual Twitter art community). Here's a little bit about Verlaine, which coincides nicely with yesterdays featured poet, Arthur Rimbaud:
The 28-year-old Verlaine had abandoned his wife and child to elope with the 17-year-old Rimbaud.
The couple had a short-lived relationship and stayed in London for less than a year.
In a drunken argument in Brussels in July 1873 Verlaine shot his teenage lover through the wrist, a crime for which he was imprisoned.
A film about their relationship, Total Eclipse, was made in 1995. Leonardo DiCaprio played Rimbaud and David Thewlis played Verlaine.
The original French text is presented below for your enjoyment.
It Rains in My Heart (Il pleure dans mon coeur)
By Paul VerlaineIt rains in my heart
As it rains on the town,
What languor so dark
That it soaks to my heart?
Oh sweet sound of the rain
On the earth and the roofs!
For the dull heart again,
Oh the song of the rain!
It rains for no reason
In this heart that lacks heart.
What? And no treason?
It’s grief without reason.
By far the worst pain,
Without hatred, or love,
Yet no way to explain
Why my heart feels such pain!
Il pleure dans mon coeur
Il pleure dans mon coeur
Comme il pleut sur la ville.
Quelle est cette langueur
Qui pénêtre mon coeur?
O bruit doux de la pluie
Par terre et sur les toits!
Pour un coeur qui s’ennuie,
O le chant de la pluie!
Il pleure sans raison
Dans ce coeur qui s’écoeure.
Quoi! nulle trahison?
Ce deuil est sans raison.
C’est bien la pire peine
De ne savoir pourquoi,
Sans amour et sans haine,
Mon coeur a tant de peine.
God is in the rain
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