Il pleure dans mon coeur

Il pleure dans mon coeur
Comme il pleut sur la ville
Quelle est cette langueur
Qui pénètre mon coeur ?

Ô bruit doux de la pluie
Par terre et sur les toits !
Pour un coeur qui s’ennuie
Ô 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 !

           Paul Verlaine (1844 – 1896)

My translation without attempting rhyme …

My heart is crying

my heart is crying
as it rains on the town
what is this sadness
so heavy on my heart

o sweet sound of rain
on the roofs and ground
filling my heart with grief
the song of the rain

it rains without reason
in this sicken heart
what! – no betrayal?
this meaningless grief

what pain is worse
that is without reason
without love or hate
that makes my heart cry
……….

This poem expels such a melancholic mood. I would not regard this as depression more an overwhelming sadness while watching rain fall, perhaps looking out of a window in Paris on a gloomy wet winter day.

Well today there is plenty of reason for pain to flood the heart as one looks at the rain falling in Paris in the news items in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks. And paining the many world-wide who are far from Paris who look through the window of television sets.

The above was taken from this Site – http://thehuuvandan.org/lit.html where there are more examples of his work and more French poetry.

From this Site a comment about Paul Verlaine –

‘Verlaine’s art resides in the music of his poetry. It is this inebriating quality, combined with the finely wrought melancholy, the sadness of love and unattained happiness, the delicate and sentimental touch, that sets him apart as a magician of the word.’.