Selected Poems of Victor Hugo: A Bilingual EditionAlthough best known as the author of Notre Dame de Paris and Les Misérables, Victor Hugo was primarily a poet—one of the most important and prolific in French history. Despite his renown, however, there are few comprehensive collections of his verse available and even fewer translated editions. Translators E. H. and A. M. Blackmore have collected Victor Hugo's essential verse into a single, bilingual volume that showcases all the facets of Hugo's oeuvre, including intimate love poems, satires against the political establishment, serene meditations, religious verse, and narrative poems illustrating his mastery of the art of storytelling and his abiding concern for the social issues of his time. More than half of this volume's eight thousand lines of verse appear here for the first time in English, providing readers with a new perspective on each of the fascinating periods of Hugo's career and aspects of his style. Introductions to each section guide the reader through the stages of Hugo's writing, while notes on individual poems provide information not found in even the most detailed French-language editions. Illustrated with Hugo's own paintings and drawings, this lucid translation—available on the eve of Hugo's bicentenary—pays homage to this towering figure of nineteenth-century literature by capturing the energy of his poetry, the drama and satirical force of his language, and the visionary beauty of his writing as a whole. |
Contents
Épitaphe Epitaph | 4 |
from Les Orientales Orientalia 1829 | 18 |
La Ville prise The Captured City | 24 |
from Feuilles dautomne Autumn Leaves 1831 | 30 |
La Pente de la rêverie The Slope of Reverie | 36 |
Jaime les soirs sereins et beaux I love these calm clear evening | 46 |
Demain dès laube à lheure où blanchit la campagne At dawn | 199 |
Écoutez Je suis Jean Jai vu des choses sombres Hear me I John | 211 |
Bivar Vivar | 372 |
La Rose de linfante The Infantas Rose | 378 |
Je marchais au hasard I walked at random went forward | 392 |
Un homme aux yeux profonds passait A deepeyed man went by | 398 |
Tout était vision sous les ténébreux dômes All in the vaulted dark | 404 |
O Dieu dont lœuvre va plus loin que notre rêve O God whose work | 411 |
from La Fin de Satan The End of Satan 1886 | 418 |
Le TriompheThe Triumphal Procession | 432 |
Hélas tout est sépulcre Its all a tomb | 220 |
from Chansons des rues et des bois Songs of Street and Wood 1865 | 246 |
Saison de semailles Le soir SeedTime Evening | 252 |
from LAnnée terrible The Year of Horrors 1872 | 262 |
Les Insulteurs The Revilers | 268 |
Grandfather 1877 | 270 |
Les bêtes cela parle Animals see they talk | 280 |
from Les Quatre Vents de lesprit The Four Winds of | 291 |
Elle passa Je crois quelle mavait souri She went past And I think | 297 |
Je suis fait dombre et de marbre Marble and night created me | 304 |
from La Légende des siècles The Legend of the Ages 185983 | 313 |
Les LionsThe Lions | 326 |
Dieu invisible au philosophe God Invisible to the Thinker | 342 |
Inscription Inscription | 354 |
Au lion dAndroclès To the Lion of Androcles | 356 |
MahometMuhammad | 362 |
Commencement de langoisse The Agony Begins | 438 |
JudasJudas | 446 |
from Hors de la terre III Beyond the Earth III | 458 |
Que ce poëme au vol de feu May this work in its blazing flight | 466 |
La Chauvesouris The Bat | 478 |
Le Corbeau The Raven | 488 |
LAigle The Eagle | 500 |
La Lumière The LightSource | 514 |
from Toute la lyre The Whole Lyre 188897 | 540 |
La LuneThe Moon | 548 |
from Les Années funestes The Fateful Years 1898 | 560 |
from Dernière Gerbe Last Gleanings 1902 | 568 |
from Océan Ocean 1942 | 574 |
Select Bibliography | 615 |
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Common terms and phrases
Albrecht Dürer âme avait beneath bien bouche brow bruit c'est ciel cieux clarté cœur cried d'être d'une dans les dark deux devant Dieu dreadful éclair Elle encor enfants esprit éternel être eyes fait fauve femme flamme fleurs flots flowers fond forêt gouffre grand haut heavens hélas homme Hugo Hugo's human j'ai jamais jour l'abîme l'âme l'autre l'eau l'homme l'œil l'ombre l'on l'onde le monde le soir Legend LINE lion livre loin lueur lumière Lyre Molière monde monts mort mystérieux n'est Napoleon Napoleon III night noir nuit numbered ombre pâle Paris pensée peuple plein poem Poetry point noir profonde qu'il qu'on qu'un quand rayon rêve rien serein seul shadows sinistre soir soleil sombre Songs souffle soul sous stars temps terre tête things tombe tout tremble triste vent vers Victor Hugo viens vieux Virgil vivant voiles voir voit voix Written yeux ΙΟ