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Apollinaire, Guillaume: Moonlight (Clair de lune in English)

Portre of Apollinaire, Guillaume

Clair de lune (French)

Lune mellifluente aux lèvres des déments

Les vergers et les bourgs cette nuit sont gourmands

Les astres assez bien figurent les abeilles

De ce miel lumineux qui dégoutte des treilles

Car voici que tout doux et leur tombant du ciel

Chaque rayon de lune est un rayon de miel

Or caché je conçois la très douce aventure

J'ai peur du dard de feu de cette abeille Arcture

Qui posa dans mes mains des rayons décevants

Et prit son miel lunaire à la rose des vents



Uploaded byP. T.
Source of the quotationhttp://fr.wikisource.org

Moonlight (English)

Mellifluent moon on the lips of the maddened

The orchards and towns are greedy tonight

The stars appear like the image of bees

Of this luminous honey that offends the vines

For now all sweet in their fall from the sky

Each ray of moonlight’s a ray of honey

Now hid I conceive the sweetest adventure

I fear stings of fire from this Polar bee

that sets these deceptive rays in my hands

And takes its moon-honey to the rose of the winds



Uploaded byP. T.
Source of the quotationhttp://www.poetryintranslation.com

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