Joseph Autran

Joseph Autran Poems

Joseph Autran Biography

Joseph Autran was a French poet. Autran was born in Marseille. In 1832 he addressed an ode to Alphonse de Lamartine, who was then at Marseille on his way to the East. Lamartine persuaded the young man's father to allow him to follow his poetic instinct, and Autran became Lamartine's faithful disciple from then on. His best known work is La Mer (1835), remodelled in 1852 as Les Poèmes de la mer. Ludibria ventis (1838) followed, and the success of these two volumes gained for Autran the librarianship of his native town. His other most important work is his Vie rurale (1856), a series of pictures of peasant life. The Algerian campaigns inspired him with verses in honour of the common soldier. Milianah (1842) describes the heroic defence of that town, and in the same vein is his Laboureurs et soldats (1854). Among his other works are the Paroles de Salomon (1868), Épîtres rustiques (1861), Sonnets capricieux, and a tragedy played with great success at the Odéon in 1848, La Fille d'Eschyle. A definitive edition of his works was brought out between 1875 and 1881. He became a member of the Académie française in 1868, and died at Marseille nine years later.)

The Best Poem Of Joseph Autran

Prelude To 'Poems Of The Sea'

We are the deep waves
Where the eyes plunge in vain;
We are the waves and waves
Which revolve around the worlds
Their coats of blue foam!

A great soul breathes in us,
It raises our midst;
Sty the north wind, as the Zephyr,
We are the largest grouse
Singing a hymn to the thrice-holy.

Piled by the storms,
Rendered in quiet, in turn,
We exhale savage cries
Who will soon be on the shores
End in sighs of love.

It is we who wear our tops
The messengers of the nations,
Bronze vessels of the masts sublime
As light to our depths
That humble nest kingfishers.

On these vessels if God starts,
Terrible we base on them;
Then we walk in silence
Delicate balance that the boat
A couple of kids in love!

It is we who from one bank to another
Let's take the bold;
The merchant, the warrior, the apostle,
Have a road is ours,
To change the earth and heaven.

Our depths, God devotes
In his mysterious work
In our stringers full of bitter salt,
It spreads both hands nacre,
The amber, pearl and coral.

Lawns, foliage networks,
Giant trees filled with guests,
Hideous monsters, beautiful shells,
Life is everywhere on our beaches,
Life is everywhere in our beds.

We love you, woods and hedges,
On which we pour your perfume!
We love you, humble families,
Which the edges of our chaste girls
Waiting for their fiancés brown!

Vessels covered with white cloths,
Reflections of cities and mountains,
Spring days pure and sails
Summer nights, rich in stars,
We love you! we love you!

But our love are concerned,
And we often prefer
The black sky, the flight of storms,
And the singing of seagulls pale
That before the wind and rocks.

We like to see the lightning in the shadows
That tear his javelins,
And fear of the ship sinking
By throwing a strike dark
The art of the sailors!

We are the deep waves
Where the eyes plunge in vain;
We are the waves and waves
Which revolve around the worlds
Their coats of blue foaming.

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