Le Printemps Et L'automne.(Translation) . Poem by Michael Walker

Le Printemps Et L'automne.(Translation) .

a une jeune fille.

Margaret, t'affliges-tu
Sur le bosquet dore qui perd les feuilles?
Les feuilles comme les choses de l'homme, toi
Avec tes pensees fraiches tu t'en soucies, peux-tu?
Ah comme le coeur vieillit
Il arrivera a des spectacles plus froids tout a l'heure, ni se passera d'un soupir
Bien que des mondes du bois pale se couchent comme un terreau des feuilles;
Et encore tu pleureras et tu sauras pourquoi.
Tien il n'importe, mon enfant, le nom:
Les sources du douleur sont les memes.
Ni eut la bouche, non ni exprimat l'esprit,
Ces chosesdont le coeur entendit parler, vaguement devina:
C'est l'aneantissement, la raison pourquoi l'homme est ne,
C'est Margaret que tu pleures.

- 'Spring and Fall.'Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889) .

Monday, August 13, 2018
Topic(s) of this poem: life
POET'S NOTES ABOUT THE POEM
See Poem Hunter/ G.M. Hopkins/poems/ 42/80, for the English.
I have always liked this lyric, which is spoken by the poet to a young child. He asks her if she is grieving 'over Goldengrove unleaving'. As she grows older, her heart will come to colder sights, though she sees leaves gathered on the ground. She will weep and know why: the causes of sorrow are the same for anyone, yet they are inexpressible. 'It is the blight man was born for/ It is Margaret you mourn for'.
The lyric is, therefore, personal (poet speaking to child) , and universal (applies to all people, who grow old, experience sorrow, then death) .
For sheer beauty, this has to be one of Hopkins' best poems.
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