was dithering
about 'Deja-vu' titling his tome.
"Too short" he thought.
"With one word at the head
of the world's longest search,
irony will be inferred.
Besides deja-vu implies passé.
" ‘Nostalgie' is longer
but still one~and passé."
He thought 'Mal du Pays' and 'Mal du Temps'
and 'Mal du Temps du Pays'.
"I'll opt for a toast,
that's what I'll do:
‘To the Search for Lost Time',
‘À la Recherche du Temps Perdu'."
' To the Search For Lost Time' is a good, original title, though not a literal translation. Sill a very good poem here.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
I studied 'A La Recherche du Temps Perdu' in French Stage 3 at Victoria, Wellington. The professor was painstaking and brilliant on Proust. I therefore read most of the novel's volumes, in French or English translation, and liked them. I think that Proust's title is just right, and you brilliantly show the steps by which he could have reached it.