Un Grand Silence Aux Camps Aujourd'hui.(Translation) . Poem by Michael Walker
Un Grand Silence Aux Camps Aujourd'hui.(Translation) .
Que les camps soient silencieux aujourd'hui,
Et soldats drapons nos armes epuises par la guerre,
Et que chacun d'une ame pensive se retire pour celebrer,
La mort de notre cher commandandant.
Pus de conflits orageux de la vie pour lui,
Ni la victoire, ni la defaite- non plus les evenements sombres du temps,
Se precipitant comme des nuages sans cesse a travers le ciel.
Mais chantez poete en notre nom,
Chantez de l'amour que nous nous sentions pour lui- parce que vous, habitants des camps, le connaissez vraiment.
Tandis qu'ils y inhument la biere,
Chantez- comme ils ferment les portes de la terre sur lui- un vers,
Pour les coeurs sourds des soldats.
-le 4 mai,1865.
- 'Hush'd Be The Camps Today'.Walt Whitman(1819-1892) .
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)is their beloved commander who has been assassinated not long before Whitman wrote this elegy. Lincoln was President of the Union,1861-1865, and he had freed slaves, especially in the South, and he was leader of the republican North against the secessionist South in the Civil War of the 1860s; the Civil War was in its closing stages when Lincoln was shot dead in a Washington theatre by John Wilkes Booth. Whitman hero worshiped Abraham Lincoln for his progressive, daring policies to bring equal rights for all Americans. Whitman served as a volunteer male nurse in the Civil War, so he knew very well firsthand life in the camps.
The dominant feeling in the camps is silence, to honour Abraham Lincoln's memory. I find this an emotional, convincing poem.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
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8/30/2026 3:36:13 AM # rel_20260827T145718Z_a0f1bd3
Great tribute to Abraham Lincoln who laid down his life in the service of humanity and changed the course of world history. Being a contemporary, it was obvious that the poet was deeply impressed by Lincoln's bold initiatives and leadership during Civil War. Thanks, Michael.