{"id":14341,"date":"2016-03-31T13:40:07","date_gmt":"2016-03-31T17:40:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/?p=14341"},"modified":"2016-03-31T13:40:07","modified_gmt":"2016-03-31T17:40:07","slug":"on-paul-verlaines-172nd-birthday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/on-paul-verlaines-172nd-birthday\/","title":{"rendered":"On Paul Verlaine’s 172nd birthday…"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"images\"<\/a>\"selma_portrait\"<\/a>\u2026here \u2014 via the very useful\u00a0Lyrikzeitung & Poetry News<\/a> \u2014\u00a0<\/b><\/span>is a translation of Verlaine\u2019s most famous (& famously untranslatable) poem\u00a0Chanson d\u2019automne<\/b>\u00a0into Yiddish by Selma Meerbaum-Eisinger.
\nBorn in\u00a0Czernowitz in 1924, this\u00a0young woman, a cousin of Paul Celan\u2019s (they would on occasion meet and sing together & talk poetry at Celan\u2019s grandfather\u2019s brother house on Sabbat evenings), wrote poetry in German and died at 18 of typhus in Michailovka on the Bug river, in the same labor-camp, in which Paul\u2019s parents were held and also died. As recounted here<\/a>, \u201cpoignantly, in 1968, Paul Celan would permit a German press to include his masterpiece \u201c\u2018Todesfugue\u201d in an anthology only if Selma\u2019s \u201cPoem\u201d was published next to his. Thus Celan paid tribute to his cousin and was responsible for Selma\u2019s first published verse.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n

Selma Meerbaum-Eisinger<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

harbst-lid<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

(lid fun pol verlen ibergesezt funem franzejsischn*)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

a lang gewejn,
\n<\/span>fidlen alejn
\n<\/span>harbst-farnacht.
\n<\/span>s\u2019gejt scho noch scho
\n<\/span>fun benkschaft blo
\n<\/span>un fartracht.<\/span><\/p>\n

derschtikt das glik
\n<\/span>kuk ich zurik \u2014
\n<\/span>schohen gejn
\n<\/span>ch\u2019se jene teg,
\n<\/span>sunike teg \u2014
\n<\/span>un ich wejn.<\/span><\/p>\n

ich lo\u00df sich gejn
\n<\/span>in wint, alejn \u2014
\n<\/span>schwer un mat.
\n<\/span>a mide asa
\n<\/span>asoj wi a
\n<\/span>tojt blat.<\/span><\/p>\n

*) Poem by\u00a0Paul Verlaine, translted from the French\u00a0F.<\/span><\/p>\n

Paul Verlaine<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Chanson d\u2019automne<\/b><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Les sanglots longs
\n<\/span>Des violons
\n<\/span>De l\u2019automne
\n<\/span>Blessent mon coeur
\n<\/span>D\u2019une langueur
\n<\/span>Monotone.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tout suffocant
\n<\/span>Et bl\u00eame, quand
\n<\/span>Sonne l\u2019heure,
\n<\/span>Je me souviens
\n<\/span>Des jours anciens
\n<\/span>Et je pleure<\/span><\/p>\n

Et je m\u2019en vais
\n<\/span>Au vent mauvais
\n<\/span>Qui m\u2019emporte
\n<\/span>De\u00e7\u00e0, del\u00e0,
\n<\/span>Pareil \u00e0 la
\n<\/span>Feuille morte.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2026here \u2014 via the very useful\u00a0Lyrikzeitung & Poetry News \u2014\u00a0is a translation of Verlaine\u2019s most famous (& famously untranslatable) poem\u00a0Chanson d\u2019automne\u00a0into Yiddish by Selma Meerbaum-Eisinger. Born in\u00a0Czernowitz in 1924, this\u00a0young woman, a cousin of...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[83,1117,830,103],"tags":[1832,1833],"class_list":["post-14341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-paul-celan","category-poem","category-poet","category-translation","tag-paul-verlaine","tag-selma-meerbaum-eisinger"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14341"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14341\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14348,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14341\/revisions\/14348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}