L'enfance (Childhood)

Victor Marie Hugo 1802 (Besançon) – 1885 (Paris)



L'enfant chantait; la mère au lit, exténuée,
Agonisait, beau front dans l'ombre se penchant ;
La mort au-dessus d'elle errait dans la nuée ;
Et j'écoutais ce râle, et j'entendais ce chant.

L'enfant avait cinq ans, et près de la fenêtre
Ses rires et ses jeux faisaient un charmant bruit ;
Et la mère, à côté de ce pauvre doux être
Qui chantait tout le jour, toussait toute la nuit.

La mère alla dormir sous les dalles du cloître ;
Et le petit enfant se remit à chanter...
La douleur est un fruit ; Dieu ne le fait pas croître
Sur la branche trop faible encor pour le porter.

Childhood

The Child was singing, and the Mother lay
Stretched on the bed which pain and anguish throng,
Death's cloud fast closing on her parting day:
I heard her laboring breath, I heard the song.

The Child its gambols by the lattice plied;
Its sport, its laughter, sounded glad and bright;
And the poor Mother by her darling's side,
Who sang all day, coughed through the painful night.

The Mother sleeps the cloister's stones below;
The Child sings, heedless of its orphan state:
Grief is a fruit that God forbids to grow
On boughs too feeble to support its weight.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 31, 2023

1:04 min read
161

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABAX CBCB CCCX CDCD EFEF GHGH
Closest metre Iambic hexameter
Characters 1,145
Words 206
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4

Victor Marie Hugo

Victor Marie Hugo was a French poet, novelist, and dramatist of the Romantic movement. He is considered one of the greatest and best known French writers. In France, Hugo's literary fame comes first from his poetry but also rests upon his novels and his dramatic achievements. Among many volumes of poetry, Les Contemplations and La Légende des siècles stand particularly high in critical esteem. Outside France, his best-known works are the novels Les Misérables, 1862, and Notre-Dame de Paris, 1831. Though a committed royalist when he was young, Hugo's views changed as the decades passed; he became a passionate supporter of republicanism, and his work touches upon most of the political and social issues and artistic trends of his time. He was buried in the Panthéon. more…

All Victor Marie Hugo poems | Victor Marie Hugo Books

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