STÉPHANE MALLARMÉ poetry THE SWAN Full poem English text
Stéphane Mallarmé
The Swan
(Le Cygne)
French literature, poetry
full text, translation into English
The exile in which the poet is found among men, like a bird that is prevented from flying, has been a recurring theme in nineteenth-century poetry;
an example is the poem “The albatross” by Charles Baudelaire, which you can read on yeyebook by clicking here;
another example is the poetry of Stéphane Mallarmé: The swan, below reported with translation of the text in English.
In the top or side menu, you can find the full text of Stéphane Mallarmé’s poem: “The Swan” translated into other languages: English, German, Italian, Spanish, Chinese, etc.
Good reading and good exile …
Stéphane Mallarmé
The Swan
full text, translation into English
The fresh, the beautiful,
vivacious day:
with wing-blow reeling
can its brilliance wake
beneath this haunted,
forgotten and frosted lake
the clear ice-falls
of flights not yet fled away?
In past magnificence
of thoughts today
the swan recaptures
its freedom but cannot make
a song from surroundings,
but only take
on the sterile, dull glint
of the winter’s stay.
Out of white agony
the whole neck lies
in a space inflicted
that the bird denies.
Cold and immobile
in its feathered being,
not in horror of earth
but to brightness gone,
as a dream wrapped in scorn,
and a phantom, seeing
how ineffectual
is exile for the Swan.
…
..
.
Stéphane Mallarmé – The Swan
French literature, poetry
full text, translation into English
Stéphane Mallarmé
All the poems > here
Stéphane Mallarmé
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