El Desdichado
El Desdichado
Original Text
Wilfrid Thorley, Fleurs de Lys: A Book of French Poetry Freely Translated into English Verse. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1920. 175. Internet Archive.
1I am the dark inheritor of woe,
2 The Prince of Aquitaine whose palace spire
3 Lies low in dust. My star is dead. The wire
4Of my starr'd lute burns with an ebon glow.
5Into the grave's night send Pausilippo,
6 Blue Latin seas; and let my soul respire
7 The flower that won my weary heart's desire,
8The trellis where the rose and vine-leaf grow.
9Am I Love or the Moon ...? Lusignan or Biron ...?
10 My brow's still rosy with the Queen's hot kiss;
11 I have swooned in sea-caves where the syren is ...
12Twice have I overborne Hell's surge: I won
13 The lyre of Orpheus to sad melodies
14Of saints, with fairies in loud antiphon.
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
Data entry: Sharine Leung
RPO Edition
2012
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