Le Vaisseau d’Or. A new English translation by Jacques Renaud (aka Loup Kibiloki)

Émile Nelligan’s Le Vaisseau d’Or, translated from French original to English by Jacques Renaud (aka Loup Kibiloki).

Link to original version in French and the new English translation ;  also notes and comments on the original and on the translation

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Le Vaisseau d’Or

It was a massive Ship carved out of solid Gold,
Its masts reaching azure, she sailed on unknown seas
With Aphrodite of love spreading out at the prow,
hair dishevelled and naked under excessive sun.

But it came that the ship one night struck the great reef
On treacherous Ocean where the Siren was singing.
The horrible shipwreck tilted the hull aslant
Deep down the abyss depth, immutable coffin.

It was a Gold Vessel. Her diaphanous sides
were revealing treasures that the secular crew,
Disgust and Neurosis, and Hatred, fought over.

What’s left of it after the brief abating storm?
What became of my heart, empty deserted ship?
Alas, it has sunk down in the abyss of Dream.

© Copyright 2009 Hamilton-Lucas Sinclair (Loup Kibiloki, Jacques Renaud, Le Scribe). cliquer