Podcast

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"Le Dormeur du Val" d'Arthur Rimbaud

Part 1

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Part 2

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1- Poème

Le Dormeur du val.

C'est un trou de verdure, où chante une rivière
Accrochant follement aux herbes des haillons
D'argent; où le soleil, de la montagne fière,
Luit: c'est un petit val qui mousse de rayons.

Un soldat jeune, bouche ouverte, tête nue,
Et la nuque baignant dans le frais cresson bleu,
Dort; il est étendu dans l'herbe, sous la nue,
Pâle dans son lit vert où la lumière pleut.

Les pieds dans les glaïeuls, il dort. Souriant comme
Sourirait un enfant malade, il fait un somme:
Nature, berce-le chaudement: il a froid.

Les parfums ne font pas frissonner sa narine;
Il dort dans le soleil, la main sur sa poitrine,
Tranquille. Il a deux trous rouges au côté droit.

Glaïeuls - Gladiolus

2- Translation

It’s a green hollow, where a river is singing
Crazily hanging on the grasses rags
Of silver; where the sun, from the proud mountain,
Is shinning: it’s a little valley bubbling with sunlight.

A young soldier, his mouth open, his head bare,
And the nape of his neck bathing in cool blue watercress,
Is sleeping; he is stretched out on the grass, under the skies,
Pale in his green bed where the light falls like rain.

Feet in the gladiolas, he is sleeping.Smiling like
A sick child would smile, he takes a nap:
Nature, rock him warmly: he is cold.

Fragrances do not make his nostrils quiver;
He sleeps in the sun, hand on the breast,
Peacefully. He has two red holes in his right side.

Detail from “Un Coin de table,” by Henri Fantin-Latour, 1872.

4- Additionnal vocabulary
avoir sommeil : to be tired, as in wanting to sleep
Orgueilleux, orgueilleuse ; proud, arrogant.
vous rafraîchir la mémoire : refresh your memory
le pousse à ; coaxes him to
contre ; against
La Prusse ; Prussia – part of Germany
Le cercle ; the cirle
Un personnage ; a character
Des amants ; lovers
Il se fait rapatrier en France ; he is brought back to France by a medical association.
germer ; to germinate
j’oublie ; I forget
qui m’épuise ; that exhausts me
selon que ; depending on whether
paradisiaque ; Eden like
de funérailles ; funerals
culminer ; to culminate
certes ; indeed
la nausée ; nausea
trompeusement ; mistakenly

go ther to listen to another recording of the poem
http://www.wheatoncollege.edu/Academic/academicdept/French/ViveVoix/Resources/dormeurduval.html

More info on the Prussian war
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guerre_franco-allemande_de_1870#L.27insurrection_de_la_Commune
More info on Rimbaud
http://www.ac-reims.fr/ia08/Rimbaud/index.php?adr=portrait.php