The Prompt: Do a translation. I’m pretty sure the intent was
one that sounds like the original, not necessarily one that is true to the
original meaning, but I stretched my translation muscles and did a true
translation of a poem by African (Senegalese) poet Leopold Sedar Senghor, one of my favorite
poets. I took some poetic license of my own, so please forgive any
inaccuracies.
The original:
Perles
Perles blanches,
Lentes gouttelettes,
Gouttelettes de lait frais,
Clartés fugitives le long des fils télégraphiques,
Le long des longs jours monotones et gris !
Où vous en allez-vous ?
À quels paradis ? À quels paradis ?
Clartés premières de mon enfance
Jamais retrouvée...
My translation:
“Pearls”
White pearls,
Slow droplets,
Droplets of fresh milk,
Fleeting sparks along the length of telegraph lines,
The length of long, grey, monotonous days!
Where do you go?
To what paradise? To what paradise?
First sparks of my childhood
Never found again…
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