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Le Coeur Supplicié : The Tortured Heart
Translated by Holly Tannen
assisted by Lydia Rand

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Le Coeur Supplicié

Mon triste coeur bave à la poupe,
Mon coeur est plein de caporal:
Ils y lancent des jets de soupe,
Mon triste coeur bave à la poupe:
Sous les quolibets de la troupe
Qui lance un rire general
Mon triste coeur bave à la poupe,
Mon coeur est plein de caporal!

Ithyphalliques et pioupiesques,
Leur insultes l'ont dépravé!
A la vesprée, ils font des fresques
Ithyphalliques et pioupiesques.
O flots abracadabrantesques
Prenez my coeur, qu'il soit sauvé
Ithyphalliques et pioupioupesques
Leur insultes l'ont depravé!

Quand ils auront tari leurs chiques,
Comment agir, ô coeur volé?
Ce seront des refrains bachiques:
Quand ils auront tari leurs chiques:
J'aurai des sursauts stomachiques,
Si mon triste coeur est ravalé:
Quand ils auront tari leurs chiques
Comment agir, ô coeur volé?

The Tortured Heart

My sad heart drools at the poop,
My heart full of tobacco juice:
They squirt on it their jets of soup,
My sad heart drools at the poop:
Beneath the jeers of the troop
Who burst forth with a general laugh
My sad heart drools at the poop,
My heart full of tobacco juice.

Standing phallic and soldierlike
Their insults have depraved it
At vespers they make frescoes
Standing phallic and soldierlike
O waves, abracadabrantesque
Take my heart, let it be saved
Standing phallic and soldierlike
Their insults have depraved it

When they've exhausted their quids,
How shall we act, o stolen heart?
There will be drinking songs
When they've exhausted their quids
My stomach will heave
If my sad heart is gobbled down
When they've exhausted their quids
How shall we act, o stolen heart?

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Ithyphallic: Erect (Greek). A reference to artificial phalli carried by the Bacchantes in their celebrations.

Pioupious: red-coated soldiers from the center of France.

Abracadabrantesques: from "abracadabra", a magical formula used in amulets for protection against fever. Said to derive from the name of the Greek god Abraxas, whose essence integrated good and evil.

Translator's note: This poem exists in three versions, called sequentially "Le Coeur Supplicié" ("The Tortured Heart"), "Le Coeur Volé" ("The Stolen Heart"), and "Coeur de Pitre" ("Heart of a Clown"). I have translated the first version, which he sent to his teacher, George Izambard in the "Lettre du Voyant" of 13 May 1871.
     "Le Coeur Supplicié" is in triolets, a form of verse traditionally used for light romantic poetry. Rimbaud emphasizes the clash of form and subject matter by intentionally clumsy rhythms.
     The poem is difficult to translate because of its deliberately ambiguous language. "Ravaler," for example, in the last verse -- "J'aurai des sursauts stomachiques / Si mon coeur triste est ravalé" - translates literally to "I will have heavings of the stomach / If my sad heart is swallowed again."
     "Ravaler" can be translated as "to beat down, to beat up, to press down, to discourage, to depress, to debase, to depreciate, to humble, to degrade, to disgrace, to thin a piece of wood, to prune a tree, to hammer a ring into an oval..." How does a translator find an English word that conveys all these meanings?

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     Holly Tannen teaches folklore and anthropology, and has lectured on contemporary magic at U.C. Berkeley and at Yale University. Her recordings include "Invocation", "Between the Worlds", and "Rime of the Ancient Matriarch"


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Michael Potts, webster updated 25 April 2002 : 9:44 Caspar (Pacific) time

All text, translations, and songs copyright © 2002 by Holly Tannen